Going into notch one on start of day, loco amps and rpms jump up like it is in notch 4 or 5.
After about an hour, all back to normal… where to start looking? Anyone else ever experience this?
Thanks for any input
Dirty wheels and /or dirty track
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First: is this DC or DCC? Is it even a model?
Second, is this consistent behavior every time the locomotive is started ‘from cold’?
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Congrats to your private railway operations!
Did you set the choke and the intake pre-heater, before engaging the Coffman starter cartridge?
It is also that time of year, where you may need to de-ice the intake and exhaust vents, as we had temperatures already drop below freezing!
I don’t think I’ve even seen an air starter on a GP40. Although there was a cartridge start on the earliest GE railcars, with the V-8 gas engines, and I suspect on at least some others…
Of course a 645 doesn’t have a choke, or butterflies either, but it certainly would benefit, as direct-injection Cummins engines do, from effective intake preheat. As distinct from glow plugs…
I wonder how small you could get a functional model of an EMD engine that could be started and run – probably in 7.5" gauge to run with live steamers. The thought of a fuel-burning engine in HO is another thing entirely – to go with the Hornsby live-steam A4, perhaps. There are small aircraft diesels as well as glow engines that might be adapted with a small permanent-magnet generator…
Wait, is this a real GP40 or a model?
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If it were a real EMD, the problem might be nighttime condensation in part of the electrical system. To get the effect of ‘notch 4 or 5’ both in speed on the Woodward governor (mechanical actuation by a ‘digital’ combination of solenoids) AND high output amps (a function of traction-alternator excitation) would be unlikely with failure in either subsystem alone.
If Randy Stahl is still registered here, Loco1should PM him…