I noticed the 2ed unit was still running and the leader dead. If it had been the other way around then they would have lost everything as far as lighting and heat goes if the 2ed unit had gone down. At leased in this case the leader can be cut out and the BNSF unit can help the running amtrak engine limp along.
@@onrr1726 That shows you how much lube oil is being sent to the turbo to keep it cool - a lot. The 2nd unit, at least, is still running, under that lube oil somewhere.
There ain't shit for new locos being made in the U.S. anymore. The railroads don't want Tier crap. All the paperwork they generate to "prove" they are maintaining the manufacturer's emissions specs is a pain in the ass, nevermind the maintenance.
@@MilwaukeeF40C I beg to differ on new engines being built. When was the last time you walked out of the GE visitor orientation room in Erie,Pennsylvania or Dallas, Texas and seen locomotives in their stages of been built 🤔?
About 20 years ago I was in Fullerton, CA and the Amtrak from Chicago came in. Same thing, only it had hit some livestock earlier and was fully covered in blood....lots of blood and chunks of flesh matter. Front of the Genesis locomotives then all along the side back to the trailing units and a baggage car. It was starting to smell funky. Good video.
My dad and grandfather worked for amtrak. Saw this more then once. I lived by the tracks as a young guy and one of these locomotives caught fire outside my bedroom window. We went out and watched and the fire department showed up and one guy was leaning over the exhaust stack with massive flames coming out and his partner was holding on to his belt. Well he slipped, let go and his partner fell into the inferno and burned to death right in front of everyone. My neighbors all had their camcorders- this was the early 90s- and filmed the whole thing. The police came and confiscated all the recording equipment for an investigation. Nobody ever got their equipment back. It happened on Carr Street and Oberon Rd at the crossing in Arvada Colorado. I think it was 1994 but could be a couple years off. It was pretty shocking to witness
That was stupid. City fire men are best kept away from trains. I was told a story about some who wanted to climb up in the wires on the corridor to "rescue" a dead kid who went up there doing something stupid.
@@MilwaukeeF40C my grandfather who worked at amtrak was a firefighter in lakewood for 25 years prior to that. I heard nightmare stories. But in all honesty, who should have shown up to take care of the fire over the fire department? I thought the fire department was most qualified. It was a total freak accident.
@@theshapeexists Yeesh! What a story, and RIP to the poor guy. I don't know the situation of course, but I do wonder why they didn't/couldn't wait for a ladder truck or some other way to get some height above the fire instead of climbing ontop of ya know... the thing that is actively burning?
The #78 locomotive with the problem has actually been repaired and is pulling the California Zephyr again as of 2/15/23. I noticed it on Virtual Railfan's Galesburg page. It still had a lot of oil stains dripping from various vents, but so do several of the Superliner cars that were used on this train. Some of the cars have been switched out for maintenance or other repairs, and it looks like they've tried to clean them a little, but they still stand out as much dirtier than the others, especially when viewed from above.
Saw 78 yesterday on a railfan video that was shot in Naperville. It was trailing 176 and had a meet with CZ 5 at that station. Today (2/21) 78 was trailing 14 on SWC 3. Saw it on the Galesburg cam.
The 1st amtrak unit 78 is the dead unit. The 2ed one is still running at leased that is a plus you still have a HEP unit to power lights and keep the heat on. Amtrak back in the day always operated over the Rockies from Western Colorado to Denver with a Denver & Rio Grande Freight engine on the lead. It was in the operating rules for all passenger trains to have a helper set with out exceptions on the D&RGW.
I remember sometime in the early 1990s I saw an Amtrak loco on fire traveling down the Empire Corridor towards NYC. It had smoke and flames billowing out the exhaust but it just kept slowly driving along at around 20 mph.
Most likely wasn’t on fire, just a faulty spark arrester. I’ve been on a few engines with bad spark arrest, looks like fire pouring out the exhaust. But it’s fine. Just have to send MOW out to do fire control along the track
The lake shore limited trsin 48 had an electronic arch that cooked the engine about 30 years ago. They pulled into Syracuse, NY got about 5 or 6 miles down the track and boom they were dead. The engineer borrowed an HCLX lease unit off a CSX Freight to push the train back to the station. From there they unloaded everything then took the train to DeWitt Yard and left it. Amtrak then scrambled to add extra cars to all east bound traffic that day to get people to Albany. I'm not sure what cooked the engine but I heard that mice eating the insulation on the wires in an electrical cabinet may have been to blame.
took a trip from Sacramento California towards New York in August of last year on Amtrak or they had to switch train engines in Albany New York don't know what happened sorry for any misspells or mistakes in spelling.
Which is interesting because the Hudson division (empire corridor) used mainly FL-9s on trains back then. Until the P32s started coming in. F40s would occasionally make its way on trains down to Croton Harmon.
@@TrainwreckPoet No I was never on the train. I caught it at a railroad crossing just north of Denver. You guys met the even later Amtrak 6 at my location!
I saw the train come back to Salt Lake City as I was waiting for my bus to take me work as I got off the frontrunner train at stop. The Amtrak train being pulled by the bnsf Engine went by at the same station in a part of Salt Lake Valley. This video answers my question as to what to Amtrak trains. Thank you for sharing the video.
Classic turbocharger failure, lookup what happens when a turbocharger blows. It happened live on Virtual Railfan not too long ago, you would hear a pop, then something shoot out, then you'll see oil, flames, smoke, etc. while the train is still moving
More then likely this is 78’s death knell, because a number of Genesis units have already been sidelined due to the ALC-42’s and I don’t think Amtrak’s gonna fix the blown turbo on this one when they can pull a spare out of the deadline. You’ll probably see her as a parts donor until the breakers contract comes up for her. If she runs again, then it was probably just a blown seal.
I can't imagine Amtrak's going to put any money into repairing this unit with all of the new Chargers in the process of coming online. As you said, there should be a number of spares available depending on how fast the new ones are coming online.
Amtrak is still repairing P42DCs. 184 recently got its plow damaged and has been sent to Beech Grove for plow replacement. The chargers are unreliable.
Engineer to the conductors and wait staff: Imma need you to go to the store and pick up all the dawn dish soap and sponges you can find, we need to get this train cleaned quickly, so we can get back on the road.
@@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Or was it Amtrak using BN power? Cuz I saw it all the time driving rail crews around. CN rail crew driving KCS, Ferromex, CSX, Conrail, BNSF....whatever power was there
@@CMDRFandragon I’ve certainly seen pictures and videos of most of those combinations, mostly Santa Fe or BNSF units leading Amtrak trains, although I’ve even seen a clip of a NS SD70 leading the Lake Shore Limited!
@@CMDRFandragon the Santa Fe was known for touching up the pilots with cabs of spray paint back in the passenger days, as they were very image conscious.
It's not "exploded oil"....... It's a turbo that failed causing the oil to blow out the exhaust. These things happen. Your car breaks down on the side of the road, engines break down.
It’s oil that has been projected, vomited, tossed, sprayed, exploded, you pick the adjective. I think after being delayed 12 hours this man has the right to use what ever adjective he chooses to describe what essentially is a mess!
From the source I found, Amtrak 78 was delivered in 1997. So this engine is about 26 years old, and photos indicate that it has been running almost everywhere, even on the NEC and the Coast Starlight.
I work for Amtrak Mechanical and this is nothing new.....we have the WORST MANAGEMENT that refuses to repair simple issues that can later lead to major engine failure like this while on the road!!!!!! Management 1000% only cares about the paperwork being signed off!!!!! Here’s a employee tip: NEVER RIDE AMTRAK!!!
5:52 if you questioning why the Amtrak doesn't use that BNSF loco, the answer is only one. That's the operating costs. That BNSF loco can dwarf the Amtrak loco it's because the engine is big enough to produce that big power that is equal of 2 or maybe 3 Amtrak locos while in climbing tracks and that need more fuel that the Amtrak locos
The BNSF loco does not have the ability to supply the train with the house electricity it needs for lights, and air conditioning/heat. No HEP generator.
The GEVO, critically, tops out at 75 MPH, considerably below the top speed of the P42s it's pinch-hitting for...so hopefully the speed limits on those sections aren't above 75 lol
Let’s hope those P42DC locomotives will be replaced soon with the Siemens locomotives that you mentioned. At any rate, I’ve done the Zephyr many times, and even 12 hours late I would love being on board with you. It’s the adventure of it all that I like.
Would've been better to have rebuild the P42 fleet, or do more testing of the Chargers before accepting them. Personally I think the Chargers have a boring, & terrible look.
The chargers are terrible locomotives. The power loads ridiculously slowly, and they have major flaws regarding winterization where the engines cannot operate in the snow due to a very stupid and simple neglect by Siemens. A rebuild program would have been better.
My analysis: The hot side of the turbocharger got filled with oil, resulting in a spray. When this happens, there’s usually a fire, but I didn’t notice signs of the metal rapidly heating, nor vinyl bubbling(from the Red and Blue stripes/Its not paint, it’s a tough vinyl. You’d be crazy to think a railroad that can’t even clean their own bathrooms uses any kind of paint aside from the silver). The engineer and conductor were lucky to realize something was amiss before the oil ignited from the heat of the exhaust in the turbocharger. There’s a sad example of a tied down train in Canada that sparked up from a turbocharger fire, and the firefighters turned off the lead locomotive, which the previous crew left running for air brakes, resulting in it rolling downhill, and derailing into a tow, derailing, causing its load of 2M tons of crude oil exploding. The town was leveled, and more than 40 people perished. It’s unlikely something that catastrophic would happen to this train, but it’s always possible that if the engineer didn’t spot it in time, that the locomotive might have caught fire. Off topic: Have any of y’all seen the NS locomotive that burned down, and was returned to service, but has a completely torn up paint job? It’s quite something to see 😂
Took a train from Rockford, IL (when Amtrak stopped there) to Union Station in Chicago to Dallas, TX because my dad wanted to see the countryside and he hated flying. That was 40 years ago and the best time I had
Whoah!!! That thing is Wrecked. We caught it on Video coming through Fort Morgan Station here in CO, with just the top running down ... Unreal how messed up it got.!!! Great video
Those are *large* engines. Then, diesels supposedly need more oil compared to gassers, i.e. what you might find in a Dodge pickup will have eight to ten quarts compared to the five or six for a gas engine. Then, they might well burn some while under continuous heavy load, almost like a big *radial* aircraft engine… So 300 gallons might not surprise me.
You are right, they do have a lot. 300 gallons or more in the oil sump. So much, they don’t change it. They pull out the oil, filter it, and add the necessary detergents and other additives to make it good again, and throw it back in. They will typically burn some 55 gallons , but I forget the time period for that. The fuel tanks themselves can hold 3000 to 5000 gallons of fuel. For reference, a typical semi tanker in the road has a 5000 gallon capacity. What makes this failure worse than usual is that used diesel engine oil tends to have soot in it that stains just about anything it touches. I hate getting that stuff in my hands, it takes forever for the skin to grow out with clean stuff. At over 30 bucks a pack for mechanics nitrile gloves, I’m forced to barehand my repairs.
@Dennis Young oh yeah, 200 gals or so. Ima freight ENGR. Wonder if EPA will also notify class III'S that old EMD'S must be repowered within the next five-ish yrs?
Amtrack locomotives are not well kept. looks like one of those Amtrack locomotives lost a power assembly/turbo and blew the oil out the exhaust stack. They won't really know until they pull the cover at the shop. looks like BNSF may work on it. Those new locomotives Amtrack are getting will not help them is they can't maintain them. Glad it did not catch fire.
6:00. I’d rather Amtrak use Gevos as leads too. ES44DC is a good reliable engine. Florida East coast has a fleet of 20 or so and they are test units using liquid natural gas as fuel. Technically it’s burning about 70% LNG to 30% diesel. Diesel is still required for compression ignition
I just got alot of complaining out of this video. At least your not stuck in the mountains. Your comment I don't know what could be worse then this just blows my mind.
What maintenance ? Amtrak is a typical government operation- 40% that don’t care about anything but the check every two weeks. Another 40% of the staffing can’t fix a sandwich. The last 20% are carrying the entire load but retiring at first chance because of the other 80 % in the workforce. Clown show like no circus you have ever seen.
@@yetimonster2586 You have a low opinion of human beings !!! You judge people without walking in their shoes !!! I pray that you never do !!! Because you may live in some of the worst pain in your heart possible !!! God bless you 🙏🙏🙏
Part of your delay is caused by the massive freight trains that are running and the fact that they don't run on a regular schedule. If you get stuck behind one of those, you're in for a long ride. Passenger is supposed to have priority, but that won't happen if the freight in front of you can't fit on a siding. Breakdowns and derailments happen as well. I still prefer train travel though.
Part of the reason also may be because freight locomotives are restricted to lower speeds than the regularly assigned units. Not sure how well Amtrak is maintaining its equipment overall. Siemens loco sass em to have their own problems though new.
I was waiting for, I think,the Empire in St. Paul. It was 24hr late and when it got hear it was beautiful. It was solid ice. Needless to say we had no water toilets or food. My 2 toodlers and I we sick and going to Madison. Not a very fun trip that time, but it was beautiful. I love winter and was too sick to enjoy it.
There's no reason the oil would "catch on fire." Oil doesn't just ignite like gasoline and/or gasoline fumes. It's heavy and takes a lot to not only ignite, but keep burning. You can throw a lit match into a bucket of diesel oil and it'll just go out. But once it actually DOES ignite though, it's very hard to extinguish. So, yes, they were definitely fortunate it didn't ignite. But saying that would be akin to saying you and I are fortunate that the oil that lubricates the engine in our automobile doesn't just "catch on fire."
We left Seattle with a fright engine. That's all they had left. Now for you people who know nothing about locomotives a fright is great differently then passenger. Fight go about 75 top speed and passenger can go 100. We were just about 12 hours late getting into Chicago. I can't tell you what a nightmare that turn into. Amtrak bought me my next ride out to Seattle.
In field British Columbia you get crispy critters (GEs) once a month being met by the local fire department, those deutz diesels don't like grades , I miss the old SD40-2s
We cut crispy critters in big bags with zippers after cutting them out of what's left of their vehicles or digging them out of what's left of their homes, businesses, etc ----
I usually stop in field for a bathroom break from Vernon to Calgary and for years seen many trains going thru there. One time in 2002 I seen a smoky locomotive and a fire truck by it, wondered what was going on, heh
Well, one thing I can say about those bnsf ES44s is, that they can really haul ass! That one unit will drag that entire amtrak consist from there to hell and back at a full sprint in notch 1😂
That is likely not just oil from just the turbo, I would bet from the looks of that much oil that engine is done for. Likely there is a big hole in a piston or many pistons if not the side of the block also.
They don't routinely use those monster locos because they are owned by the freight railroad. And also because they are geared for a top speed of 75 mph, while Amtrak is geared for 110
9 месяцев назад
He had a fair question that I wish I knew the answer to... Why doesn't Amtrak use the same locomotives as BNSF and the others?
Amtrak has improved their customer relations response somewhat- which is good news! Yes, they sent a message apologizing for the almost 15 hour delay and said that vouchers would appear in my account soon. That is a huge improvement from having to wait on the phone line for a long time in order to speak to customer relations.
So that ES44C4 looks monstrous but its horsepower is only about 150 more than the P42! Additionally the P42 can supply electric power for the train while the GE Can't do that. The GE is also 150,000 lbs heavier.
@@dlane5292 Right, because it weighs 75 tons more! Though oddly it has the same number of drive wheels as BNSF orders them 1A1 - 1A1 instead of C-C. Also the freight unit is geared lower to increase tractive effort.
Trucks do that somtimes when the oil seal on the exhaust side of turbo fails and pumps its sump out the exhaust. Somtimes in a fire ball or clouds of smoke
Yep, it happened to me on my truck. There are no words to explain the amount of smoke that resulted as I was on the interstate when it happened but it was blinding for a long time and everything including cab and trailer were drenched in oil when it was all said and done. The shop couldn't explain the failure because the turbocharger was only six weeks old on a rebuilt Detroit Diesel 60-series. The shop covered the parts and labor but I had to pay the tow bill. Thankfully the towing company gave me a break at $220 bucks instead of the normal $1,200 it would've cost me.
There was an rupture in the oil or fuel line, You would have to look at it as if you had a rupture in your blood vessel, bleeding internally. Or an Anurism about to burst open spraying blood all over; this is what happen to one of the locomotives that had a puncture in it's oil line.
No, no. This is not a malfunction. This is the new aerodynamical lubrication system to reduce drag by 20 %.
Ha ha ha... Turbo juice everywhere.
Lmao!!! That right there is funny as hell I don't care who ya are?
@@kirkbrown3243 the quote is “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.”
@@trainlover123trainsrock can you sense if Arizona is in this comment section?
😂😂😂
Looks like it was the lead P42DC whose turbo let go. The second unit was still running, despite being covered in oil from its companion
I noticed the 2ed unit was still running and the leader dead. If it had been the other way around then they would have lost everything as far as lighting and heat goes if the 2ed unit had gone down. At leased in this case the leader can be cut out and the BNSF unit can help the running amtrak engine limp along.
@@onrr1726 that's not how HEP works at all
Yea I think The turbo charger blew up
@@onrr1726 That shows you how much lube oil is being sent to the turbo to keep it cool - a lot. The 2nd unit, at least, is still running, under that lube oil somewhere.
That's definitely a turbocharger failure issue. GE locomotives have this bad habit of fires coming out the exhaust stack when the turbocharger fails.
Thanks for the info
And runaways
In the tugboat application, owners would run the turbos until the case looked like Swiss cheese. The engine room would be filled with exhaust
Yup, luckily, it didn’t catch fire too…
@@bryanphillips6666 overspeed would trip on the engine
"2015, brand new almost". Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks 2015 was not that long ago lol
2015 was 8 years ago
right? That unit model isn't even for sale in the US anymore. They've moved on to the Tier 4 emissions standard ET44 locos.
Give it a quick wash &wax job, be good for another 5 years.
There ain't shit for new locos being made in the U.S. anymore. The railroads don't want Tier crap. All the paperwork they generate to "prove" they are maintaining the manufacturer's emissions specs is a pain in the ass, nevermind the maintenance.
@@MilwaukeeF40C
I beg to differ on new engines being built.
When was the last time you walked out of the GE visitor orientation room in Erie,Pennsylvania or Dallas, Texas and seen locomotives in their stages of been built 🤔?
Barely broken in, no lowballers, I know what I got
About 20 years ago I was in Fullerton, CA and the Amtrak from Chicago came in. Same thing, only it had hit some livestock earlier and was fully covered in blood....lots of blood and chunks of flesh matter. Front of the Genesis locomotives then all along the side back to the trailing units and a baggage car. It was starting to smell funky. Good video.
My dad and grandfather worked for amtrak. Saw this more then once. I lived by the tracks as a young guy and one of these locomotives caught fire outside my bedroom window. We went out and watched and the fire department showed up and one guy was leaning over the exhaust stack with massive flames coming out and his partner was holding on to his belt. Well he slipped, let go and his partner fell into the inferno and burned to death right in front of everyone. My neighbors all had their camcorders- this was the early 90s- and filmed the whole thing. The police came and confiscated all the recording equipment for an investigation. Nobody ever got their equipment back. It happened on Carr Street and Oberon Rd at the crossing in Arvada Colorado. I think it was 1994 but could be a couple years off. It was pretty shocking to witness
That was stupid. City fire men are best kept away from trains. I was told a story about some who wanted to climb up in the wires on the corridor to "rescue" a dead kid who went up there doing something stupid.
@@MilwaukeeF40C my grandfather who worked at amtrak was a firefighter in lakewood for 25 years prior to that. I heard nightmare stories. But in all honesty, who should have shown up to take care of the fire over the fire department? I thought the fire department was most qualified. It was a total freak accident.
@@theshapeexists Yeesh! What a story, and RIP to the poor guy. I don't know the situation of course, but I do wonder why they didn't/couldn't wait for a ladder truck or some other way to get some height above the fire instead of climbing ontop of ya know... the thing that is actively burning?
I can only imagine the effect on the witnesses and family of the deceased. So many lessons to be learned. What a way to die.
You should go to the City Hall records or the library I see if there's any newspaper about that surely they keep records or old newspapers of that
78 was repaired and put back into service a day later
That BNSF locomotive 7943 will have no problem at all pulling Amtrak through the mountains.
The #78 locomotive with the problem has actually been repaired and is pulling the California Zephyr again as of 2/15/23. I noticed it on Virtual Railfan's Galesburg page. It still had a lot of oil stains dripping from various vents, but so do several of the Superliner cars that were used on this train. Some of the cars have been switched out for maintenance or other repairs, and it looks like they've tried to clean them a little, but they still stand out as much dirtier than the others, especially when viewed from above.
Saw 78 yesterday on a railfan video that was shot in Naperville. It was trailing 176 and had a meet with CZ 5 at that station.
Today (2/21) 78 was trailing 14 on SWC 3. Saw it on the Galesburg cam.
The 1st amtrak unit 78 is the dead unit. The 2ed one is still running at leased that is a plus you still have a HEP unit to power lights and keep the heat on. Amtrak back in the day always operated over the Rockies from Western Colorado to Denver with a Denver & Rio Grande Freight engine on the lead. It was in the operating rules for all passenger trains to have a helper set with out exceptions on the D&RGW.
That 2nd unit looks like it is number 27. It used to serve on the michigan wolverine line
I remember sometime in the early 1990s I saw an Amtrak loco on fire traveling down the Empire Corridor towards NYC. It had smoke and flames billowing out the exhaust but it just kept slowly driving along at around 20 mph.
Most likely wasn’t on fire, just a faulty spark arrester. I’ve been on a few engines with bad spark arrest, looks like fire pouring out the exhaust. But it’s fine. Just have to send MOW out to do fire control along the track
The lake shore limited trsin 48 had an electronic arch that cooked the engine about 30 years ago. They pulled into Syracuse, NY got about 5 or 6 miles down the track and boom they were dead. The engineer borrowed an HCLX lease unit off a CSX Freight to push the train back to the station. From there they unloaded everything then took the train to DeWitt Yard and left it. Amtrak then scrambled to add extra cars to all east bound traffic that day to get people to Albany. I'm not sure what cooked the engine but I heard that mice eating the insulation on the wires in an electrical cabinet may have been to blame.
took a trip from Sacramento California towards New York in August of last year on Amtrak or they had to switch train engines in Albany New York don't know what happened sorry for any misspells or mistakes in spelling.
@@bendavis6722 they take the P42DC off (engine in the video), and replace it with a third tail capable P32AC-DM to keep fumes out of Penn station.
Which is interesting because the Hudson division (empire corridor) used mainly FL-9s on trains back then. Until the P32s started coming in. F40s would occasionally make its way on trains down to Croton Harmon.
I caught this exact train on Jan 25 approaching Denver, and it was like 6 hours late at that time! I didn't know that's what happened to the engines!
i was in car 532 rm9 where were you? did we meet?
@@TrainwreckPoet No I was never on the train. I caught it at a railroad crossing just north of Denver. You guys met the even later Amtrak 6 at my location!
That's a first: a locomotive that grafittis itself.
I wish grown adults understood what an explosion truly is and is not. If that locomotive blew up, we wouldn't be looking at intact metal in the video.
I am not sure what they will do with 78 . It went to Oakland and has not returned. 27 is back in service.
The new guy back at the shop drew the short straw. He was handed a hand brush, a spray bottle of 409 and a step ladder.
2:49 Luckily, the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s there to bail you out.
I saw the train come back to Salt Lake City as I was waiting for my bus to take me work as I got off the frontrunner train at stop. The Amtrak train being pulled by the bnsf Engine went by at the same station in a part of Salt Lake Valley. This video answers my question as to what to Amtrak trains. Thank you for sharing the video.
“Final call, the #5 Exxon Valdez Limited to Emeryville. Amtrak welcomes you aboard!”
Valdeez nutz?
Classic turbocharger failure, lookup what happens when a turbocharger blows. It happened live on Virtual Railfan not too long ago, you would hear a pop, then something shoot out, then you'll see oil, flames, smoke, etc. while the train is still moving
same thing happens when the engine loses a cylinder head, escaping the long hood and landing on a cow in a farm field.
@@rearspeaker6364 interesting...
That happens with ALOT of general electric locomotives they're not good with the turbocharger
Exactly why GE locos are kinda terrible
@@IGuessIDoThings well not exactly their turbochargers can catch fire or spray oil but it's just lack of maintenance on it overall
More then likely this is 78’s death knell, because a number of Genesis units have already been sidelined due to the ALC-42’s and I don’t think Amtrak’s gonna fix the blown turbo on this one when they can pull a spare out of the deadline. You’ll probably see her as a parts donor until the breakers contract comes up for her. If she runs again, then it was probably just a blown seal.
I can't imagine Amtrak's going to put any money into repairing this unit with all of the new Chargers in the process of coming online. As you said, there should be a number of spares available depending on how fast the new ones are coming online.
The chargers running out of Chicago were having problems from the start, so they arent as reliable as you would probably need to give up on this one
Amtrak is still repairing P42DCs. 184 recently got its plow damaged and has been sent to Beech Grove for plow replacement. The chargers are unreliable.
The engine was repaired and us now back in service. 27 was cleaned and was put back online.
I remember watching planes trains and automobiles and in that movie the train locomotive also barfs as well
Oh my goodness wow I think that’s the one I saw it in Reno/ Sparks NV back then on my video
"All the fumes here smell toxic"-- films it all in person. I feel that.
He was walking and talking, so it can’t be THAT toxic.
@@macmedic892 he sounded like someone trying to get a free ticket.
All I'm hearing is a pity party." The toxic locomotive just had to blow up". "The time blah blah blah ".
mech failure happens.
Engineer to the conductors and wait staff: Imma need you to go to the store and pick up all the dawn dish soap and sponges you can find, we need to get this train cleaned quickly, so we can get back on the road.
That was the Santa Fe way.
@@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis Or was it Amtrak using BN power? Cuz I saw it all the time driving rail crews around. CN rail crew driving KCS, Ferromex, CSX, Conrail, BNSF....whatever power was there
@@CMDRFandragon I’ve certainly seen pictures and videos of most of those combinations, mostly Santa Fe or BNSF units leading Amtrak trains, although I’ve even seen a clip of a NS SD70 leading the Lake Shore Limited!
@@CMDRFandragon the Santa Fe was known for touching up the pilots with cabs of spray paint back in the passenger days, as they were very image conscious.
It's not "exploded oil"....... It's a turbo that failed causing the oil to blow out the exhaust. These things happen. Your car breaks down on the side of the road, engines break down.
It’s oil that has been projected, vomited, tossed, sprayed, exploded, you pick the adjective. I think after being delayed 12 hours this man has the right to use what ever adjective he chooses to describe what essentially is a mess!
@@chrisstromberg6527 There's a little too much using whatever words you want to describe whatever you want in the word today. Words matter.
Thank you, stuff happens & if someone is in a hurry, FLY even though there can be problems there as well, such as "KAREN'S".
From the source I found, Amtrak 78 was delivered in 1997. So this engine is about 26 years old, and photos indicate that it has been running almost everywhere, even on the NEC and the Coast Starlight.
I feel like the California Zephyr is always the latest train by a wide margin
Sunset limited according to Amtrak website
I work for Amtrak Mechanical and this is nothing new.....we have the WORST MANAGEMENT that refuses to repair simple issues that can later lead to major engine failure like this while on the road!!!!!!
Management 1000% only cares about the paperwork being signed off!!!!!
Here’s a employee tip: NEVER RIDE AMTRAK!!!
what are the most common causes of turbo blowing- or what prevents it?
Power wash video of that mess is destined to go viral.
The oil didn't explode, a engine component failed and this was the result
5:52 if you questioning why the Amtrak doesn't use that BNSF loco, the answer is only one. That's the operating costs. That BNSF loco can dwarf the Amtrak loco it's because the engine is big enough to produce that big power that is equal of 2 or maybe 3 Amtrak locos while in climbing tracks and that need more fuel that the Amtrak locos
The BNSF loco does not have the ability to supply the train with the house electricity it needs for lights, and air conditioning/heat. No HEP generator.
On top of what the commenter said above me, BNSF loco doesn’t have significantly more power, bus does have better tractive effort
The GEVO, critically, tops out at 75 MPH, considerably below the top speed of the P42s it's pinch-hitting for...so hopefully the speed limits on those sections aren't above 75 lol
Let’s hope those P42DC locomotives will be replaced soon with the Siemens locomotives that you mentioned. At any rate, I’ve done the Zephyr many times, and even 12 hours late I would love being on board with you. It’s the adventure of it all that I like.
Yes the p42 are old but Siemens chargers don’t look that good imo but I could see them being replaced soon.
Would've been better to have rebuild the P42 fleet, or do more testing of the Chargers before accepting them. Personally I think the Chargers have a boring, & terrible look.
The chargers are terrible locomotives. The power loads ridiculously slowly, and they have major flaws regarding winterization where the engines cannot operate in the snow due to a very stupid and simple neglect by Siemens. A rebuild program would have been better.
The chargers are unreliable.
@@DieselElevators they need to be repaired
My analysis:
The hot side of the turbocharger got filled with oil, resulting in a spray. When this happens, there’s usually a fire, but I didn’t notice signs of the metal rapidly heating, nor vinyl bubbling(from the Red and Blue stripes/Its not paint, it’s a tough vinyl. You’d be crazy to think a railroad that can’t even clean their own bathrooms uses any kind of paint aside from the silver). The engineer and conductor were lucky to realize something was amiss before the oil ignited from the heat of the exhaust in the turbocharger. There’s a sad example of a tied down train in Canada that sparked up from a turbocharger fire, and the firefighters turned off the lead locomotive, which the previous crew left running for air brakes, resulting in it rolling downhill, and derailing into a tow, derailing, causing its load of 2M tons of crude oil exploding. The town was leveled, and more than 40 people perished. It’s unlikely something that catastrophic would happen to this train, but it’s always possible that if the engineer didn’t spot it in time, that the locomotive might have caught fire. Off topic: Have any of y’all seen the NS locomotive that burned down, and was returned to service, but has a completely torn up paint job? It’s quite something to see 😂
Ah yes, the Lac Megantic disaster.
Took a train from Rockford, IL (when Amtrak stopped there) to Union Station in Chicago to Dallas, TX because my dad wanted to see the countryside and he hated flying. That was 40 years ago and the best time I had
No doubt a turbo I've blown a few of them on semi trucks they make a mess and oftentimes sound like a huge gunshot
Very Cool video! Interesting to see, thanks for sharing!
Whoah!!! That thing is Wrecked. We caught it on Video coming through Fort Morgan Station here in CO, with just the top running down ... Unreal how messed up it got.!!! Great video
wait wait, was that oil INSIDE the cab also? That must have been SOME detonation to send oil to the INTERIOR of the cab.
That's what we call a blown turbo or what I like to describe as a volcano of oil.
It happens. A lot of trips thru the train wash!
Can you imagine standing on the platform as that sucker pulled in. Everyone getting a nice oil shower today lol!!!
It always amazes me how many gallons of oil these units have.
Those are *large* engines. Then, diesels supposedly need more oil compared to gassers, i.e. what you might find in a Dodge pickup will have eight to ten quarts compared to the five or six for a gas engine. Then, they might well burn some while under continuous heavy load, almost like a big *radial* aircraft engine…
So 300 gallons might not surprise me.
You are right, they do have a lot.
300 gallons or more in the oil sump.
So much, they don’t change it.
They pull out the oil, filter it, and add the necessary detergents and other additives to make it good again, and throw it back in.
They will typically burn some 55 gallons , but I forget the time period for that.
The fuel tanks themselves can hold 3000 to 5000 gallons of fuel.
For reference, a typical semi tanker in the road has a 5000 gallon capacity.
What makes this failure worse than usual is that used diesel engine oil tends to have soot in it that stains just about anything it touches.
I hate getting that stuff in my hands, it takes forever for the skin to grow out with clean stuff.
At over 30 bucks a pack for mechanics nitrile gloves, I’m forced to barehand my repairs.
And that oil changes are so infrequent.
@Dennis Young oh yeah, 200 gals or so. Ima freight ENGR. Wonder if EPA will also notify class III'S that old EMD'S must be repowered within the next five-ish yrs?
My 15 liter semi truck motor takes around 11 gallons, so I can imagine these loco motors take at least a couple hundred.
When the seal fails it can consume all of the oil out of the crankcase - using it as a fuel source.
That was 😴
Amtrack locomotives are not well kept. looks like one of those Amtrack locomotives lost a power assembly/turbo and blew the oil out the exhaust stack. They won't really know until they pull the cover at the shop. looks like BNSF may work on it. Those new locomotives Amtrack are getting will not help them is they can't maintain them. Glad it did not catch fire.
6:00. I’d rather Amtrak use Gevos as leads too. ES44DC is a good reliable engine. Florida East coast has a fleet of 20 or so and they are test units using liquid natural gas as fuel. Technically it’s burning about 70% LNG to 30% diesel. Diesel is still required for compression ignition
I just got alot of complaining out of this video. At least your not stuck in the mountains. Your comment I don't know what could be worse then this just blows my mind.
This reminds me, I saw a loco fire just a few months ago while going to work.
Mind blowing. 🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧🙏
I keep thinking about the maintenance on the locomotive ?
What maintenance ? Amtrak is a typical government operation- 40% that don’t care about anything but the check every two weeks. Another 40% of the staffing can’t fix a sandwich. The last 20% are carrying the entire load but retiring at first chance because of the other 80 % in the workforce. Clown show like no circus you have ever seen.
@@yetimonster2586
You have a low opinion of human beings !!!
You judge people without walking in their shoes !!!
I pray that you never do !!!
Because you may live in some of the worst pain in your heart possible !!!
God bless you 🙏🙏🙏
P42DC #78 is definitely done
This is both a design and maintenance problem that is imperative that it be fixed.
That wasn't the BNSF that failed, it was there to help the blown unit get home. The BNSF is GE (now Wabtec) and is an AC unit, not DC.
Part of your delay is caused by the massive freight trains that are running and the fact that they don't run on a regular schedule. If you get stuck behind one of those, you're in for a long ride. Passenger is supposed to have priority, but that won't happen if the freight in front of you can't fit on a siding. Breakdowns and derailments happen as well. I still prefer train travel though.
Part of the reason also may be because freight locomotives are restricted to lower speeds than the regularly assigned units. Not sure how well Amtrak is maintaining its equipment overall. Siemens loco sass em to have their own problems though new.
Well that’s just typical GE. We need those chargers more than ever
I was waiting for, I think,the Empire in St. Paul. It was 24hr late and when it got hear it was beautiful. It was solid ice. Needless to say we had no water toilets or food. My 2 toodlers and I we sick and going to Madison. Not a very fun trip that time, but it was beautiful. I love winter and was too sick to enjoy it.
Very fortunate that the oil didn't catch on fire, that would have been a horrible disaster
There's no reason the oil would "catch on fire." Oil doesn't just ignite like gasoline and/or gasoline fumes. It's heavy and takes a lot to not only ignite, but keep burning. You can throw a lit match into a bucket of diesel oil and it'll just go out. But once it actually DOES ignite though, it's very hard to extinguish. So, yes, they were definitely fortunate it didn't ignite. But saying that would be akin to saying you and I are fortunate that the oil that lubricates the engine in our automobile doesn't just "catch on fire."
Used to be in fr.locos...500 pound oil filter system....and 380 gallons of oil....in conrail long ago per unit?????
Leave it to a GE to blow
Welp that train 🚆 gonna need full Wash down
We left Seattle with a fright engine. That's all they had left. Now for you people who know nothing about locomotives a fright is great differently then passenger. Fight go about 75 top speed and passenger can go 100. We were just about 12 hours late getting into Chicago. I can't tell you what a nightmare that turn into. Amtrak bought me my next ride out to Seattle.
I saw that same consist in the Chicago area. It was covered in oil!
"That'a toxic! Well, the fumes sure smell toxic!" **steps closer** 😂
My right ear really enjoyed this video
gives me "Dirty Objects" vibes
I would bet if you asked the RR guys nicely they would have taken your camera inside and shown the carnage ?
How many times can one say "exploding oil"? I don't know, I kinda thought maybe it was the engine that exploded.
I would have loved to see that happen. Looks like it would have been a real sight to see.
In field British Columbia you get crispy critters (GEs) once a month being met by the local fire department, those deutz diesels don't like grades , I miss the old SD40-2s
We cut crispy critters in big bags with zippers after cutting them out of what's left of their vehicles or digging them out of what's left of their homes, businesses, etc ----
I usually stop in field for a bathroom break from Vernon to Calgary and for years seen many trains going thru there. One time in 2002 I seen a smoky locomotive and a fire truck by it, wondered what was going on, heh
ALC-42’s: THAT’S WHY WE EXIST
Reminds me of the 2003 BMW 530i I'm working on before I fixed the 72 oil leaks it had, there's still one I can't find.
Problems yes, blown up no. Fix the leak, put her back in service
What the hell happened at the 2:30 mark? Was that groans from growing an extra 6+ feet to get the camera level with the cab window on the Amtrak lead?
Yeah!! thats me forgetting i’m mic’d up and just adding sound effects as I stretched the extension rod to the full 1,5 m extension
Wow what a mess. Glad you can keep your sense of humor.
is amtrak deciding on a new design? *mat black..?*
Many freight locomotives have no head end power supply for the passenger service.
I assume they had at least one HEP working for the passengers and Amtrak crews.
Looks like number 78 will need a rebuild tier 4 motor.
Any chance of seeing the actual failure point?
I'm no expert but I think the oil needs to be inside the engine for it to work right
sharp as a bowling ball you are
BNSF is gonna be running like a jack rabbit with that light load and Amtrack speed limits
More like maximum freight train speed of 70 mph.
The P42s are done for, the Chargers are taking over. It’s time to start scrapping the P42s.
Well, one thing I can say about those bnsf ES44s is, that they can really haul ass! That one unit will drag that entire amtrak consist from there to hell and back at a full sprint in notch 1😂
The Siemens aren't much better. Shows how much oil flow it takes to cool a turbo.
That is likely not just oil from just the turbo, I would bet from the looks of that much oil that engine is done for. Likely there is a big hole in a piston or many pistons if not the side of the block also.
They don't routinely use those monster locos because they are owned by the freight railroad. And also because they are geared for a top speed of 75 mph, while Amtrak is geared for 110
He had a fair question that I wish I knew the answer to... Why doesn't Amtrak use the same locomotives as BNSF and the others?
damn that's brutal, also your audio its a little off, only hearing from the right audio channel
I made the mistake of only one mic and not setting it to mono-
I might not have caught 72 but I have seen 78 in person, funny to see it like this
Actually that might be 27 not 72
Not only the sight, the smell must have been pretty strong too.
They determined the problem was the rear loco and then found oil on the loco ahead of it.
at first i thought oil cooler failure but it seems people think the turbo blew up
The locomotive didn't blow up, it just had a turbo faiure
I hope they gave some vouchers. Bad windows suck for pictures.
Amtrak has improved their customer relations response somewhat- which is good news! Yes, they sent a message apologizing for the almost 15 hour delay and said that vouchers would appear in my account soon. That is a huge improvement from having to wait on the phone line for a long time in order to speak to customer relations.
So that ES44C4 looks monstrous but its horsepower is only about 150 more than the P42! Additionally the P42 can supply electric power for the train while the GE Can't do that. The GE is also 150,000 lbs heavier.
Uh their both GE's. They both may have little over 4000 hp, but the freight unit can pull a lot heavier load.
@@dlane5292 yes, it has greater tractive effort.
@@dlane5292 Right, because it weighs 75 tons more! Though oddly it has the same number of drive wheels as BNSF orders them 1A1 - 1A1 instead of C-C. Also the freight unit is geared lower to increase tractive effort.
Are they going to repair this engine, or simply replace it with new incoming series?
Trucks do that somtimes when the oil seal on the exhaust side of turbo fails and pumps its sump out the exhaust. Somtimes in a fire ball or clouds of smoke
Yep, it happened to me on my truck. There are no words to explain the amount of smoke that resulted as I was on the interstate when it happened but it was blinding for a long time and everything including cab and trailer were drenched in oil when it was all said and done. The shop couldn't explain the failure because the turbocharger was only six weeks old on a rebuilt Detroit Diesel 60-series. The shop covered the parts and labor but I had to pay the tow bill. Thankfully the towing company gave me a break at $220 bucks instead of the normal $1,200 it would've cost me.
Cool video
Those engines need a wash now! Glad nobody is hurt
There was an rupture in the oil or fuel line, You would have to look at it as
if you had a rupture in your blood vessel, bleeding internally.
Or an Anurism about to burst open spraying blood all over; this is what happen to one of the locomotives that had a puncture in it's oil line.
Holy cats how much oil do these things hold??
Maybe someone who knows can answer accurately- I think its in the range of 200-300 gallons
A GE being a GE,At least it didnt catch fire like a dash 9 does