When these engines are in long term storage like. now with the downturn.Are they drained of coolant and batteres removed and special equipment removed and then towed to sidings or just set out for storage.I know in the Air Force we had eleborate proceures for storage of our planes.Like airplanes Locos are expensive…
Yes, locomotives in long term storage are prepared before time. They have all the fluids drained, the exhaust stacks capped, doors sealed, and other procedures done so that, when taken out of storage, they don’t need to take the whole thing apart to clean it out.
Sometimes. Sometimes they are just parked with stacks not capped, cab doors not locked, batteries not removed, and fluids not drained. It depends on how long the railroad anticipated the locomotives would be stored (because we’re not omniscient and sometimes what we think is short-term, turns into long-term), where they are stored (warm climate or cold), and if there’s roundhouse forces available to do all that work. I have inspected far more locomotives that were just parked with nothing whatsoever done than locomotives stored with all the TLC. Often the storage preparation will be nothing but a half-hearted effort to drain the coolant, a half-hearted effort to cap the stacks with plastic and duct tape that soon blows away or crumbles in the sunlight, and later when you fire them up there’s leaks all over the place, especially with the old water-radiator cab heaters, and the prime mover is full of greasy rain water. You have to clean out the grubby bedding and clothes and the empty Thunderbird bottles of the bum that’s been living in the cab, and later when you wonder why the traction motor blower doesn’t work you discover it’s full of a squirrel’s nest. Worse, some kid has smashed all the gauges and pooped on the cab seat, and some thief has started cutting out the copper.
On the bright side of things, I’ve sometimes fully paid for the cost of the locomotive purchased out of a dead line just with the diesel fuel still in the tank!
I recently drove by one Class 1’s string of 60-plus locomotives as recently built at 1995 stored on the outside track of a yard across the
When we store units, we just drain the water and pull the radio and HOT (box that talks to fred) and if it’s a long term storage (2 or more years) we disconnect the batts and cover the stack. EMD’s have a rain water drain that keeps most of the water out of the engine but GE’s need them covered rather quickly as they can fill up rather quickly
Shortly after sunrise Thursday morning, while watching the webcam, I noticed UP pulling westward a long string of what I would estimate to be 60-70 locomotives. The locomotives looked older, but I couldn’t tell how old. Some of them were SP. The light wasn’t good enough to tell how well buttoned up the locomotives may have been, but it was an awesome sight to see such a string. I presumed they were moving them somewhere for storage, but I have no idea if this was the case, or to where their destination might have been.
…What a shocking run down of how some company might leave their engines on a storage track…I wonder if that is because of a lack of any personnel to really prepare them or complete lack of follow up to prepare them to be in a period of storage time. Sounds like a lot of money being wasted in potential damage they {most likely}, will recieve over time.
That rain water down in the prime mover sounds kind of shocking.
We have a Peavy SW-1 that we leased out. The users would run it in notch 8 all day, then they let it sit once they were done for the year. Didnt do anything to it. Water got in through the stack, now the engine is seized up on it and I dont believe wil turn over. Im not sure if our SD45’s stack is capped or not.