Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus
According to the Ian Allan "British Rail Handbook" for 1981, the Class 76 locos for the 1500VDC Manchester - Sheffield - Wath services had regenerative braking. It says " These locomotives were fitted from the first for regenerative braking, and the driver had to balance the regenerated voltage with the voltage in the overhead line before allowing regeneration to begin." Rheostatic braking was added later, integrated with the normal braking operation, and only required the operation of a switch to activate it. No other technical details given.
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The Woodhead railway is relevant to this topic on two counts.
The regenerative braking was meant to help power trains uphill, unfortunately there was often not enough traffic for that and the re-generated power had to be dissipated in load banks (the right term?) at Hadfield substation. There were problems of excessive voltage on the overhead lines causing circuit breakers to trip as well as some burning out of resistances on the locos themselves.
Secondly, when the electrification was done in the early 50's a few houses for railway staff were built at Woodhead Tunnel itself. These houses were powered from the 1500v dc traction supply via a rotary converter, don't know its output voltage, perhaps 200v? The line closed in 1981 so I assume the houses got connected to the National Grid then.Ironically , the " new" Woodhead tunnel built 1954, now carries HV cables (132KV?) instead of railway.