TPEX Class 68 & Mk5 Nova 3 fleet to be withdrawnDec 2023

[Artless Bodger]

I recall seeing mobile muffler devices used at airports ( in the days of turbojet rather than turbofan engines?) - park it up so the jet exhaust went through it so the engines could be run up and tested during the night - something similar over the track for locos (a sund absorbing version of a smoke hood in a steam shed).

 

Found on Reddit r/aviation - duncan_D_sorderly

[nightstar.train]

Even better, a muffler for a howitzer!

 

 

This is on an army firing range in Germany. Apparently it's quite close to some housing, so they have a muffler for the howitzers! Definitely doesn't look like anything else though.

[Mike_Walker]

13 hours ago, Artless Bodger said:

Interesting, I remember the locos on the Enterprise in Belfast Central station making a similar racket  - I think they were a version of EMD loco (similar to a 59?) - you couldn't hear the station announcements and even the Thumpers couldn't compete.

Exactly so.  

 

Some of the later EMDs such as Boston's F40PH-3Cs had an extended car body to house a small engine that drove the HEP alternator and allowed the main engine to be idled at rest.  Some commuter rail agencies later had their standard F40PHs rebuilt in a similar fashion.

 

Incidentally, in the US and Canada it is the norm to leave EMD power units running continuously.  I asked a LIRR Engineer friend why this was and he told me that it was because you might not get it to start again.  After initial laughter and taking it as a joke he went on to explain that being a 2-stroke; if it stopped in a certain position it was very difficult to crank the engine over to restart it.  I don't know if it is still the case but the Western Sectional Appendix contained an instruction that diesel locomotives were to be shut down if they were to be stationary at Paddington for any length of time but classes 57, 59, 66 and 67 were specifically exempted from the requirement although no reason was given.  I assumed it was related to what I'd been told.

[62613]

4 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Exactly so.  

 

Some of the later EMDs such as Boston's F40PH-3Cs had an extended car body to house a small engine that drove the HEP alternator and allowed the main engine to be idled at rest.  Some commuter rail agencies later had their standard F40PHs rebuilt in a similar fashion.

 

Incidentally, in the US and Canada it is the norm to leave EMD power units running continuously.  I asked a LIRR Engineer friend why this was and he told me that it was because you might not get it to start again.  After initial laughter and taking it as a joke he went on to explain that being a 2-stroke; if it stopped in a certain position it was very difficult to crank the engine over to restart it.  I don't know if it is still the case but the Western Sectional Appendix contained an instruction that diesel locomotives were to be shut down if they were to be stationary at Paddington for any length of time but classes 57, 59, 66 and 67 were specifically exempted from the requirement although no reason was given.  I assumed it was related to what I'd been told.

As a former marine engineer, I find that very difficult to believe, being as the main angines on all the motor ships I was on were 2 - strokes. I remember at college, the marine power plant lecturer drawing diagrams showing how a 3 - cylinder economy Doxford engine could be self - started at any crank position. 

[jamie92208]

I was told some time ago that the main reason Locos in the US were left idling was because they aren't filled with antifreeze and Locos can end up all over the place with huge temperature variations 

 

Jamie

[Mol_PMB]

55 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I was told some time ago that the main reason Locos in the US were left idling was because they aren't filled with antifreeze and Locos can end up all over the place with huge temperature variations 

 

Jamie

My understanding (admittedly not adding much here) is that the EMD engines have some feature that's incompatible with antifreeze and the warranty is voided if you use it.

 

But, Class 68s don't have EMD engines so that can't be the problem for this thread.

[nightstar.train]

Hope this works. There are a few pictures going around Facebook of the Mk5s with the TPE triangles taken off. Look awfully bland, hope they get another splash of colour to relieve the grey with grey highlights. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=7784633851556380&set=gm.7152757344831383&idorvanity=573173142789869

[simon b]

14 hours ago, nightstar.train said:

Hope this works. There are a few pictures going around Facebook of the Mk5s with the TPE triangles taken off. Look awfully bland, hope they get another splash of colour to relieve the grey with grey highlights. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=7784633851556380&set=gm.7152757344831383&idorvanity=573173142789869

 

Would look smart with a stripe of Chiltern blue, though they dont look that bad as they are. Is there a pic of the driving trailer anywhere, I'm curious how much of the blue around the nose was wrap?

[corneliuslundie]

DafT loves white so perhaps it is emulating them, but in light grey.

Mind you I prefer the grey to some of the liveries I see in the west Midlands,

Jonathan