As a kid I’ve often wondered why train engines were always running even when the crew is nowhere to be seen, for hours on end sometimes. This has always been a common practice out at FEC Fort Lauderdale Yard where the yard crew would build Train 218, do the brake test and leave the lead motor idling until its crew arrived for their shift. I’ve been there several times when two MU’d SD40-2’s would be switching the pig ramp (970) or setting out manifest freight (960) instead of one and then walked away from with diesels rumbling and turbos whining. Rarely have I ever heard a locomotive that was silent but many times these locos were unattended. I later learned that reasons for keeping them idling varied from difficulty restarting to maintaining air pressure to keeping the cab cool with a/c in the summer.
My how things have changed.
According to an FEC engineer that I chat with regularly there was a special conference call held last night with new management where each train crew was notified to change the way that they operate locomotives and trains in order to conserve fuel.
Effective Immediately:
“All yard engines will be shut down if left idling more than 15 mins.”
“All thru freight trains will shut down ALL engines if the wait is expected to be longer than 30 minutes.”
“Train crews must ask the dispatcher or train they’re meeting, to give a ball park figure of when they’lll arrive at the meeting point in order to arrange to shut down engines and crank them up.”
If an accident holds up a train (or trains) for a couple of hours, the
engines will be shut down."
In addition to new rules regarding idling, FEC management also implemented these rules for trains while under operation:
"All trains will start drifting their speed down by putting engines in idle instead of using brakes, except if the
Fuel savings on the railroad has become the norm rather than the exception lately. The railroads have many ways of dealing with idling locomotives, the newest options are auto start/stop equipped locomotives. Auto start/stop, is starting to show up on older power that has been refurbished/rebuilt, so is no longer unigue to just power built in the last 10 or so years.
With the FEC mostly in warmer climates, shutting down locomotives is definelty an option that can save tremendous fuel all year along, however, the shutting down of locomotives in trains while waiting for another train seems worth while until you can’t get them restarted. Usually the railroads don’t want you shutting down needed locomotives in your train unless your tieing it down on-line.
The NS dont care shut them down if your there more than 30 min, and if the are not tagged. Ill shut them all down and then if they dont start oh well ill sit there til the shops show up. they dont want you comfortable in 100 degree days or warm in the winter time. save the fuel so the stock holders can make money,
I wonder if California requires railroads to not idle like they have with trucks. Truckers are not allowed to idle for more than five minutes. It does not matter how hot or cold it is either. A truck engine burns about a gallon per hour when in idle I would hate to think of how much fuel a locomotive burns in idle. Also have wondered how much the railroads pay per gallon. I know it is not the same as I do with all the taxes in the price. Do railroads pay any tax with the fuel they use? Is it clear or dyed like farm fuel?
We buy it on the spot market IIRC. When I fueled them it was typical diesel color no ye.But I think it is taxed differently not sure. I just know it takes 10 minutes to fuel a dash nine that is down to 1000 gal and you use both inlets!
Oil production has peaked?You mean finally or like they have been saying isnce the late 60’s?
Well, looks like GE’s sale of GEVOs are going up considerably.
I wonder now if the remaining SD45s and SD40-2s that are in service will be retired sooner than anticipated as a result of the spikes in petroluem prices.
The problem w/starting up & shutting down locomotives on a regular routine is that they are not designed for that. In fact the builders don’t recommend it. This just causes more wear & tear along w/additional operating failures that creep up. Of course the rrs are going to do what they want regardless because the bean counters said so. My opinion on fuel savings is if the carriers are serious on the matter, then take away the gas guzzling SUV’s that trainmasters, rd frmn & other officials drive 100’s of miles monthly that are lucky to get 10 mpg. While at it, they also can think twice about sending out a local w/a few cars to go 50 miles or so, drop them off and come back lite power. That is is waste of fuel as well. Give the crew a break for a chance and send them home. Of course can’t do that because if the cars don’t go out, they will "fail’ which cuts into management end of yr bonuses.
The cars in question were not even requested to be spotted. They were empities that the ATM wanted out of the yd and were taken to a storage trk and be held there until the shipper wanted them. I have no problem pulling & spotting cars for my shippers when requested to do so, but just hauling a bunch of cars for no reason and fuel wasted by moves like that—hmmm.
If the railroad has to run a local that only handles a few cars every day for a few customers, they’ld probably love for them to go away. At least on some class ones.
World Oil production has not peaked, and it won’t peak for another 50-80 years. The problem now is limited refinery capacity in the U.S., artificial production limitations from OPEC, “greedy” investors in the oil futures markets. Oil could stay at $100/barrel or it could just as easily fall to $50/barrel.
Many of the trucking companies have already cut the top speed back to 62 mph. I just drove from NC to NM and even noticed some of the independents are running slower.
you dont see the big pic… there is a reason just might not be clear to you… they park them outside the terimal to elemiate termial dwel times to make the termial look like its running more “efficenly” by getting cars in and out in a “timely” mannor…even if they are only going down the main 5 miles to sit in a sideing for months… or they wanted that track for something else… moveing cars around for one thing or another that seems stupid at the time do have a reason… just that the ATMs and TMs know it is somehow to get them more money in a bonus…
But when starting up a locomotive or batch of locomotives again, does the engineer or service attendent have to drain water from the drain cocks on the EMD and GE prime movers each time ? I’ve seen this done on the EMD 567 series locomotives but not certain what the procedure is on the EMD 710 series and the GE “Gevos”.
Yeah GP 40 I was being a smart aleck. I have heard its peaked so many times that I gave up listening.
Great news today. 3 billion(with a B mind you) barrels of oil in the N Dakota Montana area. Plus the 3 is a early esitmate, one geologist has said could be up to 300 billion barrels. But still at 3 billion thats more than what Saudi has. Whos all for telling them clowns where to go?But we all know the rabbit kissers and tree huggers will fight this tooth and nail so we can all walk and wear hemp clothes.
On the BNSF if the temperature is going to stay 40 or above I will shut down the locomotives except for (1) to pump air to the train, if I have dash 9s or newer I will just isolate them as the auto start/stop or locos will shut down in 10 minutes but (1) will stay running to pump air to the train. Fuel conservation is the norm on the BNSF.
I believe that the alarmist peak oil assessments are as much a part of the green political agenda as manmade global warming is. The people who don’t want us to use oil would like us to believe there soon will not be any.