These two-car units, designed and manufactured by Canada's Bombardier, have cutting-edge ac motors (well, cutting-edge for urban railway technology, anyway).
Air-conditioned and with all sorts of computer-controlled wizardry, these units are likely to be your first experience of the L, depending on which airport you use.
They look gorgeous.
And I have to say, I'm not normally a fan of retro design. I like modern things to look modern (the rest of the cars in this post are not the 5000s...).
But Chicago's L cars just have to be made from stainless steel, at least some of which has to have a corrugated finish.
They also have to be in pairs of squared-off units, joined into longer trains.
That look is just necessary -- it is typical of Chicago, just as a black London taxi is unmistakably part of London.
Yeah, fit for purpose -- why change something that just works?
4 comments:
Is the whole system 3rd rail AC, I ask? Or do they have an inbuilt inverter to convert the DC supply? I thought the UK's 25Kv Pendolinos used thyristors to convert the AC to DC for the motors, and that the power curve of a DC motor was more suited to the demands of a train - but I stand to be corrected and am NOT an engineer!
No, they have 600v DC 3rd rail supply -- the power is converted to AC on the train.
The advantages of AC traction motors are, apparently, smoother running and, increasingly important, the ability to offer regenerative braking, making the whole system much more energy-efficient.
How strange! I thought it was DC motors that worked as dynamos if they were rotated. But I'm not a physicist nor an engineer so shall start some investigations...
Well, there are parts of New York City that have aboveground trains too, so that look could also conceivably be, say, Queens.
Also: the Port Authority subway system that connects Jersey City, Newark, Hoboken and New York City have new subway cars coming out. Shiny blue beasts.
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