Article by Claude Gaude/Photo by Richard Pierce.

Sometimes starting a dead locomotive can be a dangerous and tricky process. This month, I am going to tell you how I started an SD40-2 with a EMD 16-645E3 type engine that had been left dead and drained in the yard for several months. This EMD 16-645E3 was and is still very popular in the railway industry all around the world. It can be found in the GP40, GP40-2, GP40-3, F40, F40-2, F40-3, and many more. The SD's are normally equipped with the "E3B" package, which includes a heavier engine block, bigger camshafts, high output injector, enhanced turbocharger and the famous "rocking type" piston wrist pin. That's about it for the nut & bolts stuff.

Back in the early eighties when I was a diesel mechanic for CN's Montreal shop, the shop was running on three working shifts, and I was on day shift. One morning we heard that a bad accident happened during the the night shift (11:30pm-7:30am). Everything started when the yard crews brought in an SD40-2 that was down for at least 6 months for major frame repairs.

Photo courtesy Canadian Train Photographs by Pat & David Othen

After we filled it with oil and water, I tried to start it up, but to no avail. As the batteries were surely going dead, I charged them with a special powerful shop booster. The engine was turning real fast but it did not fire at all. Because it was nearing the end of my shift, I explained to the guys coming on the next shift what I did and quit for the day.

I heard from the foreman the day after that they then drained the water cooling system and filled it with hot, steaming water. Since diesel engines ignite from heat, this normally gives good results—-but not this time. This engine was really dead. As in all northern countries and climates, we had a few crates of ether ("starting fluid") in the shop. Normally a 2 or 3 second shot in the air box was enough to blast open any frozen engine. So the shop guys sprayed it generously in the air intake and tried to fire the engine again. All they managed to do was fill the shop with acrid, dark gray smoke. They were beating a dead horse.

The morning after I was back at work, standing next to the locomotive listening to the foreman tell us more about the accident. I saw up to 5 or 6 empty cans of ether lying on the ground around the locomotive, and the locomotive was sealed with yellow ribbon by the safety inspector. I understood that something really bad must have happened. The foreman explained us that the two mechanics connected a 1/2-inch hose from the shop compressed air to the locomotive's air box to create a swirling effect and tried to fire the engine again.

Some witness explained us that when they cranked it, there was a loud explosion, and the whole locomotive turned into a torch for 1 or 2 seconds. The fire went out quickly, but the two mechanics working on the engine were seriously burned. They were taken to the hospital and survived their injuries.

Ether can have the same effects as a bomb, and obviously extremely flammable. The swirling effect of the compressed air (creating some heat) and probably a slight increase of air box pressure contributed I believe to an increase of the cylinders' compression. At the first spark the whole ether charge exploded, blasting out a few air box covers, and as all the engine room doors were open, fire consumed the locomotive instantaneously.

The SD40-2 was brought out and left in the yard for an accident investigation. Three weeks later they brought that animal back into the shop and asked if I was willing to try to start it again. But this time there was up to 15~20 people (shop foreman, foreman, yard crews, safety representative etc.) standing up at about 20 feet away to observe how I would wake up that monster. As I had plenty of time to think about it, I tried a very simple trick. On the first try the engine started right away and was running like a charm. Can you guess what I did?

I figured that because the engine was stopped for so long, the cylinders were very dry and the piston rings were stuck, resulting in a lack of compression. So I opened all the cylinder test cocks and forced some clean ATF oil into each one. Then I bared the engine over few turns using the starter motors. The oil increased the compression and helped the rings to move out of the piston ring grooves. I closed all the test cocks, and started her up. The engine was smoky as hell for few minutes, but it was running very well, even after it's brief experience as a barbecue pit!