This article is about the locomotive. For the professional television equipment, see vision mixer. A switcher or shunter (Great Britain: shunter; USA: switcher (or switch engine), except Pennsylvania Railroad: shifter) is a small railroad locomotive intended not for moving trains over long distances but rather for assembling trains ready for a road locomotive to take over, disassembling a train that has been brought in, and generally moving railroad cars around - a process usually known as switching (UK: shunting). They do this in classification yards. Switchers may also make short transfer runs and even be the only motive power on branch lines. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x553, 309 KB)BNSF locomotive 6203, an EMD SD39 paired with a six-axle slug. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x553, 309 KB)BNSF locomotive 6203, an EMD SD39 paired with a six-axle slug. ...
An EMD SD39 is a 6-axle diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between August 1968 and May 1970. ...
For other meanings, see Slug (disambiguation) Cabless slug Cabbed slug A railroad slug is an accessory to a locomotive. ...
A Sony BVS-3200CP vision mixer A vision mixer (also called video switcher, video mixer or production switcher) is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases composite (mix) video sources together and add special effects. ...
1893 map The Pennsylvania Railroad (AAR reporting mark PRR) was an American railroad that was founded in 1846 and merged in 1968 into Penn Central Transportation. ...
French 1912 drawing of typical elements of railways Railway tracks running through a railway station in North East England, UK A railway yard in Portland, Oregon. ...
Great Western Railway No. ...
It has been suggested that Local trains be merged into this article or section. ...
A railroad car (or, more briefly, car, not to be confused with railcar), also known as an item of rolling stock, is a vehicle on a railroad (or railway) that is not a locomotive — one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. ...
Shunting, in railway operations, involves the process of sorting items of rolling stock into complete train sets or consists. ...
Chicago and North Western Railways Proviso Yard in Chicago, Illinois, December 1942. ...
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. ...
Center Cab, GE 45-ton switcher. Light electric shunter SBB Tem 346 The typical switcher is optimised for its job, being relatively low-powered but with a high starting tractive effort for getting heavy cars rolling quickly. Switchers are geared to produce high torque but are restricted to low top speeds and have small diameter driving wheels . Steam switchers are either tank locomotives or have special (smaller) tenders, with narrow coal bunkers and/or sloped tender decks to increase rearward visibility. Headlights, where carried, were mounted on both ends. Diesel switchers tend to have a high cab and often lower and/or narrower hoods (bonnets) containing the diesel engines, for all round visibility. Slugs are often used because they allow even greater tractive effort to be applied. Nearly all slugs used for switching are of the low hood, cabless variety. Good visibility in both directions is critical, because a switcher may be running in either direction; turning the locomotive is time-consuming. Some earlier diesel switchers used cow-calf configurations of two powered units in order to provide greater power. Now, the vast majority of switchers are diesels, but countries with near-total electrification, like Switzerland, use electric switchers. Small industrial shunters have sometimes been fireless locomotives and a few of these are still at work in Germany. The GE 45-ton switcher is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by General Electric between 1940 and 1956. ...
Locomotive of the SBB-CFF-FFS Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. ...
Union Pacific UPY 1338. ...
Tractive Effort (abbr. ...
Torque applied via an adjustable end wrench Relationship between force, torque, and momentum vectors in a rotating system In physics, torque (or often called a moment) can informally be thought of as rotational force or angular force which causes a change in rotational motion. ...
On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotives pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). ...
Union Pacific Big Boy #4012 at work on a cold November 29, 1941 A steam locomotive is a locomotive powered by steam. ...
A tank locomotive (occasionally tank engine, especially in England, notably used in reference to Thomas the Tank Engine) is a steam locomotive that carries its own fuel and water on it, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. ...
A British tender locomotive Steam locomotives often haul a tender, which is a special railroad car designed to hold the locomotives fuel and water. ...
A modern Diesel locomotive. ...
A flipfront provides easy access to the engine bay. ...
For other meanings, see Slug (disambiguation) Cabless slug Cabbed slug A railroad slug is an accessory to a locomotive. ...
In North American railroading, a cow-calf set is a pair of switcher-type diesel locomotives: one (the cow) equipped with a driving cab, and the other (the calf) without. ...
Modern three-phase AC locomotive (DBAG Class 152) A GG1 An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electric motors which draws current from an overhead wire (overhead lines), a third rail, or an on-board storage device such as a battery or a flywheel energy storage system. ...
Preserved Porter Locomotive Company No. ...
Switching is hard work, and heavily used switch engines wear out quickly from the abuse of constant hard contacts with cars and frequent starting and stopping.
British and European locomotives of this type tend to be much smaller than the common size in the United States. Current British shunters are Class 08 and Class 09. World map showing the location of Europe. ...
D3312 at Kings Cross, 1963 in British Railways green livery 08 910 at Carlisle, 1975 in British Rail blue livery. ...
CLASS 09/0 Class 09, later 09/0, locomotives were modified from Class 08 locomotives and were re-geared to give a maximum top speed of 27. ...
Station pilot A station pilot is a shunting engine based at a major passenger station, used for moving trains or carriages between platforms, assembling trains, and other passenger train shunting tasks. It is a predominantly British term.
Station pilots are no longer used in the UK as the majority of passenger trains are formed with multiple units; the few locomotive-hauled passenger trains are shunted by the train engine rather than a dedicated station pilot.
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