Max Karl, MRL and BNSF
Was there any additional air lines required to support the air dump coal hoppers?
I recall seeing unit trains with an additional air hose mounted mid-way between the coupler and top of the car.
I believe that these units were in a pool for Crawford Hill pushers. The fuel tenders allowed for extended duty between trips to Alliance, NE to refuel.
EMD offering that option on MACs would make sense, too bad my manual or searching doesn't confirm it to be this number series.
The NS fuel tender testing of 2019 shows two LPG BNSF SD70ACEs, 9130 and 9131, that BNSF were done testing with. The idea of these MACs having LNG pipes installed could work, except that LNG lines are a bit bigger and have different connectors, here is a picture. I came across a website from ~2005 talking about conversion of MACs for LPG. It entails lots of facilities and infastructure needed for the project. Dresser-Rand LNGo DualFuel_Locomotives (lngplants.com) To me this says that if BNSF considered LPG with MACs, but never went through, then this report wouldn't have been made trying to convince them.
I've read those discussions on the BN tenders, which led me to think about tender equipped MACs. This would allow for the obvious longer run time, but I don't think much adhesion advantage would come from full tanks when they had HTCR trucks. In 1997 when these units were built, fuel tenders were being reduced to helper service. BNSF liked the MACs much more on helper service than the SD40/60s, but weren't used much because of no fuel tender hookups. Maybe having these 34 MACs replace the tender units on Crawford was the original goal, but BNSF decided that they could be better used in normal service, because the tender days were numbered.
As for the connectors, I'm linking a cropped photo of BN 3113 and BNSF 9809's front pilots at the same scale. The connector plug looks the same size and shape. I also noticed that on some of these MACs the line was taken off, and replaced a few months later.
A post on TrainOdors back in early 2005 said this about the fuel-tender operation as conducted for helper service:
When the fuel tenders are in the loco consist the fuel is pumped from the tender into the units' fuel tanks automatically as needed. An extra fuel pump in each loco equipped for tender service does this. A float valve in the loco fuel tank controls the pump. Many or all of the SD60Ms were equipped for fuel tenders. I don't remember if the OWYs are or not. I'm pretty sure that the warbonnet SD75s are not equipped for tender service. If Crawford is like here at Sheridan, WY now the tenders are no longer put into loco consists. They are merely used to transport fuel from the refinery to Sheridan then a semi-truck tanker loads from the tenders then pumps the fuel into the helper's fuel tanks. And in fact, within the past month all of the BNFT green and black fuel tenders have been taken out of fuel transport service at Sheridan and regular BN or ATSF black tank cars are now used in this service. I heard that they were pulled from service because the FRA recently took exception to some items on the fuel tenders even though they were all modified only about a year ago to correct earlier FRA complaints.
If Crawford is like here at Sheridan, WY now the tenders are no longer put into loco consists. They are merely used to transport fuel from the refinery to Sheridan then a semi-truck tanker loads from the tenders then pumps the fuel into the helper's fuel tanks. And in fact, within the past month all of the BNFT green and black fuel tenders have been taken out of fuel transport service at Sheridan and regular BN or ATSF black tank cars are now used in this service. I heard that they were pulled from service because the FRA recently took exception to some items on the fuel tenders even though they were all modified only about a year ago to correct earlier FRA complaints.
We had a thread here in 2007 which contained this very interesting observation:
Bob-Frymlduring the 1980s BN ran a series of Chicago-Seattle hotshot piggyback trains equipped with specialized power lashups. The pictures I saw usually featured two SD40-2's coupled together and facing west, two SD40-2's coupled together and facing east, plus a fuel tender tank car spliced into the middle. The fuel tender had m.u. cable receptacles on both ends, full sets of m.u. hoses (independent brake + actuating + main reservoir) hookups, and the required train brake hoses like any other railroad car. Each of these specialized power lashups could make a full round trip between The Windy City and Puget Sound on one fillup. BN's thinking was this: fill the engines and fuel tender just once, but only at the cheapest fueling point along the route. In other words, BN was playing fuel supplier against fuel supplier in order to get the lowest delivered price possible. During the 1980s (and it may still be true [in 2007], piggyback operations - while a growing source of traffic to be sure - were also the least profitable on a per-unit-handled basis [ perhaps due to greater speed required and hence fuel burned]; so, BN, like any other railroad, had to watch fuel costs in order to be able to wring any meaningful profit out of this service. Incorporating fuel tenders into their hotshot power consists may have been part of BN's effort to improve thissegment's profitability.
During the 1980s (and it may still be true [in 2007], piggyback operations - while a growing source of traffic to be sure - were also the least profitable on a per-unit-handled basis [ perhaps due to greater speed required and hence fuel burned]; so, BN, like any other railroad, had to watch fuel costs in order to be able to wring any meaningful profit out of this service. Incorporating fuel tenders into their hotshot power consists may have been part of BN's effort to improve thissegment's profitability.
I'm pretty sure some of the SD70MAC's were ordered with the EDL (Exception Drawing List - EMD's name for options) for diesel fuel tenders.
Dave
If you have pictures with enough resolution, see if you can determine what kind of connectors are on the end of those hoses.
Those look like some kind of compatibility with 'gas tenders' to me, rather than hoses from an extended-run 'diesel fuel tender' arrangement... although I wouldn't know for sure, and there will be others here who recognize it. Perhaps a range of likely power was given the necessary external piping 'early', pending the results of testing, but not actually used in the event.
Here is some of the regulatory stuff involving the gas tenders:
https://railroads.dot.gov/divisions/hazardous-materials/lng-tenders-locomotives
and here is a story with some of the earlier BNSF history:
http://www.wearethepractitioners.com/index.php/topics/art-analysis/natural-gas-motor-fuel/natural-gas-trains
(note the links to the right of the article)
Later practice (2019) had NS testing a couple of BN units with fuel tender; you might find pictures of that setup for comparison, too.
I was looking at a photo of BNSF 9805 with two MU cables. Looking closer, it didn't have any plugs, but instead was a short hose on the anti-climber below the plugs. I thought how similar it looked to BN's fuel tender equipped locomotives, so I compared the two. To my suprise, the hose length, positioning, and connection was a match to BN's system. After looking at sister units, I determined BNSF 9804-9837, or 34 of 61 units in order #966706 had these hoses. They appear to have been installed by EMD and removed in the mid-2010s. Further attempts to find information on this has revealed nothing. As far as I know, these are the only MACs with this installed. I have attached a photo with a comparison. Any ideas or info on why these were installed on only these units, and if they were used?
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.