Push–pull train
If the train is heading in the opposite direction, this is considered 'pushing' and the motorman or engine driver is located in the alternative cab.
This configuration means that the locomotive never needs to be uncoupled from the train and ensures fast turnaround times at a railway station terminus.
The two-locomotive formation is used by the InterCity 125; its Australian equivalent, the XPT; Brightline; Amtrak's Acela; SNCF's TGV; Taiwan Railways Administration's E1000 series; and New Jersey Transit's longest Northeast Corridor Line multilevel trains.
To reduce the surprise of a locomotive at the "wrong" end of its train, some were initially fitted with panelling painted in carriage livery.
[2] The experiment was successful and the company's remaining railcars were gradually converted for autotrain use and purpose-built units constructed.
[2][3] In the early 1970s, the Scottish Region used a system with a Class 27 locomotive at each end of a rake of coaches that had been retrofitted with the necessary 'Blue Star' multiple working cables to control the remote unit; but some problems of delay in actuation were experienced.
They were replaced in 1979 by a system in which a Driving Brake Standard Open (DBSO), converted from a Mark 2, could control the Class 47/7 locomotive via computerised time-division multiplex (TDM) signalling through the train lighting circuits.
[2][4] When the push–pull sets were replaced by multiple units, the DBSOs were transferred to operate on the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Norwich, where they were modified to work with Class 86 electric locomotives.
[9] In 1988, 52 Mark 3 Driving Van Trailers were built by British Rail Engineering Limited to allow it to replace life expired electric locomotives on the West Coast Main Line.
In the 2000s, some Mark 3s have been modified to operate with Class 67 locomotives with Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railways and Wrexham & Shropshire.
These are De Dietrich Ferroviaire–built Enterprise push–pull sets, jointly owned with Northern Ireland Railways for operation on the Dublin to Belfast route.
Between 1980 and 2009, Iarnród Éireann operated push–pull sets based on the British Rail Mark 3 design, with a non-gangwayed driving cab fitted.
[citation needed] Examples include: Chicago (Metra); New York City (Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit); Philadelphia (SEPTA); the Washington, DC and Baltimore area (MARC and VRE); Boston (MBTA); Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (Trinity Railway Express); the Greater Miami area (Tri-Rail); the San Francisco Bay Area (Caltrain and ACE); Southern California (Metrolink and Coaster); Toronto (GO Transit); Montreal (AMT); and the Wasatch Front in Utah (UTA FrontRunner).
Most of these systems (except for SEPTA and Metro-North) continue to utilize some type of bi-level passenger cars for push–pull service, either partially or exclusively.
Amtrak has a number of converted Metroliner EMUs in service as cab cars on the Keystone Corridor, where they operate in conjunction with ACS-64 electric locomotives.
Similarly, the Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin, and Pacific Surfliner services in California are operated in push–pull configuration using purpose-built cab cars and diesel locomotives.
[14] Until 2015, the Auckland suburban network run by Transdev used rebuilt British Rail Mark 2 carriages in either four, five or six car configurations.
