@bmoran4 posted:I sometimes see that there are those who think only to focus on the track/locomotives and completely overlook the accessory power buses.Accessories are filled with transient inducing solenoids and what not. Take a look at your track switch machines, your crossing gates etc... and that there are other accessories that have sensitive electronics in them.
I guess there are two points I am trying to make:
- Transients don't solely exist on track power buses
- When addressing your accessory buses, be sure to think about placement:
All good points with which I agree. Any inductive coil which has it's voltage source abruptly removed is a source of Transient Voltage Spikes. I was curios about asking the specific case of derailments and where the best protections would be against the energized coils associated with that scenario.
Agreed that any accessory coils (uncouplers, crossing gates, switches, etc.) which happen to be energized at the time a breaker tripped that is powering all of them and the track, each one would also become a source of spikes. Also , during their normal operation, each accessory's coil also generates voltage spikes when deactivated, so TVS diode protection at each of those sources would also seem to be ideal.
To my recent question, I'm still interested in the electrical engineering consensus about which TVS diode installation location(s) inside the locomotive would be optimal for protecting the locomotives' electronics.
