I have what may be an odd question: we live near the former Erie RR "Southern Tier Line" near Binghamton, NY (now owned by NS). A couple of times recently I've seen unit trains with of Herzog hoppers which have what look like solar panels on 1 corner of each car & what appears to be an electrical cable between all the cars. Could that train be equipped with electronic brakes? (The common air brake hoses were also in place.) Any suggestions?
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Hi Dick,
I believe what you saw is a remotely controlled unit ballast train. These are pretty neat trains. The solar panels provide power to the hatch doors under the cars. The train is equipped with GPS and a computer which tells the doors on the cars to open. The train can spread ballast at a decent speed ( around 25MPH I think) The doors know when to open and close so they don't spread across bridges or railroad crossings. Hope this helps.
Derek
No, they don't have electronic brakes at this time. Who's to say if they ever will.
They are pretty neat trains to watch operate. I have had a few. As to what the maximum speed is that they can dump, I don't know. I have dumped as high as 17mph and also in the dead of night.
It takes a little time to get everything set up in order to dump. But, once things are, it's away we go!
I have had these trains in the Mon Valley, Pa. NS. we have never operated at more than 12 mph, may well could be because of the territory? IE: hills, valleys etc. as they do use GPS to operate the doors to deliver the called for amount of ballast at each specific location.
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