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Post by Great-Northern-Willmar Div on Aug 31, 2015 4:39:12 GMT -8
It is the beginning of the week and time to share our prototype photos from the previous week. These photos were taken in Joliet, Illinois on the former GM&O, now UP entering CN track ownership. KCS 4141     Artwork....  The best of the artwork!  |
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Post by mlehman on Aug 31, 2015 8:32:14 GMT -8
Jim,
Neat pics. That KCS paint makes the UP scheme look a little dull.
And I see that product placement ads are everywhere now, including on the sides of rail?!!
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Post by milgentrains on Aug 31, 2015 11:03:32 GMT -8
Jim, Neat pics. That KCS paint makes the UP scheme look a little dull. And I see that product placement ads are everywhere now, including on the sides of rail?!! I was wondering about that one. |
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Post by kcjones on Aug 31, 2015 14:02:49 GMT -8
Friday, I had to run over to the ORHS and decided to check on the 4449. The crew found a few cracked welds inside the firebox. Because of poor ventilation, they figured it would be easier to just drop the pan to gain access. You are looking up inside of the firebox. I have no clue what I'm looking at. After they weld the pan back on, all that is left to do is to put the super heaters back in and fire her up. She should be finised by the end of November.  Oh.. I had to say hello to Doyle's baby..  JL |
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Post by fr8kar on Aug 31, 2015 14:43:38 GMT -8
I worked a job at Cleburne awhile back and found this posted on the bulletin board:  Working odd hours makes getting a decent photo difficult, but sometimes the prototype is worth it anyway. These cars are some of my favorites:  Other times the lighting is awe inspiring. This is my favorite time of day at one of my favorite places to work. I caught this sunrise as I was going to get on my power for the day:  I'm not a fan of graffiti, but the engineer who drew this apparently shares my feelings for gensets:  |
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Post by mlehman on Aug 31, 2015 16:41:06 GMT -8
Ryan, Neat pics... Since I'm in no position to know through personal experience, what is the problem with gensets? A pic of a non-genset NS unit a few blocks away from the basement HQ here, running in reverse on the old P&E main in Urbana...  |
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Post by runs2waynoka on Aug 31, 2015 16:43:57 GMT -8
One of the better "retro" consists I spotted on BNSF during last summers' meltdown-   Brad |
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Post by peoriaman on Aug 31, 2015 17:06:15 GMT -8
I shot this little train a week or so ago.... Gotta get it a time or two just in case it turns out to be a short-lived operation.  |
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Post by fr8kar on Aug 31, 2015 17:43:57 GMT -8
Mike, the problems range from a few design flaws to being used in roles that aren't suited to their capabilities. The only mechanical personnel trained to repair them are at a single facility and they cover repairs for both Houston and Fort Worth. I say trained, but what I learned from my conversations with them is they had to train themselves on everything from basic maintenance to major overhauls. A large portion of the roundhouse had to be rebuilt to accomodate the repair/rebuild area for the individual genset motor/generator assemblies that must be completely removed from the frame for basic maintenance. Since we don't have an overhead crane at this facility, one must be rented to perform the work, so the mechanical people like to make sure they have several assemblies to pull and reset to make it worthwhile to rent the crane.
Until very recently, management viewed the gensets as 2100HP locomotives and didn't understand why they kept breaking. While they can generate 2100HP for a short period of time, pushing them hard for more than a couple minutes results in one of the generators shutting down. When that happens, the downward spiral begins and the other gensets shut down. I've figured out a few things to prevent this from happening and have since got a few train masters to back me up when I give my opinion of what can and can't be done with a given consist. I've also got some support to keep either conventional four or six axle units on the trim lead, which is where the gensets are most prone to failure.
Gensets seem to do well on generally flat terrain with short cuts. Pulling and spotting industries is a great environment for them. They load quickly and the brakes are not as likely to drift out of adjustment as many of the conventional EMD four and six axle units we have here. When they are used on a lead job, and our leads are on grades (one of them exceeding 1% for a long stretch), they are taxed for several minutes at a time, often at a 0.5 - 0.7 HP per ton ratio. This puts them in the danger zone of being overloaded for an excessive period of time. This has resulted in catastrophic failures which has fouled the main on numerous occasions.
As the engineer everyone starts wanting to know what you're doing to keep breaking these engines. Worse, when you try to warn a new manager of a troublesome engine or a consist that's doomed to fail, you are treated as if you are trying to dodge work. The reality is that blocking the main with dead power and a mile long train that either can't depart or be classified is much more of a pain than the actual work.
It's gotten better now that I've figured out what the limitations of these engines are (and they are far less robust and capable than a conventional 2000+/-HP engine). And now that enough train masters have experienced the fallout from engine failures and the resulting service interruptions there is a critical mass, so to speak, that informs a new conventional wisdom about these engines that they are not equal to "equivalent" horsepower conventional units. Because of this support, gensets are far less likely now than a few months ago to be used in a role that taxes them heavily.
But just because we finally figured out exactly how to baby these pieces of junk so they fail less frequently doesn't make them any less of a piece of junk. When you're told to use them when there's a perfectly good pair of GP30/35 rebuilds in the pocket an emotion resembling the little drawing up above goes through your mind...
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Post by theengineshed on Aug 31, 2015 17:45:49 GMT -8
A New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway SD60 crosses the Tioughnioga River after delivering 40 tank cars to a local asphalt plant at Cortland, NY. The crew worked hard spotting the cars in pairs at 20 transfer points on four separate tracks, it took them several hours.  NYSW 3810 Cortland NY Aug 2015 by Pete Piszczek, on Flickr |
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Post by kcjones on Aug 31, 2015 20:22:47 GMT -8
Jim,
I saw the KCS 4141 come thru Portland this morning. Looked like a Seattle train. What day did you take your pictures of the 4141?
JL
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Post by Great-Northern-Willmar Div on Sept 1, 2015 6:04:31 GMT -8
Jim, I saw the KCS 4141 come thru Portland this morning. Looked like a Seattle train. What day did you take your pictures of the 4141? JL Thursday August 27 in Joliet, Illinois at about 12:30 p.m.. |
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Post by mlehman on Sept 1, 2015 7:18:36 GMT -8
Ryan,
Thanks for the explanation. Sound like they need some middle management that knows and understands equipment better. Maybe understands people better, too. I used to work in heavy truck fleet maintenance and a good manager picks up on these issues and is able to make lemonade out of lemons. The marginally competent ones do it the way you described. And it sounds like upper management is out of touch with what's happening on the ground and focused on their spreadsheets. Good to hear that some learning is soaking it. It's badly needed.
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Post by riogrande on Sept 1, 2015 7:53:16 GMT -8
Interesting engine that Iowa Pacific - it looks like a cross between a GP40 but the roof profile of an F40PH.
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Post by mlehman on Sept 1, 2015 11:04:09 GMT -8
Maybe a wreck rebuild? Parts is parts. Curious as to what it is, too.
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Post by Spikre on Sept 1, 2015 11:57:26 GMT -8
 KCJ, looks like the Oil Nozzles, 4449 is an Oil fired loco. Peoriaman, NJ Transit had similar M-K rebuilds of GP40s with ex BN F45 bodies. not sure if that unit is ex-NJ Transit, or a similar unit from a different Transit Authority ? RC, too bad You don't have some good Alco S-2/4s or Baldwin S-12s to compare those Gennies to. roads that didn't like Alco road units generally kept any switchers they had over 20 years. would bet either could out pull and outlast those wimpy Gennie units. Edit - engineshed,,,nice pic of Susie Q 3810,havnt seen those yet in person, but havnt been up there for way too long now. I'm still upset the C636s and M636s were missed !! Spikre 
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Post by peoriaman on Sept 1, 2015 13:10:03 GMT -8
Yep they're ex-NJT. As far as I know, their third engine, which is kept as a spare, is still in well-worn NJT paint.
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Post by Spikre on Sept 1, 2015 13:30:18 GMT -8
 peoriaman, actually rode behind a few of those one trip up there. think the U34CHs were gone by then,and was surprised to see those Huffalumps,was expecting F40PHs,but didn't get too many trains with them. but those GP40Ps sure stick out in memory. and know they weren't the ex-CNJ GP40Ps,saw plenty of them years earlier going up the Aldene Ramp to Penn Station in Newark.was odd to see CNJ in there. Spikre
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Post by tdspeedracer on Sept 1, 2015 14:12:22 GMT -8
Interesting engine that Iowa Pacific - it looks like a cross between a GP40 but the roof profile of an F40PH. That was probably going to be Big Dawgs next project until he got the C&D letter. |
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Post by peoriaman on Sept 20, 2015 15:30:16 GMT -8
Foreign power on the CP...  |
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Post by mlehman on Sept 21, 2015 0:33:49 GMT -8
Good action pic, peroriaman. Here's some big time motive power...  The trackmobile at the local asphalt plant. Getting on the track  Rolling on the rails  Working its little heart out  |
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Post by mlehman on Sept 21, 2015 9:36:08 GMT -8
Since we're visiting some dinkies, how about this one?  Switzerland, north end of the Gothhard Tunnel which we'd just ridden through on the ro-ro train in our 64 Bel-air with pop-up camping trailer in 1972.  There was also this "bigger" electric loco.  The folded pantograph would have been nearly as long as the loco.  I'm pretty sure all this was standard gauge. There was some meter gauge around, but not sure we saw any it was so long ago. This next shot might have been meter gauge, too, (looks narrower to me) but was part of a tunnel project.  |
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