FMs in marine service

[EDM5970]

Does anyone know what engines are in the US Coast Guard's "Hamilton" cutter class (WHEC-715 and up)? I have been told that they are O-Ps, but didn't find anything in an admittedly quick web search last night. I did confirm that these ships cruise on diesels, but have a total of 18,000 SHP from a pair of gas turbines when they really need speed.

The smaller cutters, the 270' and 210' WMECs, have pairs of 18- and
16-251s, respectively. All of this from the web, of course-

[mxdata]

I am going to take a shot at answering this one without going to any references, so please feel free to make corrections as needed. My recollection is that they have a pair of 12 cylinder Fairbanks Morse 38TD 8-1/8 OP engines for cruising that are turbocharged in series with their roots blowers, very similar to the arrangement Cleveland Diesel used on their 498 series engines. I believe that the OP's are rated around 3600 horsepower each. If I remember correctly these ships also have eight cylinder EMD engines as ships service generators. It has been years since I was on one of these, and I did not have much time on that visit to look around the engine room.

Follow-up: subsequently found notes, 3627 horsepower, see this link:

http://www.fairbanksmorse.com/engines/c ... marine.htm

[EDM5970]

Mxdata, thanks for the information. (I also sent you a PM).

The turbo feeding the roots in series is interesting; come to think of it I saw the same thing on a 12-V71 I helped pull out of an LIRR power car, I just didn't think too much about it at the time.

I wonder if that approach would have been a better one than the clutch and gear driven system that EMD came up with. From what I've read, the earliest units (WP's GP-20s in particular) had some serious teething problems. I also imagine, in a series system, that you would have to size the roots and turbo carefully, so they would not provide flow restrictions to each other?

[greenus90]

1 of 4ea 1600 HP F-M diesels on USS Lionfish at the Fall River MA Battleship Cove exhibit.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... bydate%3A1