Or as a former Class I engineer dealing with power desks that were miserly with the horsepower, I liked to say, "I love the smell of burning traction motors in the morning, it smells like overtime!"  😆

As my mechanic teach tells me: "Everything's infinite until it isn't" and man if that ain't true. Cheers Hyce, love the videos!

My father was an engineer for 42 years. According to Dad, "A steam locomotive will pull anything you hook to it, as long as the boiler doesn't explode. Just keep pouring coal to it." Lol. Miss you Dad.

11:10 The complete motive power adage can be summarised like this:
* Steam can pull a train it cannnot start,
* Diesel can start a train it cannnot pull,
* Electric can start a train and pull it fast, but what about switching with electric? Forget it.

I completely stopped arguing with my trainmasters in Barstow CA about horsepower and traction (hpt). I take whatever number of engines I'm assigned, if it's under horsepower for the mountain I'll just casually let them know and have them tell me "you can take it, it's ok." Every so often we'll stall the train and I'll be like "well, you told me to take it." Then for about a month there seems to be enough power on the trains, then it's back to stalling them, rinse, repeat.

I'm an Electrical Engineer, and I can say you explained this issue very well.  I will add that the back EMF of the motors is a strong component of the speed limiting nature of the motors.  The faster the motor turns, the more back EMF is generated, requiring a  higher supplied voltage to generate the same torque.  This puts a harder load on the generator and stretches the abilities of the protective equipment, and no one wants to mess with uncontrolled DC arcing.

6:54 "Unlimited Power!"-Emperor Palpatine, train engineer.

10:37 as a class 1 conductor suffering under PSR and EMS running the locomotives, you spoke to my soul here about crawling up a hill at less than 10 mph. It’s PAINFUL. It also can’t be good for the rail.

🎵Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of FRA destruction!  Take a look, and you’ll see what it means to violate rule G.  You’ll begin, with a grin, smashing trains in head on collisions.  Working there, run red boards, if Mark Huber does decree.🎵. (I leave it to the comments section to continue the parody)

I love how at 3:38 your hands are offset at the correct 90 degree crank angle

Just for reference:
SD70Ace TE = 850 kN (starting) & 700 kN (continuous)
Big Boy TE = 602 kN

As for HP, the SD70Ace has 4500 versus the Big Boy's 7000. Hence why the Big Boy will pull any train it can start faster than the SD70, however SD70 will start a much heavier train thanks to its higher TE at low speeds.

6:08 "wheel slipping hound" Ah yes, I see you've been introduced to the Siemens Charger. Those things slip when it's cloudy.

Spent 3 hours discussing questions and taking notes with the CSX locomotive shop manager back in 2002 when I was developing a crib for modders of Trainz and I will agree completely.  You can even get down in the nitty gritty of how humidity can effect the cooling air's velocity in turns.    All new diesels will run happily all day in notch 8 on a flat lightly oiled sea level track at their spec in 72°F weather.  That line exists nowhere on Earth.

Furthermore there's a note from a book about the Hale telescope in which it mentions that Amtrak's power generation rental's output is 'subject to change after delivery'

So the gist of the matter, as i understand it is; that a steam engine is basically a piston engine connected directly to the drivers. This means that, like an internal combustion engine, it has a torque curve and corresponding horsepower curve. And apart from the "dead-spots" at the end of piston travel when going slow, the torque curve is pretty flat at low speeds and tapers off approaching top speed. So rising horsepower as the engine goes faster, until the torque starts dropping off.
In contrast a diesel-electric locomotive has essentially an infinitely variable gear ratio between the engine and the drivers, in the form of the generator and traction motors. This means, that the engine can run at its optimal speed, generating full power regardless of the wheel speed. And since torque and horsepower are related through rotational speed; gearing any amount of power down to near 0 RPM, means near infinite torque.

Ahhh Math. My worst subject in school, usually any video that involves this gets the ole skip button. It's basically an ad to me.

Usually.

If there's anyone and anything who can get me interested in math, it's Hyce and trains.

Tractive effort reminds me of something that was used in bicycles ,  gear inches. A funny calculation that gives you an idea how easy it is to ride.

I'd been trying to remember that saying for AGES! One of these days I really should write it down lol. Glad to have the explanation too!

4:40 anything divided by zero is undefined

first off, kuddos for making and uploading a so quickly, its barely slower than a live streak. second, its nice to see raillink as a montanan boy

Hyce your channel brought back my love for trains. I was OBSESSED with them as a child. I used to have so much track and trains not the models the ones I had where wooden but I had so many I remember setting up all kinds of layouts and running my trains on them and they magnets as couplers, I used to play with the magnets for hours too they should have known I was autistic then. Now I cant enough over here searching on youtube for all the videos of steam engines wheel slipping IDK what it is but i love wheel slip. Thank you for your channel