A nice cop out. I can tell you from practical, first hand experience that the main transformer in AL6 did not take 30 seconds to change its windings over.
You do know that TFM was showing British 86- and I'm not aware of any being exported to America- so are you confusing it with some other American '86'?
As for being irrelevant, I beg to differ. You are bamboozeling kids with technical jargon and some of them aren't yet wise enough to spot it. Stick to boats and computers, for which I'm sure you are knowledgeable.
You seem to be incapable of understanding that the subject at hand is the behavior of the Class 86 model
in the simulator.
Unless you are running that DL in RailWorks3, as I am, I submit that I am more knowledgeable on that subject than you, and that you are again acting as a troll.
Quoting from the documentation supplied with the DL on the subject of the Tap Changer:
This controls the voltage applied to the four traction motors and
is the means of controlling the locomotive’s speed. It works by
varying the output voltage from the auto transformer which
supplies the main traction transformer. This has the effect of
varying the voltage supplied to the traction motors via the
rectifier packs. There are 38 voltage taps that can be selected.
The level of currently applied voltage is displayed on the Tap
Indicator in the form of 0-100%, 100% equates to full power
being applied.
In reality it takes about 25 seconds for the tap
changer to run from zero to 100% and vice versa meaning that
it’s important for the driver to think ahead and be fully
conversant with the speed limits on his route.
That is the behavior that is emulated in the simulator, although, mercifully, the run-up time is shorter.