Do Freight RRs Wash engines?

CN_Hogger wrote:It makes you wonder how some of our coworkers live at home!

Wash racks for railroads fall under EPA guidelines. It is very costly to maintain wash racks, in addition to the EPA, state and local requirements for a roundhouse, maintenance facility.

Yeah, they do wash them occasionally. A really big terminal like North Platte will wash their locos.

The small railroads tend to take better care in that respect. On non-union railroads, workers can be used for things like that during slow times. I have washed many a locomotive. A hot water pressure washer is used.

The loco is first sprayed with a high-powered de-greaser. Then it is pressure sprayed with hot water.

I think it helps promote a positive attitude among the employees if the power is kept clean. Sometimes, you see locos whose only clean spot is where the crew wipes an area clean with their shoulders going in and out the cab door!

I've also seen locos so dirty you get dirty just walking near them (especially units used to switch carbon black plants). I once mentioned this to a friend of mine who was a retired chemical engineer. He said, "That's not filth! It's carbon, the same stuff we are made of!"

Dirty cabs have always been a pet peeve of mine. I don't live in a rat's nest. Why work in one? The worst messes I have seen are on coal train locos that I have taken for delivery to power plants. Especially the "comfort cab" models, left with windows closed on a hot day. A molding bag of garbage quicky makes the whole cab smell like a garbage truck. Many times I've had to take garbage out of cabs before the unit was fit to work in.

In addition to the messes already mentioned, I've seen cabs with the floors littered with sunflower seed shells.

Les

tahawus84 wrote:I see some real nice new paint jobs but it seems no railroads wash the engine? Why not ? any real reason beside costs?

Santa Fe used to wash there Red and Silver War bonnets at both ends of the line before sending them back out over the road on there TOFC/COFC high-speed express trains. I do not know is this is still done or not now sent's the BNSF merger.

I always loved to run those red and silver beauties, especially when they were clean.

For awhile last summer, BNSF used a pair of red and silver warbonnet GP-60's (wide nose version) for local work out of Rincon, NM. They were absolutely pristine, looked like they just came out of an Athern box.

My boomer engineer buddy told me he thought those were from a group AT&SF ordered that were delivered with bad paint jobs. So the factory had to repaint them in red and silver even though it was years after the BNSF merger. Makes sense.

As far as Class-Ones I've worked with, BNSF seems to have taken better care of their power, both mechanically and appearance-wise. I've run unit coal trains that used a mix of BNSF and UP power. BNSF has better consistency in dependability. And they have a 24-hr. help number that is always answered by a real person if you run into trouble with one of their units.

I don't want to imply that the UP units are clunkers. They will help you out too if they can. But in the area where I was, it was the BNSF (ex-ATSF) that shone.

Les

I work for a smaller RR, we wash the loco's when we can, but lately have been short on power and can't afford to lose an engine for a day to a good scrub-down. Right now they get a shower when they come out of the shop from repair, or if they are going to be used on a pass. special or something. As stated by the other rails, we have to clean the inside of our own cabs if we don't want to live like hogs. Most folks are pretty good about it, but there are a few who can't understand normal thinking.