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Fire coming out of diesels
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Normally aspirated locomotives also experienced "stack fires" upon occasion also and it wasn't all that uncommon to have problems with this on EMD <br />SW-9 or SW-1200s. Back in the days of Penn Central when I was on the extra <br />hoghead board at Lancaster, PA in the mid-1970s, we had three SW-9s assigned to us for the yard jobs. Thier numbers were 9042, 9043 and 9044. <br />The 9042 was the favorite of the shifting crews because of it's "mighty might" <br />status. This engine could pull. Plus it had a set of Nathan Air Chimes off an old E-7 and they were good for scaring kids who trespassed on the railroad. The 9044 was good for getting out on the main-line and thus the crews who worked the industrial shifting out of the yard proper usually used this engine. Of course this left the 9043. <br /> <br />Nobody liked this engine because of it's potential to have the main generator <br />"flash over" and trip the ground relay alot when working full throttle and also for the fact it had a less than desirable heater in the winter . So it sat back on the enginehouse lead, idling away..often times not used at all between trips to Enola Diesel Shop for MI.The 9043 liked her oil and with worn rings and whatnot, the oil accumulated in the exhaust manifold along with a lot of carbon and other crap. <br /> <br />I was called for an extra yard job one evening for C Trick and after signing up I discovered the only available engine was the 9043. Lancaster Yard is on a slightly eastward grade, so the standard procedure in shifting was to grab a draft of cars, pull them East and flat shift in the other direction. I had ahold of about 25 loads and when I pulled the throttle out, the smoke rolled out of the twin stacks to the extent I wasn't sure or not if I had a diesel or a steam engine! <br /> <br />After getting the train up to about a half-a-mile a year, it didn't take long until the exhaust manifold ignited, spewing fire and chunks of carbon out of it, promptly <br />setting the weeds on fire on both sides of the railroad. It was early April and with the ground dry and a wind going, it didn't take long for a sizable fire to develop. It took four fire departments almost an hour to get the fire out It was a long night, but we never saw the 9043 after that except in the dead line at Enola. LOl...I should say goodbye old friend, but I think a Neil Young song said it best..."Piece Of Crap", exactly what that engine was. <br /> <br />Captain Jack Neiss, retired engineer, PRR/PC/Conrail
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