They sure are kept clean!!!
When I was a kid we took a vacation that included riding the Panama Limited from Chicago to New Orleans. During our staty in New Orleans one afternnon we too a water tour of the port area along the Mississippi. During the tour while we were in the middle of the river, it sounded like a B&O Timesaver was ‘right there’ - it was a tow boat powered by some number of good old EMD 567’s chanting their way along the river in Run 8.
Not surprising in a business that includes a job titled “wiper…”
Railroad-size diesel engines from all of the builders are common in marine usage. I’ve heard EMD engines on the M/V “Incan Superior” as it passed under the Duluth Aerial Bridge.
Don’t forget that Alco, Baldwin & Lima bought maritime diesel builders (Mackintosh & Seymore, Delavergne and Hamilton) to provide them with a prime mover. FM adopted an engine originally built to power submarines. And Winton was a power in the maritime market before GM bought it.
Consider this. The US built over 1000 LST hulls in WW2. Every single one had two 1000hp Model 567 engines. That’s 2000 plus NW2’s that never got built (or a thousand E6’s). That’s why EMD wasn’t allowed to build switchers during the war. And while everyone knows about EMD and Detroit Diesel Division (Model 6-71 engines for LCM’s and M4A2 tanks for the Marines and Russians), Cleveland Diesel Engine Division (the old Winton organization) supplied thousands of Model 278 and 268 engines to the Navy
“War production for CDED would ultimately amass 5,562 Navy ships – 141 Submarines, 376 Tugs, 399 Destroyers, 1140 Sub Chasers/Escorts, 1817 Landing Craft, 992 Minesweepers/Layers, 299 Cargo Ships, 89 Tenders, 48 Transports, 97 Patrol/Rescue/Salvage Vessels, 85 Carriers/Ammo Ships/Other and 79 Battleships, Cruisers and Gunships. 39.5% of these used CDED for propulsion and auxiliary, 23.75% for propulsion only and the remainder for auxiliary only. 21,709 engines were ultimately built strictly for WWII service”
The Saturn Vs, Space Shuttles, and (eventually) SLSes all rolled out to the pad on the back of a pair of ALCO 251Cs.
So, two C628s or one C855. Your pick.
Speaking of engine rooms, when I was a kid we took a boat ride down to Mount Vernon from DC. On that boat, you could look down into the engine room and watch the triple compound steam engine run. BIG fun!
Ed
When I worked on Neville Island at the Dravo plant EMD engines were being installed on tow boats.
I still occasionally hear them as they leave the Emsworth locks on the Ohio River. It can be hard to tell whether I’m hearing a tow boat or a CSX train on the far bank of the river. Usually the tow boats take longer to move away though and they don’t whistle for road crossings.
Did that on the BobLo boats on the Detroit River. All that brass, and it really shined!
Spent a summer on what was probably the last Liberty Ship in the Navy inventory at the time. Didn’t get down to the engine room often, but it, too had a triple expansion steam engine. Eighty-eight turns was max, and if it was doing that, you knew it…
There are a lot of good engine room videos, but for best drama and excitement, this is my favorite. It walks through the crew quarters, and then gets serious when the engine room door opens. It works best at high volume.
The VTE engines used in the Liberty Ships were a wartime necessity in consideration of the inexperienced ship’s engineers that were being trained and hired at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnXk1nccQs
There is also a video of the engine room of the Jeremiah O’Brien on YT. It’s a little longer, and includes some train sound effects at the beginning and end…
I was on YAG40, the Granville S. Hall.
I had a short cruise on the Liberty John Brown about 15 years ago. I could go into the engine room but not to the lower level. I could watch that engine for hours! There’s a huge triple-expansion engine here in Toronto in a city pumping station. It’s no longer used but has been kept intact and can be run on compressed air and often is during the “open doors Toronto” event that they used to have. I was told that the makers of the movie Titanic filmed it while running and that’s the engine that you see in the movie.