The "Other" Blue Goose

[Pneudyne]

From the thread ‘Does anyone know what color the Blue Goose actually was?’ in the ‘Steam and Preservation’ forum, https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/740/t/292821.aspx?page=1

Erik_Mag

I was under the impression was that the “Blue Goose” was the Baldwin - Westinghouse gas turbine locomotive demonstrator.

That’s correct… of note were the B-B+B-B span-bolstered wheel arrangement and perhaps the worst attempt at a sharknose design that was ever built.

https://i.redd.it/kzmky3hj2i161.jpg

The “blue” color was apparently fairly dark, on the sides and roof: it is probably possible to recover the color information but I can’t distinguish it from ‘filtered’ B&W. The nose was a combination of high-visiblilty colors, apparently.

Hopefully someone like tdmidget can comment on the precise technical issues involved in the design, and its apparent failure. In my opinion the lack of regeneration alone made the idea problematic.

Some information as to how the Westinghouse “Blue Goose” GTEL prototype performed might be found in ASME paper 52-A-153 of 1952, ‘Operating record of the Westinghouse-Baldwin Gas Turbine Locomotive’. I haven’t seen that paper, But there was an article in ‘Di

[M636C]

While hardly a major reference, Kalmbach’s “Locomotive Cyclopedia Volume 2” illustrates the Westinghouse turbine on pages 158 and 159. This includes plan and elevation drawings and five photographs. These are reproduced well, and include one showing the turbines and generator being installed. The text notes that the colours were blue and grey, with orange stripes on the nose. It is possible that the lettering on the body was also orange.

This unit had two turbines side by side, each rated at 2000 HP, so less in total than the single turbine on the GE units on Union Pacific. This might have allowed more economic operation much as tried more recently on “genset” locomotives but there is no reference to this possibility in references I’ve seen.

A very interesting book on Gas Turbine Locomotives is Wolfgang Stoeffels’ “30 Jahre Gasturbinenlokomotive 1933 - 1962” published in 1964. It covers the Westinghouse locomotive on pages 60 to 62 with one diagram of the turbine generator assembly a photo of the locomotive and an artist’s impression of the turbine generator assembly, with the turbine partly cut away. It lists twelve references, in both English and German. The references are equally good for all entries. The Swiss built locomotives are covred in very good detail. The small US Army unit, subject of a Lionel model is also covered.

The only locomotives not included that I know of were those built in China.

I was lucky enough to find one of these Chinese locomotives in Harbin in September 1980. It appeared to be equipped much like the Russian G1-01 (or the UP GE units).I think it was known as the “Long March” type.

Peter