Some light reading from the Railspot list.
Terry
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cy and Wynema Martin <cymartin@f...>
To: railspot@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 00:14:31 -0500
Subject: RS: FW: Old Hogs might enjoy this!
Message-ID: <2.2.16.20011031235925.3fbfc162@p...>
Forwarded FWIW.
Cy
The following was written by someone at E.M.D. early in the development
of their locomotives. It was found in an instruction booklet which was
issued for an E.M.D. locomotive school in the 1940's during the war.
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FACTS AND FABLES OF DIESEL FREIGHT UNITS
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A Diesel engine is an amazing assortment of bolts, nuts, valves,
heaters, coolers, expanders, contractors, and other gadgets too numerous
to mention here. All of these are screwed and welded together to form a
single unit. This resulting unit is expected to start out with below the
usual grade of fuel oil and change it into BTU - then the BTU into MEP -
the MEP into RPM - the RPM into BHP - the BHP into KWH. Then the
electrical gear takes over and makes a BHP out of KWH and RPM out of
BHP, and then, if everything is in working order, you finally get MPH.
All of this takes place in a fraction of a second in the confines of an
all-too-small engine room. This gives you a rough idea of the confusion
characteristic to all Diesel Freight Units.
The Diesel engine was invented by a man named Dr. Diesel. The Writer has
checked back into his life and character, and is
satisfied that this was not done with any malicious intent, as he was a
very fine man and loved the human race. Had the idea been
left as he left it, nothing would have happened to it. The
responsibilities rest upon the shoulders of certain individuals and
corporations and Diesel Engine manufacturers, so do not hold it against
Dr. Diesel. The names of these men can be furnished
during the discussion of this paper, if anyone feels that they might
want them.
There are three main classes of Diesel engines. Namely, High-speed
Diesels, Slow-speed Diesels, and No-speed Diesels. The
principal difference is that the High-speed Diesel runs faster than the
Slow-speed Diesel, and they both run faster than the
No-speed Diesel. The High-speed Diesel makes noise faster than the
Slow-speed Diesel. A Slow-speed Diesel can become a
High-speed Diesel by the simple act of speeding it up. Either a
High-speed Diesel or a Slow-speed Diesel can become a
No-speed Diesel by merely shutting the fuel oil off. This is
accomplished very easily. None of the Diesel engines invented up to
now will run without fuel oil. This seems to be a characteristic of a
Diesel engine. The engine can also be shut down by placing a
monkey wrench in an appropriate place so as to jam the gear train, but
as this method is not recommended by the
manufacturer's association, we will omit it in this paper.
A Diesel engine has several important parts that should be mentioned,
among them is the cylinder. This is a long round hole filled
with air that is covered on one end with a cover full of holes
containing valves that admit fuel, air and sometimes water and
carelessly placed tools. These valves open and close according to a
predetermined sequence of events. The other end is plugged
with a movable plug called a piston. This is free to move up and down
within certain limits and would come out altogether if it
were not for the connecting rod. This connecting rod is important, too,
as it is what changes MEP into RPM, and without it we
would be stuck with the MEP, which no one knows how to use up to now.
This whole assembly is held in place by crab studs
and nuts to prevent it from joining the bird gang. Each cylinder has
four crabs, so we might be more considerate of the noise that
the engine makes, considering the noise that you would make if you had
the same number of crabs.
To start a Diesel engine it takes a certain amount of knowledge, steady
nerves, and a certain amount of bravery. First, you set all
of the switches in the correct position, with the fuel pump shut off.
Then open the relief valves and push the starter button all of
the way in. If nothing happens, call a Road Foreman, and he will call a
Diesel man to put the starter fuse in for you. Then try
again. Let the engines turn several revolutions in this way. The primary
purpose of this act is to clear the cylinders of any water
that might have leaked in through the above-mentioned holes, or any
other holes that were not mentioned. But it also serves
another purpose, and that is helping the engineer gain a little
confidence before giving it the works. It also adds prestige on the
part of the onlookers that might be standing around-namely, the fireman,
brakeman, and any laborers and EMD men (if it isn't
too early in the morning). After closing the relief valves and turning
on the fuel pump, you shut your eyes and push the starter
button again. If everything is as it should be, everything about you
will begin to tremble and then shake and the damnedest noise
that you have ever heard will begin, and then you release the starter
button, for this noise and commotion are a sure sign that the
engine has started. When the smoke has cleared away and the onlookers
have returned, look wisely at the engine oil pressure -
then drop the isolation switch a few times to hear it spit. This never
fails to impress the fireman and brakeman. Of course, this
will not impress the EMD men, because by this time they will have
already gone back to their hotel so that they will not be
around when the floating pistons let go. Then, before you forget it, go
up into the cab and open the throttle to see if the traction
wheels will turn over. It is most embarrassing to be out on the main
lines, running 60 miles per hour, and find out then that the
traction wheels are not revolving.
There are many confusing things about a Diesel engine that you will
learn as you gain experience. Among them is the indicator. It
is considered a good practice to take indicator readings at regular
intervals. An indicator is a gadget consisting of strings, levers
and pulleys. The idea is to get a diagram drawing on a piece of paper.
This diagram has to do with MEP mostly. To obtain this
diagram, the instrument is screwed into a hole in the cylinder cover,
mentioned before. It is connected by strings and other
suitable gear to an oscillating part of the engine. Here, again, steady
nerves and patience is necessary. The idea is to engage a
loop on the end of the oscillating string to a hook attached to the
indicator. The best way to describe this operation is to
compare it with attempting to thread a sewing machine that is underway.
If you are lucky and manage to engage a loop in the
hook, the string is usually broken. The hook has never been known to
break. After breaking a number of strings, one's patience
is sure to wear out. Then the proper thing to do is to take a clean card
and draw in a diagram like the one in the instruction
book. This card is called an inphase card. With much less effort, you
can make a hand-drawn card known as an out-phase card.
But the out-phase cards are practically useless. So are the in-phase
cards.
Another confusing thing about a Diesel freight unit is the interlocks.
It is fairly infested with interlocks. There is one that keeps the
unit from backing up while you are going forward. This, incidentally, is
the only useful one up to now. But there should be
another lock on the unit, and that is on the door between the engine
room and cab, so that when the Road Foreman goes back
into the engine room to see if there is any water in the toilet water
tank, the fireman can lock this door and keep him back there
where he belongs, but will never stay. After all, the engineer was put
on the unit to run the train, so why not let him?
Another confusing so-called interlock keeps you from starting the engine
with the overspeed trip kicked out. Here, a word of
advice - when you fail to start an engine on account of someone having
stopped it by tripping this device, phone the yard office
at once and report water in the fuel oil. While you are draining the
water out of the lines, filters, pumps, tanks, and so forth,
someone is sure to discover this thing tripped and he will, of course,
reset it. Then you are ready to try again. However, don't
forget to notify the Road Foreman that you are now ready to go,
otherwise he might get tired of waiting, get disgusted, and go
up town and get drunk.
There is another interlock on the starting contactors that keeps the
engine from loading up when the starting contactors are stuck.
For some unknown reason this contactor seems to be unusually hard to
locate, but there is a movement afoot to have a seeing
eye dog assigned to each unit to lead the engineer to the contacts, so
that he can tell the fireman to tell the brakeman to get him a
flagstaff so that the fireman can break the stuck contacts loose.
Meanwhile, the conductor will be walking many miles up and down, up and
down, the tracks and wearing out his shoes, so it is
important to hurry. If he is afflicted with high blood pressure, it is
very important that you hurry, and if he has already used up his
shoe coupon, it is most very important that you hurry.
Diesel engines have innumerable troubles. They have combustion trouble,
lubrication trouble, and smoke trouble. It has also
been reported that they have female trouble -- this report, however, was
checked by the writer, and it was traced to a
typographical error where the word "engineer" was misspelled "engine."
It would not come within the scope of this paper
anyway, so it will be omitted. It might be taken up a little later in
the course of conversation when we try to determine why are
Road Foremen necessary and what do EMD men put on their expense
accounts.
The power of a Diesel engine is measured in horsepower. Why, no one
seems to know. Therefore, if you want to measure the
power of an engine, the natural thing to do is to find a horse, hitch
him to the engine and see which could pull the most. Here a
word of caution is necessary. First, horses are scarce, and even if you
could find one, it would be another problem to hitch him
up to the locomotive - for with so many Road Foremen around who resemble
the south end of a horse headed north, it would
be very easy to hitch the Road Foreman up to the locomotive and put the
horse in the cab with the engineer. Not that the
engineer would mind, because he would be much better off with a whole
horse in the cab with him than with just the worst part
of one. But if there was no Road Foreman in the cab, who would ever
think to look back in the log book and report everything
that the man in front of him reported. And, after all, that is the only
way that the Company can tell if the Road Foreman has ever
been on the locomotive, so it is very important that he do this so that
the Company will remember to pay him each month.
Anyway, getting back to the horse, it would be very hard to find one
that wouldn't be scared by the faces of the EMD men
around, and he would probably end up by kicking the nose of the unit in
and going home.
So it would be much better to rely upon the instruments that the
electrical men have invented. They will indicate this power in
terms of Amps, Volts or Kilowatts, depending on the individual whims of
the electrical designer. With a little arithmetic these
values can be converted to HP as nearly accurate as by using a horse. Of
all the power generated, some goes to work, some
goes to friction, some goes to heat, and the rest goes to hell, which is
all that you could expect under the circumstances.
The writer recommends that the prospective Diesel engineer does not take
these engines too seriously, or study about them too
much in trying to learn all about them. By the time that he becomes
familiar with one particular type of engine, it is obsolete,
because the designer has the thought of some more interlocks to
incorporate into the engine. It has also been noted that once an
engineer gets to spending too much time thinking about this Diesel, it
is almost impossible to get him off of that track. The best
way discovered so far, to prevent this mental derangement, is to lay off
as often as possible. A dimly lighted bar is the best
treatment for this type of sickness. If the bar is frequented by blondes
or brunettes, the treatment is double effective.
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