I admire your bravery to continue to approach a machine that has started pouring out hot sparks from just about every place where it can normally happen simultaneously
what happened was "Turbo Bark" where the is too much carbon buildup on the turbo's blades or the turbo filter screen which blocks airflow. the reason for the sparks is thats the carbon burning off when the engine went under full load when the traction motors started slipping, causing the traction motors to surge current and massivly raised the exhaust tempratures to the point of the carbon built up in the turbo to be burnt off, result in the massive amout of sparks to come out of the exhaust. Edit: there also could’ve been carbon build up in the exhaust from excessive idle time that burnt off when EGT’s went through the roof.
Yeah, that tends to happen when EMD's with turbochargers don't get to let loose every once in a while. Happened a lot particularly on the 567D3 like in the GP30s. A workaround I've seen engineers use is to leave the independent brake on a little so they have to use more throttle. Brake shoes are cheaper than major turbo repair.
That's correct I have seen that before too. An SD40-2 was working very hard up the grade and was throwing embers like this and it caused a lot of grass fires 🔥 along the right of way. They had to call the water bomber to put them out.
That engine is fine... That's a 2 stroke diesel thing if it hadn't been ran hard for an extended period for a while. As a few others had mentioned, once you load it down hard enough for enough time, the engine heats up and any carbon in the exhaust or even in the cylinder ports comes free, and goes out the exhaust through the turbo. Could even be build up on the turbo wheel itself, but judging by the plume of smoke, I'd say it kicked a bunch of stuff off the piping from the engine that leads to the turbo, and when it hit, it slowed the turbine down some, which also effects the air flow through the engine which was expecting more air for the fuel it was burning, and when it didn't get it, all that fuel got converted to half burnt soot real quick. Wheel spin was likely coincidental but hard to say without seeing what the ammeter was doing at the time. No dead turbo, no blown piston... just a good cough from the engine. She's sitting there happily idling waiting for the next load.
Exactly. If that was a GE 4-banger trash 9, he would have ended up with a cracked block. And that's why you see so much Wabtec garbage in salvage yards!
I had guessed something related but slightly different. With the extreme load the exhaust reached ignition temperature for carbon. That kept the exhaust hot continuing to burn off the oily residue and freeing more carbon. Which makes more sparks etc. Eventually it runs out of fuel and everything is normal. Then it cools down to a normal temperature. I used to burn out two stroke exhaust systems with a blowtorch to clean them. And chimney fires are the same sort of thing.
I can still hear the whine of the turbo running. That most likely was carbon in the exhaust burning off. I've been on engines that did that and it's quite a show at night. There's no clutch on these units. There are relays that interrupt the power when wheels are slipping, the wheels started slipping because the train stopped.
That actually happened to me in a Kenworth K100 with a 350 Cummins pulling a heavy load up the Northeast Extension on the long hill between Lehigh Valley and the Hickory Run Service area. It was early AM and I was just out there strolling along when I notices lots of sparks out the right side mirror trailing me like steam vapor at -8 degrees. I hadn't noticed any loss of power, but I still wasn't sure exactly what was happening and started to slow down. As I slowed, I noticed the sparks diminish, and after a certain point, stopped altogether even though the engine was still running. After a thorough inventory of gage temperatures and pressures where everything was normal, (I suspect, if I'd had a pyrometer, it would have told me what I needed to know). I any event, I decided that regardless of anything else, I really didn't want to be broke down in the middle of a long uphill climb at 3:AM on the narrow shouldered Pennsylvania Turnpike. As I started accelerating again, the sparks started flying again, but with nowhere near the intensity of the first shower. Before I topped the hill I loaded an unloaded the engine several times and the sparks came and went depending on how hard the engine was pulling. Each successive "cycle" produced less sparking until it finally stopped altogether. I figured out that there was a carbon build up somewhere in the exhaust and when it hot hot enough, it put on a pretty good fireworks display. I never said anything about it and drove the tractor several years after that without incident. In over 43 years of driving, that was the only time something like that happened. I've blown turbos and had the intercooler hoses blow up and off several times. The key is that there was no loss of power with the exhaust burn-off. That happened in the late 1980's and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this video. NICE CAPTURE!
I learn to drive in a '79 K100 ...and then drove 2 more k100 aerodynes for a company in Atlanta ... I blew a turbo one night on a '81 White road boss just south of Macon....
When locomotive is loading at throttle 8 for extended periods the exhaust temperature climbs to a point where unburned diesel and soot ignites and causes the flame thrower effect, rarely it's the turbo which is way upstream from the exhaust but sometimes it can burn up the entire engine, common on the Canadian Pacific Near Field B.C., especially the older GE AC units
And some people just look at that bad day and they go from upset why is this happening?! too just amused because EVERYTHING is going wrong one after the other. And your just waiting for the NEXT thing to go wrong
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362 Do you mean "quiet"? Yes, if an engine blows a piston, it will be as noisy as a gutshot whore. At least until the rod or piston comes out of the power assembly or the block. Then it will get even noisier until it seizes completely.
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362no, I run engines on an industry line, got one locomotive that got shut down because some water got into the piston and blew it up to smitherines, instantly shut down the engine from what I was told
@christianjohnson9190 Water in engine you hydrolock the engine. Engine can't compress water like it does to air not allowing piston to reach the top causing broken piston rods and catastrophic failure throughout. One piston blow up could stop an engine but not necessarily.
No turbo fail. Just a Carboned up exhaust and an engine that could use a tune up or rebuild. Being a 1979 locomotive I'm sure the engine has been rebuilt numerous times already.
Probably the heaviest load it's seen in a while and been a while since it's actually been worked hard, so it had to burn off some gunk. Pretty common really.
@@kleetus92 i live in southwest iowa near a crossing point where east and west tracks cross a north/south track and i love seeing the big SD70Macs and GE ES44ACs on the 180 car BNSF coal trains when they wind up to get moving ,,they come out of nebraska usually with 3 lead units and at least 2 DPUs either middle or tail end ,,it's cool at night when the turbos burn off the carbon after idling ,,,the newer Tier4 units don't do this due to having DPF/after treatment systems
being a 1979 locomotive it's probably been rebuilt 1 time maybe 2,,most of these machines see 50,000 hours or more before being overhauled ,,multiple millions of miles ,,the 855 cummins engine in my semi truck got rebuilt for the first time with almost 2 million miles and 44000 running hours and it's a similar age of course by the time of the first complete overhaul over half of the engine and locomotive has likely been replaced or remanufactured ,
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362 yes locomotives idle for long periods ,, sometimes days at a time ,,these engines only turn like 900 rpm too despite how fast it sounds like it's turning
Yeah, definitely did not blow the turbo. It would never have spooled up and came off the clutch on the second pull like it did. Would have been funny if it did blow the turbo because you would have been covered in oil 😂
I could tell even in the dark that thing was cheeching hard... it was seriously struggling to get enough air into that engine under load. Something is very wrong
@@gizmo98632 it might have a clogged air filter ,,but listening to it run it is running smooth but sounds like it might have a lazy injector or worn cams the way it is loping and chugging at low rpm ,, get to 7 mins into the video , when he pushes it up to notch 7 and then notch 8 ,, damn that's a beautiful sound listening to that EMD roar he was running the engine full throttle to get the most volts out of the generator while keeping the speed control set low to get maximum tractive effort doing this for too long will actually burn out the DC traction motors
Could have been a patch of ice on a hill. I’ve seen a locomotive struggling recently on a run it’s done dozens of times before, likely due to unusually slippery conditions
Coolest thing I ever caught to date so far is a Norfolk Southern AC44C6M trailing on a train with a BNSF Warbonnet and an ES44. About halfway down the train were two Axsun Group Intermodal containers
One hell of a good burnout. /tip of my hat to the engineer. I'm shocked it didn't trip the overspeed and shut down haha. Edit: I wonder how long they were running like that, surely had to be in short time rating too lol. Poor girl was probably happy for the break while the conductor went back to make the cut.
I once watched a tug boat just before daylight pushing full throttle against the side of a large ship trying to hold in in place against a high wind. In fact there were two tugs and they had been doing that for some time because the ship had broken one of the chains it was hooked to the peir with. The large tug's exhaust stack was glowing red and blowing sparks out. That was an epic struggle on the water. Something to watch.
Worked at a fertilizer place across the road from a farmer who had one of those old ford tractors with the narrow front wheels with some sort of turbo diesel swapped into it. Used it to pull a 20 foot planter full throttle down a mile long field with the exhaust cherry red. Funniest/coolest little tractor pulling wheelies from one end of a field to the other, turning around and doing it again for 8 hours.
@@simplyamazing880 There are some things they build better these days, but yeah i fully agree vast majority of products are much lower quality now then they used to be. I miss being able to fix my car with a wrench instead of a laptop.
You preusme he did not knock the brakes off like he was supposeD to. Looked more like the brakes came on to a car suddenly but didn't dynamite the train.
@@The_DuMont_Network I jokingly said that. Railroaders joke. If the brakes do come on they wont dynamite the train unless it disturbs the integrity of the coupler.
the (woosh) sound is compressor surge. the sparks is from carbon buildup or “wet stack” burning off from burning hot exhaust gas temps, when the wheels slipped you heard the surge then the flame from not enough air because of the turbo/supercharger stall then flames from not enough air to cool the fuel charge.
The 645 EMD inside has been renewed many times since 79. No part but the block is that old, and maybe not that either. Too much tonnage for a 4 axle 3khp loco. Age had nothing to do with it, it does show why nobody makes a 4 axle anymore.
Nothing unusual here. Locomotive slipped to a stand on bad rail. Some turbo fireworks when the load suddenly came off the prime mover. Then a good controlled restart.
Low water in the boiler...seriously, that engine noise took me back to the '60s when I served on a WW2 LST (Landing Ship, Tank), they were powered by two V-12 EMD 567s side by side in a 32' square engine room. Underway with those babies "humming" away, you couldn't hear yourself think down there, cupping your hands over someones ear and yelling would hardly work...
That fire in the diesel power train exhaust is like a drilling rig fire explosion so awesome 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
As someone that works pushing and pulling heavy pallets and rubbish bins I can relate to just stopping in the middle of nowhere and taking a moment. It's tough.😢
when you film try to stand in one spot if you're gonna hand hold especially at night that way it might stay in focus I know you probably weren't expecting to catch that but still.
As well my friend caught this and uploaded it off his phone I like to keep my videos as still as possible and as well I try not to talk in any of my videos unless I want to point something out like the numbers of the train going to fast for the camera or bad weather making it hard to see people will know the numbers or ill know the numbers and what to post but again thank you for the advice I'll try it next time
@@slycat1939 No, zoom is to go in closer; focus is to not be blurry. And moving closer is likely to be a better idea than zooming, when handholding at night.
Ouch! Poor GP40-2! It's quite a sight to see the wheels slip like that! I'm not entirely sure how the wheel slip controller works (or sometimes, doesn't work), but even SD70ACe's smoke like this when they have wheel slip. The turbocharger can be heard cycling between gear-driven and free-running, making the "barking" sound. I doubt the turbocharger has failed. The flames are likely from the over-fueled condition of the engine and hot exhaust.
There are sensors on the wheels which monitors the speed of the axle. If there becomes a great difference in speed of the axles on a bogey, the alarm will trip the overspeed indicator and open the circuit to that motor. The sensor is a small pickup coil in proximity to what looks like a large gear on the axle.
Yes, there's clearly no coincidence in the sudden and severe onset of wheelslip and the engine loading (and overloading) going haywire. That's the really interesting part. Turbo clearly working OK but exhaust equipment already red-hot is given a massive overfuelling blast. Sounds to me (semi-educated amateur) like the electronics couldn't cope with the load change and went a bit mad. Or did it have a flash-over?
Just a little stack burn.. No biggie lol.. Looks worse than it is.. We do those on purpose when units have a lot of idle time.. Clears all of the soot and oil out
Most trains have 2 or 3 motors running in them. Alot of people think the motors turn the wheels like in a car but they do not. They turn a generator that makes the power to turn the wheels. The wheels are electric. They all are hybrids I guess you could say. No transmission would be able to handle the torque needed to move that much weight.
Back in 1988 at the museum we had the 1953 ALCO S3 Switcher with 539 Macintosh and Seymour 6 straight cylinders, that had oil and carbon in the stack, then our retired real engineer parked on the siding, and isolated the traction motors, and set the hand brake, then opened the throttle carefully for a controlled burn off, with super hot 🔥 🥵 flame leaping 6 feet straight up!!!!! I can still feel the heat at 50 feet away. After 5 minutes he closed the throttle, and the Alco was totally Smoking, until it cooled down a bit to inspect it, and run back around to the coach at the depot, but sadly in 1991 when they got the new and different manager, this Alco broke down but was never repaired but just sitting idle for the past 32 years wow, too bad 👎 😕.....
OK all you railfans; did anybody consider that the reason for the wheel slip and the turbo flame-up was: too heavy of a load for one locomotive to pull. They needed to call out some booster power to get this consist where it was going.
That stuff started with us long before PSR. It doesn't matter what the people with experience tell them they operate how they think is best. I laugh every time they ask for suggestions of how to operate more efficiently. I just stopped wasting my breath.
Wow. Always interesting when these locomotives start blowing flames out of the exhaust. Just and FYI, not sure what equipment you're using, stop the quick panning and get a camera stabilizer. Using a monopod helps. Also, bring a good light or LED light panel. You may be able to see more than your camera.
Slight overspeed raising the engines rpm when the traction was lost also hot exhaust with the combination of old carbon deposits from sitting long periods at idle well you see the results I call it engine overspeed and turbo after burning off deposits nothing to worry about Iv seen EMD units having governor failure cousing overspeed turning out a huge fire show that’s scary as hell
I'm not an engineer or a train expert, but if he's got a long train he should have had two or three more engines with that one. The pool a train that long. If this train is long. I think that's too much way for one engine to pull a train like that. Thank you. You need at least two or three engines with horsepower to pull along train. I seen them in other videos and after so many cars they got an engine in the middle to help it go along. Thank you.
Well it's more so it struggled because it was going up hill with not to many cars they normally pull that same amount no problem it was only that time and when you see trains in the middle it doesn't just help pull the cars it also helps reduce the stress in the freight cars knucklers and pushes the same direction as the lead unit to prevent the knucklers from breaking in the middle of the train because of stress on the knucklers so when you have a mid dpu it helps take some of the stress off by pulling and pushing like the lead unit
@@Canadian_RAIL_FANWhat that person is talking about is called a DPU It's a locomotive that is either in the middle or the back of a train hat helps the locomotives at the beginning of the train pull the load depending on how many cars there are in the train consist
That's an excellent old locomotive to have lasted that long and survive incidence's like that.. what other brand or model can claim that level of longevity :)
I would say the sparks occurred because of some sort of engine fluid was burning off in the combustion chamber or the turbo putting the combustion chamber into what i call "Over Pressure", or even just some slight overheating, and i would also say the wheel-slip occurred because they tried pulling too hard. That could have been a lot worse if the crew didn't notice or you didn't warn the crew, the locomotive itself could have caught fire!
When you need over 3000hp because of wet tracks, the usual single GP40-2 is *not* gonna cut it. I guess someone didn't want to be bothered with assigning an extra unit, either to this train, or to the available power pool (and thus not available to be assigned to this train).
I don't know anything... But I feel like he slowed down too much and then tried to bring it back up to a comfortable speed but ran it extra hard with heavy load
Ive saw a turbo blow ( even though locomotives technically have super chargers) lol its usually a massive flame followed by giant clouds of smoke. Then you shut it down before the whole thing goes up in flames. Its slightly terrifying
there was no damage done, just the old girl blowin' the soot out of her pipes, this happens with the old 2-strokes, because they tend to run a tiny bit rich and the partially burned fuel builds up as soot that burns off when the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) goes through the roof.
Electro Motive Diesel model GP-38-V16-645 twin roots blower engine. That series engine producer lots of exhaust residue that can shoot sparks and flame up if the spark arrester bins are not cleaned each quarter. As far as the wheelslip, the WS-15 module is faulty.
"It was built in 1979 so it's old as hell". Thanks. I was born (built) in 1957.
Just because the locomotive was made in 1979 doesn't mean it was a bad locomotive it just mean the engineer was incompetent
I do believe Hell was built prior to 1979
@@IamMagPie Hell was first settled in 1841. I've been there and back several times. And as it's currently 0 there Hell has frozen over.
So you are old as hell too lol
1979 isn't that old, if the machine was built well. The problem with the machines of today is that they are not built to last!
I admire your bravery to continue to approach a machine that has started pouring out hot sparks from just about every place where it can normally happen simultaneously
Not bravery, it’s foaming. lol. He was in full foam to reach it.
what happened was "Turbo Bark" where the is too much carbon buildup on the turbo's blades or the turbo filter screen which blocks airflow. the reason for the sparks is thats the carbon burning off when the engine went under full load when the traction motors started slipping, causing the traction motors to surge current and massivly raised the exhaust tempratures to the point of the carbon built up in the turbo to be burnt off, result in the massive amout of sparks to come out of the exhaust.
Edit: there also could’ve been carbon build up in the exhaust from excessive idle time that burnt off when EGT’s went through the roof.
That makes sense. The old saying of blowing out the carbon.
Yeah, that tends to happen when EMD's with turbochargers don't get to let loose every once in a while. Happened a lot particularly on the 567D3 like in the GP30s. A workaround I've seen engineers use is to leave the independent brake on a little so they have to use more throttle. Brake shoes are cheaper than major turbo repair.
Yeah, that makes more sense than what would have been catastrophic turbo failure. I'd imagine that engine hadn't seen that load in awhile.
That's correct I have seen that before too. An SD40-2 was working very hard up the grade and was throwing embers like this and it caused a lot of grass fires 🔥 along the right of way. They had to call the water bomber to put them out.
This looks like a job for a couple ten gallons of sea foam 😅😂🤣
In case you are wondering yes I am being sarcastic or am I
"Yeah, this thing's a piece of crap"
-The Engineer 😂😂😂😂😂
That engine is fine... That's a 2 stroke diesel thing if it hadn't been ran hard for an extended period for a while. As a few others had mentioned, once you load it down hard enough for enough time, the engine heats up and any carbon in the exhaust or even in the cylinder ports comes free, and goes out the exhaust through the turbo. Could even be build up on the turbo wheel itself, but judging by the plume of smoke, I'd say it kicked a bunch of stuff off the piping from the engine that leads to the turbo, and when it hit, it slowed the turbine down some, which also effects the air flow through the engine which was expecting more air for the fuel it was burning, and when it didn't get it, all that fuel got converted to half burnt soot real quick.
Wheel spin was likely coincidental but hard to say without seeing what the ammeter was doing at the time.
No dead turbo, no blown piston... just a good cough from the engine. She's sitting there happily idling waiting for the next load.
I’ve always had a real interest in trains. I’m learning a lot from you guys who operate these locomotives. Thanks for your input.
Thank you for your input
Exactly. If that was a GE 4-banger trash 9, he would have ended up with a cracked block. And that's why you see so much Wabtec garbage in salvage yards!
I always loved burping a EMD on the load box after an annual!😅
I had guessed something related but slightly different. With the extreme load the exhaust reached ignition temperature for carbon. That kept the exhaust hot continuing to burn off the oily residue and freeing more carbon. Which makes more sparks etc. Eventually it runs out of fuel and everything is normal. Then it cools down to a normal temperature. I used to burn out two stroke exhaust systems with a blowtorch to clean them. And chimney fires are the same sort of thing.
I can still hear the whine of the turbo running. That most likely was carbon in the exhaust burning off. I've been on engines that did that and it's quite a show at night. There's no clutch on these units. There are relays that interrupt the power when wheels are slipping, the wheels started slipping because the train stopped.
What is a relay but an eletrical clutch?
That actually happened to me in a Kenworth K100 with a 350 Cummins pulling a heavy load up the Northeast Extension on the long hill between Lehigh Valley and the Hickory Run Service area. It was early AM and I was just out there strolling along when I notices lots of sparks out the right side mirror trailing me like steam vapor at -8 degrees. I hadn't noticed any loss of power, but I still wasn't sure exactly what was happening and started to slow down. As I slowed, I noticed the sparks diminish, and after a certain point, stopped altogether even though the engine was still running. After a thorough inventory of gage temperatures and pressures where everything was normal, (I suspect, if I'd had a pyrometer, it would have told me what I needed to know). I any event, I decided that regardless of anything else, I really didn't want to be broke down in the middle of a long uphill climb at 3:AM on the narrow shouldered Pennsylvania Turnpike. As I started accelerating again, the sparks started flying again, but with nowhere near the intensity of the first shower. Before I topped the hill I loaded an unloaded the engine several times and the sparks came and went depending on how hard the engine was pulling. Each successive "cycle" produced less sparking until it finally stopped altogether. I figured out that there was a carbon build up somewhere in the exhaust and when it hot hot enough, it put on a pretty good fireworks display. I never said anything about it and drove the tractor several years after that without incident. In over 43 years of driving, that was the only time something like that happened. I've blown turbos and had the intercooler hoses blow up and off several times. The key is that there was no loss of power with the exhaust burn-off. That happened in the late 1980's and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this video. NICE CAPTURE!
I learn to drive in a '79 K100 ...and then drove 2 more k100 aerodynes for a company in Atlanta ... I blew a turbo one night on a '81 White road boss just south of Macon....
Man id love to sit on the porch and listen to your stories.
That's a fine rest stop other than the lack of Roy Roger's:)
Have you ever experienced a diesel runaway?
The amount of detail in this actually makes me believe it. Normally I just shrug claims like this off as clout chasers.
When locomotive is loading at throttle 8 for extended periods the exhaust temperature climbs to a point where unburned diesel and soot ignites and causes the flame thrower effect, rarely it's the turbo which is way upstream from the exhaust but sometimes it can burn up the entire engine, common on the Canadian Pacific Near Field B.C., especially the older GE AC units
Something's already gone wrong if you're putting unburnt diesel out the exhaust.
In every line of work, there's always that one day where everything seems to go wrong...
And thats a job for Business insurance to solve.
And some people just look at that bad day and they go from upset why is this happening?! too just amused because EVERYTHING is going wrong one after the other. And your just waiting for the NEXT thing to go wrong
It looked like ghost rider was driving the train 💀
FR💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Never seen that diesel locomotives wheel spin with fire ontop like that but that is lit 🔥
wanted to get home, had a hot date!!
If they blew a piston it wouldn't still be running.
It can run after blowing a piston. Not good and not quite but it would run.
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362 Do you mean "quiet"?
Yes, if an engine blows a piston, it will be as noisy as a gutshot whore. At least until the rod or piston comes out of the power assembly or the block. Then it will get even noisier until it seizes completely.
I agree. It SOUNDS too good, to have any major problems. It's just working hard, blowing years of accumulation out of the exhaust.
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362no, I run engines on an industry line, got one locomotive that got shut down because some water got into the piston and blew it up to smitherines, instantly shut down the engine from what I was told
@christianjohnson9190 Water in engine you hydrolock the engine. Engine can't compress water like it does to air not allowing piston to reach the top causing broken piston rods and catastrophic failure throughout. One piston blow up could stop an engine but not necessarily.
What a capture! The high pitch throttle 8 sounds insane!
Edit: I keep coming back to this video. It just sounds heavenly.
No turbo fail. Just a Carboned up exhaust and an engine that could use a tune up or rebuild. Being a 1979 locomotive I'm sure the engine has been rebuilt numerous times already.
Probably the heaviest load it's seen in a while and been a while since it's actually been worked hard, so it had to burn off some gunk. Pretty common really.
@@kleetus92 i live in southwest iowa near a crossing point where east and west tracks cross a north/south track and i love seeing the big SD70Macs and GE ES44ACs on the 180 car BNSF coal trains when they wind up to get moving ,,they come out of nebraska usually with 3 lead units and at least 2 DPUs either middle or tail end ,,it's cool at night when the turbos burn off the carbon after idling ,,,the newer Tier4 units don't do this due to having DPF/after treatment systems
being a 1979 locomotive it's probably been rebuilt 1 time maybe 2,,most of these machines see 50,000 hours or more before being overhauled ,,multiple millions of miles ,,the 855 cummins engine in my semi truck got rebuilt for the first time with almost 2 million miles and 44000 running hours and it's a similar age
of course by the time of the first complete overhaul over half of the engine and locomotive has likely been replaced or remanufactured ,
@wildcoyote34 Not saying you are incorrect because I don't know for certain but locomotives idle for long periods which is torture on any engine.
@@trainstractorscarsandtruck7362 yes locomotives idle for long periods ,, sometimes days at a time ,,these engines only turn like 900 rpm too despite how fast it sounds like it's turning
Yeah, definitely did not blow the turbo. It would never have spooled up and came off the clutch on the second pull like it did. Would have been funny if it did blow the turbo because you would have been covered in oil 😂
Of course it's not a turbo failure, the locomotive wasn't a GE
@@jimskywaker4345Haha yes
I could tell even in the dark that thing was cheeching hard... it was seriously struggling to get enough air into that engine under load. Something is very wrong
@@gizmo98632 I agree
@@gizmo98632 it might have a clogged air filter ,,but listening to it run it is running smooth but sounds like it might have a lazy injector or worn cams the way it is loping and chugging at low rpm ,, get to 7 mins into the video , when he pushes it up to notch 7 and then notch 8 ,, damn that's a beautiful sound listening to that EMD roar
he was running the engine full throttle to get the most volts out of the generator while keeping the speed control set low to get maximum tractive effort
doing this for too long will actually burn out the DC traction motors
I love hearing EMD's working hard up close and personal.
Fun video! 02:45 "Did you blow a turbo?" - "What?!" - "Did you blow a turbo?" - "nah, nah it's just a PSHHHHH-WSHHHHHH"
Machine: Powerful enough to overcome many tons of steel on steel friction on all wheels at once.
Operator: "Piece of crap..."
steel on steel has the least amount of friction, fyi.
@@joeystoney3678 Sure, but the amount of force pushing them together is still very large.
Looks like me trying to catch the Amtrak on the early morning video. We love our train videos in Clemson SC, Go Tigers! Keep it up
I've been sick like that. Spewing out from anywhere possible.
That's just PSR. Put a GP40 in front of 10k tons and send it....
Could have been a patch of ice on a hill. I’ve seen a locomotive struggling recently on a run it’s done dozens of times before, likely due to unusually slippery conditions
4 axle unit, GP40@Jabba.Da.Hutt_
Just a small stack fire and some embers. Turbo can clearly be heard. No failure. Pretty spectacular none the less!!
dont tell that to mr knows everything here and cant shut the fuck up ruining videos here!
Did you blow a turbo? Nah, it always does this! How come neat shit like this never happens when I watch trains?
Coolest thing I ever caught to date so far is a Norfolk Southern AC44C6M trailing on a train with a BNSF Warbonnet and an ES44. About halfway down the train were two Axsun Group Intermodal containers
Too much weight, so they gave her the 'ol "Italian tune-up" Great catch!!!
Me at 3am when I eat pizza too late at night before going to bed: 1:09
the diesel engine starts shooting flames and you run towards it. you my friend have balls 😂
I've been watching trains for a long time, and I've never seen anything just like that before. Great catch!
nice demonstration of increasing the prime mover notch-by-notch.
a most excellent video showing how hard an EMD can work
One hell of a good burnout. /tip of my hat to the engineer. I'm shocked it didn't trip the overspeed and shut down haha. Edit: I wonder how long they were running like that, surely had to be in short time rating too lol. Poor girl was probably happy for the break while the conductor went back to make the cut.
I really feel for that engineer. Poor fella to have to put up with that engine trying to do it's best... and failing spectacularly.
CSX Precision Scheduled Railroading in action. Probably has a 2 mile train behind that unit. 😉
1:08 you can literally hear the turbo dying. It sounds so spooky.
That's just soot particles burning coming out of the exhaust .pretty common when they're running hot
If this happened during the day, you might not have seen anything from the exhaust, and you would barely notice sparks from the wheel slip.
I once watched a tug boat just before daylight pushing full throttle against the side of a large ship trying to hold in in place against a high wind. In fact there were two tugs and they had been doing that for some time because the ship had broken one of the chains it was hooked to the peir with. The large tug's exhaust stack was glowing red and blowing sparks out. That was an epic struggle on the water. Something to watch.
Worked at a fertilizer place across the road from a farmer who had one of those old ford tractors with the narrow front wheels with some sort of turbo diesel swapped into it. Used it to pull a 20 foot planter full throttle down a mile long field with the exhaust cherry red. Funniest/coolest little tractor pulling wheelies from one end of a field to the other, turning around and doing it again for 8 hours.
@@SirFloofy001 It's amazing how much better they used to build stuff before they got so smart.
@@simplyamazing880 There are some things they build better these days, but yeah i fully agree vast majority of products are much lower quality now then they used to be. I miss being able to fix my car with a wrench instead of a laptop.
right place at the right time thanks for sharing love that airbox fire good they idled it fast
6:58 Just when you thought he ran out of notches...lets go!
Imagine that, train moves better when the conductor knocks the handbrakes off like he was suppose to. 🤣😂
You preusme he did not knock the brakes off like he was supposeD to. Looked more like the brakes came on to a car suddenly but didn't dynamite the train.
@@The_DuMont_Network I jokingly said that. Railroaders joke. If the brakes do come on they wont dynamite the train unless it disturbs the integrity of the coupler.
Great video. I hope the locomotive will be okay as I like these EMD GP40-2's.
the (woosh) sound is compressor surge. the sparks is from carbon buildup or “wet stack” burning off from burning hot exhaust gas temps, when the wheels slipped you heard the surge then the flame from not enough air because of the turbo/supercharger stall then flames from not enough air to cool the fuel charge.
Now that’s how they should all run based on looks, so badass. Terrible for the engine though lol…..
The 645 EMD inside has been renewed many times since 79. No part but the block is that old, and maybe not that either. Too much tonnage for a 4 axle 3khp loco. Age had nothing to do with it, it does show why nobody makes a 4 axle anymore.
Very useful information. Thanks.
Nothing unusual here. Locomotive slipped to a stand on bad rail. Some turbo fireworks when the load suddenly came off the prime mover. Then a good controlled restart.
Low water in the boiler...seriously, that engine noise took me back to the '60s when I served on a WW2 LST (Landing Ship, Tank), they were powered by two V-12 EMD 567s side by side in a 32' square engine room. Underway with those babies "humming" away, you couldn't hear yourself think down there, cupping your hands over someones ear and yelling would hardly work...
You should have been in the EMD engine test cells with 4 or 5 engines running.
That fire in the diesel power train exhaust is like a drilling rig fire explosion so awesome 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
I like that you redacted the whole video with that cool blur effect.
Good way of cleaning the carbon out. Should be good as new probably runs better now
As someone that works pushing and pulling heavy pallets and rubbish bins I can relate to just stopping in the middle of nowhere and taking a moment. It's tough.😢
when you film try to stand in one spot if you're gonna hand hold especially at night that way it might stay in focus I know you probably weren't expecting to catch that but still.
Thank you
As well my friend caught this and uploaded it off his phone I like to keep my videos as still as possible and as well I try not to talk in any of my videos unless I want to point something out like the numbers of the train going to fast for the camera or bad weather making it hard to see people will know the numbers or ill know the numbers and what to post but again thank you for the advice I'll try it next time
Thats what focus is for to go in closer. You wouldn't have to be that close to get a wider shot.
He wasn't "filming". Recording, yes. There's been no flmin cameras like that for years.
@@slycat1939 No, zoom is to go in closer; focus is to not be blurry. And moving closer is likely to be a better idea than zooming, when handholding at night.
Ouch! Poor GP40-2!
It's quite a sight to see the wheels slip like that! I'm not entirely sure how the wheel slip controller works (or sometimes, doesn't work), but even SD70ACe's smoke like this when they have wheel slip. The turbocharger can be heard cycling between gear-driven and free-running, making the "barking" sound. I doubt the turbocharger has failed.
The flames are likely from the over-fueled condition of the engine and hot exhaust.
There are sensors on the wheels which monitors the speed of the axle. If there becomes a great difference in speed of the axles on a bogey, the alarm will trip the overspeed indicator and open the circuit to that motor. The sensor is a small pickup coil in proximity to what looks like a large gear on the axle.
Yes, there's clearly no coincidence in the sudden and severe onset of wheelslip and the engine loading (and overloading) going haywire. That's the really interesting part. Turbo clearly working OK but exhaust equipment already red-hot is given a massive overfuelling blast. Sounds to me (semi-educated amateur) like the electronics couldn't cope with the load change and went a bit mad. Or did it have a flash-over?
Just a little stack burn.. No biggie lol.. Looks worse than it is.. We do those on purpose when units have a lot of idle time.. Clears all of the soot and oil out
Wow !!! Thank You For Explaining That Sir & I'm Gonna You A Metal 🏅👍✌️
Most trains have 2 or 3 motors running in them. Alot of people think the motors turn the wheels like in a car but they do not. They turn a generator that makes the power to turn the wheels. The wheels are electric. They all are hybrids I guess you could say. No transmission would be able to handle the torque needed to move that much weight.
and?
Broke a piston, that unit is running so smoothly, it couldn't sound better!
This is basically a chimney fire, only it's not going to damage your flue or risk setting your house alight 🤣
Back in 1988 at the museum we had the 1953 ALCO S3 Switcher with 539 Macintosh and Seymour 6 straight cylinders, that had oil and carbon in the stack, then our retired real engineer parked on the siding, and isolated the traction motors, and set the hand brake, then opened the throttle carefully for a controlled burn off, with super hot 🔥 🥵 flame leaping 6 feet straight up!!!!! I can still feel the heat at 50 feet away. After 5 minutes he closed the throttle, and the Alco was totally Smoking, until it cooled down a bit to inspect it, and run back around to the coach at the depot, but sadly in 1991 when they got the new and different manager, this Alco broke down but was never repaired but just sitting idle for the past 32 years wow, too bad 👎 😕.....
That would be really cool to watch
I really enjoy learning from you guys who do this. You all are the real deal.
I don't know much about trains, but I think you need to turn it off and get it fixed. Is the mechanical loss equal to the transport loss?
Dang that's absolutely awesome and it's a old ex conrail locomotive
Weird odds of just walking up and capturing this
OK all you railfans; did anybody consider that the reason for the wheel slip and the turbo flame-up was: too heavy of a load for one locomotive to pull. They needed to call out some booster power to get this consist where it was going.
PSR in it's finest moment. More freight and less power.
That stuff started with us long before PSR. It doesn't matter what the people with experience tell them they operate how they think is best. I laugh every time they ask for suggestions of how to operate more efficiently. I just stopped wasting my breath.
I heard Sanders was actually doing something useful and trying to end PSR
This has nothing whatsoever to do with PSR. Hint: "PSR" does not mean "wah, wah, this train is longer than I think trains ought to be."
Dang that thing looked like it took a shit trying to pull itself again after blowing smoke and sparks
why does this feel something out of stormworks.
What a sweet sound.
Wow. Always interesting when these locomotives start blowing flames out of the exhaust.
Just and FYI, not sure what equipment you're using, stop the quick panning and get a camera stabilizer. Using a monopod helps. Also, bring a good light or LED light panel. You may be able to see more than your camera.
Slight overspeed raising the engines rpm when the traction was lost also hot exhaust with the combination of old carbon deposits from sitting long periods at idle well you see the results I call it engine overspeed and turbo after burning off deposits nothing to worry about Iv seen EMD units having governor failure cousing overspeed turning out a huge fire show that’s scary as hell
The locomotive spews fire! Awesome
I take it this unit didn't have the units to put sand on the tracks to help with traction? He was pushing her pretty hard under the conditions.
All locomotives have sanders, as far as I'm aware.
''This things a piece of crap" Lmaoooo
Old or not, this thing sounds awesome! Damn, we dont have anything like that in our country :C
Hey CN & CSX Railfan, your video is perfect for my audience! Is it okay if I feature a short segment on my channel? Thanks!
I don't mind only if you give me credit and if not then no I'm sorry
@@Canadian_RAIL_FAN only an idiot, would use your crappy video
I'm not an engineer or a train expert, but if he's got a long train he should have had two or three more engines with that one. The pool a train that long. If this train is long. I think that's too much way for one engine to pull a train like that. Thank you. You need at least two or three engines with horsepower to pull along train. I seen them in other videos and after so many cars they got an engine in the middle to help it go along. Thank you.
Well it's more so it struggled because it was going up hill with not to many cars they normally pull that same amount no problem it was only that time and when you see trains in the middle it doesn't just help pull the cars it also helps reduce the stress in the freight cars knucklers and pushes the same direction as the lead unit to prevent the knucklers from breaking in the middle of the train because of stress on the knucklers so when you have a mid dpu it helps take some of the stress off by pulling and pushing like the lead unit
@@Canadian_RAIL_FANWhat that person is talking about is called a DPU It's a locomotive that is either in the middle or the back of a train hat helps the locomotives at the beginning of the train pull the load depending on how many cars there are in the train consist
I'm here for the professional locomotive mechanics
And in the end, the tired old worn out EMD walked away with the train.............
Nice job, you just destroyed a multi-million dollar piece of equipment.
That's an excellent old locomotive to have lasted that long and survive incidence's like that.. what other brand or model can claim that level of longevity :)
This must be really stressful for the driver 😮😮
Came here to see the engine on fire, disappointing. Hearing the not failed turbo(s) on the second try made it worthwhile though!
Freight train from HELL with those billowing flames and embers!
looked like burning build up of carbon and extra fuel from cold weather to me. Turbo sounds fine
The moment I heard 4436 sounding like an F40ph is when I knew something was wrong.
I would say the sparks occurred because of some sort of engine fluid was burning off in the combustion chamber or the turbo putting the combustion chamber into what i call "Over Pressure", or even just some slight overheating, and i would also say the wheel-slip occurred because they tried pulling too hard. That could have been a lot worse if the crew didn't notice or you didn't warn the crew, the locomotive itself could have caught fire!
When you need over 3000hp because of wet tracks, the usual single GP40-2 is *not* gonna cut it. I guess someone didn't want to be bothered with assigning an extra unit, either to this train, or to the available power pool (and thus not available to be assigned to this train).
Even before the wheel slip, this engine seemed to be struggling and moving really slow.
Wet rail didn't help.
Goodness sakes, built in 1979 and still up and running. Of course numerous repairs over the last 45 years
Pretty wild, definitely something you don’t see everyday, just a little too much train for one GP40
Did someone grease a portion of the rails?
I don't know anything... But I feel like he slowed down too much and then tried to bring it back up to a comfortable speed but ran it extra hard with heavy load
"Heave ho! Heave ho! You can pull, but we won't go!", sang the trucks.
the locomotive from hell ... fire from the exhaust & wheels
Ive saw a turbo blow ( even though locomotives technically have super chargers) lol its usually a massive flame followed by giant clouds of smoke. Then you shut it down before the whole thing goes up in flames. Its slightly terrifying
That locomotive had taco bell
And when I see writing on a train car I call it. It's the graffiti Express.
2:06 "this things a piece of crap" lol
I wonder if they have sand in the sanders or a bag on board
This is why you see mostly 2 locomotives together
I did not know a turbo can go up in flames when a diesel locomotive pulls too hard
there was no damage done, just the old girl blowin' the soot out of her pipes, this happens with the old 2-strokes, because they tend to run a tiny bit rich and the partially burned fuel builds up as soot that burns off when the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) goes through the roof.
Electro Motive Diesel model GP-38-V16-645 twin roots blower engine. That series engine producer lots of exhaust residue that can shoot sparks and flame up if the spark arrester bins are not cleaned each quarter. As far as the wheelslip, the WS-15 module is faulty.
Sorry but that’s a GP40-2, turbocharged not roots blown.
Great catch ! Greetings from Port Saint Lucie, Florida!
This guy had the courage to get close, but I was going to get away as quickly as possible 😅
I guess CSX couldn't spare an extra engine to pull the load up the grade.