THIS is why I love the MM&A

Hi guys,

'been a while since I've posted because of different priorities, but with all the interesting infos floating around concerning the B23-7
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 022&nseq=2
and B39-8s, I might as well bring my contribution

I'm in the process of making a video in honnor of the mighty C30s of the MMA, but as mentionned on other groups, it'll take some time. Meanwhile, I've posted the first video clip of the MMA on rail-video.net... so open your eyes, crank up the volume and check this out:
http://www.rail-videos.net/video/view.php?id=143

Marc Caya aka Bicot aka St-Jean Diamond

Very nice! Can't wait to see more.

I wish that Pentrex or one of the other rail video companies would do a MMA production. Seriously... are there any other railroads in North America that currently roster 11 different paint schemes?!

I know we all want to see more locomotives painted in MMA maroon & gold... but someday we'll look back on these "rainbow days" with great affection!

I want to say that horn on MMA 5017 is a Nathan K3L, but I am terrible at identifying horns. Is it not a good sign when all three of the -7s are constantly emitting (thick) black exhaust?

uhaul wrote:I want to say that horn on MMA 5017 is a Nathan K3L, but I am terrible at identifying horns.

Close... it's a K3LA.

uhaul wrote:I want to say that horn on MMA 5017 is a Nathan K3L, but I am terrible at identifying horns. Is it not a good sign when all three of the -7s are constantly emitting (thick) black exhaust?

Black smoke just means that the engines aren't combusting the fuel completely. Its easy to smoke with a GE (fire is a possibility as well), and with Marc's video, I'd bet the engineer was trying to put on a show.

Since when is smoke bad!

I remeber back in August shooting the Easton Job and the B39 on the point was shooting flames pretty high. If I remeber right I missed the shot of the flames due to my surprise.

Course Alco's smoke right out of the box!

-Justin

Black smoke CAN indicate sticking injecotrs and fuel pumps if it persists. Most often, it is caused by turbocharger lag due to the GE 7FDL being a four cycle engine as compared to the EMD two cycle engine.

As for the rainbow of colors, can any one list the units by pattern? This would be netertaining to say the least!

Thanks,

TNT

Tom Tancula wrote:Black smoke CAN indicate sticking injecotrs and fuel pumps if it persists. Most often, it is caused by turbocharger lag due to the GE 7FDL being a four cycle engine as compared to the EMD two cycle engine.

As for the rainbow of colors, can any one list the units by pattern? This would be netertaining to say the least!

Thanks,

TNT

It's not the four stroke verse two stroke portion of the it that causes the smoke but rather that the GE turbo and the Alco turbo were always free spinning while the EMD equivalent of scavenging (supercharging) was always in proportion to the engine RPM. It was "geared" until a certain rotational velocity was reached at the supercharger at which point a clutch was disengaged and the supercharger allowed to spin freely. Turbolag is not caused by 2 versus 4 stroke...

Tom Tancula wrote:As for the rainbow of colors, can any one list the units by pattern? This would be netertaining to say the least!

Off the top of my head, and in no particular order:

• 1. MMA Maroon & Gold
  2. LMX Gray
  3. CR Blue
  4. BN Green
  5. ARR (FAIX) Yellow & Blue
  6. FXE (FAIX) Red, Green, & White
  7. BAR Tri-color
  8. ATSF Yellow & Blue
  9. BNSF Orange & Green
  10. LMS Blue
  11. BAR Gray & White (F3 502)

Are any of the CDAC F40s still around? If so, that makes 12 paint schemes.

To answer some questions...

The engineer on the video clip wasn't trying to put on a show, those old girls really smoke like that when notching the throttle! While I'm not complaining, (I love it when I see lots of smoke), you can also see that once the train is up to speed at the crossing, these locos are STILL letting out a fair amount of the the black stuff even if the turbos are up to speed, thus indicating bad combustion like dirty or tired fuel injectors...

Now some of you may wonder, if the C30-7 and B39-8E have the same engine block, why is there hadly any puffs of black smoke coming out of the B39-8e when accelerating? Easy answer: computerized fuel management and injection. They take SOOO long to load up that the turbo can speed up in time to feed enough air to the engine.

NOW: wanna see some B39-8e smoke? Have a look at MMA8539 in this picture:
http://bicotsphotos.fotopic.net/p45817260.html It's just as nice as the dash 7s For some reason, when reversing in notch 1 or 2, the engine would briefly inject too much fuel, creating a nice black cloud

Also, I would like to add my voice to the crowd and thank Tom for the more than interesting information provided about the MM&A.