http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uT_aYfTif4
The above linked video contains a video that is a General Electric Corp show of their cooperative effort with UPRR and Steam Electric Power ( UPRR #1 and #2- Steam Turbine Electrics ) designed to pull fast passenger trains from Chicago to the West Coast..
I had only seen some still photos of these engines, and had always heard they were failures in service, although the GE video makes on mention of any operational problems when they tested it on the NYC RR.
There is also some video of the UPRR #50 another STE. built by Alco for UP. It utilized an ALCO PA for the lead unit and a GNRR Electric for the 2nd unit and a Big Boy Tender for the Coal Tender.
Then there was the original GTE Demonstrator was #5O and was a double ended locomotive. It was returned to GE after the initial test period and was dismantled. The follow-on Turbine units delivered to UP were all delivered as single ended units.
A couple of points:
Turbines 1 and 2 were largely 'failures' because they were large, complex, and expensive for 'only' 4500 horsepower or so between them. There were also some issues with the condenser technology. The situation is a bit like the story of the T1 in that the actual technical history turns into a bitchfest about how bad the problems were, when the actual problems -- and potential solutions for them -- were not all that much of a difficulty...
Your second locomotive isn't UP "50", it's UP 80 (later 8080) which is not a STE at all, it's a coal turbine. The glory of this was not that it was intended as a ;working locomotive' -- it was a technology testbed, built out of a bunch of odds and ends that were cheaply available at the time. Hirsimaki had an article in Classic Trains a few years ago about the coal-turbine project (which I thought didn't go into nearly enough actual technical detail) -- if you look up the history of the Bituminous Coal Research scam that wound down in the mid-Fifties you will get a better idea of what was involved. The remaining problem was the elimination of a certain percentage of ash particles in the gas going to the (sensitive) blading ... largely due to problems with getting even pulverization and then burning in the short time available.
UP was perhaps the 'last of the Mohicans' interested in the coal turbine -- for much the same sorts of reason that led to the big fireboxes on Big Boys. They carried on with the research for a while, and 80 was the full-scale testbed. Cab was an otherwise-surplus PA, with the full 2000 diesel hp being used for ancillary power. Then you had the modified electric, still retaining some of its Art Moderne trim. And in the back was a pedestal tender... with portholes!
Just keep telling yourself "this is not a working locomotive ... this is not a working locomotive ... " because it was not and wasn't intended to be. It was no more a 'practical' design than the NYC M-497 was a practical high-speed passenger-system demonstrator. Although there are people, probably no few on this forum, that tend to believe both those things.
If I recall correctly, the 'original' original turbine delivered to UP did not have adequate metallurgy (yet) in the turbine system. There was no point in rebuilding it to try to match the later ones, and nobody else wanted any part of it at the time. Somewhere I recall reading that many of its parts were reused in other applications -- but I don't have time to research it now.
RME
I am beyond eager to see a video of the UP/GE steam turbine locomotive, but I cannot get the video to work.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
UPDATE: I get an unhandled error message for that particular link. Indicates it's an internal YouTube problem, or something wrong with the URL that fires when you click on the link in the post.
I cannot find a historical video in the present YouTube seatch systems (although there are some for models). I do remember seeing black-and-white footage of 1 and 2 on the Net. Please re-post the link to be sure it's valid.
If you're using YouTube on an older browser, or have Flash turned off for security reasons, you may need to do some system modifications.
Alternatively, install one of the 'free' browsers that support it -- and only use them for watching YouTube. Itis possible that the current flavor of VLC can open and read these things...
There are some approaches that will let you 'toggle' Flash on and off, but I don't know how well they work, or how to implement them.
You MIGHT be able to put in one of the YouTube downloaders and capture the file locally, and then replay it with a local player that works with the downloaded format. Again, have not tried this firsthand.
Copy the YouTube link and execute it in it's own browser page and it will work. Trying to execute it from a Trains Forum web page will fail.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Didn't Union pacific gut one of the ex Great Northern electrics, and convert it to a coal burning turbine?
Thomas 9011 Didn't Union pacific gut one of the ex Great Northern electrics, and convert it to a coal burning turbine?
As mentioned in prior posts, the coal-fired gas turbine (UP 80) was built from a collection of odds and ends. The control cab was a former UP PA1 and the turbine body was originally GN 5018, a former W-1 electric.
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