Technology
The locomotive's shell is shared with the other members of the "Nez Cassé" (broken nose) family (BB7200, BB22200) and is of the monocoque type.
The cabin is shared with the BB7200 and BB22200 series and have even a great deal in common with cabs of other SNCF locomotives of the 1960s. This class was also the first to introduce the VI ("Vitesse Imposée") cruise control system which is now standard on all SNCF locomotives delivered after 1971.
The electrical part consists of a single pantograph (type AM18U) which collects 25kV from the catenary. Power is passed through a transformer which lowers the tension to about 1500V AC and a bridge rectifier controlled by thrystors rectify it into DC, which is then fed into the traction motors.
Brake equipment consists of pneumatic, electro-pneumatic, regenerative and dynamic brakes. Bogies were derived from the Y217 bogies of BB67400 locomotives and have primary (coil springs) and secondary ("sandwich" blocs) suspension.
The reliability of the locomotives is outstanding, as some locomotives have already passed the 10,000,000 km mark and have less than 2 defects per million kilometres, a number unrivaled by other similar European locomotives.
Read more about this topic: SNCF Class BB 15000
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
—Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)
“Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)