EPA Won't Allow A380...

[2000flyer]

EPA will have a conniption fit over this one

Puff The Magic Dragon!

 

[secks]

Hot dang, do engines typically smoke like that on startup when they're being broken in?

I just can't resist:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=77287

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=72945

 

[secks]

Nope, but it usually isn't a big deal .. unless you decide to stop in a tunnel

 

[slowto250]

My GTO does that with T/C turned off. Problem is, you need new rubber after about a dozen launches !

 

[garf12]

Hot dang, do engines typically smoke like that on startup when they're being broken in?

I just can't resist:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=77287

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=72945

Wow an airliners.net for railroad geeks, now I've seen everything!

 

[fr8dogfo]

Secks,

Thats pretty cool. Whats he trying to do, go faster hoping it will go out. What kinda fire bells that thing got on it?

Whats the main website where you found that pic?

FDFO

 

[secks]

He's just hoping it goes out, period. It's usually not a big deal. It can happen when the engineer throttles up too quickly, and the turbo lags, resulting in an extremely fuel-rich mixture which ignites. That's no biggie, it'll die down. Also, if the engine has been idling awhile (locos are rarely shut down), carbon deposits can form on the engine, so when you crank it up, those babies light up and flare out the stack. Smoke and fire can also indicate an oil leak, like from a leaky turbo seal.

If the problem is serious, the unit is taken off line and set out in a yard.

 

[91100 100 set]

Not to hijack, but that picture of the train reminded me of an email story I received a few years (months?) back. It's a brief story about a railroad engineer that noticed a smoking wheel assembly (or whatever they are called) a few cars back on his freight train. I guess "a few cars back" is relative, because the troubled car was a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile behind his locomotive. So, following safety procedures, he begins to slow and stop his train. Well, the troubled car ends up stopping on a tressle. A tressle built of oil or pitch soaked wood. Of course by now the wheel assembly is hot enough to catch fire, which of course sets the entire tressle on fire. The resulting photos are fascinating as the entire bridge goes up and eventually collapses with the train on it. Unfortunate, but fascinating to see. Anybody else see that story?

 

[Daveman]

holy smokes!

 

[secks]

Yeah I recall hearing about that. Smoking wheel assemblies are called "hotboxes". The only practical way to detect them is through the use of defect detectors which are buried periodically underneath the track every 15 or so miles. Once your train passes over one, it will transmit a radio message which contains stuff like your axle count, and whether your train has any "defects", like a hot journal bearing or dragging equipment, and which axle(s) are affected. If you go to www.railroadradio.net and listen to one of the feeds, you'll hear them every once in awhile.

 

[secks]

Almost forgot .. sorry for hijacking the thread there .. does anyone know why jet engines billow smoke like that on startup? My best guess would be impurities in the first spurt of fuel that comes into contact with the igniters (like water?). What's the scoop on that?

 

[aucfi]

probably, well, i dont have a clue....

 

[Kawasumi_Kichou]

I thought it was pooled fuel in the burner cans. Sometimes see this (though not quite as much as in the photo) on the first light-off of the day. Airliners.net has quite a few examples.

 

[SiuDude]

Here's a good one:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=50742


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