De-meching a DMU and a plug!

[thegrimeater]

Afternoon all,

Firstly a plug, the NNR have their annual Beer Festival this weekend. Lots of beer and trains every 45 mins, 1 steam, 1 diesel loco (37 I think). The diesel loco is going to be operating a DMU drag.

In order to do this I understand the DMU has to be de-meched(sp?) What is involved in doing this?

Thanks

 

[krus_aragon]

Afternoon all,

Firstly a plug, the NNR have their annual Beer Festival this weekend. Lots of beer and trains every 45 mins, 1 steam, 1 diesel loco (37 I think). The diesel loco is going to be operating a DMU drag.

In order to do this I understand the DMU has to be de-meched(sp?) What is involved in doing this?

Thanks

An armchair analysis:

If the DMU is going to be dragged around by a loco, then the engine and its mechanical transmission will need isolating from the axles. This is done by locking the reversing mechanism of the final drive between forward and reverse: i.e. neutral. This way, the axles can rotate without driving the transmission and engine of the DMU.

Achieving this is a matter of turning a handle on the underside of the unit to drop a locking bolt in place according to a book of mine. (BR Diesel Traction Manual for Enginemen, 1962)

 

[David Barrett]

You Tube will explain, search for Diesel Train Driver and go to part 3, "Dealing with faults" where you will find all you need to know from somewhere around 4m 30s. There is a series of British Railways films for staff training purposes to be found there of which this is one. I was going to consult my paperwork and scan, if I could find it, for you but these films are about as good as it could be and if your interest is in DMUs, and much more of the long gone railway for that matter, you will enjoy every miniute of them.

 

[RPM]

You need a piece of equipment known as a toasting fork. It's just a long piece or metal with a specially shaped hook on the end which grips onto a T shaped lever on the final drive unit. You just turn the fork & lever through 90 degrees to isolate the final drive, then you use the fork to manually turn the cardan shaft an inch or so to check it is moving freely. Repeat on each powered bogie.

 

[davetheguard]

You need a piece of equipment known as a toasting fork. It's just a long piece or metal with a specially shaped hook on the end which grips onto a T shaped lever on the final drive unit. You just turn the fork & lever through 90 degrees to isolate the final drive, then you use the fork to manually turn the cardan shaft an inch or so to check it is moving freely. Repeat on each powered bogie.

And on the old Reading-based 117's at least, the toasting fork used to be kept in the Guard's van.

As a result, it was more often used to pick up people's hats, handbags, jumpers etc. that had fallen down between the train and the platform!

 

[RPM]

And on the old Reading-based 117's at least, the toasting fork used to be kept in the Guard's van.

As a result, it was more often used to pick up people's hats, handbags, jumpers etc. that had fallen down between the train and the platform!

A truly multifunctional tool. Can also be used to manually operate the engine stop solenoid and to "pull the strings" on units where the actual strings are missing.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

You Tube will explain, search for Diesel Train Driver and go to part 3, "Dealing with faults" where you will find all you need to know from somewhere around 4m 30s....

Watching the Diesel Train Driver series again after reading this thread, I was struck by how much the drivers of the time were expected to guddle about underneath the train and try to fix things themselves. Not much about PTS either! I became quite nervous watching the driver working in the six foot even though it was obviously staged for the film.

 

[E50019]

ok its straight forward, start the unit and build up the air pressure.

Operate the final drive isolation switches using the 'special tool' very easy to do on the smaller final drives not so easy on the RF28 types.

with sufficient air change direction a couple of time, get down and check that the cardan shafts can be rotated by hand, they may in fact be rotating due to drag in the gearboxes if so the final drive is osolated.

Remember if its being hauled you may also need to isolate the DSD.

Hope that helps.

 

[thegrimeater]

Cheers guys, very interesting.