Hello, I'm Wes from North Dakota

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Hello all. This is my second post just to say hello, as was suggested by a little note above the "Preview" box in my first post.

Our Prius actually belongs to my wife, Linda, and she bought it as much for the ease of driving as anything. Since she is not very tall, the back-up camera was a big plus, as was a very clear, comfortable, upright view to the outside.

She often expresses her appreciation for the unobstructed door sill which allows easy enter/exit, and the flat floor under the hatch which is much easier to load/unload than her deep-trunk 2000 Impala ever was. The dash mounted shift lever reminds her of her first beloved car, a Corvair. The mileage is just a bonus. She absolutely loves the car which she has owned for about 5-6 months.

I love the techie aspect of the car and I drive a very large hybrid for a living, a locomotive. There are some amazing similarities, believe it or not.

But the kicker for my approval was the fact that the Prius has more rear footroom than almost any other moderately priced car. Enough for adults to ride comfortably in the rear seats for extended periods. More than a Camry or another Impala. Only a Buick Lucerne, Avalon (not really moderately priced) or Ford 500 (now Taurus again) has more. But the Buick/Avalon cost much more and get far less mpg. The big Ford sedan (with its huge trunk!) is competatively priced and would have been my second choice with still nowheres near the mpg. Sorry, Ford.

Thanks, Toyota and whoever was your brilliant chief engineer on the Prius project. Wow.


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Hi JR,

Glad to meet you. You are in a little warmer area of the continent but still quite far north so I suppose you've been anxious for spring also.

The similarities of the Prius and modern locomotives are because they both are computer controlled hybrids. All the diesel locomotives from way back in the '50's use a diesel driven generator to drive traction motors that are directly geared one to each axle. They look almost like a toy train with the pinion geared motor shaft driving a large ring gear on the side of the wheel on one side.

I believe they had traction control right from the beginning. Without it, one axle can start to spin and the wheels will melt a formidable dip into the track under it in seconds. Some of the newer locos have over 700 hp each axle and, like an overgrown torquey Prius motor, will put it all out from a dead standstill unless controlled. The Prius is controlled to save the axles.

The locomotives would charge up their batteries using braking energy if they could, but there are no batteries to charge. Instead the braking, which is called dynamic brake, sends the vast amperage to huge "toaster" grids mounted near the top of the hood and huge noisy fans cool the dissipated energy by wasting it into the atmosphere. We also have air brakes but judicious use of the dynamic saves wear on over 800 brake shoes.

Our older locomotives used DC motors which required a lot of service. Each DC traction motor can use up over 1100 amps at several hundred volts which all had to be transfered through brushes to a segmented commutator on the motor. These brushes wore out frequently.

Newer locomotives have AC traction motors and they have an inverter just like the Prius to transfer power to the traction drive motor without any brush contact. It is all done electrically by magnetic induction and the timing of the field (stator) polarity is calculated by the computer so that all the magnetic phases will match according to rpm. This was quite a feat to develop solid state devices to handle over 1500 amps at several hundred volts and the first AC locomotives were done by Siemens out of Germany and some testing was on track between ND and Montana.

Once that kind of very large amperage was under control, the way was paved for automobiles and other heavy industry to use the same reliable type of system without the headache of brush type variable speed DC motors. So I think the Prius may have a bit of locomotive heritage in a way.

Sometimes the computer in a locomotive will hunt for the ideal phase and this same remnant of shudder can sometimes be barely felt in the Prius. But it is hardly noticable in the Prius. The locomotives will sometimes spill your coffee over it but they are not designed to be as user friendly, particularily at light low speeds where it occurs. Very jerky.

The locos use double LCD screens for monitoring control now and, for remote or DP (for distributed power) locomotives, all the radio control is done with push button keys under the second LCD screen. We use DP locos to push the rear of our heavy coal trains and take some of the strain off the front couplers. They do break on steep hills otherwise. Three tandem locomotives are enough to steadily pull a train in half without stalling.

It has crossed my mind that large trucks will eventually use these "electric transmissions" because they are proven more durable and computer friendly than hydraulic transmissions which are becoming more electric every day.

There will be the usual resistance to change. After all, that is all most auto manufacturers have that is unique; their oily conventional power trains. Electric stuff will change all that. I think they're scared, along with the oil industry.


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Thanks, all, for the warm welcomes!

Jack66, I think renaming North Dakota to Dakota is on hold. But you know we must beat South Dakota to it if we don't want to appear to be a cold desolate suburb of the main state of Dakota to the south.

Wishek! When I was about 5 years old we moved to Zeeland for a couple of years. When I went with my father on a pre-scouting trip he introduced me to an older gent that, to my amazement, had been speaking German to him on the street. The gentleman very frankly told me I would have to learn to speak German if I was going to live there and that scared the beegeesus out of me.

Father filled me in later that it wasn't quite true and even he only understood the language but did not speak it. Many people still carry the Lawrence Welk accent here in Bismarck and some my age spoke German until 1st grade. Anda vun, anda doo...


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