On Friday, 9 March 2018 11:26:05 UTC, Max Demian wrote:
On 09/03/2018 10:15, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Max Demian writes:
On 08/03/2018 23:14, Marland wrote:
Andrew Gabriel

Before the Berlin wall came down, there were two continental Europe
synchronisation zones, Western Europe run from Switzerland, and
Eastern Europe run from Moscow. The first was +/- 0.1Hz, the second
was +/- 1Hz, IIRC. The western side was actually very short on spare
capacity (particularly Germany), and the east had lots, but from
highly poluting sources. When the wall came down, Germany was in a
dilema at the time on using power from the east which Western German
industry desperately needed, but seriously pumping up the resulting

Germany and Austria also have a separate grid to distribute power for their
railways,due to the electrification commencing in the 1900€„¢s and the
characteristics of motors of the era a low frequency of 16 and two thirds
was adopted. This low frequency is also used in Switzerland and Scandinavia
but they tend to generate from nearby hydro or convert from the 50hz grid
where required.

They must have 'normous transformers.

3 times the size, and they have to be carried by the train.

However, they couldn't make large powerful motors which ran on 50Hz
at the time, because the winding inductance would be too high to
get the necessary power in without the windings having to operate
at voltages which winding insulation couldn't withstand.

They could have used DC generation, or rectified the AC (if there were
suitable rectifiers in those days).

16Hz is better able to overcome stiction due to its (physically) pulsing nature.


NT