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Diesel From D To L By Vernon Smith an explanation of the machine that rejuvenate
The Diesel From D To L By Vernon Smith an explanation of the machine that rejuvenated railroading A special reprint of articles from the April, May, June and July 1979 issues of Trains. 1979
30 pages
IT is early evening as you stand on a suburban station platform watching an approaching time freight bear down on the center main. Accentuated by the brilliant white headlight. the dark quarter-outline of the train appears to linger motionless in the distance, but only for a moment, for with the enlargement of the image this deception suddenly gives way to the true speed of the rushing train. The platform trembles; the roar of the engine rises and declines as each unit passes; the rails vibrate under the weighted wheels; the self-created windstorm lifts the ballast dust-all these events mark the passage of the train. What about the motive power that propels this heavy. mile-long caravan at 60 mph toward the sunset, toward any of a thousand destinations?
Look at the diesel-electric locomotive and the life it leads. It is expected to promptly start a train with frozen journals out of Proviso on a below-zero night. to work successfully through a sandstorm at Tucumcari, to plow through snow over Donner Pass. to accept the merciless heat of the desert at Needles. to breathe normally at the high altitude of Tennessee Pass. and to meet head-on the wind and dust of Wyoming.
Our locomotive does not ask for, or receive, much attention en route-there are no attendants monitoring its condition as occurs on similar equipment at a stationary plant. Nor does the railroad diesel run at nearly constant speed and load. and at its most favorable rating, as do many marine and power-plant engines. Instead, when the locomotive engineer widens out on the throttle in order to kick a cut of cars, he expects the engine to quickly respond to his demands.
Stationary plants of comparable power usually are mounted on concrete foundations which absorb engine vibrations, but the railroad diesel is mounted on a steel frame and is dispatched at speed down an imperfect metal roadway that abounds in curves and vertical irregularities that continually severely test the whole assembly.
The railroad diesel is also versatile in its several configurations: it has whirled the old Panama Limited through Illinois at 100 mph, drawn heavy freights up Saluda Mountain, and butted 14,000-ton cuts over the hump at Clearing Yard.
When the locomotive leaves the enginehouse area. passing out of the hands of the Mechanical Department into those of the Operating Department, it will deliver its designed performance in an economical and reliable manner. Not bad; not bad at all!
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