on 9-17-2013 i was videoing between Corsicana TX> & Mexia TX. next to UP line. two trains passed, each with a 3 engine lashup. directly behind coupled to the engines was a tank car…neither consist were carrying any other tank cars WERE THESE FUEL TENDER CARS FOR THE ENGINES TO SHORTEN TIME ON THE ROAD???
Could have been, maybe. Maybe, too, water to quell fires which might erupt from engine sparks or hot breaks or something else hot and spicey…
I doubt it. That would make for dedicated consists and flexibility would take a big hit. Next time look and see if there is a fuel line connection between the tank to the locomotive(s). [8D]
Were the tank cars red or yellow?
LION THINKS (Facts may be different—you get exactly what you pay for)
Red tank cars would almost certainly be fire fighting cars. The fire would have been caused by the train ahead of you, but you would still stop and try to put it out. They are carried when conditions require it.
Yellow cars could be fuel cars, I have seen this done with certain locomotives, although none recently. Did not turbine locomotives require so much fuel as to require such cars.
Maybe the engines that you were looking at were steam engines disguised as diesels.
Out in the desert, who knows how far it may be between fueling depots.
Maybe someone who actually knows will give us an answer.
ROAR
BN dId some experimenting with fuel tank cars between engines that were painted green and black like the engines. I think it was mid80s.
there is a big push to reintroduce aa compreessed gas tenders as the price of natural gas is at a historic low![8D]
Fuel tenders do NOT have to be in dedicated trains. All that is needed is a small punp in the engine comprtment to pull fuel from the tender into the fuel tank with an extra hose from the fuel tender to the engine… Any engine can be set up to run with a fuel tender or if not the auxilliary pump is left off and the extra hose is not used.
I read somewhere, that the fuel tender idea on the BN was ended because the cars would not stand up to the stresses of being a part of the engine consist - their frames were being beat to death from both the buff and draft forces.
Freight cars that make a round trip between orign and destination in a week are considered ‘high mileage, high utilization’ cars. Tank cars that become part of a engine consist can accumulate 200 to 600 miles a day - day after day after day. Mileage and utilization that a regular freight car will never see.
So why not take a loco that is being retired and add fuel tank on top after removal of traction motors ? That is built for buff and draft.
Your right BaltACO. the original tank crs were being beat to death by the buffering, but the new ones that BNSF are using for their experiment with LPG are built much sturdier.
As far as using an old loco, the weight of the frame and trucks would limit the weight of the fuel capacity I guess. Jus tthink about how much a loco frame and trucks weigh compared to a beefed up freight car and trucks.
Why remove the traction motors? You can use it as a road slug for slow speeds, and have it cut out around 30mph. Also, retain the dynamic brakes. The added resistance likely won’t be much of an issue…
When the fuel tank is full - it would make a decent slug, when nearing empty it would be something else entirely.
I would opine that if a slug were set up as an auxiliary fuel source, the weight of the fuel would be relatively insignificant as compared to the ballast that would be installed to replace the mass of the prime mover, etc.
Even using the existing fuel tank on a slug (assuming it’s left on when the slug is converted) would increase the effective range of the other locomotives by some factor. Installing a larger fuel tank (say, twice the capacity of the existing tank) could double a two locomotive consist’s range.
If the weight of the fuel was a major factor, we’d be hearing stories about how locomotives got “stuck” because their fuel tanks were low (5000 gallons is ~40,000 pounds), causing such a reduction in tractive effort that they could no longer pull their train. Maybe it happens, but I’ve never heard of it.
When CSX created their road mother-slug combos they were set up for both units to have active fuel tanks and for the mother to be able to draw fuel from the slug. In real world use problems abounded and there is nothing worse than having a mother out of fuel with a slug full of fuel and the transfer pumps not operating.
This discussion has been about dedicated fuel sources, the slug concept was just thrown into the discussion.
Found an article on UP’s fuel tenders …
http://utahrails.net/up/up-fuel-tenders.php
Looks like nothing current. Did you capture them on your video? Reporting marks would tell the story.
Robert
[8D] there is nothing new under the sun but when old ideas are improved upon the we have a better world!