Thread: A log of my updates on my '32 Brookville highboy

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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I've got that exact engine in my sail boat......................

And this might be the engine in my next sailboat. I'm planning on hybrid diesel-electric with LiFePO4 cells. This small diesel is turning an alternator with diodes for DC charging. I already use an inverter for my AC loads and an AC gen-set would be redundant, besides much heavier for the same KW output over a DC gen-set charger. And you can run at a chosen rpm for efficiency and noise reduction instead of a fixed rpm for AC frequency.

Pretty sweet. What amazes me, is how big the machines have to be to machine all those huge diesel engine parts. Holly huge bat man!

That of course begs the question, why do they not use antifreeze?

Until recently I thought I knew and I thought it was because of heat rejection being less than with just water (with corrosion inhibitors). That would result in a "slight" loss of power which in a locomotive can mean the difference between pulling 100 freight cars or 110, and over the entire operation that amounts to millions of dollars difference.

More recently I learned (still researching more on this so take it with a grain of salt) that it's because some of these big diesels (at least most of the ones used on locomotives) aren't designed to keep the coolant completely out of the lube oil and in fact there is some oil pollution. If a little water gets into the oil, they are designed to withstand that and keep on trucking. But if antifreeze gets into the oil, it seriously compromises lubrication.

Originally Posted by Hot Rod Nick

Until recently I thought I knew and I thought it was because of heat rejection being less than with just water (with corrosion inhibitors). That would result in a "slight" loss of power which in a locomotive can mean the difference between pulling 100 freight cars or 110, and over the entire operation that amounts to millions of dollars difference.

More recently I learned (still researching more on this so take it with a grain of salt) that it's because some of these big diesels (at least most of the ones used on locomotives) aren't designed to keep the coolant completely out of the lube oil and in fact there is some oil pollution. If a little water gets into the oil, they are designed to withstand that and keep on trucking. But if antifreeze gets into the oil, it seriously compromises lubrication.

A friend is a RR engineer (train driver) and pointed me to this link once when I was curious about some facts - Diesel Locomotive FAQ See Number 16.

Thank you for that link, Roger. That confirms the reasons I've heard over the last 40 years working with all the Class 1 RR's in the U.S. and EMD (now part of Caterpillar; formerly part of GM) and GE who manufacture the loco's. Even Alco was still operating back when I first started.

exhaust is done so countdown to ignition: 10, 9, 8, ....

Oh yeah, that looks awesome!

When my dad first went to work for GE, the first two things I recall the first day when moving to Schenectady in their '41 Chebbie was the mega monster GE plant, then driving down Erie Blvd (which was the site and now filled in Erie Canal) and past ALCO and seeing several brand new STEAM engines sitting ouside of their shops - which of course made my day as my grandfather was an engineer with Michigan Central. 40,000 plus worked at GE and another 16,000 at ALCO. There might be 3-4000 at GE now and ALCO is gone and Schenectady, "The City That Lights and Hauls the World" is a dump

Speaking of engines - this is one I worked on in Spain in 2004/5:

3-gas-turbine.jpg

This GT is only a small part of the project - add a generator, a steam turbine, and an HRSG(boiler), inlet and exhaust system along with train loads of other claptrap to make up a 3-400MW plant.

Sorry about the nostalgia trip, back to Nick's '32

Dave,

We are just keeping the thread alive for Nick's first test drive coming soon. 400 MW sure trumps my 32 MW. Is yours a compound generator where the spent heat energy from the gas turbine is being used in a steam turbine?

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Dave,

We are just keeping the thread alive for Nick's first test drive coming soon. 400 MW sure trumps my 32 MW. Is yours a compound generator where the spent heat energy from the gas turbine is being used in a steam turbine?

In steam turbine technology that's a term with a double turbine. With a gas turbine as the prime mover, it's generally called by GE a combined cycle or STAG (STeam And Gas) plant. It tends to get a bit complicated as to layout - they are often designed with the gas and steamers in one line up, powering a single genset, others use one to as many as four GTs, each powering a genset, then a good size ST running a 5th gen set. We did that at a project of mine Mahmoudia, Egypt with smaller frame size GTs. I sure wish I still had my photos, but they got left in the project files when I retired

You guys sure have worked on some mega engines/gensets!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

You guys sure have worked on some mega engines/gensets!

I don't work on them, just operate them.

We have a couple " generators " that produce about 1200mw each.
Man that would be some hp!!

Nick has to be close to that first drive with the 550 hp 427, weather permitting.