869xx Load Banks

The 86/9s can still be driven under their own power although only within an
engineers possession don't ask me why, it must be a Notwork directive.

The 86/9s have had extra recifiers fitted, Six in total.

They work by drawing power from the overheads and then redistributing the
power as heat out of the extra rectifiers so i assume there is a few dials
and gauges within the machine to explain why and how.

Hope this helps

Matt

"John F Kappler" <johnk@pceffect.co.uk> wrote in message
news:41d822f6.5818625@giganews.nildram.co.uk...
> Having just been to view the above locos at Rugby, they raised two
> questions:
>
> Can these locos still be driven under their own power?
>
>
> What does a load bank do and how does a converted loco do it?
>
>
> TIA,
>
> JohnK

"Aaron Borbora" <77609@ablesurf.com> wrote in message
news:41d84d3a$1_4@127.0.0.1...
> Why is DC power required? I kind of thought that these were needed to
> supply power to a work site/ etc. and would such need AC?

No, they are test gear, not power supplies. In this case, they are used to
draw power from the OHLE to test it. That power is then dissipated in the
rheostatic braking resistors. I presume they work on DC because that is how
the original equipment worked - AC power transformed and rectified before
being fed to DC traction motors, which would equally generate DC under
rheostatic braking.

Roger