EMD Model 40

Yet another one for the forums: When were the EMD Model 40s first released? A wild hare struck me about buying one and just curious if it would be used in the era I model. As usual Thank you for any assistance that can be provided.

Check this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_Model_40

It’s a place to start.

Dave, hon30critter, could probably tell you all about them.

Mike.

That actually answers my questions. Thank you for your assistance.

I had read a few years ago that there was one in florida still in use. Might not be the case now.

Wolfie

There is a dormant model 40 at the Martindale Feed Mill in Valley View, TX, visible off I-45 (exit 487). Its at the far south end of the spur. You can even see it on the Google satellite view.

Map

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I don’t know if it is the same one you are referring to, but there was a Model 40 running in a phosphate mine north of Ocala, FL as late as 1989.

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I worked for General Engine & Equipment Co. at the time, the Industrial Distributor for 2 cycle Detroit Diesels on the West Coast of Florida. This was just before Penske bought Detroit Diesel, and I went to work for Cummins.

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Anyway, that little locomotive was a special kind of miserable. The noise that 2 naturally apsirated 6-71 diesels make is something very few people will ever be exposed to again. One of the benefits of going to work at Cummins was the fact I would never need to see that thing again. No recording of a 6-71 (or worse, a 6V-53) will ever sound as aggravating as being there in person.

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I don’t know how they ever kept an employee to operate it.

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-Kevin

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I hope the hare was not injured…

Oh come now, Detroits don;t sound that bad. Back when I was in my teens, I helped my neighbor ovr the summer with his trucking business. He bought an old Freightliner cabover that had a Detroit in it, I remember when we first got intot he motor to clean everything up, the rather odd arrangment of valves threw him, but it was actually through my railroad hobby I knew it was a 2 stroke motor and how it worked. All the other trucks in his fleet has Cummins engines.

–Randy

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Two stroke Detroit Diesels in trucks were almost always turbocharged, which changed the engine noise quite a bit. Most people also never hear a truck engine operate under full load in the open, unless you run the vehicle on a dynomometer. Over the road truck cabs are pretty well insulated for driver comfort compared to industrial equipment.

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In industrial applications these engines were almost always naturally aspirated, and industrial engines also have a duty cycle that is under full load nearly all the time. Most trucks only peak at full rated output during accelleration or hard grade pulls.

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The term “naturally aspirated” is confusing for Detroit Diesels because in “naturally aspirated” configuration they still required a roots type blower to supply air pressure to the air box in the block.

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Without the turbocharger dampening the intake and exhaust tone caused by the gear driven blower, they make a screaming noise under load that sounds like a million plates of glass breaking at once.

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United States Sugar in Clewiston ran hundreds of M.R.S. tractors with 4-71 naturally asprirated engines into the 1990s. When several of these would run by towing “3 up” loaded cane bins, you would get a headache that would last for days.

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Yes, they did sound that bad, and that Model 40 was one of the worst!

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-Kevin

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