While doing some research on another topic, I stumbled onto this new engine (and Video). It is built by Brandt Industries Ltd, build those big MOW trucks in Canada and their use is more and more common in this country as well.
Looks as if they are introducing what might be termed a "Plug and Play" locomotive package(?) 3 modular gensets that can be individually swapped out for maintenance or repair. They show a unit that has 3 power modules (3X600HP) powered with engines by John Deere.
http://road-rail-corp.brandt.ca/genxt.php
Apparently, they have gone into the area of "Green" power for locomotives. They have built an urban switcher engine with three gensets. I thought it might be worthy of some conversations here, since I have not seen any other postings on it in these Threads.
samfp1943 While doing some research on another topic, I stumbled onto this new engine (and Video). It is built by Brandt Industries Ltd, build those big MOW trucks in Canada and their use is more and more common in this country as well. Looks as if they are introducing what might be termed a "Plug and Play" locomotive package(?) 3 modular gensets that can be individually swapped out for maintenance or repair. They show a unit that has 3 power modules (3X600HP) powered with engines by John Deere. http://road-rail-corp.brandt.ca/genxt.php Apparently, they have gone into the area of "Green" power for locomotives. They have built an urban switcher engine with three gensets. I thought it might be worthy of some conversations here, since I have not seen any other postings on it in these Threads.
I was under the impression that the ability to swap out gensets easily was a common feature for all similiar locomotives, not only Brandts...
The idea being that the genset to be serviced can be trucked to a local equipment dealer for repair and maintenance rather than having RR shop personnel do the work...
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That sounds like a good feature
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carnej1 I was under the impression that the ability to swap out gensets easily was a common feature for all similiar locomotives, not only Brandts... The idea being that the genset to be serviced can be trucked to a local equipment dealer for repair and maintenance rather than having RR shop personnel do the work...
Yeah, I also don't see what makes this much different from a Genset... heck, even the name is pretty much the same.
I actually got the chance to use some RP gensets. On a whole, they impressed me. So if Brandt can make a good locomotive too, more power to them. I'd rather see one of these Genxts on a MOW train than those trucks of theirs.
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zugmann carnej1: I was under the impression that the ability to swap out gensets easily was a common feature for all similiar locomotives, not only Brandts... The idea being that the genset to be serviced can be trucked to a local equipment dealer for repair and maintenance rather than having RR shop personnel do the work... Yeah, I also don't see what makes this much different from a Genset... heck, even the name is pretty much the same. I actually got the chance to use some RP gensets. On a whole, they impressed me. So if Brandt can make a good locomotive too, more power to them. I'd rather see one of these Genxts on a MOW train than those trucks of theirs.
carnej1: I was under the impression that the ability to swap out gensets easily was a common feature for all similiar locomotives, not only Brandts... The idea being that the genset to be serviced can be trucked to a local equipment dealer for repair and maintenance rather than having RR shop personnel do the work...
I watched their little promo, it looks to me as though the Brandt doesn't have a long hood as such, each genset has its own hood, so that if one genset is pulled out there is a gap there, whereas on a RP or other genset one must extricate the gensets from out of the hood. Probably makes it a lot easier to change out a genset, or to cut down or add horsepower.
Most locomotives are designed so that the entire hood can be removed fairly easily to expedite any major servicing. This makes changing out an engine-generator set from an NRE or RP genset no more difficult than from a Brandt design.
OK, so I viewed that little video with the Quick Cut montages, various talking heads, and Movie-Trailer style music, and I still couldn't determine if Brandt is fabricating their own 4-axle frames, or just re-using one of the finite amount of EMD GP frames still out there (apparently with a modified fuel tank). The trucks on the loco definitely looked like good ol' EMD Blomberg B's...
chutton01 OK, so I viewed that little video with the Quick Cut montages, various talking heads, and Movie-Trailer style music, and I still couldn't determine if Brandt is fabricating their own 4-axle frames, or just re-using one of the finite amount of EMD GP frames still out there (apparently with a modified fuel tank). The trucks on the loco definitely looked like good ol' EMD Blomberg B's...
IIRC, the Brandt demonstrator was built on a GP9 frame...
So, are they "building" anything? I wouldn't call sticking packaged gensets on an existing frame with existing traction motors and trucks much more than "assembling" .
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