Richard's American Train Adventures

[paulcarms]

Education and entertainment all at once. Thank you to the contributors for showing a completely different view of railroads. I look forward to the updates and the interesting sharing of information without the point scoring that spoils many other forums. A regular lurker..
Thanks,
Paul

 

[Big Train James]

"Bore" mode back ON!

The lead unit is a c44ac, or ac4400cw, same thing really but the railroads sometimes have their own names. Either way it's a 4400hp ac traction motor equipped unit with 3-axle trucks. The "w" was an initial designation to indicate the wide nose, but it's become moot as the wide noses are all standard now. The "m" in EMD designations meant the same thing, and they also don't bother with it any longer.

The second unit is an sd70ac as noted by Mick, it would have been an sd70mac in the old days but the "m" is redundant. I'm not sure they are rebuilt units, rather just later order units that featured the flared radiators and larger (52" vs 48") radiator fans.

The third unit is a Tier 4 unit. The units can be identified by the humongous radiator section that comes to a peak rather than having a flat top like the Gevo's. It's also the only type of unit (currently) that has sloping sides on the outward vertical faces of the radiator housing. All other GE's have straight vertical faces of varying sizes. There's also a boxy exhaust housing directly in front of the radiator that is distinct from other units.

"Bore" mode back OFF.

Regarding railfanning locations, Glendale is a very nice place to watch trains, although I would like to see more traffic through there. That lineside fence wasn't there back in 2016 when I spent time there, so that must have been added since. One issue with the spot is that it's essentially only one way traffic northbound, with southbound trains being mostly local freights returning from switching ops further north. CSX and NS operate a bit of joint trackage operations from Hamilton just to the north down to the two big yards in downtown Cincinnati. Northbounds come out on CSX tracks seen here, while southbound split at Hamilton and follow NS to the east and then south to the yards. So while the environment is quite pleasant there, by default you will only see half the trains. It took me a while to figure out why I never saw any southbound trains there!

One other photo that would have been interesting from the Deshler selection, one of the trailing units on the westbound stack train pictured above was a UP Tier 4 EMD sd70ace. It's the equivalent of the CSX GE Tier 4 loco already discussed. Perhaps Richard has another photo from that group that he could post.

I'm generally prefer EMD's to GE"s, but I have to admit that I think the EMD Tier 4 locos got less attractive then their predecessors, while the GE Tier 4 locos got even more brutish with the new radiators, in a way that I find pleasing. Plus the EMD Tier 4's don't sound like EMD's anymore, since they swapped the traditional 2 stroke prime mover for a 4 stroke. Things that you like should never change. Bah!

Jim

 

[mickoo]

The second unit is an sd70ac as noted by Mick, it would have been an sd70mac in the old days but the "m" is redundant. I'm not sure they are rebuilt units, rather just later order units that featured the flared radiators and larger (52" vs 48") radiator fans.

Jim

They're rebuilds, actually rebuild illicit's a more comprehensive process, much like that which NS does, refurbishment is probably a better phrase.

CSX upgrading 25 SD70ACs | Trains Magazine

Trains magazine offers railroad news, railroad industry insight, commentary on today's freight railroads, passenger service (Amtrak), locomotive technology, railroad preservation and history, railfan opportunities (tourist railroads, fan trips), and great railroad photography.

www.trains.com

It's hard to see but the dynamic brake hatch appears (to me) to be slightly larger, all images copyright of their owners.

As built.



As modified.





The width probably hasn't changed that much but they look taller by a several inches. I suspect as part of the refurb they've fitted more modern off the shelf resistor banks which are slightly larger physically.

Railroad designations change so much with class types that I've given up and just generally refer to them by GE's code, GE refers to all the Phase III builds as AC44CW, I was being lazy and truncated it; CSX codes them as CW44AC (standard) or CW44AH (heavies).

Regarding EMD's four stroke, I disagree, the 1010 block sounds superb, an engine that let's you know it's going places, but I do concede the two stroke sound is as good as well, but seems to have lost it's way (muted) with later versions in the 710 range. For me the purest EMD two stroke sound is the 645 block as fitted to the SD40's or global equivalents.

Going back to my list of phases I completely missed one. Phase V which are the latest Tier 4 rated engines.

Phase V (GEVO) are the ET series - all AC traction.

Going back to the enlarged radiators, the ES series are very big but as noted have flat sides and a shallow angled top (as do all GE wide cab radiators) but the ET is even bigger yet with sloped sides and a steeper top angle.

Because of the greater heat in the GEVE, GE added a second radiator, called intercooler or 2 stage cooling, again like classes there are several 'accepted' names for this component. To house it they extended the radiator section forward and kept the same profile as the rear section, presumably for simplified construction, the less bends and joints you have the easier it is to fabricate.



It does have a flat top and looks big an impressive, sad to say, most of it is empty space, as this view shows of one with the top ripped off by a coal load chute.



The secondary cooling matrix is seen flat and in the middle as are the slightly angled main radiators but with flat sides. The width and depth of the rad pack has grown slowly from the Dash 8 onward and this is the final guise for that particular type of radiator.

The new radiator on the ET's (Tier4) is a whole new design, the secondary cooling is much larger as are the main radiators which forced a redesign of the pack/module.



Just ahead (as Jim correctly notes) is a raised box, this is the revised exhaust stack and enlarged muffler (silencer to the UK fraternity), again another ET Tier 4 spotting feature, however that has now changed to a more streamlined look on later batches as seen in my photo from West Colton back in 2018.




A sight diversion regarding rad packs, GE offers a super size pack for hot climates, Rio Tinto's ES44 class have by far the largest rad pack on any GE model I've seen to date, designed for the Western Australia outback where ore train weights are often in the 45,000t range. Yes, I collect export model images too





For every one who has drifted off to sleep with the crossing T's and dotting I's rambling, I apologize, for me they not all the same looking boxes on wheels

 

[simond]

I have no desire to model them, but the prototype engineering developments and changes are interesting indeed.

Alternative bore mode \ on
The ever bigger radiator packs reflect the power these things deliver - I recall a thermodynamics lecturer saying “one third of the energy in the fuel is useful, one third is heat to water and the other third goes out of the exhaust”, and despite the developments & changes, it’s still more or less true (give or take a few percent). And whilst the electric traction is efficient, you only have to hear a eurostar or tgv to know how much air is shoved through their traction motors to keep them cool enough too.

I note a comment about “intercoolers” here GE Evolution Series - Wikipedia and above in Mick’s post. Intercoolers are not cooling the engine, they’re cooling the compressed air from the turbo(s) to increase its density so that more mass of air (and hence oxygen) can be pushed into each cylinder during the induction stroke, so more fuel can be burned, so generating more power per stroke (which of course increases the heat to be got rid of). Air-to-air heat exchange is relatively inefficient, hence the need for big rads if the ambient temperature is high as the temperature difference will not be great.
Alternative bore mode \ off


All good clean fun!

 

[richard carr]

Thanks Mick that really helps with understanding GE locos.

The final day was Sunday, it was also the Belgian GP which starts at 9am Ohio time and ends about 10:45 so heading off after the race wa going to be pushing it to get back the the 4:45pm flight I was on.

So I left Toledo at 6:30 and drove to Elkhart, parked up at Martin's supermarket and went and bought a coffee in Starbucks so I could watch the race on my laptop.

Once the race was over I drove down to the station, a manifest was running through non stop on Main 3.
A couple of minutes after that went by another one arrived this time heading into the yard, it had 5 locos on the front 2 NS, a UP, a KCS and a BNSF, but it was just hauling 7 freight cars ! Has anyone got any ideas why this might happen. It's all on the video which should go up later today.


A few minutes after that this one arrived




Followed by an eastbound coming out of the yard.

After this I headed to the west end of the yard. There is just room to park a couple of cars at the grade crossing without encroaching on land that maybe railway owned.



The view east, but int he yard were these



2 lots of switchers and one train waiting to depart, he was waiting for this to go by.



Once the stack train had passed, the manifest waiting int he yard departed it was going to take him 10 minutes or more to pass.
It's on the video, not all 10 minutes of it.

I then headed off to Chicago, only to find the plane was 2 hours late arriving and ended up 3 hours late departing and arriving in London.

 

[Jordan]

another one arrived this time heading into the yard, it had 5 locos on the front 2 NS, a UP, a KCS and a BNSF, but it was just hauling 7 freight cars ! Has anyone got any ideas why this might happen.

They knew you were there, and enquiring minds would ask questions on Western Thunder??!!

I like American trains, but I'm as equally lost as a non-believer when it comes to modern locomotives.

 

[mickoo]

I have no desire to model them, but the prototype engineering developments and changes are interesting indeed.

Alternative bore mode \ on
The ever bigger radiator packs reflect the power these things deliver - I recall a thermodynamics lecturer saying “one third of the energy in the fuel is useful, one third is heat to water and the other third goes out of the exhaust”, and despite the developments & changes, it’s still more or less true (give or take a few percent). And whilst the electric traction is efficient, you only have to hear a eurostar or tgv to know how much air is shoved through their traction motors to keep them cool enough too.

I note a comment about “intercoolers” here GE Evolution Series - Wikipedia and above in Mick’s post. Intercoolers are not cooling the engine, they’re cooling the compressed air from the turbo(s) to increase its density so that more mass of air (and hence oxygen) can be pushed into each cylinder during the induction stroke, so more fuel can be burned, so generating more power per stroke (which of course increases the heat to be got rid of). Air-to-air heat exchange is relatively inefficient, hence the need for big rads if the ambient temperature is high as the temperature difference will not be great.
Alternative bore mode \ off


All good clean fun!

Correct, the section in front of the radiators is the engine intake cooling, it's a two stage systems using a wet cooler and and dry (air) cooler.

The air is drawn in and filtered and then compressed in the turbo charger, thereby increasing it's temperature, this air is then fed through water cooled radiators, I've just read the GE book on this (it's a bit coffee table style technically but overall not a bad reference)



and they're actually each side of the central grill and you can just seem them in the accident damaged engine.

The air is then drawn through the middle air to air radiators in the middle which have two fans, these are temperature controlled and fine tune the turbo charged air temperature into the manifold.

My understanding is that in the traditional wet water cooled section the air passes over an enclosed radiator which has the cooling water in (I'm not yet sure where that water is cooled and may even be off the main engine water cooling system at the rear. The cooled air then passes through another radiator, but not around it like the wet one, but through it and cold air is drawn over that by the fans.

All the above is true for the ES44 series but Wiki notes no 2nd stage air-to-air cooling for the Tier 4 ET44 series, so I'm not sure as yet how they're doing that extra cooling of the intake air, or even if they're still doing so, but, the intercooler rad section is much larger so they must be doing it somewhere.

 

[mickoo]

Once the race was over I drove down to the station, a manifest was running through non stop on Main 3.
A couple of minutes after that went by another one arrived this time heading into the yard, it had 5 locos on the front 2 NS, a UP, a KCS and a BNSF, but it was just hauling 7 freight cars ! Has anyone got any ideas why this might happen. It's all on the video which should go up later today.

My guess would be a power balancing move or they're a full consist that has popped out to a local area to grab some stock which they'll add to the main train before it leaves. Rather than take just one engine and uncouple the rest to do the move, and then recouple later, they just take the lot.

I like American trains, but I'm as equally lost as a non-believer when it comes to modern locomotives.

I've kind of dropped the ball recently on the GE's and been more focused on the SD70 wide cab range for information, details and reference.

Following either (and especially both) is almost a full time hobby in itself when trying to unravel all the variants and details etc.

I like the phrase 'modern', Dash 8's are now a 40 year old design.

 

[simond]

Correct, the section in front of the radiators is the engine intake cooling, it's a two stage systems using a wet cooler and and dry (air) cooler.

The air is drawn in and filtered and then compressed in the turbo charger, thereby increasing it's temperature, this air is then fed through water cooled radiators, I've just read the GE book on this (it's a bit coffee table style technically but overall not a bad reference)

View attachment 221066

and they're actually each side of the central grill and you can just seem them in the accident damaged engine.

The air is then drawn through the middle air to air radiators in the middle which have two fans, these are temperature controlled and fine tune the turbo charged air temperature into the manifold.

My understanding is that in the traditional wet water cooled section the air passes over an enclosed radiator which has the cooling water in (I'm not yet sure where that water is cooled and may even be off the main engine water cooling system at the rear. The cooled air then passes through another radiator, but not around it like the wet one, but through it and cold air is drawn over that by the fans.

All the above is true for the ES44 series but Wiki notes no 2nd stage air-to-air cooling for the Tier 4 ET44 series, so I'm not sure as yet how they're doing that extra cooling of the intake air, or even if they're still doing so, but, the intercooler rad section is much larger so they must be doing it somewhere.

Ta Mick,

hadn’t realised they were doing air-water, followed by water-air. would seem less efficient at first sight, but there must be a good reason…

I guess it’s a separate water circuit from the prime mover cooling?

cheers
S

 

[mickoo]

Ta Mick,

hadn’t realised they were doing air-water, followed by water-air. would seem less efficient at first sight, but there must be a good reason…

I guess it’s a separate water circuit from the prime mover cooling?

cheers
S

No, it's air-water and then air-air into the intake manifold. The air-water gives you a drop in temperature (around 200F according to GE) but it's not finely tuned as it's dependent on the water temp, loading and other factors; the air-air section is temperature controlled and can be modulated to maintain an intake manifold temp close to the ideal 95F they need for good combustion.

 

[simond]

Ok, so the air-water is to the prime mover cooling, (that heat has to go out of the main rads, 200F is ~110C and I’d guess the water is ~ 130C suggesting the air coming out of the turbos is around 240C) then the air-air to get the charge temperature down further, I can see how that makes sense.

95F is quite cool, 35C, probably nigh on same as ambient in some of the hotter areas of the US, won’t be cooler of course.

ta
S

 

[richard carr]

Here's the Elkhart video

 

[timbowales]

Well that was an education. I didn't know that Amazon had their own shipping containers!

 

[mickoo]

Well that was an education. I didn't know that Amazon had their own shipping containers!

Certainly do, though Amazon seems to be a recent flood as I don't recall seeing this many on my other trips. The numbers have certainly grown in the past few years.

JB Hunt used to be the primary carrier, now it seems Amazon are catching up and Fed Ex have a few here and there as do Hub Group and EMP.

These are the highest priority trains on BNSF classed as Z trains or hot shots, typically they will be priority goods or postal stuff, they get clearance over everything else and have the fastest point to point times of any service, typically they are all domestic 53' containers. If you see a lot of Amazon or JB Hunt containers you know it's a Z stacker.

Due to the length of containers, rolling stock is predominately triple car/pack stackers or single well cars.

Fort Madison with Richard the other week.





The other container flow is international/shipping/deep sea, these are usually 20'-40' or 45' containers, the stock is shorter and thus sets are 5 car/pack stackers.

Centralia with Richard.



This is a good shot down a mixed train, closest set is a ribbed triple pack with domestic containers, then two smooth sided triple packs; next up is a deep sea ribbed (they're not pure ribbed like the triple pack, they have flat sides but all the pipework and fittings are not enclosed) 5 pack and what also looks like a smooth sided five pack as well; however the furthest car in that set is a different profile, so that maybe five solo wells. Finally in the far distance are two smooth sided 5 packs for deep sea traffic.