GP-35's Flying Solo Photos

FL9AC wrote: There's only so many times a fifty or sixtly year old locomotive can be rebuilt.

You mean likeMN F-10 #413 which is going on 62 years of service?

FL-9ac is correct, due to EPA rules these older locomotives can no longer be rebuild, the max amount of parts equal to 3 power assemblies can be changed in one calender year.
other rules apply including application of enviro recycle tanks for waste water and oil from sump etc.
EMD has stopped all support for the 567 engine, and they are not being able to be converted to Tier 0 standards.
Other railroads are already at point of unloading engines with 645 blocks, so even power assemblies used in F units (645) are getting rare.
Just because locomotives were rebuild over and over again in past, does not mean it can be done in future.
yes some of these locomotives will live on in Museums or tourist railroads, where their use is considered part time use, and the 3 power assembly rule can be managed by putting a unit asside for a few months or year till next operating season.

101 and 102 in full use at Harmon on Monday. Gotta have love for the GP's.

Jaap is the 567 a 12 cylinder engine thats inside the GP's and the F's? Dose the 567 use push rods, how many valves per cylinder?

DutchRailnut wrote:FL-9ac is correct, due to EPA rules these older locomotives can no longer be rebuild, the max amount of parts equal to 3 power assemblies can be changed in one calender year.

If a locomotive is getting through three engines a year then it belongs in the scrapyard!

Mike

The EMD 567 (and 645, 710 successors) are not pushrod engines; they are two-cycle engines with no intake valves, and four exhaust valves in the cylinder head. The valves and unit injector are operated by rocker arms actuated by an overhead camshaft. Two exhaust valves are actuated by each rocker arm (by use of a valve bridge) and one of the three rocker arms actuates the unit fuel injector.

The GPs and Fs have 16 cylinder versions of the 567s; there were 6, 8, 12 and 16 cyl versions of the engine. All power assemblies are interchangable between the different (number of) cylindered engines.

Power assembly: Is defined in US diesel loco practice as the cylinder head, cylinder liner, piston and connecting rod "assembly", which on EMD engines is relatively easy to change out. The reference to "3 power assemblies per year" does not refer to the entire diesel engine (which some call a "prime mover").

There is a 16 cylinder 567C sitting on a stand inside Thomaston Shop right now; this engine will be torn down for survey and rebuild this fall and winter. If anyone is interested in getting their hands on "big iron" and participating, contact us.

You all know where to find us.

H.F.Malone wrote:Power assembly: Is defined in US diesel loco practice as the cylinder head, cylinder liner, piston and connecting rod "assembly", which on EMD engines is relatively easy to change out. The reference to "3 power assemblies per year" does not refer to the entire diesel engine (which some call a "prime mover").

Grrrrrrr. American English - never fails to catch me out, even after ten years here!

So 'swapping pots' is a fairly standard US maintenance procedure (never come across it before as most UK engines are 4-stroke monobloc design), and there are some 'rules' that say you can only do this to three cylinders every year?! Bizarre. If more than three cylinders go bad, or you break a crank or have bearing trouble/put a leg out of bed, presumably you swap in a new (or at least freshly-overhauled) engine? Woops, 'prime mover'

(legendary UK Deltic locos - see my profile pic! - were designed for 'repair by replacement': *anything* went bad on the engine, the entire engine/generator assembly was swapped-out for a fresh one, a procedure that could (in theory, with a following wind) be done in a single shift at the shops.)

Mike

Mike I don't think Theordore Roosevelt ment the queens English, so try to adapt

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

DutchRailnut wrote:Mike I don't think Theordore Roosevelt ment the queens English, so try to adapt

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Oh I agree 100%. I got my citizenship last year and I'm an American now, and proud of it. American. Not some hyphenated American & something else. It doesn't mean I don't still trip over subtle linguistic differences once in a while!

We now return to our scheduled discussion on GP-35s

Mike

My favorite gp35r is the 104 the last time i saw this unit was when it was assisting p40 840 on the wassaic shuttle.

How's about the title of this discussion be changed to "switcher/protect locomotive photos" to include the sole GP8 543 and the sole GP9 750 as well . Today, Amtrak 190's HHP-8 655 had troubles just west of Stamford this morning and was rescued by Stamford protect/switcher 543. It towed the train into Stamford yard where it sat for a few hours. Later on Amtrak MP15DC 538 came down and towed the train back to New Haven. Here's a few shots I took today (with permission):

Nice shots, thanks for sharing!

Nice. Was it east or westbound? If it was Eastbound, why wasn't it initially towed to NHV for new power?

Train was eastbound, but if you use the Stamford yard crew for rescue, you don't want to send them to New Haven, let Amtrak come and get their own train.
If yard crew were to be used, that means the work in Stamford is not getting done , which is detrimental to MNCR service.

Wouldn't you want to get the train to NHV? I know they can't go past NHV since that's Amtrak and ACSES, but they could at least get it there. Do the railroads hate each other? Since they co-exist on the same physics railroad, shouldn't they try to help each other out a bit to make things run as smoothly as possible?