How long do locomotives run before being turned off?

Hello. I'm trying to gather some information regarding how often a train engine is shut down-as in turned off. I have heard (many years ago) that some engines were never shut off, and even underwent oil changes on the fly, using oil packaged in a bag that would dissolve in the crankcase. I guess the oil would be added incrementally as old oil was drained off. Has anyone heard of such practices?

It seems that an AESS system is fitted to the most modern engines, as a means of controlling fuel consumption and noise, but I'm unsure if older secondary and switching engines would also have been fitted with such a device. Is this a cost prohibitive retrofit?

Thanks in advance,
Greg

Oil Changes: Oil can be added while the engine is running, through some provision provided, such as through the strainer box lid on EMD's. Oil changes require the engine to be shut down so that the coolers and filters can be drained back to the oil pan. Very important if the reason for the change is because of contaminated oil. To extend oil change intervals, Cummins has a sort of built in oil leak to a dirty oil reservoir so that through oil consumption, fresh oil is added frequently so that the anti wear and anti oxidation additives are not depleted. For EMD and GE they burn enough oil that this usually isn't a problem.

The habit of leaving engines idling for long periods of time is so that they stay warm and ready for instant use. With modern sensors they can cycle them on and off and still maintain enough warmth in the engine. Kim Hotstart is one of the companies that design and build stay warm systems for diesel engines and the basic unit that requires it to be plugged into a shore power system costs about $3000 I think. All diesels used for emergency operations have heating systems designed or at least approved by the manufacturer. So you might check with them.

At our shop.. most of the engines are left outside running when it's cold. Crews will usually shut them down and pull the battery switches if the temperature is above freezing. All of the newer units (road power) and most of the yard engines have some form of Auto Engine Start/Stop system, including the Kim HotStart mentioned above, or the SmartStart by ZTR Controls. Or both. Many of our older SD60s are getting the SmartStart added. All the EMDs with EM2000 onboard are getting the factory AESS retrofitted, same with the GEs with the DID panels.

If they're coming in for the mileage inspections (every 90 days), they are shut down. We do shut them down while fueling, but we have an indoor fueling facility. Many other shops leave them running while fueling, adding oil, water, etc. Some units in storage get shut down, drained, stacks capped, etc... but keep in mind, CN runs a pretty lean fleet - we don't often let power sit around for days like some other railroads do.

It seems to me thatit would be better to mix anti-freeze into engine coolant and shuut down. That would save moneyh on fuel and maintenance, and polllute the air less, when an engine isn't actually involved in moving anything.

The irony here is that a stated advantage of diesel locomotives over steam is being able to start up from scratch a railroad diesel in a matter of minutes instead of allowing an extended period for boiling thousands of gallons of water.

you can't just put antifreze in any kind of engine.
Large engines leak cooling fluid into oil (when cold) and need to burn it off, yet some bearing metals can not be exposed to certain chemicals like Glycol.
Some Gasket and O rings can not contain glycol in cold weather and will leak large amounts of antifreeze in to engine oil.

also at 50 degree's a stopped engine will drop its cooling fluids, so you think the EPA would be happy about dumping 110 gallons of antifreeze on road bed ????

at 50 degrees, an engine will drop it's coolant? thats news to me.

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:at 50 degrees, an engine will drop it's coolant? thats news to me.

Ogonz valve will open when coolant drops to 50 degrease Fahrenheit, officialy their set at 37 degrease, but at 50 they will start opening and oozing away your coolant.

DutchRailnut wrote:
also at 50 degree's a stopped engine will drop its cooling fluids, so you think the EPA would be happy about dumping 110 gallons of antifreeze on road bed ????

Dutch should have said " a stopped Ogontz equipped engine etc"

There are not to many railroads in US, that do not protect their multimillion dollar investments, with a valve costing less than $200.

Why are large diesels set to drop their collant? If that feature was designed in in regard to engines that do not have anti-freeze, perhaps that valve could be removed or by-passed. It seems wasteful to have ongoing fuel consumption, whether the engine's work is useful or not.

I am not aware of any mainline diesel (other than BL20gh)running anything other than water and anti oxidants.
most EMD and GE engines get damaged from glycol.

DutchRailnut wrote:I am not aware of any mainline diesel (other than BL20gh)running anything other than water and anti oxidants.
most EMD and GE engines get damaged from glycol.

I believe the new NJT ALP45 Dual Mode loco will be running antifreeze, not water. I thought i read that somewhere....

could possible be, since it runs two relative small engines with seperate cooling plants.
I would assume Gen-Set locomotives run anti-freeze too, but then those are not concidered mainline locomotives.

I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere, a few years ago, that either GE or EMD had claimed that their latest engines actually WERE anti-freeze safe. Am I misremembering, or is this a claim that people don't want to bet a million dollars on testing?

Allen Hazen wrote:I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere, a few years ago, that either GE or EMD had claimed that their latest engines actually WERE anti-freeze safe. Am I misremembering, or is this a claim that people don't want to bet a million dollars on testing?

The EMD 265 H was advertised as "anti-freeze compatible"..I am under the impression that both the GE HDL and GEVO series engines are as well..