What’s that small red sign on the front of NS 9685?
It says “autostart equipped” and is as it implies… the engine will shut off and start back up on its own.
Why?
Fuel conservation.
In order to save fuel. After idling for a predetermined amount of time, the diesel engine will automatically shut down. When power is again demanded, the engine will automatically restart.
Alot of our engines have that now. Saves fuel while meeting trains, etc. All the engineer has to do is move the reverser and the rear engines will restart. If the lead engine is auto-start equiped, they have these delay buttons that will delay the shutdown for 30-90-120 minutes, etc. Keeps the air up by running the lead unit and keeps the heat or AC on as well. Also keeps engines from popping the freeze plugs in the cold temps.
One trip we had two GE AC4400 engines. The lead unit was fairly new and had Auto Start/Stop from the factory. The second unit was a couple years old and hadn’t been retrofitted yet. I checked the fuel levels before leaving Boone on the digital gauges because we are supposed to notify the dispatcher if we have less than 2000 gallons.
We had a non-stop trip as far as Missouri Valley. We were there about an hour and twenty minutes. Our Auto Stop on the GEs is set for 10 minutes before shutting down. There is a an override that gives a 2 hour extension. I usually use the override on the lead engine. This trip I had a student engineer and he let the leader shut down. When we arrived at Fremont, I again checked the fuel levels using the same side gauges. The engine with the auto start/stop that shut down used 40 gallons more fuel than the engine that stayed idling all that time we were stopped.
Jeff
Not to be cute [:I] but why again? Surely this was all tested and shown to conserve fuel - so what would be the possible explanation for the difference?
Those fuel gauges are not that accurate (esp for such a small quantity like 40 gallons). Saving fuel is a big thing on the railroads. On the newer engines with satellite up links, they will start reporting back to the mother ship if they’re left idling for too long…(with autostop disabled)
There’s actually people that sit there and collect that data and will rank terminals and employees on fuel usage. Big brother is here.
thats not big brother thats just greed, if you speed it sends a message to them if you go into emergency and dont inspect your train they get the message, and so will your roadforman and trainmaster. ( and before you question the statement if you have a mile long train and go into emergency and 2 min later your rolling but said you walked your train… ) it takes almost 15-20 min to walk 1 direction and you walk both sides.( if possible) im proper use of independant brake . in other words they are sitting on the engine with you.
On the side of UP 1995 (the C&NW heritage locomotive):
Greed is the motive (or making a buck, which I have nothig against. There is nothing wrong with saving fuel.) While saving fuel is the motive, the satellite up links (aka big brother) are the means. As far as the emergency application? That depends on the type of train. As you know, certain trains do not require a walking inspection given that they fit the criteria outlined in the rulebook.