Interesting news item I just ran across....
BNSF Railway, one of the biggest U.S. consumers of diesel fuel, plans this year to test using natural gas to power its locomotives instead.
If successful, the experiment could weaken oil's dominance as a transportation fuel and provide a new outlet for the glut of cheap natural gas in North America.
- Mike
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Deja vu all over again?
Rusty
That's a cool-looking engine! 
I wouldn't mind having one of those running around my layout!!
There is an ex UP Big Blow in a museum in IL. Does it have all the parts inside?
A natural-gas-fueled locomotive and a gas-turbine locomotive are two very different animals.
The stuff used in the Big Blow turbines couldn't be farther from natural gas (i.e. the stuff--Bunker C fuel oil-- was so thick it had to be heated before it could be piped to the turbines. Think of those cartoons where someone pours a cup of coffee so thick they have to cut it with scissors 
---PCJ
Railride, don't forget about GTEL #57, which spent some of it's life burning PROPANE, not all that much different than Natural Gas.
Doug
There is an ex UP Big Blow in a museum in IL. Does it have all the parts inside?
At a minimum, the turbine at the Illinois Railway Museum had its traction motors removed for salvage years ago. Don't know about any other parts.
Jim
Everything old is new again....
Interesting news item I just ran across....
BNSF Railway, one of the biggest U.S. consumers of diesel fuel, plans this year to test using natural gas to power its locomotives instead.
If successful, the experiment could weaken oil's dominance as a transportation fuel and provide a new outlet for the glut of cheap natural gas in North America.
- Mike
better yet what about propane..its man made.compressed to a transportable liguid..also soybeans fuel too=bio fuels.
Here's a current article on LNG locomotives. Looks like it has a way to go.
http://www.chron.com/business/...omotives-4218352.php
I like the CN units!
franktrain
There is an ex UP Big Blow in a museum in IL. Does it have all the parts inside?
At a minimum, the turbine at the Illinois Railway Museum had its traction motors removed for salvage years ago. Don't know about any other parts.
Jim
The turbine in #18 is inoperable.
Rusty
Most of the Union Pacific turbine prime movers were allegedly shipped to South America to be used in river barges.
The Union Pacific #18 still has the forward two traction motors in the A unit lead truck; as this was used as a "switcher" at the grounds of Intercontenental in Kansas City, using the pony motor. The turbine prime mover is inoperable now, but could be IF you throw enough UP and GE money at it. Always said this would be the ultimate restoration, and would make fixing a Big Boy look positively cheap! FWIW, if you could run #57 on propane, then #18 would be OK too.
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