Railroad Passenger Car Air Conditioning

Direct Mechanical System
New! Video of this stuff in action! See below.

Some passenger cars were equipped with air conditioning systems where the compressor was driven mechanically from one of the axles of the cars (not unlike the way electric generators for lighting were driven). Let's take a little tour under such a car.

Click on any picture for the full-size image; BACK to return here

Let's start with the Spicer drive from one of the inboard axles.

Now we pan left following the driveshaft and we see a the electromagnetic speed controller (slip clutch) which prevents overspeeding the compressor.

Continuing left you can just barely see drivebelts behind the right part of the cage leading away from us. Then another bit of shafting and an electric motor that takes over in terminals when standby power is plugged in.

Now lets jump to the other side of the car. Here is the condensing machine. A box with a coil visible at the end nearest to us.

Get a little closer under the car and you can see the rubber V belts coming from the drive system and entering the condensing machine box.

Now let's see what lurks inside the condensor. After opening the access panel here we are inside the box just beyond the condensor coil seen above from the outside. Yes, that's seven V belts driving the compressor. (Thou shalt not have six belts excepting that thou then then proceedeth to seven. Eight is right out.)

Finally, at the far end of the condensor box is the fan that pulls air through the coil, driven by a pulley on a far end of the electric motor we saw near the start of this tour. That's still train motion turning the fan as the motor is at the end of the drive train seen above; the motor is for standby only.

Going back around to the first side of the car again but continuing left of the first pictures down to the other end of the car we see the Spicer-driven electric generator for lights, blowers, battery charging etc. Note here as well as on the first picture of the air conditioning drive train the presence of safety supports to catch the drive shafts if one should break to prevent it from dropping to the track where it could possibly cause a derailment.

Click for a few seconds of video of this apparatus in motion under a moving car. Press BACK to return.

Another brief video of it in motion. Press BACK to return.

This car, the Inglehome, is presently at Illinois Railway Museum. For a time in the 50's and early 60's the car was owned by the Illini Railroad Club at the University of Illinois which called it Chief Illini.

Return to Steve's Vacant Lot

Railroad Passenger Car Air Conditioning

Direct Mechanical System New! Video of this stuff in action! See below.

Direct Mechanical System
New! Video of this stuff in action! See below.