On your typical modern still in use locomotive in terms of miles, how often are oil & coolant changes, spark plugs, drive motor replacements, drive wheels turned or replaced, trucks rebuilt, engine & generator rebuilt etc. I’m sure there are other things I haven’t thought of.
Well remember were talking diesel’s not gas motors,so there’s no spark plugs…
But as far as the oil and coolants,I’d say the only time those are changed is when the diesel motor itself gets rebuilt.
Locomotives over their life use alot of oil and coolant.I’ve took units to the pit before and watched the machinist’s put 200+ gallons of oil in the engine.Most only hold around 400 gallons.
And coolant usually is water that gets added on a pit or with a water hose located near the mainline.I’ve never really seen (boron) added.I’d say that gets added during a 90 inspection,or a “Q” check or rebuild.
Over time the electrical parts get replaced due to breakage,traction motors get burnt,governors fail,turbos blow and or lock-up and sometimes the whole power assembly (cylinder,rod,piston) fails.
I’ve even had a newer GE blow a fuel injector all the way out of the head [:O]
I was told by the maintanace that every 90 days the oil is changed and that water added as needed. then they are sent on their way.other items are changed as they get broken.
The spark plugs on a diesel are never replaced. 
I suspect the oil is more an hours thing than a calendar thing. Of course, with a Class 1 mainline locomotive, they’ll go through the hours pretty quickly.
Anybody have any insight on the use of spectroposcopy (oil testing) by the railroads?
Our RS-3 was leaking coolant - necessitating frequent refills (of course, ALCO’s think they’re steam locomotives anyhow, so it was somehow appropriate). Each refill included an orange “pill” or two. Never checked to see what it actually was, though.
Most scheduled service is on a 92 day basis. Many time oil/filters are changed. Coolant water is added as needed. Tire profile on the wheels is checked and either turning or replacement is done - it is more of a ‘mileage’ item. Scheduled ‘overhaul’ is something decided by the owner of the locomotive. Large items that ‘fail’ and need to be replaced before scheduled service many times are:
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Traction Motors
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Turbochargers
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Fuel Injectors
Jim
Oil is changed “as needed” not on a time basis. At the scheduled 92 maintenance period a sample is taken and sent to a Lab where a spectranalysis is done, looking at lubricating properties of the oil, and how much contamination by various metals such as Aluminum and Tin. The metal contamination indicates wear of various parts of the locomotive engine, and the rate of change since the last analysis indicates how bad the wear is. So a big increase in the amount of Tin in the Oil, means you need to replace the engine bearings, Chromium and Aluminum indicate power assembly problems, as does a lot of carbon from blowby of the Rings. Of course at some point the build up of all these contaminants means all the oil needs to be changed. Similar test are done to the coolant.
You Diesel engine experts: Spark plugs —NO!! But has the GLOW plug gone the way of the DODO bird?
I’m not a Diesel expert, and I didn’t stay you-know-where last night, but…
Our rescue truck (Ford 550) has glow plugs.
Our engine and tankers (International DT466?) don’t.
I don’t recall seeing any procedures that indicate our locomotives have them either.
Glow plugs are not used in most diesel engines. The glow plug is a device used to make cold starts in winter easier on smaller automotive diesel engines. They generally cut out after the engine has started.
A question regarding the life of a loco…usually it’s about 25 years, give or take a few, right? Is that expected to change given the newer units? Are they somehow more resistant, giving them any more time on average? Would they still get scrapped in the same fashion as the old ones?
I threw the “spark plug” thing in just for fun.
There’s really no such thing as average lifespan. Much depends on technological, organizational, and regulatory change – the locomotive will often have much longer lifespan capability before it requires a heavy rebuild than is afforded by the events that happen around it. Some of the very early diesel switchers lasted 40 years without even a heavy rebuild because the technology, use, and regulations didn’t significantly advance change and the locomotive was never heavily used, whereas early road locomotives such as the FT often lasted as little as 10 years because their technology and railroad organization changed rapidly and they could not be economically repurposed or upgraded with new technology. Organizational change such as union work rules, railroad mergers, length of runs, and weight of trains, often economically strands a particular locomotive model sometimes even before it needs a major overhaul. Air and noise emissions regulation changes will wipe out many older classes in the near future – or send them to other countries for a second life.
A locomotive can be rebuilt forever if one has economic incentive to do so, and if there’s enough people with enough incentive, the necessary replacement parts and component remanufacturing services will be provided by someone.
Until the mid-1980s many locomotives were scrapped at yards that paid little or no attention to contamination of soil and groundwater by the hydrocarbons and heavy metals spilled out of them, turning more than one former scrapyard into a Superfund site. Now the regulations are being enforced and tightened, and scrapping is beco
Typical overhaul intervals for road freight locomotives are as follows:
Diesel engine power assemblies (piston, rings, liner, head, injector) - 4-6 years
Main Gen, diesel engine crankshaft bearings - about double the power ass’y interval
Trucks and couplers - about the same as the power ass’y interval
Paint - based on condition at overhaul
Wheels - a couple hundred thousand miles. Truing as needed along the way…
Traction motors - based on condition when wheels are worn out and/or at the time of truck rebuild
Turbo - same interval as crank bearings
YMMV!