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I worked with one of the board members at IRM for a year. And I never got out to the museum. I suppose I should make time and get a close look at some stuff.
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Mar 7, 2011 15:44
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bytebark posted:I'm a regular volunteer at IRM (the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest museum of its kind in the Americas) and I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about. Was he big into diesels? Was? IS. He ends up doing a lot of the hardware scouting missions. And he runs the IRM website.
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Mar 8, 2011 15:34
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Now, I understand the Gas turbine locomotives were actually quite fuel economic. As long as they were used at, or near full load. That's the curse of gas turbines. At high power settings they have great economy, their compression ratio goes through the roof, and they run stupid lean. At low power settings, they can have compression ratios as low as 4-5:1, and that leads to very poor fuel economy. Basically they only could be used hauling freight up mountains with any sort of economy. That's the problem with gas turbines in general. They also had some funny quirks with their generator. I recall they could make large pieces of metal jump when they switched modes. I'll need to ask around about that though. bytebark posted:Here's what's usually pushing or pulling the train I take to work: An EMD F40PH Me too Metra buddy. (I'm usually on the MD-N) Gotta love the screamers. Their engines are "derated" for the 500kw they provide for house power. Of course, RPM and load aren't directly related. While they may be doing 900rpm, they're doing so at very low load. That said, those suckers are hauling 6-10 car trains from 0-60-0 all day long. And on some of lines as much as 70mph. (I've seen 73mph on my gps... But I won't tattle on the engineer.) The locomotives were also sold as a freight version. If anyone is wondering, the way they control the acceleration of the train, is that they change the strength of the field coils on the traction motor. That allows them to vary torque without changing the output voltage from the generator. As I understand it, that is also done on "normal" locomotives also vary field coil strength, but in concert with the prime mover speed. I have a great shot or two of the underground of union. I'll get that posted in a little bit. Diesel fog and all. Speaking of the dark.. Because there isn't a separate house power generator on the F40PH when the engine dies, the whole train goes dark. And you lose heat. ... Not pleasant when there's 40mph winds and it's -4. That was a cold ride into the city. Other passenger rail service locomotives have a completely separate generation plant for house power. So it's possible to have the locomotive fail, and still maintain lights, heat and AC. Or, having a very dark ride but still get where you're going. I promised a picture: 
Nerobro fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 07:39
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I just ride as a passenger. I'm yet to be on a train that has hit someone. But I've had my day ruined no less than eight times by people being stupid. ... Honestly, if you're going to commit suicide by train, I think your remaining family members should be killed too. Your singular actions send at least one person into psychiatric treatment (engineers on the BNSF get something like a mandatory week off after that..) and you screw with 10-15,000 peoples commutes. You suck, you're already dead. Your family deserves to pay. I feel better now. (Not that the family really deserves to pay, but i'm at a loss for who to punish when the offender is dead)
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Mar 9, 2011 17:13
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I think the euphemism is "big holing it." And, as I recall, if you go into emergency it's automatically reported back to dispatch. There's all kinds of paperwork involved with an incident like that. Even if you don't actually hit anything.
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Mar 9, 2011 19:32
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They had geared locomotives like that that had half circle wheels on them. Designed to run on logs laid as rails for logging. I'd imagine they spent half their time derailed, and couldn't care less about it.
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Mar 11, 2011 21:11
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bytebark posted:I spent a little while today inside this big SOB. The locomotive does not run (nor does any GG1) due to PCB-laden transformers which were removed following the locomotive's retirement from Amtrak around 1981. Humbug Scoolbus posted:I really think the GG-1 is one of the most beautiful locos ever built and those pictures just drive that home. The big engine is somewhere else. It's pretty, but it's missing the magic you get with a diesel, or a boiler, or a turbine, or a gas engine.
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Mar 13, 2011 21:43
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BrokenKnucklez posted:I work for the Union Pacific Railroad. I can answer most of your questions about todays current engines if you have any. But anything older than sd40's are going to be pretty vague at best for me to give you any information.
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Mar 14, 2011 00:47
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okey, now that's awesome. A "spare tire" for a train.
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Mar 15, 2011 18:44
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I find those locomotives hideous. I realize they're cool on the inside, but on the outside.. *twitches* It's good they're starting a new line though.
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Mar 16, 2011 21:01
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B4Ctom1 posted:people I used to ride this rail line. That line has like 1 jumper/idiot a month. On more train news... http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/local/chibrknews-fire-crews-respond-to-union-station-derailment-report-20110603,0,3250401.story Trains play bumper cars at chicago union station.
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Jun 3, 2011 15:12
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Being 2' from amtrak or metra doing 70mph is a hell of a rush too. It's eerie how steady the engine note is from a locomotive. You know it's hauling, and there's a sense of power. But the motor just seems loping along.
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Jun 3, 2011 19:31
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Sponge! posted:Wrong! Sponge! posted:Same thing, the prime mover is coupled to the alternator, and head end power is tapped off as AC, and the juice for the traction motors is passed through the rectifiers and sent on down the line to the motors themselves. Naaa, I gotta call bullshit on this. Notches are a legacy thing. "Notches" might be from selecting different winding sets on early electric or diesel electric power. It could also be to make sure that when you're running MU you have a coherant set of semaphore commands to send. I actually can ask someone who would know about that history... he's on the board at the local rail museum. But the notches are not due to alternator frequency. If you're running a classic DC motor setup, the "frequency" is completely meaningless as the power goes through a rectifier and comes out (more or less) clean DC. As I understand it, even the AC locomotives rectify then invert the power again to get the right frequency for the speed they're going.
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Jun 5, 2011 10:05
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Benjamin Disraeli posted:Happens out here with Metra all the time and it used to drive me up a wall when I was riding it everyday and would see this poo poo time and time again.
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Jun 6, 2011 14:24
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Fixed Gear Guy posted:bitch about transit line expansions that will never happen, If you have time to bitch about transit line expansions, you aren't using them. :-) I clock something like 8hrs a week on commuter rail. ... which is down from what it used to be. I used to spend almost 20 hours a week on trains. I did a good portion of my normal sleeping on them. I do hope they'll expand our rail lines out here. You can't beat Metra to downtown Chicago during rush hour. And I have tried.
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Jun 16, 2011 07:00
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Dacheat posted:Also -- Shortline Conductor for a few tourist and light freight operations in the Northeast US, feel free to ask me any questions you'd like... I'm asking you to get started. I'd like to hear how crazy train nuts get.
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Jun 17, 2011 19:11
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B4Ctom1 posted:AI pic. One of my two rides gets good mileage and does well off road Well that's all kinds of additude. Why would you need to know about what sort of parts are on your train so long as it behaves as it's supposed to.
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Jun 17, 2011 22:43
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- "Hey does that locomotive have a 26L brake stand?"
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Nam Taf posted:That said, it's also hilarious how big some of the gaps in their info is. They'll have huge detail on some aspects which makes you wonder how the hell they know about some stuff, but then they are completely off the mark on other stuff that, as an employee, you think is pretty general knowledge even in the public domain.
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Jun 20, 2011 07:16
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Something that would change from train to train............ "I wanted the trash can in just the right spot" This could be an anthropologists playground.
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Jun 21, 2011 16:27
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bytebark posted:Here's what an ALCO RSD-15 "Alligator" (actually the same one pictured on the top of the wiki page) looks/sounds like while being fired up after hibernating for 20+ years. Lots of "Alco smoke" and audio diesel bliss. I know the guy (well one of the guys) who restored that. I remember listening to him talk about parts, and figuring out what was wrong with it.
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Jul 12, 2011 03:55
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bytebark posted:I helped out a little bit on this locomotive early this year, mostly freeing up the fuel injectors. Took a lot of Kroil and hammering on them (with a piece of wood in between). the next question is, do I know you? I know you know Jamie. I have realy meant to come out there on a work day.
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Jul 12, 2011 04:58
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I think I"ll have time sunday to do that. Any excuse to ride the motorcycle yaknow? And show up on something with an engine that could fit in the cylinder...
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Jul 13, 2011 06:12
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Sponge! posted:This is far too .... this is a necessity. Defeat NIMBY by putting reactors in EVERYONES yard.
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Sep 6, 2011 15:49
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to not share...
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some texas redneck posted:That atomic locomotive scares the poo poo out of me. Not because of the technology - I don't mind nuclear power - but because a nasty incident, such as one where the radiator car becomes separated, seems like it could... do bad things to an area. however.. it's also liquid, and soaking into your ground. Eep! That's why I like pebble beds. But they have their own issues. quote:So kind of like the "maintenance required" light in my last car that lit up every so many miles? Every 28 days huh? Does it get cranky, want ice cream, and the company of other locomotives for a week too?
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Sep 7, 2011 15:56
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... So why is it there? why is there a demand for service in the middle of nowhere?
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Dec 14, 2011 22:45
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spipedong posted:All Motorola stuff here has been banished to the land of wind and ghosts. I literally have an e-waste box full of HT600's an HT1000's - no 2000's though. You're looking at a pretty steep battle if you want to hang on to that old thing. There are no parts even available through our ordering system to fix any part of it.*snip* Damnit, now you made me miss my HT1000. I'm not about to cry for the HT600 though. :-)
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Jan 24, 2012 23:43
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spipedong posted:If you wanted a paperweight, there are many other options
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Jan 25, 2012 22:10
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They have dedicated fans.
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Feb 9, 2012 18:02
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Slung Blade posted:The fans on top are for the engine radiators and dynamic brakes, aren't they? The fans on top are radiators. The fans for the traction motors are mounted on the body, and blow down to the traction motors. IIRC. Their intakes are inside the body at least.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:51
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kastein posted:what causes this? Extremely rich exhaust plus a spark in the wrong place or something? Shot turbocharger, most likely. The engine is dumping huge amounts of fuel it's not able to burn it all with the available air. Sometimes little pockets of fuel are getting out that can still burn. (I can go into more detail if you're really interested... But it borders on wall of text.) And yes, HT1000's are worth lots of money for ham folk. I used to have one. I couldn't resist selling it due to how much it was worth!
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Jul 22, 2012 01:49
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joat mon posted:Yes, please. Sorry, missed that. Lets talk diesel. But first, lets talk burning. Fire takes place at the interface of fuel, oxygen, and heat, and free radicals. The heat vaporizes more fuel, that fuel mixes with more oxygen.. etc.. I suspect we've all watched a match burn. This is important, as a match, or more directly, a flamethrower, is what you have inside a diesel. In a gasoline engine, your engine ingests fuel and air. A (hopefully) homogeneous mixture, that will burn throughout. If you've ever put a match to a puddle of gasoline or other aromatic hydrocarbon on the ground, you'll remember that "whoosh" as the flame front crosses the puddle. That, is what happens inside a gasoline engine. It's not an explosion, but a whoosh. Due to compression, it happens a lot faster than the puddle of carb cleaner on the ground, but the effect is the same. Usually in a car, they put in just enough fuel so that you get the whoosh, and nothing more. If you're VERY rich on a gas engine, you get black soot out of it too. What happens inside a diesel engine is a little different. The flame in a diesel can only burn what oxygen is near it. Since the flamethrower analogy is more apt, we'll stick with that. If you've ever shot an aerosol can over a lighter, you know the effect. You'll notice that it doesn't all burn "right away." A lot of the fuel gets a few feet down the line, and is still burning. It's still burning a few feet away from you, because it can't find the oxygen to burn immediately. That's also why diesels have a practical limit somewhere less than 5200rpm. (Though Gale Banks is trying to fix that...) The diesel injector works just like that aerosol can. It shoots a spray of fuel into the combustion chamber. If all that fuel reaches oxygen, it all burns. Cleanly, and without smoke. As it turns out, due to spray patterns, and physics means only roughly 1/3 of the air volume in a diesel is available to be burned. Places near the nozzle, squish area, space above the ring lands.. are all space where air is compressed, but you can't get fuel to. That's where superchargers and turbochargers come into play. By packing more air into the engine, you can burn more fuel. That's really how it works. Diesels also get the benefits of higher chamber pressures and compression ratios at low (ish) throttle settings. Getting back to the flames coming out of the locomotive. If the engine lost boost, it's still pumping in fuel for boost conditions. Potentially three times as much fuel as the engine, naturally aspirated, can handle. This means some of fuel is burning, but most of it is just undergoing some nasty chemical changes, producing massive amounts of carbon and other compounds. Many of which are volatile and are still hot. When they reach air, you get flames!
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Aug 13, 2012 20:27
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Itzena posted:It might be diesel-hydraulic rather than diesel-electric, but that just raises further questions along the lines of "but, but...torque converter!". And that's not all of it. There are even some locomotives that use honest to goodness gears to drive the wheels. And hilariously complex transmissions to make it all work. Even multiple engines, driving a differential so one engine can shut down. Freaking germans...
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Oct 22, 2012 08:10
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Bow TIE Fighter posted:You basically described a Prius, the electric motor does most of the propulsion, while the gas engine is a generator and can assist when accelerating. There's s few types of hybrids, most locomotives are "series" where only the electric motor propels the vehicle and the gas engine is just a generator, while the Prius is "parallel" where both motors are used as needed. I'm sure by now someone has made a diesel hybrid car, I know European car makers have very efficient diesel motors in their small cars, so the technology is out there. most of the acceleration in a prius comes from the 100+hp motor. The electric motors are only good for something like 40hp. both motors need to be active to transfer any torque to the wheels. The transmission in the volt is actually very similar. Series hybrids are a lossy option. As long as you have a gas motor there, and a gearbox as a fair option, the prius and volt designs are pretty darned good. Better than serial hybrid. You can get away with smaller motors, for the same output power. Locomotives see the big benefit in that the transmission has infinite gears, and you see no gearbox losses. The gearboxes necessary to transmit power from the prime mover to the motors are not small. Each driven axle throws at minimum another 2% loss into the game. While more electric motors don't "add" losses. When you have six driven axles that's significant. They also don't need to worry about weight. The heavier the locomotive, the more tractive effort you can get from it.
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Nov 6, 2012 04:40
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but the big boys have lots of wheels. Steam locomotives are harder on rail than diesels. They hammer the track, both with acceleration impulses, and with the weight of the crossbars and wheels.
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Dec 12, 2012 05:19
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There are a lot of things that can delay trains. Heck my commuter train is as much as 20 minutes late or 10 minutes early depending on how they juggle other trains. And that's in dry weather. On an hour and a half run. Imagine the insanity that can happen on a 10 hour run. Now, I got quite friendly with the conductors on my rail lines. That 10 hours off, also isn't as nice as it sounds. You need to get from your train, to the hotel, you need to find food, and get to bed. IIRC you have two hours from the call, to get to your assignment. So, to be fair, "IF" You don't have sleep issues, and IF you can manage food and drink quickly, you get 6 hours. After what could potentially be a hard day out in snow, rain, ice, and whatever else mother nature can throw at you. The guys on the Metra had regular schedules. They took a pay cut, and a split shift for the privilege.
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Mar 9, 2013 03:24
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The local UPRR yard has a genset locomotive. I found that kinda neat.
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Apr 15, 2013 14:34
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bytebark posted:I saw a gigantic orange electric thing this weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQFRHfSydlg
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Sep 3, 2013 05:13
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That's union station in chicago isn't it? That's one pretty train.
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Sep 8, 2013 05:09
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Huge_Midget posted:For more information about air cooled nuclear reactors, see this awesome (and terrifying) wiki entry. HAH. That was all entirely controlled. How about one that broke out of control and caught fire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire
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Oct 7, 2013 20:11
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Crotch Fruit posted:Today while searching google I discovered the Amrak Acela has a front coupler. Yes, they do.
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Mar 20, 2014 22:00
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Apparently, it's hidden behind what I can only assume is a ridiculously expensive and complex mechanism. Does anyone have a video or animation of this thing opening? Do other high speed locomotives have this sort of mechanism?