Thanks for the reply Don, you are correct, the old contactors are the clapper type with the large air gap and blow out coil, they were actually manufactured by Allen West of Brighton, England. However these had been replaced (not by us) with an a.c. rated type with an air gap of approx 5mm...
We would like to to control the above traction motor on a train electronically using IGBT modules if possible, the problem is that the trains run on 125v DC, the initial start current is approx 90 A. The motors are very inductive and have destroyed many good contactors in the past due to...
Yes you will need a resistor, we have been working on regen / dynamic braking for a railway and it gets very difficult. the resistor has to be very high power 500w ++ depending on motor type, vehicle weight etc. We have been using 1.5 ohm 500w resistors on a 2 tonne 120v train but it seems a bit...