Alternatives
Although most locomotive-hauled trains take power directly from the locomotive, there have been examples (mainly in continental Europe) where restaurant cars would take power directly from the overhead wires. For example, the German restaurant cars WRmz 135 (1969), WRbumz 139 (1975) and ARmz 211 (1971) were all equipped with pantograph.
Finnish dining/catering cars have a built-in diesel-generator set that is used even when a locomotive-supplied power is available.
When the State of Connecticut first started the Shore Line East service, they were using, in many cases, new passenger cars with old freight diesels which were not able to supply HEP, so some of the coaches were delivered with a HEP generator in the middle of the car. With the acquisition of locomotives with HEP these have since been removed.
Where a passenger train has to be hauled by a locomotive with no HEP supply (or an incompatible HEP supply) a separate generator van may be used such as on the Amtrak Cascades train or Iarnród Éireann's CAF Mark 4 Driving Van Trailer (with twin MAN 2846 LE 202 (320 kW) / Letag (330 kVA) engine / generator sets, assembled by GESAN). KiwiRail (New Zealand) use AG class luggage-generator vans for their Tranz Scenic passenger services; Tranz Metro on the Wairarapa line use SWG class passenger carriages with part of the interior adapted to house a generator.
In the future, the old RIC- voltages will be replaced by the much more cost-effective solution with 50 or 60 Hz three-phase 400/415 V (50 Hz) or 480 V (60 Hz). Three-phase is the backbone of the global electric power network and most electrical power equipment is today designed for three-phase supply; the 400/415 V 50 Hz supply is ubiquitous in 50 Hz markets, allowing the use of off-the-shelf mains electrical equipment. For example, in UK and Sweden the high-speed trains IC125 and X2000 have 50 Hz 3-phase power bus.
Read more about this topic: Head End Power
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