Locomotives as emergency portable generators?

[Anonymous]

You cannot make Inverters big enough to feed a neighborhood, much less a town. We are a group of about 500 homes within reach of the tracks and each home needs 60 hertz at 120 volts AC and who knows how many total Amperage to feed each one. Heck the computer Im using is probably the third biggest electric eater behind the laundry and the home air/heat.

There are probably 2000 homes in my town and a few hundred businesses along with phone lines, traffic lights etc etc etc.

It is also my opinion that when someone like me uses the words ..."You cannot..." someone else probably found a way to spend the United States Dollar in sufficient amounts to make it happen.

[cprted]

I remember reading somewhere the President of a railroad saying their engines could  be easily converted to emergency generators and make enough electricity to power a small town. I forgot what railroad that was. Wouldn't it have to be an a.c. loco to  do this, and what at what hertz (sp?) is an a.c. loco at?

Some time back, Trains carried a photo of a CN unit that was being used as a power supply in some  Canadian city; the unit had apparently been run down a track in a city street, and then drug some distance further off the rails to a point where its generating capacity could be used...The details are pretty sketchy,in my memory,but I think the details are still pretty accurate.

I believe the town is Stewart, BC. I have a friend from Stewart and he told me that the town uses a couple of CN locomotives for power generation. I'm not sure if it is a full time thing, or only as a backup.

[chad thomas]

Ndbprr, A rectifier can only convert AC to DC, not the other way around.

[chad thomas]

I remember reading somewhere the President of a railroad saying their engines could  be easily converted to emergency generators and make enough electricity to power a small town. I forgot what railroad that was. Wouldn't it have to be an a.c. loco to  do this, and what at what hertz (sp?) is an a.c. loco at?

It depends on the RPM of the diesel. It doesn't matter though cause on an AC the alternator output is rectified and then powers an inverter that creates an AC current at a frequency determined by the traction motor speed / gearing / windings.

Locomotives can easily be used for supplying power to the grid, but it will need some additional equiptment to get from 600 volt DC to 7200V 60Hz AC. Either a motor / generator or an inverter (a big one) or a way to phase lock and step up the inverter output.

[samfp1943]

I remember reading somewhere the President of a railroad saying their engines could  be easily converted to emergency generators and make enough electricity to power a small town. I forgot what railroad that was. Wouldn't it have to be an a.c. loco to  do this, and what at what hertz (sp?) is an a.c. loco at?

Some time back, Trains carried a photo of a CN unit that was being used as a power supply in some  Canadian city; the unit had apparently been run down a track in a city street, and then drug some distance further off the rails to a point where its generating capacity could be used...The details are pretty sketchy,in my memory,but I think the details are still pretty accurate.

[ndbprr]

No you could use a DC engine if you ran the output through a rectifier to convert it to AC.  Steam engines were often used as steam sources at industrial locations when boilers went down for maintenance.  I have two photos of this being done using Nickle Plate Berks at McLouth Steel in Detroit.  When I worked at Armco Steel in Middletown Ohio we had a N&W Y3 for use at the open hearth.  There are probably much more efficient ways to generate electricty than a diesel however.  I was at a Menards Hardware this morning that has a Generac unit that runs on natural gas and has an alternator.  This thing had a 2" gas line and was bigger than a full size van to handle emergency power for the store.  The power company here in the Chicago area has several jet engines that spin generators or alternators for peak demand requirements so use of a diesel is highly feasbale.

[Boyd]

I remember reading somewhere the President of a railroad saying their engines could  be easily converted to emergency generators and make enough electricity to power a small town. I forgot what railroad that was. Wouldn't it have to be an a.c. loco to  do this, and what at what hertz (sp?) is an a.c. loco at?