CN have E units? CP and VIA did. Unless the old IC units were repainted CN.
Originally Posted by Popsrr:
am I seeing a start to scenery!! Them diesels are looking great!
No matter how many I get... I want these too!!
An Update on LNG AND THE RAILROADS:
BNSF NOW GETTING INTO THE PICTURE AS THE ARTICAL STATES:
The nation’s largest railway decided to test out liquefied natural gas as a fuel for locomotives because the cost savings appeared too great to ignore, its CEO said Wednesday.
“It comes down to the spread relationship between LNG and diesel,” said BNSF CEO Matt Rose, speaking at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference at the Hilton Americs-Houston in downtown. “Once you get that in your head you can make that decision pretty quickly.”
BNSF has been studying the possibility of natural gas for locomotives for 18 months, focusing on the opportunity for saving on fuel. The company burns 1.3 billion gallons of diesel per year.
Shell, which announced plans Tuesday to build small-scale LNG plants targeted at U.S. truck, marine and railway uses, says the switch can save companies about 30 percent in fuel costs.
BNSF will be testing six modified locomotives, three from Caterpillar and three made by GE.
But refueling infrastructure will remain a hurdle for the system’s adoption, as well regulatory hurdles, since using LNG on a locomotive will require a return to a relic of a bygone era: tender cars.
Cars full of gas will trail the locomotives to provide fuel, much like tender cars used for steam engines.
The potential shift to natural gas could be just as significant as the prior revolution in train propulsion that brought about the rise of diesel, Rose said.
“This is a really big idea but its truly laced with all sorts of challenges,” he said.
BNSF plans to test and evaluate the locomotives this year, and then to make a decision in 2014 about whether it will begin to switch its fleet of more than 6,900 locomotives to natural gas.
Fort Worth-based BNSF, which has more than 41,000 employees and more than 32,500 miles of track, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
The company is a major player in the oil industry, transporting more than 571,000 barrels of oil per day in February and expecting to grow that rate to more than 700,000 barrels per day by the end of this year.
It is active in most shale plays.
BNSF first tested natural gas as a fuel for locomotives on a small stretch of contained track in the 1980s.
The company is making a new push to test liquefied natural gas after Canadian National Railway, which began a trial with natural gas in September.
CANADIAN NATIONAL UPDATE:Ricardo helps Canadian National railroad assess viability of natural gas traction; locomotive testing underway
11 March 2013
Canadian National (CN), one of North America’s seven Class 1 railroads, is investigating the practical implications and benefits of using natural gas as a locomotive fuel. To support Canadian National’s research project, Ricardo management consultants and engineers provided support by reviewing engineering options and the impacts of using gas, most importantly identifying any “Red Flag” issues which could affect viability.
| CN’s natural gas locomotives and tender. Click to enlarge. |
A fueling infrastructure would need to be constructed, operated and maintained in addition to the adaptation of locomotives for dual fuel operation; the ability to revert to diesel fuel is essential for operational flexibility.
Ricardo assessed and evaluated both the currently available engine conversion technologies as well as those known to be in the development pipeline. The company also examined the available technologies for gas storage and distribution, including the development of recommendations for the configuration of a necessary gas tender car required to supply fuel to the locomotive.
Through the work carried out by Ricardo, it was thus possible to provide a picture of the most significant commercial impacts of operating railway locomotives on natural gas. Canadian National has commenced testing of two Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives converted for operation on natural gas.
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Triple triple-header GP7s from Triple Rail Modelers (3RM).
MPC era Lionel GP7s at the Lindsay Model Train Show, April 2013.
YouTube http://youtu.be/KRo1U_Km7vQ
We are a modular club in Ontario, Canada. Would love to hear from any 3 railers in Ontario and are looking for new members.
JohnP, Toronto
LNG will probably replace much of the diesel fuel used by railroads in North America in the next decade. At one time, I thought that maybe they would go electric but the low cost of LNG will probably preclude that in the near term. I know that Caterpillar which owns Electro-Motive Diesel has a joint venture with Westport Innovations for LNG/disel injectors. GE is also working on using LNG in their locomotives.
Posted by: sd | March 11, 2013 at 12:35 PM
Power engineers have known for nearly a hundred years that diesel engines can have natural gas mixed into the input air of the engine to reduce the consumption of diesel fuel. This can be done with propane and butane as well and many diesel emergency generators run on natural gas when available with a small amount of diesel injected to "spark" the methane into combustion. Only very high compression, free piston engines can ignite methane with compression ignition. Naturally methane can be used in the intake air of gasoline engines with or without gasoline. With a slight reprogramming of the engine computers most diesel locomotives would operate tomorrow partially on propane from a trailing tanker car at much less cost. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | March 11, 2013 at 11:52 PM
Henry,
You are correct and this is how most diesel engines run on natural gas. They carburet or inject natural gas into the air intake and ignite the more or less homogeneous mixture with a small diesel pilot injection. However, Westport Innovations has a dual fuel injector that injects both natural gas and a small amount of diesel for ignition. This allows the engine to run as a true diesel with a non-homogeneous mixture. They will also run on all diesel.