Norfolk Southern engine catches fire outside of Pittsburgh.

I'm guessing that won't buff right out!

I thought GEs were known for excellent cab heaters in the winter...

I just keep thinkin...., Western Maryland..... LOL

"Bright orange flames coming from one of the train cars"

(On a side note, that would be way more fun than those hotbox reefers Lionel came out with years ago.)

GE.  Wr bring good things to life??

After locomotives (and everything else!) are new, the user/owner has most of the responsibility for failures.  (I say "most" because some failures are due to inferior design work, but these are always identified and corrected during the warranty period.)  I am sure that GE ran all tests on this unit before it was shipped.  So my guess is that a maintenance point on NS dropped the ball.

So on quite a few of the Virtual Railfan grab bags, I've seen quite a few engines in the last 2 weeks with fire damage amidships. Is there a design flaw on the Dash 9's? On turbochargers in general?

And we just suffered a pretty bad bridge collapse in Pgh:

video of Fern Hollow bridge collapse

Not a train bridge, but still big news locally; thankfully no fatalities.

@PRRrat posted:

So on quite a few of the Virtual Railfan grab bags, I've seen quite a few engines in the last 2 weeks with fire damage amidships. Is there a design flaw on the Dash 9's? On turbochargers in general?

@Hudson5432 posted:

After locomotives (and everything else!) are new, the user/owner has most of the responsibility for failures.  (I say "most" because some failures are due to inferior design work, but these are always identified and corrected during the warranty period.)  I am sure that GE ran all tests on this unit before it was shipped.  So my guess is that a maintenance point on NS dropped the ball.

With that locomotive being built in 1999, I would say it’s got plenty of miles and hours.

If I had to take a guess, I would say an internal fire from leaking diesel...

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I'm guessing that won't buff right out!

nah, a little duct tape and it'll be good as new!

I saw this unit 3 weeks prior to when the fire happened. As it stands, I'm the last person to see #9387 leading. I recorded this video in Madison Ohio.

Could this have been the results of turbocharger run a way?

@CSXJOE posted:

Could this have been the results of turbocharger run a way?

All we can do is guess.  This was a rather large engine room fire, top and bottom.

Every now and then, a GE unit will roll past, and it has some evidence of having had a small engine room fire.  As Hudson5432 pointed out, that is usually due to a maintenance failure.  Usually it is from a high pressure fuel line failing and spraying a stream of fuel -- not  a large stream -- onto the exhaust manifold.  Usually, when the fuel pump circuit breaker is manually opened, shutting down the fuel pump, the fire either burns itself out, or a fire department comes out and extinguishes it.  

The fact that one of these locomotives with scorched paint on the upper parts of the hood is occasionally seen, does not mean that these fires are common.  Usually the only damage (other than replacing the failed component and cleaning the diesel engine) is cosmetic, and is rarely repainted until heavy maintenance is due on that locomotive.

No armored high pressure solid or flexible line lasts forever.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I'm guessing that won't buff right out!

Saw this and am still 😂

larry

@RickO posted:

…"Bright orange flames coming from one of the train cars"

Journalism - especially when attempted by the airheads on local TV news - is definitely dead.