SNCF RTG
The RTG (Rame à Turbine à Gaz) series of the French state railway SNCF was a five-part multiple unit in which the two power cars were powered by a gas turbine .
prehistory
In the mid-1960s, the SNCF recognized the need to counter the increasing competition from aircraft by using faster trains. This led to the decision to test the use of gas turbines in locomotives.
The predecessor of the RTG was the ETG series (Elément à Turbine à Gaz). These four-part multiple units for the Paris-Cherbourg line had a gas turbine and hydraulic transmission in only one power end , the other was equipped with a conventional diesel engine and a mechanical eight-speed transmission. The diesel drive started up, the gas turbine of the 160 km / h trains was only switched on at a certain speed.
History and description
The positive experience with the 14 ETG led to the development of a follow-up series. The 41 trains known as “Rame à Turbine à Gaz” were built between 1972 and 1976 at the Ateliers de Construction du Nord de la France (ANF) and eventually replaced their predecessors from their main line.
The RTG was made up of five parts with three non-motorized intermediate cars and a power car at each end. Unlike the ETG, from which the front design of the powered end cars was largely taken over, it was not intended for the multiple traction and did not receive a triple headlights for possible foreign missions. The car bodies were longer than those of the ETG and the side walls were no longer corrugated. The interior corresponded to the USI - coaches , also were air conditioners installed. The entire multiple unit was 128,990 mm long over buffers , the length of the car body of the power cars was 16,980 mm. The power cars were given the operating numbers T 2001 to T 2082, with successive numbers belonging to a multiple unit. In addition to the drive system, the spacious driver's cab and a luggage compartment, they had a passenger compartment with 48 seats in 2nd class .
Each power car was equipped with a Turmo III H1 gas turbine with 820 kW of power for traction and a second Astazou IV A (320 kW) for the auxiliary drives; Diesel engines for starting the train were no longer installed. A hydraulic L 411 BRU transmission from Voith provided power to the axles . The maximum speed of the trains was 200 km / h, but in operational service the maximum speed was 160 km / h. The total weight of a multiple unit was 225 t, the power cars each weighed 53.8 t. With their tank capacity of 2 × 3600 l, the trains had a range of 1200 km.
From the end of 1973, the initially three-part RTG 01 was tested before the first trains went into commercial use in 1973. At first they ran on the Lyon - Bordeaux , Lyon - Nantes , Lyon - Strasbourg , Bordeaux - Nantes and Caen - Tours transversal routes, where they replaced locomotive-hauled trains and RGPs (series SNCF X 2700 and X 2720 ). From 1975 they were also used on the route from Paris-Saint-Lazare train station via Caen to Cherbourg and Deauville .
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The consequences of the oil price crises of 1973 and 1979 made the operation of the RTG expensive, the intended use on the Paris - Basel route was not realized. In addition, the lack of double traction had a negative effect. Because of insufficient capacity the trains between Lyon and Nantes in 1977 by of diesel locomotives of the series CC 72000 drawn Corail-car sets replaced. From the late 1970s onwards, the main lines were increasingly electrified, so the RTG only operated briefly on the Bordeaux- Toulouse , Lyon- Grenoble and Lyon- Chambéry routes.
At the end of the 1970s, more modern gas turbines of the type Turmo XII with an output of 1200 kW were tested and from 1981 they were installed in the power cars with even car numbers. Due to the increased performance, the Turmo III H1 of the power cars at the other end of the train were only switched on when required. In 1986 the RTG were upgraded for double traction and trains 1-19 were given a bar compartment with 24 seats. At the end of the 1980s, depending on the version, the trains had 280 (No. 1–18), 289 (No. 21–39) or 300 (No. 19, 20, 40 and 41) seats, including between 60 and 89 in the 1st Class.
From 1991, no more general inspections were carried out on the trains , in 1993 the first RTGs were shut down. In 1995, Corail push- pull trains moved by electric locomotives of the BB 25200 series replaced the RTG on the now electrified Lyon – Strasbourg line . The electrification of the Paris – Caen – Cherbourg line in the following year led to the majority of trains being shut down. Only the twelve multiple units of the Vénissieux depot remained in use for the time being. From 1999 the RTG only ran between Lyon or Périgueux and Bordeaux.
Whereabouts
On December 11, 2004, the last six trains were parked and sold to Iran for 50,000 euros each . The operational power car T 2057 is now in the railway museum Cité du Train in Mulhouse .
Test vehicle Axis
In the 1990s, the rail vehicle manufacturer Bombardier was looking for a suitable vehicle to test the track curve-dependent car body control with which the future Z3 railcars for SNCF and the Acela trains for Amtrak should be equipped. The choice fell on the RTG power cars T 2077 and T 2081, which had been parked in Caen for years . In December 1997 they were transferred to their manufacturing plant in Crespin , where they were overhauled and converted accordingly. The Y-223 and Y-224 bogies were replaced with high-speed tilting bogies. One powerhead took on the laboratory equipment, the other served as a conference room. With an output of 2200 kW and a weight of only 130 t, the resulting double multiple unit was theoretically 270 km / h fast, but self-propelled it did not exceed 220 km / h. It was given a new paint job in the colors dark blue (front and roof), anthracite gray (in the area of the windshield), medium and light gray (side surfaces); the dark blue and medium gray areas were separated by a narrow red band.
After a few test drives, the vehicle was presented to the press on June 26, 1998. It was then extensively tested on routes in the Massif Central and in the Alps . The results were satisfactory; Speeds of up to 50 km / h above the maximum permitted route speed were achieved, and curve superelevation of up to 290 mm was simulated. In the spring of 1999 the train reached 325 km / h towing a TGV Réseau in order to obtain the approval of the bogies for 300 km / h. The current consumption during the tilting process was checked with a single-arm pantograph installed in the summer of that year .
On March 22, 2000 the train was presented to the press again. After his return to Crespin, the gas turbines were removed. The concept of active track curve-dependent car body control was not pursued further in France.
Turboliner
The ninth and tenth RTGs were rented to Amtrak immediately after construction in August 1973 and brought to the USA . The trains designated there as Turboliner were used between Chicago and Saint Louis from the following month and finally purchased after proven reliability. In addition, four more RTGs were purchased, which from 1975 ran on the Chicago– Milwaukee and Chicago– Detroit routes .
Another order for 14 multiple units for fast traffic between New York and Boston on the Northeast Corridor was not permitted by the United States Department of Transportation . In 1981 the RTG were shut down for cost reasons, but in 1988 three converted units were reactivated for operation on the Empire Corridor (New York City - Niagara Falls ). The power cars of these trains, known as RTG-II, were adapted to the front design of the RTL gas turbine trains built in the USA. After the fire of an RTG-II in New York's underground Pennsylvania Station on September 11, 1994, these trains were withdrawn from service.
Others
Parallel to the RTG, the prototype TGV 001 was built at Alsthom in 1972 for the planned high-speed line - also as a gas turbine train . However, since a satisfactory solution was found in 1974 at the latest with regard to the consumption of electricity from the overhead line at high speeds, the concept of gas turbine propulsion was no longer pursued for the TGV .
Web links
- Rames à Turbine à Gaz (RTG) SNCF at trains-europe.fr
- Le démonstrateur pendulaire [Axis à Limoges (87) ] at passiondutrain.com, with a photo of the test vehicle Axis
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Georges Mathieu: Le matériel moteur de la SNCF . 1st edition. Éditions La Vie du Rail, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-902808-48-8 , p. 214 f .
- ↑ a b c d Rames à Turbine à Gaz (RTG) SNCF at trains-europe.fr, accessed on March 23, 2020
- ↑ Le démonstrateur Axis in: Ferrivissime No. 16, p. 8 ff.