Hi does anyone know of cases where EMD or GE (or any other major diesel for that matter) were converted (or manufactured) to use heavy fuel oil (like a dual fuel system), and what fuel oil was it (number), and what was the reason
I’ve heard about SD9’s from SP, but don’t know of any other cases, and don’t know whichoil was it (supose number 5, like in steamers?)
The GE 4500 HP Veranda Turbines used heavy fuel oil. I am not sure about the 8500 Big Blow turbines, but I beleive they used heavy fuel oil as well.
I know, but I forgot to specify, I ment diesels
many GE and EMD locomotives run on heavy oils but not in railroad applications.
Locomotives do not have fuel tank heaters or other pre heating devises and the tank itself would cool to much for reliable operation.
second its not good for system overall to keep going back from heavy to light to heavy to light etc and you would need to set up every fuel station to be able to supply both types.
Then a locomotive would need a second tank to start on light oil till fuel pre-heating starts working before your able to switch to heavy oil
so no its not practicable.
Most dual-fuel systems were based on lighter diesel fuels (Number 2) and heavier oils close to the area between heating oil and lube distillates. I don’t think that Bunker C (number 6) was ever really considered for use in dual-fuel systems. Jerry Pinkepank’s treatise in TRAINS about diesel fuels in the mid to late 1970’s covers this area well.
SwRI did a TON of alternate fuel research for the AAR in the mid 80s, including #6 fuel oil. They have complete GE FDL and EMD 645E3 engines there for testing. They even did some dual fuel testing where the engines burned ethanol using a pilot injection to get ingition started.
wildrails, in 1960 Southern Pacific converted a Baldwin DRS-6-6-1500 #5207 to run on Bunker C residual fuel oil at their Sacramento Ca. shops. The changes that Baldwin recomened for the conversion were:
1 Provide seperate storage for the 2 fuels, Diesel and Bunker C.
2 Provide heating of the Bunker C to reduce it’s viscosity by passing engine cooling water thru heating coils in the storage tank.
3 Add a filter system for the Bunker C before it was used in the engine.
The engine was started on diesel fuel until the engine and Bunker C were at operating temperature then switched over to the Bunker C, the procedure was reversed before the unit was shut down so the Bunker C would not solidify in the fuel system after it cooled. Also the Bunker C fuel had a higher BTU content than diesel so they got a horsepower increase while running on the Bunker C.
Thanks that’s really interesting
Didn’t they have to increase compression ratio?
Later, I have also read about UP GP9’s and GP24’s that ran on Bunker C. Does anyone have any more info on those?