How common are air starters in locomotives? Also, does any company make a portable battery charger for locomotive batteries?
I think Alco put air starters on some of their locomotives back in the 1960’s.I used to hear them on Mack trucks. Joe G.
I have never seen any air starters on locomotives.
Some of the EMD AC’s have them.
…Unusual thought…As long as I’ve been interested in railroads…[decades], I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a railroad diesel engine started. Is the electric starter the norm…? If so, what is the back up if batteries are “dead”…? Can the prime mover be “jumped” and rotated from another engine…?
I recall the ALCO C-430 having air starters,couldn’t start the engine unless there was 100 lbs of air on the locomotive. It was a big chore keeping all the air leaks away. If the engine was shut down for a while it took another locomotive to air it up.
The SD80-mac has air assist starting system, EMD must figure that 20 cyl 710 is hard to crank>
Randy
We have many portable battery chargers, the best one is made by Lister… It’s fully automatic, means you really got to keep an eye on it!! The other ones the boilermakers call welders, any welder will work as long as the voltage goes over 72 volts or so. The batterys can be boosted from another locomotive and many times we have to do this if the locomotive is in a remote location. It’s a pain to drag cables around a RR yard though.
Randy
What gauge wire do you use, or wait tell me the watts of the starter and let me see if i can figure it out.
Adrianspeeder
O.K . The locomotives batterys are around 64 volts , the starters are fused for 400 amps, the starters are wired in series. Have fun
Randy
I know in the ALCO anniversary issue of TRAINS a couple years back there was an article by Steve Lee about the Illinois Central C636 locomotives that vibrated and jerked so much they threw themselves off the track…they had air powered starters that woke up the whole town at night, sometimes when you played the throttle in those unburned fuel in the exhaust manifold would burn and cause 8 foot flames, they said they often did that stunt at night while roaring through small towns. [:D]
The UP MAC-90’s I was around , all had air starters only. If they lost air pressure you had to recharge the main resevoirs with another loco. I hated walking by one when it was starting. I’d always end up jumping about 3 feet in the air!!!
Yeah I remember them too.
I valunteer at a place with some old locomotives, and we do use a welder with its cables for leads. It just seems to take forever to charge a battery. I always hear the city buses air up, and checked some books that I have and discovered that whatever type of motor, the housing part with the pinion is a standard size.
Instead of waiting for a battery to charge, I could just take a glad hand from shop air and light’er off.
I heard a Baldwin AS616 start up once,on the Trona RY.I don’t recall it having an air starter.There is nothing in the world like hearing a Baldwin start.[:p]
400 AMPS!!! Thats off my AWG chart. It has OOOO as 380 for chassis wiring.
Well, i’ll just say what my grandfather says (he was a sailer) “thats one big M----- F------ wire”
No you didnt read that, keep scrolling
Adrianspeeder
I’ve seen them “jump start” GP9s, the heavy cables ran out through the cab wndow and into the other unit’s cad, they were parked beside each other on paralel track.
When it came to jump starts, we had a 100’ set of 4/0 cables with welding stinger clamps on the ends. But now figure this out. When the SP ordered their SD-70’s they came equipped with plugs to jump start between the units. The SP in their infinate wisdom never ordered the cables from EMD. [banghead]
Dear Sirs,
CPR, and I presume CNR had MLW Built C-C Units from Alco Design that had Air Starters in the Late Sixties early Seventies.
They would Wake Up the world being Started at Three AM!
Crews HATED getting one of these ALONE on a Train, as you did not have long until the Air Leaked Down or into Train Line once the Diesel and the Compressor Stopped.
Most Engineers were not that Conversant with the Mechanical Part of the Job, and the Noise of Air-Start was Something Else.
The Railway went through a Keep-them-Dumb Phase to get rid of the Fireman on the Diesels as ; “He didn’t Know anything anyway!”
.
I understand Air Start on Diesel Engines has been around for Ever, usually changing the Valves and ‘Running’ some Diesel Cylinders on Compressed Air as an Air Engine until Diesel Fires.
Weren’t some of those early Diesels on the NYC Air Start?? NYC 1550??
Using the Diesel on Air?
Mack B-61 Diesel Trucks had Air Starters on Mixers and Dumps and were audible at major Construction Jobs all over Town.
I used to drive a 87 freightliner cab over engine that was equiptted with air start. Every morning, there would be a great deal of air stored in the tank. Turn the key to power the electronics, and crank the engine with your accelerator halfway down. You had maybe 10 seconds. Usually by the 7th second the firing will begin and you would slam the accelerator to the floor as the engine used the last of the air to finish starting.
In the event that you could not start, you simply hooked up another tractor’s air system by the trailer air supply to the dead tractor’s air tank. by activating the trailer air in the good unit forces all available air into the dead tractor to start with.
Barring freezing moisture in the valves you could theoratically crank all day.
I really never had any problems with this system even at 40 degrees below zero on green ice after the truck sat all weekend.
…Sure air starters were pretty widely used many years ago on over the highway freight diesel trucks. Have no idea if any exist now.