Single Arm Pan on Arrow III #1463

I'm gonna miss those Stemmanns!!

On the other hand, I've got a reason to video Arrows again....

In reference to "the ones in hoboken were damaged" I posted a reply to the wrong thread. My apologies. I was referring to locomotives left there.

ApproachMedium wrote:performance none. common parts compatibility with the rest of the fleet and the thought that these new ones will less likely take down the wire at Metro park 5 times a year.

I thought you were able to travel a higher rate of speed with the single arms? Or something to do with running smoothly.

similar versions of the red ones are used on trains that go 125MPH+ but these cars will be lucky if they see anything over 80 for the rest of their existence.

Single arm design pantos seem lighter. Less mass = less likely to pull the wire down.

On a related note, do they still have that pile of diamond pantos at MMC sitting out by the main to hoboken?

I was told recently that now six sets of Arrow III's have the single arm pantographs by someone who operates the cars. I don't have the numbers though. Just an FYI.

I made sure to get pictures of the United Knitting Machine builders' plates on the dinky pans while I was at Princeton this weekend. Wonder if the new pans are also provided via UKM under license from Shunk.

I saw one this weekend. Looks really strange -- they're beefy looking pantographs and a bright red compared to the others that seemed to fit in with the cars.

ryanov wrote:I saw one this weekend. Looks really strange -- they're beefy looking pantographs and a bright red compared to the others that seemed to fit in with the cars.

Late to the conversation, and didn't read the whole thread, but just thought that I would add that I saw an Arrow III with the single arm pan last night for the first time. Actually two of them, both on the Sunday 6:30pm train at New Brunswick to NYP (IIRC one was #1417). Agree that they do look strange, but they seem to work well. Noticed no arcing from the new pan's, while the old ones provided the normal Arrow III light show...

TAMR213 wrote:

ryanov wrote:I saw one this weekend. Looks really strange -- they're beefy looking pantographs and a bright red compared to the others that seemed to fit in with the cars.

Late to the conversation, and didn't read the whole thread, but just thought that I would add that I saw an Arrow III with the single arm pan last night for the first time. Actually two of them, both on the Sunday 6:30pm train at New Brunswick to NYP (IIRC one was #1417). Agree that they do look strange, but they seem to work well. Noticed no arcing from the new pan's, while the old ones provided the normal Arrow III light show...

Good, that means less chance of shoe damage and in turn less chance of wires pulled down. Anyone in need of a MU light show can still visit septa land, particularly the NEC between MORRIS and the curve through bristol. Lots of bouncy wires.

25Hz wrote:

TAMR213 wrote:

ryanov wrote:I saw one this weekend. Looks really strange -- they're beefy looking pantographs and a bright red compared to the others that seemed to fit in with the cars.

Late to the conversation, and didn't read the whole thread, but just thought that I would add that I saw an Arrow III with the single arm pan last night for the first time. Actually two of them, both on the Sunday 6:30pm train at New Brunswick to NYP (IIRC one was #1417). Agree that they do look strange, but they seem to work well. Noticed no arcing from the new pan's, while the old ones provided the normal Arrow III light show...

Good, that means less chance of shoe damage and in turn less chance of wires pulled down. Anyone in need of a MU light show can still visit septa land, particularly the NEC between MORRIS and the curve through bristol. Lots of bouncy wires.

You mean this curve?

I also found this video that includes Arrow's with new pans if you have not seen them yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJXp4zKq ... ata_player

I went out to Hamilton yesterday to see the new Arrow pans. Here is my video. On the first train I zoom in on the new pan. I hope you enjoy!

acelaphillies wrote:

25Hz wrote:

TAMR213 wrote:

ryanov wrote:I saw one this weekend. Looks really strange -- they're beefy looking pantographs and a bright red compared to the others that seemed to fit in with the cars.

Late to the conversation, and didn't read the whole thread, but just thought that I would add that I saw an Arrow III with the single arm pan last night for the first time. Actually two of them, both on the Sunday 6:30pm train at New Brunswick to NYP (IIRC one was #1417). Agree that they do look strange, but they seem to work well. Noticed no arcing from the new pan's, while the old ones provided the normal Arrow III light show...

Good, that means less chance of shoe damage and in turn less chance of wires pulled down. Anyone in need of a MU light show can still visit septa land, particularly the NEC between MORRIS and the curve through bristol. Lots of bouncy wires.

You mean this curve?

I also found this video that includes Arrow's with new pans if you have not seen them yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJXp4zKq ... ata_player

Yea, and if you look at the 3rd pan back around the 14-16 second mark you can see a bit of arcing even in the daylight. The pans bobble with the car back & fourth & the wire slides along the carbon strip side to side.

A lil off topic but still kind of relevant, it seems that amtrak within the last 2 years has re-tensioned a lot of the wire between princeton & bristol. It used to bounce quite a bit and you could see it, it even sounds "tighter". Instead of bouncing it now kinda just vibrates.

Manual tension catenary must be maintained just like anything else. I hope they are tightening it up every now and then!

ApproachMedium wrote:Manual tension catenary must be maintained just like anything else. I hope they are tightening it up every now and then!

Yea, I think it was getting close to operational tolerances the way it used to bounce. No way they would have tried running those acela tests without re-tensioning. Right through levittown station area and through hamilton station area you could hear it squeak like rusty playground equipment for it moved so badly every time a fast train ran through, sometimes for a whole minute or 2.. o.O