Northwest Rail Electric

Parts on a Typical Passenger Car

Northwest Rail Electric, Portland, Oregon, (503) 231-4808, Fax (503) 230-0572

You can also reach us at our e-mail contacts.

Passenger Car Diagram
    Under-Car Circuit Breaker
  1. Under car electrical equipment in an enclosure. This has included generator control packages, HEP main circuit breakers, and power feed equipment for the HEP trainline. See view at right of one such installation.

  2. Head-End Power and related hardware. This includes the 4/0 wire for the HEP trainline, HEP main breaker, splice boots, wire cleats, HEP connectors, and much of the other hardware unique to HEP power conversions.

  3. Communications and Multiple Unit Receptacles and related hardware. This includes mouting enclosures, jumpers, communication junction enclosures, and wire required to complete the installation.

  4. Head-End Power Receptacles and Fixed Jumpers. This includes mounting brackets to hold the recptacles and fixed jumpers on the end of the car, and jumpers and extensions in various lengths.

  5. Under-Car Generator Set. This will likely be in power ranges from 20 kW to 175 kW, and may have enough capacity for several other passenger cars, depending on the power requirements of the car it is mounted on. Typically, the generator control system includes a control system and detector equipment for remote control from inside the passenger car as well as giving indications of coolant temperature, oil pressure, and other engine system operations. Optional features include the ability to send power to other cars and automatic start on HEP failure.

    Under-Car Condenser

  6. Under-Car Air Conditioning Condenser. Standard models may be any of several different capacities, configurations and compressor brands, depending on customer needs and desires. We have also produced custom condensers to suit particular customer requests. Some photos of a few of our custom HVAC parts and systems are located in the Custom HVAC Euipment section of the web site.

  7. Electrical Locker Package. This typically includes HVAC Control, Circuit Breaker Panels, HEP Main Breaker, Generator Breaker and Generator Control System (if there is a generator on the car - this may be a power car package such as the NW-GC130 and NW-GC140 series or a car power selection package such as our NW-GC500 series, with automatic generator start-up should another power source (HEP or yard) fail), and various other equipment, depending on the customer needs. One of our most common packages has been the NW25-100 series of locker packages, or for dome cars the NW25-200 two zone package as it allows independent control of the dome air conditioning system. We have also produced various custom locker packages and variations of our standard packages adapted to fit various situations.

  8. DC Control System. This includes DC Battery Power Curcuit Breakers, Battery Charging System, and other equipment based on the customer needs. While many of these have been custom packages, even our most simple standard locker package includes as standard equipment an emergency lighting circuit breaker and relay to turn on the emergency lights when the power fails.

    DC Control Panel
    DC Control Panel with Marker Light Circuit Breaker and Battery Voltage Meter

  9. Deep Cycle Battery. Northwest Rail Electric supplies spiral-wound deep cycle batteries for emergency lighting, generator starting, and other systems requiring batteries. These batteries have a proven record, even in situations where they have been completely discharged.

  10. Air Conditioning, Heating, and Blower Enclosure. This may be our compact version or our standard unit. This includes electric heating elements, air conditioning evaporator equipment, and blowers required for the passenger compartment portion of the air conditioning and heating system.

  11. Transformers. Northwest Rail Electric can supply transformers required to change voltage from the 480 volt HEP supply to 208/120 volt power for lighting and common electrical equipment and receptacles. Custom voltages can also be produced (for example, for use on the few 575 volt HEP systems out there).

  12. Baseboard Heaters. Northwest Rail Electric has provided several different types of baseboard heaters and systems. This could include a low-profile electric heating system, or an electric boiler and circulation pump to use with an existing hot water baseboard system.

There are also two different brocures describing our company available in Adobe Acrobat format, which are available in the Adobe Acrobat Files section of our web site.

Parts and Products:

[ A List of All Our Services and Product Types ] [ NW25-100 typical passenger car electrical package ] [ NW-603-INT Replacement Package for older Amtrak cars ] [ NW25-200 Dual-Zone Control Package ] [ GC-130 Small Power Car Generator Control ] [ NW-GC-500 Passenger Car Power Automation System ] [ Recent Custom Projects ] [ NWYPHP Yard Power Package ]

A Few Distributed Products:

[ Railroad Grade Electrical Wire ] [ Stadco Generators ] [ Clements HEP Connectors ]

Some Information About Passenger Car Electrical Systems:

[ What is required for converting a passenger car to head end power? ] [ What parts are used to give a car Amtrak style HEP power lines? ] [ Typical HEP Configurations in use in North America and some typical electrical loads for types of passenger cars ]

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