UP's "Turbine Trains"

[Anonymous]

Years ago, I went to the UP's railroad museum in Denver CO, (til you've actually stood on a "big boy" there is no way to describe it). While there, I saw info on the UP's experimentation with GAS Turbine Locomotives, and never again have seen any further info about these units.

Did they ever see commercial service?

How long? Where?

Reason for discontinuation?

PIX?

Thanks

[thirdrail1]

How could you have missed them? UP's gas turbines are among the most documented of all American lcomotives, from the first around 1950 to the end of their service in the late 1960's. Many models have also been made of them, including an N scale model of the "verandah" version made by Con-Cor that is in many hobby shops now.

The gas turbine locomotives suffered from the same problem that gas turbine automobiles did - they consume almost as much fuel at idle as they do at full power. They were also noisy, imagine an 8500 horsepower jet engine going through your neighborhood at 3:00 AM.

[Anonymous]

Gregg, thanks for the reply...


>>How could you have missed them? UP's gas turbines are among the most documented of all Americn lcomotives
U'm I've been sick a lot ;-) and I gew up on the east coast, and UP doesnt make many revenue runs in N&W territory.

But, with your familiarity with them, did they perform well compared to diesels. (tonnage, "on grade" etc)

Any on-line pix? the engine sets, with the matching fuel cars are way cool

[Anonymous]

Check out Thomas Lee's book "Turbines Westward."
I think it's out of print but you might be able to find it at your local library. A very in depth look at the devlopment of U.P.'s turbine program starting with the steam turbine(s) in the late '30s.
This web site might also be helpful - www.railroad.net/yellow/turbine.htm
Hope these help.
Matt

[Anonymous]

There is also a Pentrex video outlining the history of the turbines, includes a promotional film from the 1930's. Quite good!

[Anonymous]

In case you haven't seen it, UP has some info on these engines on their website. Go to http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/loco/locohs05.shtml. They also have some pictures of these locos in their photo gallery section.

[Anonymous]

Well rick from what I heard, they were to Loud, expensive to fuel, and dangerouse under overpassed. It was said that some of these units if not tuned correctly would melt cement from overpasses. Also burn pedestrians walking above.

[Anonymous]

The following Kalmbach 'Golden Years of Railroading' series volume has a bit of info on Gas Turbines:

'Union Pacific Over Sherman Hill: Challengers, Big Boys and Streamliners'.
Jason.

[Anonymous]

For the record: The Big Boy is at the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver. Their new location is 4303 Brighton Blvd. View their web site at www.forneymuseum.com.

The late Turbines were quite a locomotive. They were upgraded to 10,000 hp and were impressive to watch and hear.

[Anonymous]

I've seen many and read meny books just specifically about the Turbine Trains. After I went to the Ogden, Utah Union Pacific station I've become upsessed. Th only trouble is that I Can't find any cheap models made of them.

[Anonymous]

A "Turbine Train" is an integrated,turbine powered passenger multiple unit like the ones operated by Amtrak and the New Haven. UP has a fleet of gas turbine electric freight locomotives.
AntiGates, the best way to get info on your computer on this topic is:
1.go to WWW.Google.com(or one of the other big search engines)
2.Type "Union Pacific" & "Turbine" & "locomotive"
in the search window.
3.Hit the Search button.
Voila! Turbine related websites!

[Anonymous]

aaaaaaghhhhhhhh! "HAS"??????? I Meant UP HAD a fleet of gas turbines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[conductorchris]

I stumbled upon something interesting the other day. At www.railpower.com is a plan by railpower inc. to build a new 10,000 HP Turbine engine powered by CNG. Apparently turbine technology has advanced a lot since the days of the big blows. Railpower is the same outfit that has built a hybrid switch engine that uses only a 100 HP engine to feed battaries that will do the work of a 2,000 HP switcher.

[Anonymous]

A couple of interesting things about the "Big Blows", sometime in the early to mid 60's the city of L.A. banned them because of the noise an smoke pollution. So most of the units were turned at Las Vegas. Yes a few did get thru. The other tid bit I read somewhere in TRAINS, was somewhere around Larimie Wy., a wb was halted for a red block under a freeway bridge. Well like a couple of posts ago said, it melted the concrete! It left a eight foot hole!!! I guess thats why the call them "BIG BLOWS"!! Ha. Ha.

[Anonymous]

I hope that Railpower can iron out the bugs in the Green Goat(UP apparently suspended their test program due to performance problems). As far as the CNG turbines go,I hope they can develop them,but keep in mind the big freight railroads have gotten very conservative in their motive power policies lately,a combination of economics and problems with some of the more advanced concepts(i.e SD90MAC-H and AC6000CW)in locomotion recently.

[Anonymous]

One nice thing about diesel fuel is that it does not burn or explode like gas. I don't think I would like to run a locomotive carrying thousands of gallons of gas.

Paul