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General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment

Moderator: John_Perkowski

 #963802  by Allen Hazen
 
Hasn't CSX, starting several years ago, been installing small auxiliary diesel-generator sets on its locomotives? I thought the idea was that they would be on when the locomotive was in "sleep mode," powering block heaters so the main diesel engine could be shut down rather than left idling.
Plug-in block heaters have been around for decades. (Here in Edmonton, automoibile block heaters are a nuisance when you are walking in the winter: too many electric chords over the sidewalks to trip over!) I remember a story in "Trains" from the ?? 1970s ?? about a Norfolk & Western locomotive with a plug-in block heater: the neighbors at some yard had complained of noise when the local switcher (an ex-VGN F-M Trainmaster) was left idling overnight: N&W equipped it with a block heater, and the yard crew parked it near a power outlet and plugged it in at the end of their shift. ... It has always surprised me that this sort of thing wasn't more common. ... An obvious application would be to an operation in which many locomotives are used only for part of the day and left parked in a common depot overnight: a commuter railroad, for example. (Dutch, does Metro-North do this?)
 #963815  by DutchRailnut
 
Yes MNCR plugs trains in to 480 volt, but for freight carriers to do this they would need dedicated locomotive storage pads.
not gone happen as the locomotives on freights need to keep air charged on train.
to heat a locomotive the heaters take around 12 to 24 KW , so yes you either use a small diesel (big maintenance expense) or you start/stop the big unit to keep air - temp and batteries up.
 #964095  by Allen Hazen
 
Thanks, Dutch!
Re: "but for freight carriers to do this they would need dedicated locomotive storage pads"
---That's why I thought of commuter operations! The (ancient) Norfolk & Western example I mentioned only worked because the unit in question was assigned to one yard, so it was easy to provide a dedicated "pad" for it.