Talk:Push–pull train

Caption error?

"Coach shown is actually an inspection saloon rather than an autocoach." was written on the article page, apparently in reference to Image:GWR autocoach on Severn Valley Railway.jpg. Assistance is needed from someone with clue to sort this out. -- Beland 01:16, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Another image substituted—just ignore the original "diesel" caption!--Old Moonraker 09:51, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Afterthought: Comparing the two pictures, they seem to be quite different vehicles: the "saloon" has squared off ends whereas the autocoach has curved ends. Why, though, does the saloon have a warning gong? --Old Moonraker 09:57, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I was just looking at this image on a different page yesterday, as I was going to add it to GWR Autocoach. The Inspection Saloon is definitely that and not an autocoach. The warning gong or bell may have been to warn track workers that the coach was being propelled towards them. (Must go and modify the original image caption!) EdJogg 17:20, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Where was the first push-pull train used?

The GWR first started using their autotrains in 1905. Were they the first to develop the concept of a push-pull train? (This page is sorely lacking any history of the topic!) EdJogg 17:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Some detail in the Oxford Companion. I will add this fairly soon. (GWR 1904; Midland LBSC and NER 1905; GCR 1906, etc). When newly fitted the GWR Autocoaches could work in a four-car train with the loco in the middle and I will change this page also. --Old Moonraker 17:43, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

History section started. The GWR Autocoach has already been tweaked and doesn't contradict this page.--Old Moonraker (talk) 21:01, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Thank you - that's much better. EdJogg (talk) 01:08, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Danger/Controversy?

Following the Metrolink crash in Glendale, CA in 2005 there was talk that the push-pull method of locomotion was inherently dangerous. I can't find anything to explain why this would be so. Can anyone help? Chops79 (talk) 22:45, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's anything particularly specific to push-pull. Locomotives tend to be very heavy pieces of rolling-stock and end up being the crumble-zone in a collision; in a setup where the engine is at the back and pushing, the driving-carriage may additionally have passengers and/or be of low weight.

For instance, in the UK on the ECML in certain extreme weather conditions a British Rail Class 91 locomotive is required to uncouple from the rear of the a 200km/h Mk4 rake and pull the train and in the early days of operation they didn't have heavy enough driving-van-trailers (DVTs) so were using HST power cars. Hope that helps, —Sladen (talk) 23:51, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Sladen; Both parts of your second paragraph are false.

The class 91s will run slab end first hauling from the DVT end if there's a fault with the DVT that means it cannot be used, it has little to do with the weather.

The use of HSTs as stand in DVTs was due to the 91s being delivered before the Mk4 coaches. They modified some Mk3s and HST powercars for use whilst testing them, they never ran using the Mk3s and HST powercars in service.87.246.77.194 (talk) 17:17, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Locomotive in the middle

"This is also frequent in trains of the Swiss railway SBB." I would say this is incorrect. I have never seen such trains with the SBB (I live in Switzerland). The only place it may occur regularly is on the Zentralbahn, which is a metre-gauge operator, which couples two three-carriage push-pull trains together when not operating on rack-and-rail sections (i.e. dvt, carriage, motorised carriage, with the dvt leading uphill, with two such trains together before reaching steep sections, with extra carriages on the back sometimes for part of the route). The SBB itself doesn't use any such configurations, as far as I have seen. It is possible that a push-pull train has extra carriages attached on the back at peak times, i.e. onto the locomotive if it is at the back, but I have only seen these as normal carriages once or twice (no dvt, i.e. not capable of driving), but usually some extra carriages with dvt are added on the dvt end. I think the claim should therefore be removed. However it probably is worth mentioning that a large part of the Swiss train-fleet is operating as push-pull, mainly using the Re 460 and accompanying single or double deck carriages. Qualalol (talk) 21:42, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I have now removed the sentence. Note: I have noticed a "locomotive in the middle" arrangement on the Matterhorn-Gotthard bahn, however this isn't a true locomotive in the middle, since it is a push-pull set (driving carriage, 2-3 standard carriages, locomotice) with 2+ additional carriages attached on the tail end, i.e. onto the locomotive if it is pushing, onto the driving carriage if pulling. Qualalol (talk) 16:18, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Citations Needed!

Where did the information provided in this article originate? How do readers know it is accurate and reliable? User2346 (talk) 06:17, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Is Queensland Rail's "Spirit of Queensland" train a Push-pull train, or a DEMU?

Is Queensland Rail's "Spirit of Queensland" train a Push-pull train, or a demu?

Pga1965 (talk) 13:17, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Alsthom or Alstom ?

Under section Israel, the illustration caption says A GEC Alsthom push–pull (with -h- in Alsthom) but the text says In 1996, Israel Railways began running GEC Alstom push–pull coaches. (without the -h-). Now the company in question has used both spellings for its name at different times, removing the -h- at some point in June 1998 or thereabouts. AFAICT, the photograph was taken in 2007 (after the change, at a time when the company name was already spelled Alstom) but Israel Railways acquired the trains in 1996 (before the change, when it was still spelled Alsthom) so maybe even both spellings of the name in that section are wrong. I don't know what to do about this. — Tonymec (talk) 12:30, 1 September 2024 (UTC)