We Drive a Locomotive

From the September 1990 situation of Automotive and Driver.

We have been giddy from velocity in Cor­vette ZR-1s and dizzy from the worth of Cadillac Allantés, however we have by no means pushed a Normal Motors product that affected us like this earlier than. GM’s new SD-60 is a brutal-looking three-seater geared up with every part an fanatic might hope for: all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, an enormous midship-mounted V-16 engine, and brakes highly effective sufficient to cease a freight practice. Developed completely for tracks, it corners on rails. It belts out sufficient energy to gentle up a small city. And it is filled with computer-con­trolled every part—in actual fact, it is so difficult it takes an engineer to run it.

Sadly, the SD-60 is one vehi­cle you will not see a lot of until you spend numerous time hanging round tracks. Meaning the one option to sam­ple one is to undertake primary coaching­—which is simply what we did. We have been solely too happy when Normal Motors’ Electro-Motive Division noticed match to swing open the gates to its manufacturing facility and check tracks in LaGrange, Illinois, for us. We got here, we noticed, we examined—and ultimately fulfilled a childhood dream certainly shared with many a accountable grown-up: We drove a practice.

The GM man on the scene was Keith Mahalik, a younger engineer—mechanical, not railroad—whose job it’s to communicate with EMD’s prospects and devel­op ever-better software program for the pc programs on as we speak’s locomotives. Mahalik additionally has automotive proclivities: He de­scribe himself as “a horsepower man” who likes massive engines of every kind, some­factor his private transportation fleet confirms. Parked in his storage are a 1967 Corvette convertible motivated by a 427-cubic-inch V-8, a 1971 Olds 4-4-2 con­vertible geared up with the high-output W30 bundle, and a 1967 Olds 4-4-2 avenue rod pumped filled with nutritional vitamins by a Detroit Diesel 6-71 supercharger.

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Normal Motors Electro-Motive Division’s ft-103

Mahalik confirmed us into his workplace be­fore our morning plant tour. Fittingly, the massive brick constructing is previous its prime and somewhat shabby—like an outdated practice sta­tion. The 343-acre LaGrange plant com­plex was opened in 1935, a number of years after GM purchased Electro-Motive Engi­neering Company. The workplaces of the service technical engineers are a labyrinth of grey desks and metal partitions on the third flooring. You stroll up.

The Nineteen Forties have been the glory days for La­Grange. That is when diesel-electric loco­motives eclipsed their steam-powered forebears. Although it is onerous to think about now, steam locomotives had dominated the railways up by way of the Nineteen Thirties. They have been immensely highly effective—some professional­duced as a lot as 6000 horsepower—they usually had the potential for velocity. At this time, Japan’s much-heralded bullet practice averages 125 mph, and the French TGV, which hits 160 mph on its common routes, is consid­ered a marvel. Sixty years in the past, nonetheless, the quickest U.S. steam locomotives received passengers to their locations at higher than 100 mph.

Then, in 1939, GM’s Electro-Motive Division launched the primary profitable diesel-electric locomotive, the FT103. It took 4 of EMD’s new engines hooked in tandem to match the facility of 1 massive steam locomotive, however the FT103’s decrease working prices and cleaner-running powerplant—no soot, no cinders, no clouds of smoke—gained the railroad over. Variations of the slab-sided FT103 have been produced by way of 1955 and used for a few years afterward.

Inside a Locomotive Manufacturing unit

As we headed for the manufacturing facility flooring, Mahalik defined how diesel-electric lo­comotives work. “The essential format is similar as we speak because it was when the FT103 was launched. The diesel engine powers a generator, and the electrical energy from the generator drives six direct-current elec­tric motors positioned on the axles.” Doing it this manner eliminates the necessity for a transmission. “Every electrical motor acts like an infinitely variable transmission,” Mahalik identified. Because the output from the primary generator is elevated, the electrical mo­tor places out a easy move of energy; the extra juice that goes in, the extra driver that comes out. “One other benefit,” Mahalik added, “is that electrical motors have large low-speed torque.”

Extra than simply the format of locomo­tives has remained the identical for the previous half-century. After only a few minutes on the manufacturing facility flooring, it turned obvious that the best way locomotives are made hasn’t modified a lot because the Nineteen Forties, both. The scene was pure Smokestack Ameri­ca; it might have been nearly any time within the final 50 years. The woodblock flooring was lined in a dirty black goop, and an oily haze hung within the air.

We have been within the engine store. A lone employee labored at a forging press, stamp­ing out exhaust valves. They glowed purple sizzling as they fell into their metal holding container. Farther down the road, a protracted valve stem was being fuse-welded to the stubby tulip in a twig of sparks. The fin­ished valve can be nearly the dimensions of a clarinet.

It is ironmongery on a grand scale. “The SD-60 locomotive you will drive to­day makes use of our newest engine, the 16-710G3,” mentioned Mahalik. “It is a V-16, with turbocharging and aftercooling. We charge them by cylinder displacement.” So the 16-710G3 engine within the SD-60 displaces almost 710 cubic inches per cylinder. That is, uh, a complete of 11,353 cubic inches, about 186 liters. Mahalik smiled. Jeez.

Then we noticed one of many engine blocks sitting on the ground, ready for meeting. Welded up from large slabs of rolled metal and large forgings, it was the dimensions of a motorboat. A field of connecting rods was sitting close by. They have been as massive as tennis racquets and lots heavier. Selecting one up required two palms. “It is 25 kilos,” mentioned Mahalik.

To construct an engine that is going to maneuver mountains—a single SD-60 loco­motive can haul as a lot as 12,000 tons of practice—you’d anticipate all the compo­nents to be large. However pistons that weigh 59 kilos every? An 1800-pound turbocharger? How a few crankshaft that weighs 3400 kilos—as a lot as a complete Olds Cutlass? A totally assembled engine, prepared to put in, weighs 39,600 kilos. And it is so massive that workmen should perch on six-foot-high catwalks simply to regulate the valves.

The dimensions right here is staggering. There’s a lot metallic to lubricate in a 16-710G3 that the oil pan holds 395 gallons. Maintain­ing the engine operating at a protected tempera­ture requires a cooling system with 276 gallons of coolant. And your VISA gold card would wilt from only one fill-up; the tank can maintain 5000 gallons of diesel gasoline. Below full load, an SD-60 gulps 187 gallons of that gasoline each hour.

The SD-60’s engine is a direct descen­dant of the powerplant within the authentic FT103, however it’s technologically present. It’s a two-stroke, that means the combus­tion takes place each time the piston reaches the highest of its journey. Every cylin­der head is fitted with a single overhead camshaft that operates 32 valves—4 per cylinder, all of them exhaust valves. A mechanical gasoline injector is positioned useless heart in every combustion chamber.

The large turbocharger blows pressur­ized air by way of a pair of aftercoolers (“intercoolers” to automobile of us) and into every cylinder by way of a number of ports positioned close to the center of every bore; the ports are uncovered when the piston reaches the underside of its stroke.

The SD-60’s turbocharger, by the best way, can also be designed to behave as a mechanical supercharger. The turbo is so massive and heavy that it does not spin of its personal ac­wire till the engine is pumping out 75 p.c of full energy; solely then is there sufficient exhaust move to budge it. So till that time, a clutch-controlled mechanism drives the turbo off of the crank­shaft—identical to an everyday supercharger.

We have been strolling down an open corridor concerning the measurement of a hangar. A door opened to our left, and a roar issued forth that shook the earth. A person popped out and slammed the door shut. “That is a dyno cell,” defined Mahalik. “We’re operating certainly one of our engines.” We walked right down to the place the dyno operator was sitting and appeared over his shoulder. The engine was turning 903 rpm. “Purple­line,” mentioned Mahalik with a nod.

It was onerous to think about a lot metallic spinning round in any respect, however spin it did. At 900 rpm, the 16-710G3 was at its energy peak, booming out 4100 horsepower. When put in in an SD-60, the hulking V-16 loses about 300 horsepower to equipment—leav­ing 3800 horsepower to drive the generator, which drives the six 1000-hp electrical motors that drive the practice. You get a greater concept of the SD-60’s energy when you think about its torque, which measures—prepare for this—23,925 pound-feet at 900 rpm. As a lot as 65 Corvette ZR-1s.

We went by way of a few doorways and every part received quiet; we have been within the electrical meeting space. The tools was nonetheless imposing, even when the din was not. “The diesel engine really turns three mills,” Mahalik defined. The smallest, which weighs a mere 800 kilos, known as the auxiliary generator, and it serves the identical objective as a automobile’s alternator: Its major responsibility is to maintain the batteries charged and to supply energy to some equipment. It additionally energizes (“excites” is the technical time period) genera­tor quantity two, referred to as the companion al­ternator. The companion supplies pow­er for any AC units on the practice, comparable to cooling followers, and excites the all-impor­tant major generator.

We checked out some mains being wired up. Their outer rings, referred to as stators, have been as massive round because the consumption on a jet engine, they usually contained thou­sands of strands of wire intricately woven collectively—by hand, not machine.

“The SD-60’s generator makes 9900 amps close to stall and 1450 volts at prime velocity, which for this locomotive is 70 mph,” mentioned Mahalik. Once we expressed confusion as to how a lot energy that basically was, Mahalik chuckled and launched into the type of easy explana­tion engineers love to make use of to light up the dim cranial cavities of liberal-arts majors: “We wish to say that it makes sufficient energy to gentle 250 properties.”

Lest these watts, volts, and amps fly uncontrolled and provides somebody an terrible shock, they’re rigorously managed by a posh computer-aided management sys­tem. As of late, nearly each side of locomotive operations is, on the very least, laptop monitored, if not managed outright. The SD-60’s three pow­erful microprocessors preserve tabs on all diesel-engine parameters and may report, diagnose, and log issues on the transfer. They watch over the rows of con­tactors that management route and braking and energy move to the electrical motors, decide the excitation of the genera­tors, and handle the SD-60’s superior traction-control system.

All the electrical tools re­quired to place the juice the place it is wanted is housed in what’s referred to as the high-volt­age cupboard. We watched as a number of of those massive metal lockers—they’re about as excessive as a basketball hoop—have been wired up. The job appeared like an electrician’s nightmare—miles of multicolored wire looping in every single place, 1000’s of connections, a circuit board the dimensions of two workplace desks. Later, the cupboards can be put in within the locomotives’ cabs, the place they might take up your complete rear wall.

“Every little thing comes collectively right here,” Mahalik mentioned as we entered the large fi­nal-assembly corridor. At one finish, sheet­metallic was being fitted to the locomotive chassis, prepped, and painted yellow. An enormous overhead crane whirred. “Oh good,” mentioned Mahalik. “They’ll truck a locomotive.”

On the far finish, the crane picked up a freshly painted locomotive, sans wheels, as if it have been a scale-model Lionel piece, and hauled it right down to the place a pair of six-­wheel vehicles—the finished axle-and-­electrical motor assemblies—sat ready on a set of rails. Males, a few of them in white shirts and ties, stopped to observe. Warning bells clanged. The crane low­ered the locomotive onto its vehicles like a loving mum or dad laying their child in its cra­dle. Trucking a locomotive is all the time an occasion, defined Mahalik. A GM automobile plant would possibly spit out a brand new car each 60 seconds or so, however LaGrange seems just one locomotive each couple of days (there’s one other GM locomotive plant in London, Ontario).

Time to Drive the Locomotive

“Let’s go drive a locomotive.” Mahalik grinned and held out a pair of engineer’s coveralls he’d scrounged up. Scrounged, as a result of completely nobody at LaGrange attire like Casey Jones. Till I arrived, that’s. I skulked from the locker room out the again door into the practice yard­—purple scarf, engineer’s hat, and all, hoping not one of the workmen would see me.

Proper exterior the door was our experience—a spanking-new pair of SD-60s in red-and­-gray Kansas Metropolis Southern livery, cou­pled back-to-back. Sitting out within the solar­shine, on their lonesome, they appeared . . . massive. Actually massive.

Mahalik waved me up the steps. “Let’s hearth it up,” he mentioned. After turning on the elec­trics within the cab, he opened a door on the locomotive’s waist and motioned to­ward me. I twisted the only two-posi­tion change to prime the massive diesel. Then, as instructed, I twisted it the opposite approach, pushed on the guide throttle deal with with my proper hand and . . . wheeeee, wheeeee, went the starter. Rumba, rumba . . . BAH-RUMBAAAHH. The V-16 lit off like ten semis.

We marched as much as the cab, and Mahalik threw the reverser lever to “for­ward” and eased us by way of the yard at a strolling tempo. There have been rows of dere­lict locomotives parked to at least one facet. “We really take trade-ins,” he mentioned, nodding of their route. The cabin was primary: a rubber mat overlaying the ground, plain darkish vinyl on the three bucket seats, grey paint in every single place else.

It wasn’t fairly as inhospitable because it first appeared, although. These two KCS locomo­tives have been geared up with elective air-con, electrically heated win­dows, and air-ride seats. A 99-channel two-way railroad radio, a rest room, and a re­frigerator are commonplace. All of this luxurious is yours for a paltry $1.4 million. (To not fear, there isn’t any such factor as annual mannequin modifications. You may anticipate your SD-60 to go about one million miles between overhauls and final 15–30 years.)

Mahalik stopped the locomotive a cou­ple of instances as a number of switches have been thrown for us. Then we have been on what’s, fairly actually, the check monitor—a three-­quarter-mile-long non-public straightaway on EMD property.

“Let’s do an engine self-load check.” He motioned me towards the correct seat, the engineer’s seat. The instrument panel angled to my left. It contained gauges for electric-motor present load, air strain, and brake-cylinder strain. Jutting out of the panel have been levers for the throttle, the dynamic brake, the reverser, the loco­motive’s impartial brakes, and one other for the practice’s brakes. Getting stopped is clearly a excessive precedence within the practice enterprise.

Mahalik punched a couple of keys under the pc show display screen on the excessive­-voltage cupboard behind us. Dozens of inexperienced numbers winked on the display screen—­engine parameters like coolant tempera­ture, throttle place, generator voltage. The 2 that me have been horse­energy and rpm.

Mahalik defined that we might be standing nonetheless, however the primary generator can be on full, offering resistance for the V-16 to work towards—like an engine dynamometer. The present manufac­tured by the generator can be routed previous the electrical motors within the vehicles and on to an enormous grid resistor—essen­tially a large toaster—within the roof of the locomotive. The vitality produced by the generator can be dissipated as warmth. And to ensure the locomotive’s roof did not soften, a 100-hp blower fan can be blasting a gale-force wind throughout the glowing grid wires.

“The grid resistor is generally used for dynamic braking,” Mahalik defined. In dynamic-braking mode, the electrical mo­tors grow to be mills. Now they’re strive­ing to withstand the practice’s motion in an quantity roughly equal to their pow­er, that means you’ve got about 5200 horsepower price of brakes—sufficient to sluggish a freight practice down in all however hilly terrain. The electrical energy produced by dynamic braking is spent by way of the grid resistors.

“Open the throttle,” Mahalik ordered. There are eight throttle positions, and I watched the facility readout climb as I notched the massive lever by way of its journey. At place one, the engine was barely awake: solely 190 horsepower. By place 4, issues have been getting attention-grabbing: 570 rpm, 1310 horsepower. Place 5: 1765 horsepower. The noise was getting raucous. Place six: 2280 horsepower and 729 rpm. Place seven: 3350 horsepower, 824 rpm. Place eight-wide open: 3855 horsepower at 903 rpm. However wait, there was extra. I noticed a flash studying of 4133 horsepower, and the engine settled right down to a gentle 4055 horsepower. I opened the cabin door. Whoa! Hell itself was bellowing at me. I slammed it shut.

I eased the throttle again to idle. “Okay,” mentioned Mahalik, “now put the re­verser in ahead. It is all yours.” I moved the throttle tentatively. The locomotive crept ahead. The view over the stubby hood was surprisingly panoramic. I eased as much as 15 mph, then went again to idle. Yeah, that is it. Like driving a small motel. And we saved coasting. Three­-quarters of one million kilos does not have a lot curiosity in slowing down, and the tip of the monitor drew nearer. I used the practice brake. Forward lay the primary line, and the decision of shiny metal rails going off into the space. Perhaps sometime.

Going ahead was simple, however backing up was one thing else once more. The view rearward was restricted by the locomotive physique; we have been blind to the correct. Maneu­vering simply the locomotives was unnerv­ing, so backing a freight practice round a railroad yard should be amusing riot.

After a couple of uneventful journeys down the check monitor, Mahalik instructed we discover out what it looks like to tug a load. “I will put the rear locomotive into dynamic brake, and we’ll drag it.” Appeared like a megadollar model of “irresistible power meets immovable object.”

It had begun to drizzle, excellent for displaying off EMO’s newest traction-con­trol system, based on Mahalik. “Okay, full throttle.” The SD-60 howled and shuddered and shook and started creeping ahead. You would really feel the traction-control system looking for grip, pulling again the voltage when any of the six driving axles started to slide. “A radar transceiver underneath the nostril, aimed down on the monitor mattress, feeds the comput­ers true floor velocity,” Mahalik mentioned over the thrumming. We have been going lower than 10 mph. “When the monitor will get actually slippery, the pc mechanically places down sand to extend traction,” defined Mahalik, “however we do not fill our lo­comotives with sand earlier than supply.

“That is what it will be like dragging a heavy load in hilly terrain. You do not need to run a locomotive underneath about 12 mph, as a result of that strains the electrical motors they usually can overheat.” If extra energy is required to recover from the moun­tains, a railroad hooks up as many loco­motives as are required, then shuts them down on the flat sections.

Having use of your individual private 4000-hp locomotive would not be price a lot when you could not interact in a minimum of one act of juvenile delinquency, wouldn’t it? I throttled again to a cease and jumped from the cab. At my sign, Mahalik eased the pair of SD-60s forward and proper on previous me. There on the monitor was my handiwork: a dime and a penny, pressed as flat and easy as your greatest shirt. Ah, life is nice.

“Time to park it,” mentioned Mahalik with a shrug. However wait, Keith, we have not accomplished crucial factor of all. Mahalik smiled knowingly and pointed to the massive lever atop the instrument cluster. “Go forward,” he nodded.

Youngsters of all ages, this one’s for you: WOOO—WOOOO—WOOOOOOOO . . . .

Director, Purchaser’s Information

Wealthy Ceppos has evaluated cars and automotive know-how throughout a profession that has encompassed 10 years at Normal Motors, two stints at Automotive and Driver totaling 19 years, and 1000’s of miles logged in racing vehicles. He was in music college when he realized what he actually needed to do in life and, in some way, it is labored out. In between his two C/D postings he served as government editor of Car Journal; was an government vp at Campbell Advertising and marketing & Communications; labored in GM’s product-development space; and have become writer of Autoweek. He has raced repeatedly since school, held SCCA and IMSA professional racing licenses, and has competed within the 24 Hours of Daytona. He presently ministers to a 1999 Miata and a 1965 Corvette convertible and appreciates that none of his youthful colleagues have but uttered “Okay, Boomer” when he tells certainly one of his tales concerning the loopy outdated days at C/D.