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Restoring a GG1 to operation; changing the oil in diesel locomotives
A
Among the legions of Pennsylvania Railroad fans, your question might be No. 1, Nathan. Alas, getting a GG1 humming again would be a huge task, according to engineering experts. The biggest hurdle would be to find a suitable transformer. It was the transformer — and its reliance on PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, an organic chlorine compound widely used as a coolant — that put the GG1 permanently out of business. By the late 1960s, PCBs were identified as highly toxic and their production was banned by 1979. The GG1s had PCBfilled transformers to step down the Northeast Corridor’s then-11 kv 25hz catenary power to the voltages used aboard the locomotive.
Most remaining GG1s were gutted of both their transformers and the asbestos used as insulation around steam lines and other components. To bring a GG1 back to life, you would have to design a new transformer that is the same shape and size of the old one, to fit into the footprint available inside the carbody, says Chris Jagodzinski, Amtrak’s assistant vice-president of operations. “You’d also require a transformer with the correct voltages, assuming you could find a G that didn’t get all the electrical components destroyed when they got rid of the asbestos,” Jagodzinski adds. “The main transformer is really the heart of an electric locomotive, so this is akin to making an artificial heart. It could never be a ‘true’ G.”
Other problems would need to be addressed, including replacing the underfloor drive gear, now considered completely obsolete, requiring hard-to-find quill drives and spring cups, and repairing cracks in truck frames, a problem nearly as vexing to late-era
GG1s as the transformers. Less onerous but still expensive would be the need to outfit this restored GG1 with a modern Positive Train Control system, assuming this GG1 was intended to run on the NEC. Bottom line: Bringing a GG1 back to life would cost well into seven figures.
Numerous GG1 electrics are preserved. They reside in museums and collections in 10 states from Texas and Wisconsin to Pennsylvania and New York. — Kevin P. Keefe
Q
How often do railroads change oil in a diesel’s prime mover? How is it done? How much oil does it take? — John Nagle, Monroe, Wash.
A
Locomotive diesel engines most often are large-bore engines, meaning pistons and cylinders with “bore” dimensions (the round shape of the cylinder) roughly between 9
and 12 inches in diameter. A 12-cylinder Evolution engine from Wabtec (formerly GE Transportation) has a top-to-bottom per-cylinder displacement of about 15 liters per cylinder. By comparison, the largest over-the-road truck engines can be smaller-bore 8-cylinder engines with all 8 cylinders displacing only 13 or more liters. Locomotive diesel engines can require up to 400 U.S. gallons of lubricating oil — that’s 1,600 quarts.
Four-stroke engines such as GE’s FDL and Evolution series and Progress Rail/ EMD’s new 1010J engine typically have the entire crankcase of oil drained and refilled with fresh oil. Two-stroke cycle engines such as EMD 567, 645, and 710 engines all tend to consume more oil, so they usually don’t get complete oil changes; oil is added periodically to maintain oil level.
Railroads use oil sampling and analysis to monitor the condition of crankcase oils. A small sample of oil from the crankcase — just a few ounces — is subjected to various laboratory tests. One test looks for microscopic levels of “wear metals,” such as elevated levels of copper and/or lead particles, indicating a lubricated bearing somewhere in the engine might be wearing excessively.
Other tests look at oil chemistry. For example, diesel-engine oils are formulated with additive packages that attempt to maintain a degree of alkalinity (the opposite of acidity) as combustion products eventually become dissolved in the oil and an acidic oil will corrode engine parts. Since four-stroke cycle engines don’t burn off oil as fast as two-stroke cycle engines, oil alkalinity (known as the TBN, or Technical Base Number, “base” meaning alkaline) is a critical lab number.
The simplest test is for fuel dilution. A fuel oil leak can cause fuel to mix with the lubricating oil, destroying its ability to lubricate bearings. If fuel dilution becomes excessive, a crankcase explosion can result. If an engine has an internal water leak, the oil sample will have the chemical element boron, as locomotive engines have water cooling systems that should be treated with borate chemicals to prevent corrosion. Boron itself is not normally found in water, and hence is an easy trace element to detect. If an engine’s oil “chemistry” is “out of limits,” a railroad can do a partial drain-and-refill (and replace the oil filters) or a complete drain-and-fill (in addition to changing filters) and, of course, correct any suspected parts problems.
Next time you take your car to an oilchange place, think about what 1,600 quarts would cost! —