Locomotive maintenance?

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Today I saw a train headed out of town north of Pasco WA with two modern 4-stroke units at the point, set to Run 9 accelerating to track speed. The first unit was burning pretty clean, the second was a belcher-the smoke was rolling. Not long ago I saw a freight with 4 locos, two 4-strokes (EMDs I think) and a couple SD40s or similar, one of the 4-strokers was easily outsmoking its 2-stroke counterparts.



In both cases it was a BNSF train although the unit smoking today was a Norfolk Southern.



What sort of maintenance does BNSF and UP do on their prime movers. . . ever check for boost leaks or clean injectors or do any sort of fuel system maintenance? When locomotives start smoking like a coal train doesn't anyone ever check into it?

 

[ChrisOlson]

I work on EMD engines And If I am not mistaken there are not 4 strokes in the EMD line up they are all 2 stroke EMD. If My engines were to poor BLACK SMOKE I would be concerned. in the case you wittnessed I think that the cause was overloading and too much load too fast. Black smoke is the result of the A/F ratio being fuel heavy, luckily, a diesel can run at just about any A/F ratio The issue usually comes down to turbochargers not spooling quickly enough, as the engine dumps enough fuel into the engine for a certain amount of boost, even though that boost may not arrive for a second or two. On my EMD engines I have the operators (Captians and Mates) bring the engines up to load slowly and my engines rarely blow black smoke

In the case of an engine producing constant black smoke, well that's the result of someone not knowing how to tune the engine. (I know, drag trucks pour constant black smoke, but that's a different story. ) These diesel pick-up trucks you see running around on the street are owners who think Smoke = Power, when in reality, Smoke = Untapped Power.

Maintence:... LOTS and LOTS of Maintence. Done on EMD Engines in My environment I do not have enough time to type all the Maintence we do. and I cannot speak of what locomotive companies do if interested I could post some pictures of the internals of an EMD. BOOST is thru enclosed AIRBOXES with removable covers. Injectors hardly go bad when they do we swap them out for reman units. I have been on this ship for 2 years and have not had to replace 1 injector. Quality of the fuel and filtering and taking the water out of the fuel is a must to prolong the injector life. Hope this helps.

Have a great day

Chris

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Chris I'm guessing some RR companies don't keep on top of the maintenance 100% of the time. Time, money, priorities, etc.

I remember GE and GM were working on a new generation of engines in the early-mid 90s and for some reason I was thinking GM's was a 4-stroke, but guess I'm incorrect on that. The GEs are 4-stroke I think.

 

[Skydiver]

Chris, does the lead engine have telemetry that monitors the amps and other important functions of the following engines?
I've always wanted to spend a week operating an engine. For the experence and the ability to view the scenery with hands free driving. I never been a railfan, but I do listen to the CSX on the scanner while at work. During the extreme cold weather 10 days ago there was a rail that snapped behind our plant in the predawn hours. The maintenance crew asked the engineers to reduce speed to 10 mph.

 

[ChrisOlson]

VAUGHN



I stand corrected here is a link to a 4 stroke EMD Diesel





EMD - Innovations

 

[ChrisOlson]

SKYDIVER

I am not a locomotive engineer. I work as an engineer on ships I too love all things with engines. However I can only speculate as to what type of controls are in a locomotive operator station. I would venture to say that there is a way for the engineer to monitor each engine attached to the lead engine. Maybe some of the local TDR Train Engineers could shed some light here.

have A great day

Chris

 

[Bob V]

Sense they are electric drive they can look at the amp draw at each drive (probably all automated)

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I think EMD's unit is all in-house while GE's prime movers were designed in collaboration with a German company. Not sure if GE's prime movers are made here or in Germany.

More info on EMD, it's interesting it has a very short stroke compared to what is typical for a large diesel like this EMD 265 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bkaiser]

The EMD 'H' engine is pretty new. All of the 567, 645 and 710 series engines are two strokes. They also have the exhaust to the inside of the V, like the new Powerstroke. The GEs were always four strokes, and always had a turbo.



I retired as a railfan a few years back, but EMD was building all of the prime movers in LaGrange, Ill. and assembled the locomotives in Ontario. GE built everything in Erie, Pa.

 

[ChrisOlson]

bkaiser
I have worked on 30 year old Large Diesl engines with the Exhaust in the V big diesel engines enterprise Diesel 10000 hp each 4 stroke with the Exhaust in the V the only advantage for ford and their new NEW powerstroke concerning the Exhaust in the V is Noise reduction
there is no mechinacal advantage to the Exhaust in the V that I know of.

as far as EMD having the Exhaust in the V it is part of their 2 stroke air intake system. The air intake system is intergal to the block for the fresh air charge into the cylinders.
hope this helps.

have a great day

Chris