Sparks Fly.....But Not from The Wheels

Can’t speak for that specific unit, but I recall running an SW1500 at night a few times and seeing “sparks” (actually hot carbon) shooting from the stacks.  It had been idling for a while and when I notched up, the hot carbon blew out quite visibly.  It’s easy to see how brush fires can get started near the tracks!

Mike...it's the buildup of carbon in the exhaust...usually not dangerous....I'am sure others will add their input......cheers,Joe

Have seen sparks come out of UP 6936 sitting at the Amtrak Sta. in Houston.

Love to see that running with 4014.  Well, one can dream.....

Sparks from carbon build up could be. If the engineer had just notched up the throttle, that is probably what it is.  If the unit was pulling steady it could be a bad turbo. 
Back when they never shut the units down, we would get a consist (usually GP9's and such) that had been idling around for a good while. We knew that there would probably be a good amount of carbon build up on the pistons, so, while still in the yard we wouldn't crack the throttle very much. Then when leaving  town  and getting through all of the slow speed track we would really put the power down and see how much smoke they would make till they warmed up good.

40 years ago I worked in a shop in Rahway, NJ and there was a set of tracks that ran just 100 feet or less from the back door. One day we heard a loud "BOOM" and walked outside to see a diesel engine rolling by slowly. There was thick black smoke pouring from the widow and the engineer was hanging his head out as far as he could to try and catch some fresh air. Looked like the motor on the wheel right below the cab had let go.  Don't know enough about them to know what it was. Big capacitor maybe ?

Didn't meant to hijack the thread but I never forgot that and your post reminded me.