Locomotive Fuelling

Where do the locomotives get refueled? DO they get refueled at the layover like middleboro pawtucket bradford ETC? How long can they go before getting refueled?

Northside its all done @ BET southside is done at South Hampton. Locomotives are not refuled at outlying points but I was told they use to do it by truck before but that ended sometime ago. I would say most sets need to be refuled at least once every 2 days depending on the use, screamers burn roughly 100 gal an hr while supplying hep so they obviously need to see the pump more. I know once the tank gets under 500 gals on the northside most equipment will be sent to bet.

100g/h... wow. How much do they hold?

I believe the screamers have 3000 gallon fuel tanks.

That number is a little high all locos on mbcr property have around 2000 gals The MPs have the most which is roughly 2500

An interesting thing to look for at North Station (or elsewhere) -- digital fuel gauges on the Downeaster's P42s, right on the tank. Maybe this is common on modern locomotives, but it surprised me when I saw it.

Most fuel gauges are right on the tanks, digital ones are new though.

AEM7AC920 wrote:That number is a little high all locos on mbcr property have around 2000 gals The MPs have the most which is roughly 2500

Even thats a touch high. The highest reading I've seen given by mechanical forces is 1700 gallons, with the exception being the 010 and 011. When figuring run time, screamers can run about 18 hours on 1600 gallons, while the rest (except 010 and 011) can run 40 hours on the same amount of fuel.

GRSGuy wrote:

AEM7AC920 wrote:That number is a little high all locos on mbcr property have around 2000 gals The MPs have the most which is roughly 2500

Even thats a touch high. The highest reading I've seen given by mechanical forces is 1700 gallons, with the exception being the 010 and 011. When figuring run time, screamers can run about 18 hours on 1600 gallons, while the rest (except 010 and 011) can run 40 hours on the same amount of fuel.

My numbers are directly from the locomotive manual as I said previously all locomotives hold "around 2000 gals."

F40PH 1800 gal
F40PH-2C 2000 gal
MP36PH 2500 gal

How are the MPG's on the locomotives....

ck4049 wrote:How are the MPG's on the locomotives....

Heh. Lets just say that CSX's 100 miles per gallon is the result of some real good arithmetic lol.

CSX's claim is that they can move one ton of freight 436 miles on one gallon of fuel. The thing is, the general public has no idea how much a train weighs (several hundred tons) and how once a train gets up to speed, momentum from the train's mass allows it to coast for a long time without much if any tractive effort from the locomotive(s), or how grades work on trains.

In the case where commuter trains are shorter, lighter (because of train length), constantly hard-accelerating and hard-stopping, and given the distance between stops, the fuel economy is SIGNIFICANTLY less.

ck4049 wrote:How are the MPG's on the locomotives....

AFAIK MPG isn't calculated for locomotives (I've never seen it mentioned, at any rate). This is probably due to the disconnect between engine RPMs and train speed: a given train might crawl up a hill at 5 MPH with the engines screaming in notch 8, but coast along level ground at 60 MPH in a lower notch. The closest equivalent I've seen is gallons consumed per hour, which obviously varies quite a bit between idle and notch 8.

someone correct me if I am wrong! From what I have heard the screamers consume just as much fuel sitting in station in high idle with HEP on, as they would in notch 8?

That is correct. The prime mover of the F40PH is always running in the equivalent of run-8 when in HEP mode. The throttle controls the power fed to the traction motors in this mode.