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What causes the GE diesel locos to have burned paint on sides?

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Posted by Wizlish on Thursday, February 25, 2016 7:01 PM

Andrew Falconer
I have seen several General Electric DASH-8 and DASH-9 locos that have burned paint beneath the exhaust stack. What events have to happen for the paint to be burned off the on the sides of the GE diesel locomotives?

I think it's a bit different from what BaltACD posted (which is a stuck injector or lube leak into the turbo causing that kind of rich black smoke that turns to flame when it's ignited).  I think what burns the paint is liquid blowing out of the stack, like after a massive turbo seal failure, that then falls and runs down the side of the hood ignited.  Perhaps there are other dramatic failures (like the breakdown of the JB Weld repair at Lac Megantic) that would produce fire that dribbles down rather than pluming up...

I remember as a child being driven past a three-unit consist of GEs idling in Forrest Yard.  No more than half an hour later we came back the other way and the middle unit was forlornly sitting with all the paint burned off those three doors.  No smoke, no foam, no people running around ... but in that short a period of time the damage had been done.

I've also seen a couple of videos where there was visible flame inside the hood when the doors were opened, although I don't think that's the principal cause of the specific damage you mentioned.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, February 25, 2016 6:44 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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What causes the GE diesel locos to have burned paint on sides?
Posted by Andrew Falconer on Thursday, February 25, 2016 6:44 PM

I have seen several General Electric DASH-8 and DASH-9 locos that have burned paint beneath the exhaust stack.

What events have to happen for the paint to be burned off the on the sides of the GE diesel locomotives?

Andrew

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