Battery charger plug for locomotives?

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:53 pm

I'm going to do something similar on our 70 tonner, but I plan to just bolt a couple of welding leads onto the batteries and let a pair of female TWECO connectors hanging beneath the frame. I'll wrap the positive side in red tape so I don't get them cross connected. Not only are TWECO connectors easily available, but if you ever needed to jump start with a welder it would be very easy to do.

isaksenj · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:45 pm

The Pyle-National "Quelarc" connectors used for passenger car wayside connectors are now carried by Amphenol:

http://www.amphenol-industrial.com/imag ... pdf#page=9

Same catalog has HEP and 27-pin connectors, among other items.

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:25 pm

Jdelhaye wrote:

I'd argue that there IS a standard for locomotives, it's just not a "forklift" style connector.

EMD (and I would assume GE and Alco as well), for many years, has used a large, coaxial plug, originally available from Pyle-National. This same connector was also used for battery charging on cabooses and passenger cars.

Well done, sir!

The only lingering concern I have is the locomotive-side connector (presumably, always hot) being potentially found by curious fingers. Is that a problem for this type of connector?

Jdelhaye · **Posted:** Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:17 pm

robertmacdowell wrote:

The only lingering concern I have is the locomotive-side connector (presumably, always hot) being potentially found by curious fingers. Is that a problem for this type of connector?

That all depends on where it is mounted. EMD placed them inside the electrical cabinet where they are far less likely to be contacted than the adjacent knife switches.

If the connector is mounted externally, it would be possible for fingers to contact both poles simultaneously. However, if the external connector had a "mu connector" style flip lid on it, it could be secured with a small padlock.

We tend to route the charger cords to the electrical cabinets thru the cab side windows which allows us to secure the cabs. ( a heavy cord thru a cab door opening can prevent it from closing or locking).

Jeff

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:54 pm

I think that the theory is that the insulating ring between the center contact and the outer cylindrical contact sticks out far enough and the clearances are tight enough that you would need very long thin fingers to touch both contacts at once. Remember, the recessed female socket goes on the locomotive.

Doug Debs 2472 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:53 pm

If you choose the traditional Pyle-National charging connectors, be careful. Check polarity first. I found out the hard way that our railroad-passenger-car battery charger Pyle-National connector was wired reverse-polarity from the charging connectors on State Belt Railroad of California (San Francisco waterfront RR) Alco S-2 locomotives. A large part of the connector I was plugging in vaporized in a blinding white flash.

- Doug Debs