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Where there's smoke there's fire??

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Posted by Randy Stahl on Friday, September 10, 2004 8:08 PM
Ummm, If an engine is burning like a blow torch I would say that there is plenty of air, like an acetylene torch ? I bought some B30-7s a while back, all of them had turbo's jammed, they ran fine but the turbo speed sensors were reading zero , so even though they purred like a kitten, no HP
Randy
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 10, 2004 3:03 PM
Usually when a GE blows fire out of the stack, It's a siezed turbo so there is not enough air.
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Posted by oltmannd on Friday, September 10, 2004 11:20 AM
It's such a common problem, that some RR's will even abbreviate it FOS (Fire out stack)!

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, September 10, 2004 10:56 AM
Also in the all-time favorites:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=38646

This time they got a hose on it...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Junctionfan on Friday, September 10, 2004 9:53 AM
I wonder if that where the "blow my stack" came from.

It looks like a Hellfire unit to me. Anybody have marshmallows?
Andrew
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 10, 2004 9:48 AM
OK, here are the links to the pics.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18458

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=40361

They are the first two in "Most Popular of All Time" at

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?popular=true

Is this one of the causes of locomotives catching on fire?
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Posted by StillGrande on Friday, September 10, 2004 9:40 AM
Still looks fake to me.
Dewey "Facts are meaningless; you can use facts to prove anything that is even remotely true! Facts, schmacks!" - Homer Simpson "The problem is there are so many stupid people and nothing eats them."
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Posted by locomutt on Thursday, September 9, 2004 8:12 PM
Larry,
You are absolutly correct,that's how I managed to have that link.

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, September 9, 2004 7:51 PM
Haven't we talked about this picture before? Sure looks familiar!

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by locomutt on Thursday, September 9, 2004 6:51 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dgwicks


I was just over at railpictures.net and saw a couple of really amazing pictures!

Both were NS GE engines (#8648 & 8655) and they had fire shooting out of (I assume) the exhaust almost as high as the engine itself! Lots of black smoke too.

What causes this? Is the local fire department on the way? Is there any danger that the engine will catch on fire? Or has it already??

I can't imagine what it would look like to actually see this happen.



The railpictures link is :

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18458

The NS unit "belching"fire is 8655,the other unit does not appear to be.[:)]

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

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Posted by Randy Stahl on Thursday, September 9, 2004 6:27 PM
This isn't uncommon for GE locomotives, on the older GEs it is possible to get a good fireball out the stack just by using the layshaft and over fueling the engine. GEs are very sensitive to injector problems , an engine with a bad or a few bad injectors will load up the engine with carbon and raw fuel, especially when the engine is idleing. When the locomotive is worked the excess fuel in the stack is burned off. If a turbo on a GE is bad usually they won't have flames... won't have any power either. Watch out for the lube oil coming out the stack, don't park your car too close.
Randy
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Posted by Junctionfan on Thursday, September 9, 2004 5:41 PM
NS's ex Conrail units often do that particularly their old GEs. Even the C40-8Ws are no exception. You can usually tell the units that smoke alot because the horns squeek before they sound.
Andrew
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, September 9, 2004 4:56 PM
I haven't seen any flames out of any unit yet, I have seen a turbo go on an SD60 (I have shots I might post later), the unit was close to flaming up but it didn't.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, September 9, 2004 4:12 PM
Could be a number of things, blown turbo, carbon buildup, or fuel issues could cause this, I'm sure there are other causes as well. Randy?

LC
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Where there's smoke there's fire??
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, September 9, 2004 4:07 PM

I was just over at railpictures.net and saw a couple of really amazing pictures!

Both were NS GE engines (#8648 & 8655) and they had fire shooting out of (I assume) the exhaust almost as high as the engine itself! Lots of black smoke too.

What causes this? Is the local fire department on the way? Is there any danger that the engine will catch on fire? Or has it already??

I can't imagine what it would look like to actually see this happen.

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