Just an educated guess here. You would want to have a fuel service area
anywhere an engine is removed from the train, under 'normal' operating
conditions.
--
From the computer of
Frank A. Rosenbaum
Does anyone know how far a typical diesel locomotive could travel on one
> tank of gas? (In planning for operations on my new railroad I am considering
> whether or not to model fueling operations.) Thanks.
>
> Paul McGraw
> Seaboard Air Line Atlanta Subdivision
> Lawrenceville GA
>
>
Does anyone know how far a typical diesel locomotive could travel on one
tank of gas? (In planning for operations on my new railroad I am
considering whether or not to model fueling operations.) Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------
The original Auto-Train refueled their locomotives from a tank truck at
their Lorton, Virginia terminal. Here's a pix from my N scale railroad:
formatting link
Bill
Bill's Railroad Empire
N Scale Model Railroad:
A diesel wouldn't get very far running on gasoline.
Paul McGraw wrote:
Does anyone know how far a typical diesel locomotive could travel on one
tank of gas? (In planning for operations on my new railroad I am
considering whether or not to model fueling operations.) Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------
The original Auto-Train refueled their locomotives from a tank truck at
their Lorton, Virginia terminal. Here's a pix from my N scale railroad:
formatting link
Bill
Bill's Railroad Empire
N Scale Model Railroad:
*DING DING DING* We have a winner!
On a serious note, it would also depend on what sort of train the loco
had hauled, how fast it had been running and the terrain it had
traversed. These factors all affect fuel usage.
Cheers
David
Having the local heating oil dealer top up the tanks of diesel locos is not
unknown.
That's how the CPR commuter F units were fuelled back in the 1970s when
laying over for the weekend at Vaudreuil (?), especially in the winter when
the units were left idling.
--
Cheers
Roger T.
That's a hard one to answer Paul. It depends on so many variables that there is
no
easy answer. Here's an example of a prototype for you: When we were still
operating
our Southern Crescent, we would get fresh locomotives every morning in Atlanta.
These were four 6900s brought up from Peagram Shop and were freshly fueled and
serviced. The locomotives would be fueled again at Meridian, Mississippi. Once
in
New Orleans, the locos would go to a locomotive terminal area near the NOUPT and
be
fueled and serviced during the night. The next morning these same units would
run to
Birmingham, Alabama where they would be fueled again. From Birmingham, the units
would run to Atlanta where they would be replaced by fresh units from Peagram
shop.
Freight trains are handled somewhat differently as they tend to yard their
trains at
division points. A division more than 200 miles long is rare. I suppose there
are
some, especially out west, but even there 200 miles is approaching the limit.
When
the locos are taken to the engine terminal area (usually) they are fueled,
watered
and sanded. After we took ownership of the Central of Georgia, the loco
servicing
facilities at East Point's Industry Yard were de-activated and locomotive
fueling was
from tanker truck. The fuel truck would top-off each loco once a day. This
seemed to
be sufficient for the yard ops there. I cannot recall anyone ever running out of
gas
when the loco had been fueled within the preceding 24 hours.
An EMD Rep. told me once that an SD45 running 15MPH at 900RPM and holding a 1000
amp
load on the MG would consume 5 gallons of fuel per mile. That equates to a fuel
consumption rate of 75 gallons/hour. This is an extreme situation such that
"normal"
consumption rates should be lower.
.....................F>
Paul, On the Erie Lackawanna They bought the SD45-2 with the big fuel
tank so that they could run from Chicago to New York City area on one
tankful. I do not remember what the capacity of the tank was. Mike
Dickinson
Paul McGraw wrote:
An SD60, throttle 8 full load, 187 gal / hr. An SD70, pre tier 0, 191
gal / hr. How many miles between fills depends on operating
conditions, as you outlined. IIRC, both models are 4900 gal fuel
tanks, and as a rule, ya don't want to run the tanks down below 250
gallons.
regards,
Jerry
Bill repied:
The original Auto-Train refueled their locomotives from a tank truck at
their Lorton, Virginia terminal. Here's a pix from my N scale railroad:
formatting link
replied:
A diesel wouldn't get very far running on gasoline.
------------------------------------------------
The Auto-Train U36Bs were refueled with Diesel fuel from the tank
trucks.
Bill
Bill's Railroad Empire
N Scale Model Railroad:
In "Diesels West: The Evolution of Power on the Burlington", the book states
that the first switchers they used could work the yard all week on one tank.
Jay
Modeling the North Shore & North Western
C&NW/CNS&M in 1940-1955
E-mail is now open
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
I was told the rate of usage on the Illinois Terminal GP9 at Illinois Railway
Museum is 9 gallons per hour at idle.
Jay
Modeling the North Shore & North Western
C&NW/CNS&M in 1940-1955
E-mail is now open
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
On an EMD with mechanical unit injection, there is no fuel pump kill
switch tied into the fuel pump circuit. Run it out of fuel, and
bye-bye injectors. On units with Electronic Fuel Injection, there is
a fuel pump pressure sensor, which will shut down the EUI system if
fuel pressure drops below a certain level.
I am not sure what GEs do, but I don't ever remember seeing anything
in their fuel pump circuit either for MUI. Their EUI system also has
a fuel pump pressure sensor, so I imagine that they will shut down for
low fuel pressure also.
regards,
Jerry
Jay;
That sounds high. I would suspect more in the range of 4-5 GPH. An
EMD 16-710 with MUI is in the range of about 3 GPH in low idle (200
RPM). I'd have to go an pull info on the old Geeps, they did idle at
base speed on the governor, which is appx. 270 - 300 RPM, so they will
have higher idle consumption.
regards,
Jerry
Thanks Froggy, that was exactly the kind of information I was looking for
and had never previously come accross. I now have a much better picture of
how diesel locomotives were typically serviced.
Paul McGraw
Seaboard Air Line Atlanta Division
Lwrenceville, GA
Well I'd imagine the shrapnel from the block would go at least a
couple of hundred yards. :-)
Eric
Keith LaA diesel wouldn't get very far running on gasoline.
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