gen set switchers

[missouri mule]

I recently read a blog that said many of the NS gen sets have bad orders that are keeping them out of service.  I wondered if this is true for other operators of gen sts also.

[wabash1]

I have no idea what your asking spell it out maybe then we can answer your question.

[missouri mule]

I am wondering about the reliability of gen set switchers.  obviously they have a lot of benefits on paper, but are there still a lot of bugs to be worked out in the technology?

[route_rock]

 I know we had one catch fire in Houston I think on BN but other than that I have never run one.Havent seen any bad maintenece reports either.But with all new things your going to have bugs you know.

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

 I know we had one catch fire in Houston I think on BN but other than that I have never run one.Havent seen any bad maintenece reports either.But with all new things your going to have bugs you know.

 

The fires involved the Green Goat hybrid switchers, not any of the gensets.  Railpower issued a recall of the Green Goats to address the problems.  As far as I know, the gensets are performing up to specs.  Perhaps some railroaders from Texas or California with operating experience can tell us how they're working.

[fredswain]

There is a commuter line that runs between Ft. Worth and Dallas. It isn't light rail. They've played with Gensets there in the hope that they could replace their locomotives with the more fuel efficient Gensets but have found that they can't run fast enough. Typically they run at speeds up to 75 mph. Their report indicates that the Gensets start to run out of power after about 40 mph with an ultimate top speed of 70 mph pushing them hard. Why is this? Is it due to their gearing? That would make sense to me as they were never intended to be used as mainline power but rather yard switchers. From a power standpoint I don't see why it would matter as long as you have enough so gearing is the only thing I can think of.

I've seen many Gensets here in Houston. They are everywhere. They are disturbingly quiet too. You don't get that hum that you can hear coming from a mile away. It's almost like a semi truck going by slowly but without the tire whine.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Dallas, Garland & North Eastern and Fort Worth & Western each bought two 2GS14B genset locomotives from NRE.  They have only two gensets inside for a maximum of 1400 HP so they may be a bit small.  Most of the UP genset switchers in the UPY 2600 and UPY 2700 series and the BNSF genset switchers in the 1200 series have three gensets inside for a maximum of 2100 HP. 

[missouri mule]

most of the videos I have seen on you-tube of UP California gen sets shows that they are rarely using 3 engines because exhaust is usually only coming out of one or two exhaust stacks.  maybe 2 gen sets is all that is needed for most usage, however it seems that Railpower and NRE are both offering 4 gen set units, though they may not have any orders for them yet.