Electric Heaters
for Railway Passenger Cars
Phone: (503) 231-4808 Fax: (503) 230-0572 E-mail
See where our equipment is located on a typical passenger car
For those converting older passenger car to work with head-end power, having some form of electric heat that operates off of the HEP system is usually a must. Northwest Rail Electric has been involved with a large number of passenger car rebuilds and upgrades over the years, as well as the occasional new car construction. Since the late 1990s we have moved exclusively to tubular finned elements. This element style is far better suited to railway passenger cars than most any other heater element type.
Pictured: a typical custom heater designed to meet the needs of a tourist railroad operating heavyweight cars.
In the example shown above, heaters were required for installation in cars with an unusual duct shape. While the heavyweight cars may have required a custom duct heater, the solution was only partially a custom heater: existing sheet metal designs sizes were adjusted to create the required heater size. The elements, insulators, terminal blocks and various other components were off the shelf solutions developed for other heaters. The frame is stainless steel and will provide years of trouble free service.
Typical Overhead Heat Packages:
- Standard model frame styles designed to be "drop-in" replacements for most existing steam coil installations, including the Frigidaire F-5 steam heat coils attached to the air conditioning coil. These heaters are very common in many heritage passenger car designs. For example:
Pictured: Northwest Rail Electric HT1812414802-FR heater, made of stainless steel and solid element heating elements. 18kW capacity, 480 volt 3 phase configuration. Also available in 24 kW. Designed to be a drop-in replacement for the Frigidaire F-5 steam heat coil used in many passenger cars from the streamliner era.
- Up to 24 kW of heat in standard packages, and up to 36 kW of heat in custom packages, all using tubular finned elements that will give years of trouble free service.
- Overhead heaters may be configured to operate on 208 volts, 240 volts or 480 volts, 3 phase. Certain heater packages may be configured to operate on 575 volts or other voltages.
- Standard heater models come with ring terminals for connection to car wiring.
- Heat cycling thermostats and High Limit switches for controlling circuit breaker shunt trip safety are built in.
- Most commonly used heating element rods for overhead heaters are 27 inches long, allowing for custom frame construction to fit almost all overhead heat applications. For specialty situations longer and shorter elements are used.
- All standard and most custom heater frames made from stainless steel. Never again worry about corrosion of heater frame parts.
- In almost all cases, heaters ship with an air flow switch, which is a required safety device for any overheat heat package on railway passenger cars.
We have HVAC systems and HVAC Control systems designed for railroad passenger cars, if you need a control system to go with your heater.
NOTE: An Adobe Acrobat version of the brochure for our heater products is available in the PDF Files area.
Complete Overhead Packages Available:
In almsot all cases since approximately 2003, most customers have chosen to replace their blowers, overheat heat, and air conditioning coil at the same time using our NW-BEOH-C overhead package, which includes all of this heating and air conditioning equipment in a single overhead package. If you are considering replacing your passenger car heater, it may be time to consider a complete HVAC system upgrade, as many of our customers have done.
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