Re: Prototype diesel fuel range

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: Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 500 helpful sites:

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: Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 500 helpful sites:

*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.
of the Great Eastern Railway

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: 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: History of N Scale: Links to over 500 helpful sites:

Before the government killed the BCR Budd cars that is how they were refueled in Lilloett.
Regards Bill Dixon

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

Why did they change locos at Atlanta and not just run them through to DC?
Bill Frazier>

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

Hi.
5000 gallons.
Arnie Morscher

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.

Amen
Keith La> A diesel wouldn't get very far running on gasoline.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at average locomotive gets about 0.13 miles per gallon.
So a 3600 gallon fuel tank would get you about 450 miles or so...
--Dan