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How important do you think would a grid hookup be on European freight trains for reefers? It should be straight forward to include full wagon power with the up
by namibj 2y ago
How important do you think would a grid hookup be on European freight trains for reefers?
It should be straight forward to include full wagon power with the upcoming DAC4EU coupling (UIC 552 says that normal coaches are to have an 800A through connection that's regularly fed with 1000V 16.7Hz or 1500V 50Hz; this is single-wire earth(/track)-return).
Keep in mind that unlike North American freight trains, Europe mainline service is almost fully electrified. Thus the reefer would be grid-fed.
I'm asking because I'm looking to propose a change to the current plans for the electric coupler (use near-field RF instead of the currently-preferred single-pair Ethernet or it's fallback powerline; I think 802.11 has suitable PHY options, especially among the OFDM codes if the near-field chamber is dispersive and/or has problematic resonances in the channel), and throwing in "grid power for reefers" with actual numbers from the reefer container industry would be easy (a change to the coupler is a change, and the additional cable through the wagon shouldn't be that extensive either if it's an economical aluminum type; also this would allow passenger coaches that are currently using the pre-DAC4EU hook and chain coupling to be used with DAC4EU rolling stock).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- throwup238 2y agoI recommend talking to someone with experience shipping reefers in Europe because small seemingly irrelevant details will make or break the design. I assume that Europe uses a lot more international reefers that don't come with their own gensets so many trains would already have power in the form of generator cars. It might be impractical to hook them up to train power without a way to synchronize all the coolers so that they don't all turn on at once and brown out the train in the middle of a climb. IIRC international reefers require three phase power with a 50 amp breaker so even 800 amps won't get you very far if they all start up at once.