11 cylenders, 22 pistons, and 2 crankshafts

[Leroy D]

4 engines 1600 horsepower each. I served aboard the U. S. S. Grampus 1967 and 1968. Fairbanks/Morse diesel engines apposed pistons, 2 cycle, scavanging air supplied by a hugh blower. Each engine powered a DC generator. exhaust pipes were about 14 inches in diameter. They sounded awsome when the enginemen lit them off. Do we have any other Diesel submariners out there? Leroy D. USN(SS)retired

 

[isb360]

My father was in the Submarine Service and I properly know what is a "boat" and what is a "ship".



He was in from 1958-1964 and served on the fast attack diesel sub USS Halfbeak. I believe he told me it was one with GM diesel engines in it. He was a Machinist's Mate 3rd class and tells me stories of being hung upside down by his feed to get down between the engine --while running -- and the hull of the ship to do maintenance on different bits and pieces. He eventually became part of the commissioning crew on SSN606 Tinosa, Nautilus-class fast attack boat (sister ship the the Thresher).



Tim

 

[RustyJC]

The Fairbanks Morse OP (opposed piston) engine is still being manufactured and sold for industrial power applications today. The modern version is turbocharged. A natural gas fueled variant was developed back in the 1970s and 1980s and sold for oilfield compressor drive applications under the brand name MEP (as in Mean Effective Pressure) - most of these engines were old submarine diesels that had been remanufactured and converted to spark gas configuration.



Rusty

 

[isb360]

If I remember hearing correctly the Fairbanks design was a pirated German design from MTU(?) dating to just before WWII. I thought that after the war, the USN dissected some captured U-boats and scavenged good ideas from them, including engine design.



Here at Pratt & Whitney, our engine test facility is powered by 1930's era steam turbines originally used to power a British cruiser. Ship was sliced open after the war and the guts were transplanted into the then-state-of-the-art test facility. Still running today! Oldies but goodies.



Tim

 

[Leroy D]

Keep it comeing guys, this is good stuff. ----Leroy D

 

[ssanders60]

Re submarine diesels

About 3 years ago I toured Kings Bay and was given

a tour of the Nebraska, a nuclear sub. It was equipped

with a 12 cylinder type with opposing pistons, in other

words, 24 pistons. This was their back-up power.

 

[DBoyd]

Are these diesel electric units or are the engines driving the props?? And please advise the difference between a boat and a ship.

Thanks

A bonafide landlubber!

 

[RBratby]

fairbanks opposed piston engines are used on coast guard 140' ice breaking tugs.

 

[CumminsBu]

I'm on USCGC Acushet. (The old Navy ship the U. S. S. Shakle. ) We have 4 Fairbanks Morse Inline 6's they make about 856HPs. The Coast Guard has a number of ships that use the Fairbanks engine's.

 

[DBoyd]

A quick note of thanks to you all that go and have gone in harm's way to protect us and this great nation we live in!!!

God Bless and Protect You.

 

[Leroy D]

Is it a boat or a ship

A boat is a craft that can be lifted onto the deck of a ship. The early submarines were small could be lifted onto the deck of ships soooooo now submarines are traditionally referred to as "boats". Oh yes, I forgot to answer a question that was asked. The diesel engines turn generators which make electricity. The DC electricity can be used on the surface to power the motors which turn the screws(propellers) or some of the electricity can be used to charge the batterys, which are used to power the motors while submerged. "Diesel/electric" submarines which came before nuclear power.

 

[nickleinonen]

sorta on the topic, if you haven't seen the movie "das boot", go rent/buy it. real good movie [take your pic on how to see it, eng. sub titles, or dub'd over in english. both avalable on the dvd format]

 

[DBoyd]

Yes, I've seen Das Boot. Excellent film. Does the Navy still operate diesel electric submarines and are they fairly advanced in design etc. ? I would hope the submariners are not having to put up with the problems as shown in the film. (I'm sure they aren't!) I was watching a show on subs on the History channel or Discovery and they were showing a Russian sub so large it had a swimming pool in it!! (More the size of a very large hot tub)

 

[michigandon]

In my neck of the woods, a "ship" is a saltwater vessel, and a "boat" is a Great Lakes ship.



From an-ex Laker boy (seen the likes of EMD, Colt-Pielstick, and Nordberg as well as turbines in action!).



Don

 

[michigandon]

The Fairbanks Morse OP (opposed piston) engine is still being manufactured and sold for industrial power applications today. The modern version is turbocharged. A natural gas fueled variant was developed back in the 1970s and 1980s and sold for oilfield compressor drive applications under the brand name MEP (as in Mean Effective Pressure) - most of these engines were old submarine diesels that had been remanufactured and converted to spark gas configuration.

FM also sold locomotives powered by these engines back in the '40s and '50s.

they ended up being a total flop in that application too.

 

[Michael Gibson]

I was on a submarine tender US Sperry AS-12 and we had 8-GM 16-248A's for main propulsion and 3-12-248A's for ships power and one GM-12-278 also for power. They were the forerunners to today's EMD's. You just gotta love those slobberin Jimmy's About 100HP per cylinder. I noticed the modern Navy has everyone calling their ship a "boat". We only had 4 nuke boats in our whole flotilla. All the rest were diesel boats. This was 1962-1966. The Fairbanks were the 38 & 1/8D's. The coolest diesel sound you can ever hear is a FM 38 & 1/8 starting up on an old diesel boat. They had the neatest rumble and always sounded like they had a big cam with the natural sort of hunting big two stroke diesels do. One interesting feature of the Jimmy's was at full power they turned 625 RPM and burned 10-15 gals of fuel an hour. When you think of the size of those engines that's not bad. Look at how much a 400-450 Cummins in a Quad-Trac or wheeled tractor burns an hour. I've worked on 16,000HP Colt's and they didn't impress me at all. Poorly designed for that much power. They were always working on them on the MSTS ships.

 

[SHobbs]

I work for Union Pacific and it would be nice if my truck could do what an SD90 can do. 6000 H. P @ 900 R. P. M's. Of course the truck isn't a rolling generator. I believe the SD90 has a V16 and the cylinders are the size of basketballs.

 

[Leroy D]

From what I have heard there are some new Hybred vehicles that the automobile companies are coming out with. I even heard that one of them may be some kind of Diesel/electric system that used a small diesel generator. I wonder where they got this idea?????????

 

[nickleinonen]

I work for Union Pacific and it would be nice if my truck could do what an SD90 can do. 6000 H. P @ 900 R. P. M's. Of course the truck isn't a rolling generator. I believe the SD90 has a V16 and the cylinders are the size of basketballs.

i haven't seen one of those new emd 6k hp models yet [cn doesn't have any of them] but they all seem to have the same sized bores on them [2cycle emd's, 4 cycle emd's, 4 cycle ge's] and they are about 10" across. i've got a few ge piston rings brand new sitting somewhere [when doing a ge powerpack, you reuse the old piston and rod if not damaged, and just re-ring it. and most people break the oil control ring, so i snickered a ring kit with a missing oil control ring]

 

[DBoyd]

How many kilowatts would one of these SD 90 gensets put out??? And just how much do they weigh? It has always amazed me how they get that much HP to the ground considering the contact surface with the rail!!!