Locomotive Diesel Engine Failure

[MHoverson]

The best GE engine restart I remember was after a complete bare block rebuild. We took the engine out of the frame and tore it completely down and put all new parts on it.

After everything was back together they towed the locomotive out to the startup area and got ready to fire it up. A friend of mine had his leg over the handrail and a monkey wrench on the lay shaft for the fuel racks. Someone pushed the button to turn the engine over and my friend pushed on the wrench to give it more fuel. As soon as the first cylinder fired it blew all the inspection covers off, blew the car body doors open and bent the hadrails. My friend ended up being blown over the hadrail.

Someone had forgotten to mention that they cleaned the bare block with minerial spirits. After a short invesigation they concluded that vapors had built up after the engine had all the covers on and it was just in the right range to be explosive. Even after all the time the block sat after being cleaned and rebuilt there was still enough vapor to make it go boom.



Sometimes I really miss that job.

 

[NPloysa]

is that from a general motors diesel or general electric diesel engine??

I think Navistar made it!

 

[nickleinonen]

What kind of warranty do locomotives carry?



And what's "stock"?



Ryan

parts in stock [i had a brain fart and missed a few words]



a new locomotive has a 4 year warranty that covers basically everything mechanical/electrical. an engine that has had an emissions overhaul has a 5 year warranty if done all with "premium" parts. we don't do the overhauls anymore at my shop. we took too much time on them [but our overhauls last the warranty time. the usa shops regularly had their rebuilds failing within their first 24 hours of working, but they got done 200 hours quicker]



other components have various warranty times. water pumps are 3 years, rads are 2 years, power assemblies are anywhere between 6 months to 5 years depending on manufacture. some of the rebuilt stuff is just painted over old crap [with the dirt not even cleaned off before painting] while the premium stuff is usually well remanufactured [i have come across some premium stuff that i have had to repair in house before being able to use it. . ]

 

[nickleinonen]

check out this damage...

 

[catoiler]

check out this damage...

Holly Crap! man someone got a trophy for their wall !! :-laf

 

[JacobsD]

Wow Nick, those pics are amazing.



What railroad do you work for?

 

[nickleinonen]

i work for canadian national, but i don't know exactly where that happened. . it was forwarded to me by a coworker. . the one service truck looks like it has the cn logo on the door, so it might be somewhere along cn main line. . ?

 

[rbattelle]

Would it be crazy for me to pray that happens to me some day?

Ryan

 

[JacobsD]

i work for canadian national, but i don't know exactly where that happened. . it was forwarded to me by a coworker. . the one service truck looks like it has the cn logo on the door, so it might be somewhere along cn main line. . ?

It does look like a CN logo on the door.



Let me ask you mechanics in the railroad industry, do you like your jobs? I'm looking to maybe be a mechanic on the local shortline around here, seems their always looking for help. Not to mention my love for diesels and trains :-laf

 

[nickleinonen]

some days are good, some days are total horse poop. at times the job gets very repetitive and boring [inspections mostly] now when i get the catastropic engine failures, i like doing those. . i also like going out on service calls. if you do decide to work for the RR, get use to working shift work [0000-0800/0800-1600/1600-0000] and get use to not seeing weekends off [i've got weds/thurs restdays 0700-1500] it gets sad when you need to book off work or take a vacation day to do something on a saturday. it can pay the bills though if you work overtime. now if you decide to work as a conductor or engineer if you can get those, they make a good bit more money than i do. on a short line, you might end up being a laborer, mechanic, electrician, hostler, conductor & engineer. i work as a mechanic and hostler quite often, sometimes as an electrician for simple things

 

[nickleinonen]

Would it be crazy for me to pray that happens to me some day?



Ryan

yeah, it would. . piston & rod is over 100lbs. . maybe your neighbors house

 

[JFaulkner]

Would it be crazy for me to pray that happens to me some day?



Ryan

I'd be pretty PO'd when somthing came through my roof and ended up in my wall. Until I noticed it was a giant piston, then it would be kinda cool.

 

[nickleinonen]

turbo go boom

suppose to look like
#ad

 

[PRattenbury]

Nice bottom turbo for a set of twins, eh??

 

[JasonCzerak]

Due those turbo's have 2 outlets? is that what i'm looking at?

 

[SHobbs]

Nick,



You just have to love that railroad schedule. I have been with UP for 9 years and been on call 24/7 the entire time. Between 2001 and 2003 I was working 8 on and 8 off cause we were so short handed. Now that my senority has gotten better so has the schedule. Weekends off from time to time and every holiday off. I was an over the road conductor for a while which sucked big time, I was never home. I am in the yard now which is much better, home after every shift.

I was in our big yard in Ft Worth one night when a switch engine let go. Made a big boom, some body covers opened and oil went everywhere. A couple of rods came through the block, the mechanics said the overspeed didn't stop the engine from running away. The rpm's got a little high and boom.

 

[nickleinonen]

yep. that charger has 2 outlets. . the chargers on the ge diesels are built similarly with 2 outlets [one to feed left & right aftercoolers for left/right engine banks]

yeah, railroad schedules blow. . i don't have very much senority at my shop [#90'ish with 5 years in] but i do have weekends off on day shift but i have a crappy job now running machines in the wheel shop. same stuff every day and no overtime gonna take a large pay cut this year because of the no overtime.

they had a ge d9 come in on friday that was in for a complaint of heavy engine vibrations. it had 2 broken connecting rods on #3 left/right. the master rod was still bolted to the crank, but it was broken off just above where it thins out going up to the wrist pin. the bolts for the articulating rod were sheared off and the rod was jammed up in the liner. came in running...

 

[Wayne M.]

That's some good stuff, job security, LOL! What's the operating range and redline speed for an engine like that?

 

[SHobbs]

Wayne,



Nick may have better info. on redline speeds. I have been on engines with computer readout screens that say around 250 rpm's at idle and around 950 rpm's at full load. Most locos are designed to run at 70-75 mph.



They are interesting to say the least. Protection for the engine from, crankcase pressure, low oil, overspeed, low water and low governer oil to name a few.

 

[nickleinonen]

the emd engines vary in engine speed. the latest 16v710 electronic versions spin up to 950rpm in N8. on the older engines [645 series], they are suppose to be governed at 900rpm [567 series even lower]. the mechanical overspeed trip on those older ones should not be set over 1025 [ideally set at about 10% over rated speed]. i have tested the trip on those and have had some that were turning 1100 and still not tripping. the emd engine does not sound good wound up that high

the turbo's on the emd engines are usually around 18,500 rpm under load [making rated hp] they tend to fail when they get up to 25,000 rpm [the compressor wheel scatters apart - it weighs about 50 lbs]

the turbos on the ge engines turn a little quicker. i remember looking at the evo turbo speed on the new gevo engines and i saw about 22,000 while it was making 4500hp [±40lbs boost]

Protection for the engine from, crankcase pressure, low oil, overspeed, low water and low governor oil to name a few

the emd engines have have a low oil pressure shut down system. if the engine governor see's low oil pressure, it will shut it down. the engine also has shut down setup if the cooling water runs out, if the oil gets too hot or the crankcase pressure goes too high. if any of those trips, it dumps oil back into the crankcase from the pressure line feeding the governor and the governor thinks the engine has low oil pressure and shuts down [they are all tee'd together].

the overspeed shutdown is a centrifugal weight in the front end housing on the engine. once the force overcomes the spring tension, a pawl trips a lever which rotates 2 shafts [one for each side of engine] that have lobes on them at each cylinder. the lobe then pushes on a spring loaded arm which then jams the injector rocker arm in the down position. plunger can't return and injector can't be cycled anymore so the engine dies from lack of fuel.

the ge engines are different [dash8/9 & evo's]. their crankcase overpressure safety is controlled by the ecu, as is the low oil and low water. the overspeed limiter on those mechanical pump/governed ge's is a hydraulic pump & relief valve setup. the engine lube oil is run into a small hydraulic pump by the governor. once it has reached a set pressure, it trips and shuts down the engine.

the electronic controlled versions [eui or eup] of both engines have no mechanical overspeed or mechanical safety shutdown. all electronically controlled.