I came across this you-tube video and thought some other ALCO fans would like it. I don't know much about these locomotives,but they sure do sound like ALCO's.
I realize that these are most likely copied designs and modified to suit Russian needs during and after the cold war . I couldn't help but notice that alco sound,shoot might have stolen the truck design too.
However this is,it is still a awesome video of Russian trains in action.
Perhaps someone that truly knows about these could chime in and make corrects on the builder,or at least clear the air of mystic.
http://www.youtube.com/user/dragonriversteel#p/f/21/wEETEOcQW90
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
I too had stumbled across that video and have looked at it about 100 times. That has to be the most exciting and dramatic freight train run-bys that I have ever seen. It is good sound quality too, so you can turn it up.
I am not too crazy about the locomotive architecture. Horizontal fluting seems to be thematic not only with these locomotives, but also with much of the rolling stock. But the shear drama of this action as well as action in several related videos is astounding. I never realized Russian railroading was so heavy duty.
Not only does the video show lots of sound and smoke, but the consist with all that passenger equipment is quite unique. The passenger cars are followed by some of the most sinister looking tank cars I have ever seen. I have noticed a lot of tank cars in Russian trains. I wonder what they carry. You have to wonder who built that little house on the side of the hill and what their life was like living at the end of the tunnel.
These videos raise lots of questions about the locomotives as well as the size and capacity of the trains. Is this 5-foot-gage?
Here is another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC8_NB9ALP8&NR=1
Bucyrus,
Your video was better than the one I found. The sound was amazingly intense ! I don't know what the gauge is,but I'd sure like to know.
As a matter of fact, I remember an article in MR about a fellow that models Russians railroads. Darn, if I can remember his name. He could have shed so light on the subject.
Like you said,there's more questions than answers. The first video just reminds me of the cold war,especially the passenger/ troop transports or what ever they are. I think the either come in two or three sets of configurations , A.B or ABA .
Whatever they are they're still pretty neat. Never wanted to travel Russia, but after hearing the great sound of these locomotives...
dragonriversteel I came across this you-tube video and thought some other ALCO fans would like it. I don't know much about these locomotives,but they sure do sound like ALCO's. I realize that these are most likely copied designs and modified to suit Russian needs during and after the cold war . I couldn't help but notice that alco sound,shoot might have stolen the truck design too. However this is,it is still a awesome video of Russian trains in action. Perhaps someone that truly knows about these could chime in and make corrects on the builder,or at least clear the air of mystic. http://www.youtube.com/user/dragonriversteel#p/f/21/wEETEOcQW90
There Fixed the link for you!
Thank you .
Almost all of Russia is 5 ft. gauge (1524mm). The 3TE10U can be thought of as the Russian SD40-2, with the earlier 3TE10M and 3TE10 being like SD40s. The majority were built by Lugansk Locomotive Factory in Luhansk, Ukraine. After the split of the Soviet Union a modest number were built by Transmash at their Bryansk facility. The current production diesel is the 2TE25A
Transmash 2TE25A
You are very welcome! dragonriversteel
From your earlier post : "...Not only does the video show lots of sound and smoke, but the consist with all that passenger equipment is quite unique. The passenger cars are followed by some of the most sinister looking tank cars I have ever seen..."
The tank cars seem to be of a ubiquitous European design, but it is the white painted cars that precede the tank car consist that I am curious about. They would appear to be windowless, in a style resembling a single door Pullman-style of baggage car( with fluted side sheets,ala MILWRR(?). Anyway there appear to be a number coupled togethere and then followed by a shorter car with a center personnel door and windows ( some kind of guard van(?). I just do not know enough about Russian Railroad equipment to be certain.
If it was here in the U.S.A.They might be one of those FEMA Trains that seem to pop up in the discussions around here from time to time. You know "the white boxcars with shackles in them". [Supposedly, to transport individuals to various FEMA Camps around the country.] I think Murphy Siding has one up in South Dakota he looks after (?)
They make a lot of black smoke, which indicates unburned fuel. I wonder if that is the way the injection is set up, or if they just have neglected air filter maintenance. In several videos, you can see the trailing unit inhaling the smoke emitted by the lead unit. I don’t know if that smoke is being pulled into the combustion air intake of the trailing unit or into the cooling air intake. If it is being pulled into the combustion air intake, that would suggest that the unburned fuel emitted by the first unit is being burned in the second unit.
But if that is the case, that unburned fuel is very effective in clogging up the air filter, which then starves the engine for air, thus resulting in the second engine being unable to burn the unburned fuel emitted by the first engine.
Here is a video showing this effect of the second unit inhaling the smoke of the first unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6TgfseK_4&feature=related
Thank you Beaulieu for the info. This clears up the builder,now on to where they got their plans to build them. To me it seems, that the Russians have taken many ideas from American railroad transportation including the couple system.
I'd just like to know if back during the cold war. Did Lagansk Locomotive Factory steal the plans from GM and other American company's ?
The more I listen to the videos,you guys are right about the GM sound. Hence where did they get the plans and why isn't anything been done about it patten wise
?
They don’t sound like GM EMD diesels to me. Apparently they are opposed piston engines based on the Fairbanks Morse design. Here is a detailed discussion of them, but I it does not seem to arrive at any certain conclusions as to the engine’s lineage. They have that booming sound of FM engines.
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57148&f=7
Thank you Bucyrus, this will clean the air,thanks again.
Here is the newest version of the diesel engine used in the 3TE10 series.
Kolomna Diesel D49
beaulieu Here is the newest version of the diesel engine used in the 3TE10 series. Kolomna Diesel D49
While locomotives generally similar to the 2TE10L were built with variations of the D49 engine, classes TE116 and TE121 all the TE10 series were built with the 10D100 engine right up to 1990 and the end of the Soviet era. The D49 may have been retrofitted to TE10 locomotives more recently.
The Fairbanks Morse 38D8-1/8 was extensively used in US Navy submarines where it was regarded as better than the Winton or EMD engines. I would expect that the Russians wanted this engine for submarines and copied the engine from ships transferred to the Soviet Union during WWII.
But thousands of locomotives of the TE3 and TE 10 series with these engines were built in the Soviet Union and also classes DF and DF3 in China had this engine. The Chinese locomotives used an engine called the 10E207L which was virtually identical to the 2D100, the 2000HP blower version of the FM engine.
It is possible that more FM powered locomotives were built in the Soviet Union than locomotives with EMD engines in the United States but it is definite that there were tens of thousands, compared to a few hundred FMs in the USA.
The 10D100 was fitted with a turbocharger which operated in series with the blower, rather than the EMD arrangement where the turbo was driven at lower power levels from the crankshaft. The EMD arrangement has significant fuel consumption advantages but the 10D100 does produce 3000 HP, compared to 2000 HP from the highest power version of the FM engine fitted in locomotives.
M636C
One would hope the tunnel had adequate ventilation or the engine crews were supplied with gas masks!
Went back and watched the video of the Russian Diesel emerging from the tunnel, plus several other videos of similar engines and their black copious exhaust.
The black smoke is definitely a component of incomplete combustion. Possibly, mis set injectors(?), or complete injector malfunction (?). I am reminded of a time back in the 1950's when out West you could watch lines of trucks pulling out of the Truck Stops and heading out wit lots of black exhaust trailing in their wakes. The diesel fuel at that time and especially out in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, contained a heavey sulphur component which would lead to issues of incomplete combustionin what was back then normally aspirated9non Turbo charged0 in-line 6 cylinder engines. Some times the action of the exhaust was spectacular, lots of smoke, noise (un-muffeled exhausts), and if an engine and exhaust had been operating for a time, a shower of sparks and flames out of the exhaust stacks.
I do not know for a fact, but after watching the Russian Railroad videos, my guess is that they are burning an inexpensive, low quality diesel fuel and that in addition to the aforementioned injector problems would create the huge clouds of black exhaust.
Just my thoughts. Anybody else?
You will see similar issues with US diesels after slow full throttle running in longer tunnels, the diesel engine starts to use up the available oxygen. Now I am not saying that the tunnel shown is nearly as long as the Moffat tunnel, but even a one mile long tunnel will produce that effect, especially if it is on a grade.
beaulieu You will see similar issues with US diesels after slow full throttle running in longer tunnels, the diesel engine starts to use up the available oxygen. Now I am not saying that the tunnel shown is nearly as long as the Moffat tunnel, but even a one mile long tunnel will produce that effect, especially if it is on a grade.
Here is something for comparison. Tunnels pose problems with providing enough oxygen for the engines. Engines are set to burn a certain amount of fuel per the oxygen they inhale. If you starve them for oxygen, they will be fuel-rich, and make smoke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-ECBxoJqYE
Now this TEM2 sure sounds like an Alco. It looks like one too, but in another video, a user commented that these road switchers were not built by Alco.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mEJVn-RQYw&feature=related
Bucyrus Now this TEM2 sure sounds like an Alco. It looks like one too, but in another video, a user commented that these road switchers were not built by Alco.
It ought to. The TEM2 was a reverse-engineered copy of the RSD1's that went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.
Aesthetically, I find the Russian freight cars rather appealing. I see quite a variety, including what appear to be outside-braced wood-sided boxcars similar to U.S. practice from pre-1950. Also interesting are those variations of wagon-top boxcars with running boards offset to one side of the centerline.
Considering that the Russian railroads are 5-foot-gage compared to the U.S. 4’-8.5” gage, does this Russian rolling stock have a higher weight and carrying capacity than U.S. rolling stock?
Here is a look at the cars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhJ1aSxN2-Y&feature=related
When you consider the number of 2-10-0's and light 4-8-4's that were operated because of light rail, I would think that Russian rolling stock had a lower capacity than comparable North American equipment.
Well, the rail weight would enter into the equation, but the additional 3.5" of gage could make a fundamental difference. That Russian rolling stock almost looks a little bigger than U.S. equipment.
Here is an interesting video of wheel slip of a TEM2 road switcher. Notice the man on the ground placing chunks of ballast on the rail ahead of the locomotive to crush them to get traction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZFcpVTatZU&feature=related
I remember something an OLD Time and I mean OLD time Driver told me about a Diesel Engine back when I was first starting to drive trucks. If it Aint SMOKING it anit HAPPY. But then again he drove a Screaming 318 for Years were you could Read at times from the Flames shooting out the STACKS.
Last tru ck I drove was a Tester and she was set up for over 600hp but never smoked a whiff. The3 day she began to smoke out the stack I knew something was going wrong.
That footage must have been shot where there are some severe grades; otherwise why would such a short train need 6 units working at what looks like maximun capacity?
Hi,
This is slightly off topic, but it came up tonight at dinner with my Russian father-in-law, who used to be an engineer on Russian freight trains.
What is the state of Russian freight trains vs U.S freight trains? One opinion (of course) was that Russian freight trains were technologically equal to U.S. freight trains and the other opinion was that Russian freight trains are far behind U.S. freight trains. My father-in-law was an engineer on the 3te 10u locomotives (or something similar) and he has some fairly strong opinions.
Any information is appreciated.
Thanks.
dl
Getting back to the first video, I believe that those white cars with the horizontal ribs are mechanical reefers. The shorter car in the center with the louvres on the side contains a diesel generatio set which provides the cars in the group with electricity.
The same basic setup was used on the early APL double stack cars when they first appeared. Some of the 5-car sets contained a generator which supplied power to the refrigerated containers on that 5 unit set. The cars containing generator sets were painted red instead of blue.
These cars travelled with crews, From the borders of Iran to Archangelsk and Sakhalin. USSR vintage. Thanks to Yevgeni Suhanov
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.