Just saw a model of UP of a 3 unit, 8,500 hp loco, what a monster, who made them? how many were made? and are there any preserverd anywhere? any help out there? thanks.
Tatans:
This link is to a Wikipedia Piece on the UP/GETL 'Big Blows" It takes one through the various incarnations of their development. There is also one part on the UP’s forray into the Coal fired Turbine Locomotive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs.
And from RailPictures: a pictorial of the GETLs
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?locomotive=GE%208500%20GTEL
Also to YouTube for some GETL action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPh1JkIhoOk ( The video of #30 operating in the Los Angeles area is unusual in that they were supposedly 'banned" from operations in the LA Area for noise and smoke.
The Big Blows were pretty much a GE product throughout.
One of the more interesting details of UP’s turbine program was that at the peak of turbine operations, the GTEL’s were providing 10% of UP’s ton-mileage.
The downside of the GTEL’s was their voracious appetite for fuel, the 4500HP GTEL’s used almost as much fuel idling as an SD-70 uses in run-8. The UP was counting on the big price differential between bunker-C and #2 diesel fuel to make up for that. There has been a LOT of progress in turbine technology since then, so we may see another generation of turbines if the current price differential between natural gas and petroleum products holds up.
- Erik
I ran into a former UP engineer who ran the turbines. He told me the bunker “C” fuel the UP bought was the real bottom-of -the-barrel stuff. One time the UP purchased some Navy surplus bunker “C”, and WOW, it was like riding a rocket! He also said if you want to know what the turbines sounded like, stand by a runway when a 747 takes off, it was just like that.
Illinois Railway Museum has one on static display.
…Somewhere in the past, I was fortunate to be passing on a highway parellel to the railroad and several of these units were there close by…I can’t remember where and exactly when.
In my work we went on road trips {testing} vehicle components at times, and I’m sure it was under those circumstances I saw them. Memory tells me they were awesome in presence and size…!