The drive and the regenerative braking for the Evolution 'Single' locomotive is provided by a very compact 3 phase AC motor, mounted at the front of the loco. The motor has it’s own inverter, and both inverter and motor are water cooled. The whole system is managed by an extremely robust VCU (Vehicle Control Unit) which is also constantly communicating with the battery management system to dynamically adjust performance or regen when needed to protect the battery for longevity.
Technical stuff out of the way, the power is where the motor really gets interesting! It has a peak output of 96 Horsepower (72kW), but the torque figures are where it really gets impressive.
At the motor the locomotive produces 175Nm of torque, but drive to the wheels is geared down nearly 32 to 1 to achieve a sensible line speed resulting in a theoretical torque figure of 7000Nm,….. which gives a theoretical tractive effort way more than the loco could ever need! Of course we can’t actually put all that torque down on the rails as the Evolution Class is far too lightweight to grip the track that firmly, but with a real world figure of around 3000Nm of usable torque at the wheels the Evolution Class can comfortably pull the heaviest trains up the steepest gradients any miniature railway can provide.
