Talk:Voiture État à 2 étages

Slightly confused
A very interesting article, but I'm slightly confused. The article says its about passenger carriages (pushed/pulled by steam locomotives), and yet the infobox gives the fueltype as electric.

It's hard to see from the photo where the tractive power is coming from. I suspect it's an electric loco at the far end. Even so, I think the Infobox would be better as a Train (DMUs, EMUs, and carriages).

It would be interesting to know how control was passed from the leading coach to the pushing loco. I know the GWR auto-trains had a mechanical linkage for direct control, but this could only be used through two or three coaches. Did the controlling mechanism have to be adapted for the change from steam to electric? Robevans123 (talk) 19:47, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

Control method.
I think the article ought to go into more detail about how a control cab was used with steam locomotives. In the article on the locomotive itself, it says it was controlled by these cars with a system of compressed air pipes, but it seems that information is more relevant to this article, since it is the cars that are equipped with the air pipes and control car (although obviously the locomotive must be specially designed as well). But there are other considerations...did they turntable the locomotive, or did they just run it in reverse? Seems odd to do so, since there is no leading truck when running in reverse, so speed is limited. Second, I assume it uses an automatic stoker or fuel oil? Still seems like it would be wise to have a fireman or engineer in the cab...how do you reliably keep track of the gauges and controls from the end of the train? I suppose the information might be transmitted by air-pressure to secondary gauges, but it seems unsafe...especially since there would be no direct-vision to a sight glass on the boiler, to confirm it isn't about to run out of water and explode. More detail would be very appreciated. I also agree with the comment above...it does say "electric" in the infobox, and since the photo is dated from 1982, I doubt it was still using steam power at that time..45Colt 19:37, 11 February 2015 (UTC)