Air conditioning on Mexico’s Copper Canyon Railroad

PC7060

Watched a special on PBS which profiled the Copper Canyon Railway which travels across Mexican state of Chihuahua.  Pretty interesting but what caught my eye was the type and number of AC units on each passenger car. I think a few of these cars provides power generation system and HVAC for the rest of the train. 

Pretty cool. 

 

Steamhead

Hope there aren't any low bridges..................

PC7060

Hahaha, tunnels were a major consideration as well. . 

leonz

A lot of a railroads operational need for electricity depends on the diesel electric generators that are mounted under the passenger car frames to deliver electricity to each car which is how was done as it segregate's the need for power generation in a single car that will provide power for cooling, lighting and heating.

I am not sure if the new AMTRAK locomotives use steam generators for car heating or medium voltage resistance heating is used in each car in the AMTRAK passenger car fleet using medium voltage cables between each car to deliver power for resistance heating and lighting.

Simple steam heating for a railroad passenger car uses a water reservoir in the locomotive engine compartment to make steam and the steam which I believe is or was single pipe wet steam is piped to each cars heating system via a steam connection hose between each car and I believe the last car was where the wet steam was vented.

Amtraks dining cars have propane tanks mounted under the galley cars where the dinners are cooked and served or at least they were anyway.

I am not sure if they have converted their new galley kitchen cars to induction flat tops, electric ovens and electric powered broilers.

Using an air to air heat pump cooling and heating system with fans and ducting for that mexican passenger railway is simpler than using a traditional cooling and heating system with a furnace mounted under each car.

ChicagoCooperator

Amtrak doesn't use steam heating anymore.

CLamb

Amtrak (and Via) are all electric these days--as are nearly all the commuter rail systems. They use 480v three-phase AC. The electricity is generated by the engines. For the rare occasions when non-passenger locomotives must be used there are special cars with diesel generators which are used to provide "hotel power" to the passenger cars. Previously mechanical air conditioning compressors were powered off of each car's wheel axles. If the cars didn't move the compressors didn't run. I miss riding in the old CNJ commuter cars with steam leaking up from the floorboards. It helped with the winter dryness and gave the air a nice scent.

HVACNUT

I wonder what kind of head pressure you get when the inlet air is Turbo charged. The condenser fan motor probably runs based on LL pressure. 
Even if they're all 18K, that's 10.5 tons of air. Is it all for that 1 car, or do the refrigerant lines go from car to car? Flexible? If so I guess those cars always stay together or it's a lot of reclaiming and vacuuming and charging. 

JUGHNE

50 years ago I rode on many trains in India.
The lights were powered by generators run from the wheels.
Dark when you stopped and light intensity varying with the speed of the train.
Slow speed of maybe 10 MPH would run the lights up and down....but it was better than being in the dark.

AC??.....only worked when moving as there was no glass in the windows

CLamb

@JUGHNE That's how it was in the USA too except that batteries were used for the times when the cars were standing still. But sometimes the batteries ran down or just didn't work leaving cars in the dark like your experience in India.

jumper

In the good old days before we were born; some passenger cars used steam jet refrigeration for A/C. Does anybody know if there were condensers or did the compressed vapor exhaust directly to atmosphere?

leonz

The old locomotive steam generators fed steam to a condenser mounted under the rail car and a roof top evaporator.

The folks at northwest rail electric have an entire page dedicated to their heating and cooling new and heritage age passenger cars and galley cooking cars.

www.nwr.com