Newschool Brakes

Oldschool Brakes:



And now for the newschool ones, seen here on the leading wheelset of a third generation ICE train (DB class 403). Clearly visible is the brake disk, which is directly attached to the wheel, instead of the axle. That is due to the fact that the drive motor and transmission take up most of the space within the bogie, so the disks had to be moved outwards. This is a common sight on many modern locomotives and multiple units, but it's normally rather hard to see on photos that are not closeups...

As some of you may know, the third generation ICE is not a purebreed EMU with all axles powered. Instead, it's divided up into groups of three carriages, referred to as "traction group". These consist of an unpowered middle car, usually the ones with pantographs on top, which contain the transformer. To either side of that, we have the cars that contain the electronic converters for 3-phase AC traction, as well as two drive motors per bogey. So if you see an ICE car that has shiny disks on the wheels, it's a powered Stromrichterwagen, otherwise, it's an unpowered Transformatorwagen. Those have their brake disks mounted on the axle, like classic train carriages.

Needless to say, with a top speed of 320kph (200mph), there are more sophisticated methods of deceleration, such as the (dynamic) regenerative brakes, and the even more sophisticated eddy current brakes. The classic air actuated disk brakes are usually only used a few seconds before coming to a full stop at the station platform.


_{I actually didn't plan on uploading this. Was browsing through my archive for plane photos I took in Düsseldorf, but I also stumbled across this one. Seemed so fitting with the previous oldschool brakes shot, so I put it up.}