The Union Pacific GTEL Locomotives

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and conditioners as well it's all available at beardblaze.com and let's get into today's video [Music] in the early 1950s general electric ge and the now defunct american locomotive company or alco teamed up to build a number of immensely powerful gas turbine locomotives that were icons of the american west for nearly three decades though they'd never been used in trains the revolutionary gas turbines provided more than enough power to pull huge loads through some of the country's most mountainous terrain and in many respects they outclassed the diesels that have been the mainstays of the industry since the turn of the century but despite admirable performance the gas turbine electric locomotives or g-tels lives were cut short due to rising energy costs high fuel consumption and stiff competition from a new breed of increasingly powerful and efficient diesel engines it's a classic tale of innovation and economics and more importantly the never-ending quest for more horsepower now the union pacific g tells [Music] the first gas turbine locomotive was built by renault in 1952. with a few minor variations gas turbine power plants were remarkably similar to the jet engines becoming more common in aircraft of the era with just a thousand horsepower renault's locomotive wasn't exactly a heavyweight but across the atlantic in the united states much bigger machines were on the drawing board in fact union pacific u.p would eventually operate more details than any other railroad in the world and some had eight times as much horsepower as their french counterparts that said locomotives have been around for ages by the time gas turbine monsters burst onto the scene the machines that preceded the gtails were powered first by steam and later by diesel engines though the two operated side by side for decades steam engines were introduced in 1802 when english engineer and tinkerer richard trevithick built a new vanguard power plant that he installed in a rickety locomotive called a high-pressure tram engine trevorthick boasted that his invention produced sufficient power to haul 10 tons of iron five wagons and 70 men it took more than four hours to cover just nine miles or 14.5 kilometers but as they say rome wasn't built in a day nonetheless the engine set an avalanche of innovation in motion that would change rail transportation forever the pinnacle of steam technology was reached nearly 150 years later when union pacific ran a fleet of 25 7 000 horsepower plus big boy locomotives between utah and wyoming by comparison most diesels of the day cranked out a measly 1 horsepower but though they were brimming with brute strength steam engines were heavy expensive and prone to catastrophic boiler explosions diesel locomotives began showing up in numbers in the 1920s but most were restricted to flat roots and yard duty because they just didn't have the cajones to hack it on the main line where the loads were heavy and large changes in elevation were common in fact many had less than a thousand horsepower which meant that when they did venture out they were often in groups of two or three over time mechanical engineers squeezed more and more oomph from the diesels but few would ever make it anywhere near the horsepower that the big boys and the gtails had however thanks to their low maintenance and low operating costs they eventually became the biggest players on the railroad scene and they're still used today in england however it wouldn't be until after the second world war that the first diesel locomotives entered mainline service on the other hand by the late 1930s in america big diesel electric locomotives were everywhere and many looked like art deco masterpieces big sleek and emblazoned with colorful paint jobs they were truly sights to behold but sadly they were still lacking in the one area that mattered most horsepower in their search for better power solutions up tested and ultimately rejected a pair of steam turbine locomotives in the 1930s diesels getting the job done but using three or four expensive locomotives to do jobs that might be done by one powerful unit had up accountants and shareholders seeing red ge had been building gas turbines for various propulsion and power generation applications for years but again they'd never been used in locomotives because who in their right minds would put a jet engine in a train then somewhere perhaps in union pacific's omaha nebraska headquarters a light bulb went off the idea had some merit but there was a huge problem gas turbines inhaled fuel like pensioners gobbled shrimp on seafood night at convalescent centers in fact turbines used twice as much fuel as diesel engines but if one of the former could match the power of two or three of the latter fuel expenditure could actually be reduced and the diesels would then be freed up to all revenue generating freight elsewhere like on flatter routes where the loads weren't so heavy in addition gas turbines tended to be most efficient when operating at high speeds over long distances they'd slow considerably when tugging heavy loads through mountain passes but the west was full of wide open spaces and flat ground too so it was all just a bit of a natural fit alco ge produced the prototype ge 101 in 1948 and up put it through its paces until the following summer when it was redesignated up-50. though fuel economy was poor it wasn't a big deal considering the power that up50 produced especially since it burned bunker sea heavy fuel oil which was significantly less expensive than diesel on the downside bunker c was dirty and coagulated into a molasses-like glob in low temperatures to remedy this it had to be heated by a steam generator before being injected into the turbine's combustion chambers later heaters were built directly into the tenders but keeping the viscous fuel flowing was just always a hassle eventually up switched from bunker c to more refined number six heavy fuel oil which burned more cleanly and caused less turbine wear the latter of which was a constant issue for the gtails its biggest drawback however was that number six heavy fuel was expensive this was partially offset by giving the new engine the air it needed in greater quantities adjustable louvers were added that were capable of optimizing airflow depending on temperature load terrain and wind conditions union pacific intended to use the new gas turbine locomotives to replace its big boy steamers which were already scheduled to be mothballed though it performed well the railroad never actually took ownership of up50 but most of its design features were incorporated into later models [Music] spanning more than 80 feet 25 meters from end to end and tipping the scales between 550 000 230 000 kilograms and 850 385 550 kilograms depending on the generation the details were big big machines featuring four multi-axle trucks and a track gauge that's width of about 4.5 feet or 1.37 meters the steel behemoths were capable of hauling loads approaching 7 000 us tons or about 6.4 million kilograms across particularly vast stretches of country peppered with long steep grades but all that power wasn't distributed through a transmission and drive shaft like it is on cars and trucks instead mechanical energy from the engine was converted into electricity by massive alternators after which it was transmitted to traction motors electric motors at the wheels that provided the propulsive force to get and keep the gargantuan machines moving the efficient if complex system worked well in locomotives and over the life of the details output more than doubled ultimately ending up at about 8 500 horsepower at least officially directive effort the amount of force exerted on the drive wheels in first generation units was an astonishing 138 000 pound-feet or roughly the same pulling power generated by 100 heavy-duty european or american trucks the maximum speed for early details was 65 miles per hour 105 kilometers an hour on level ground they were capable of going much faster [Music] between january 1952 and august 1953 up received 10 details from alco ge at about half a million us dollars a pop about 5.2 million today the locomotives were similar to the up50 with the exception that they only had a cab at one end this design changed increased fuel capacity to 7200 us gallons which came in handy since the new details were pulling a freight between green river wyoming and ogden utah by the time they'd been broken in in 1954 the details began covering other western routes too and the following year to compensate for their high fuel consumption 24 000 gallon or 91 000 liter fuel tenders were added behind the locomotives the setup extended their range considerably allowing them to make the 900 mile 1 448 kilometer run between ogden utah and council bluffs iowa during this time a new roof mounted intake system was also tested to provide the engines with more air for cooling and increased combustion efficiency successive locomotives were built with this new feature and up converted one unit to run on propane which was fed to the engines from a huge pressurized tank on a separate tender car propane burned cleanly and didn't foul the turbine blades like the thicker and less refined fuels did but it was more expensive and presented additional handling transportation and safety concerns in the end the savings just weren't worth the headache and the experimental unit was ultimately converted back to operating on bunker c later two units were used in tandem with a fuel tender between them but though the combination purportedly made over ten thousand horsepower the second locomotive's turbine often experienced a compressor stall and tunnels due to the ingestion of exhaust from the unit in front of it modifications were made to remedy the problem but the scheme was mixed in favor of a g-till diesel setup which proved more reliable and fuel efficient while still sending about 6500 horsepower to the tracks [Music] the first of more than a dozen second generation details was delivered to up in early 1954 nicknamed veranda units because the engine housing was narrower than the locomotive itself each featured two sidewalkways that gave them distinctly different looks and made it easier for crewmen to get from the cab to the engine bay the engines tractor motors air intakes and other components on second generation units were similar to those on earlier models but the loads had become so immense that nearly all units were now used in tandem with a diesel locomotive [Music] after the success of the previous generations of gtails union pacific ordered 30 new and even more powerful units in the mid-1950s though it'd be years before they'd take possession of the first it's and its successes would go on to become the world's most powerful locomotives each consisted of two units one gas turbine engine and a 24 000 us gallon or 91 000 liter insulated fuel tender the first or a unit housed the cab auxiliary generator and other secondary systems while the b unit carried the turbine and electricity generator which sent power to traction motors in both units delivered to union pacific in august of 1958 with an official rating of 8500 horsepower up engineers and mechanics claimed that the new beast produced over 10 000 horsepower when operating in cooler denser air meanwhile track to barefoot rose by about 10 to 146 000 pound feet by the 1960s weight ratings had grown to between 5 200 and 6 700 tons depending on route with the former being the limit for mountainous areas the new turbines featured 16 stage compressors for more efficient intake and combustion but with full tenders each super-sized g-tail weighed a staggering 1.2 million pounds or about 544 thousand kilograms in fact they were so heavy that up considered adding traction motors to the fuel tenders though it wouldn't be done until years later when routes to los angeles were added now in addition to tenders being motorized speed restrictions were imposed to improve safety conserve fuel and reduce stress on the mechanical and electrical systems since clogged filters were constant sources of aggravation a number of details began running exclusively on pre-filtered fuel this made the engines cleaner more efficient and more powerful while reducing blade wear but by 1970 all of the generation details have been retired in october of 1962 union pacific built a frankenstein-like detail using an old cab purchased from the great north railway and a tweaked gas turbine from a first generation locomotive featuring two units 12 powered axles and a 2 000 horsepower auxiliary diesel engine the experimental unit cranked out a respectable 7000 horsepower bus injecting coal dust into the combustion chamber of a gas turbine wasn't without problems despite what energy executives say these days coal isn't particularly clean and it was even dirtier more than half a century ago when engines were much less efficient in fact the blade erosion and soot emission problems so common with bunker sea fuel were amplified to the point that the increased maintenance costs more than negated the savings from using the cheap coal as energy ultimately after spending less than two years in service the old hybrid locomotive was laid to rest and later cannibalized to spare parts [Music] for decades early and late model g-tails ran alongside one another in western states like wyoming utah and new mexico u.p officials claimed that during the 1960s the gtails hauled as much as 10 percent of the company's freight though they made up far less than 10 to the power units by number even today the most powerful engines ever installed in north american locomotives all told the gas turbines traveled tens of thousands of miles and production ran from january of 1953 to the summer of 1961 with 55 units being built and delivered but though the third generation units were still operating in the late 1960s the writing was on the wall diesels were becoming more powerful and a national fuel crisis was looming between 1949 and 1967 the average price of gasoline and other fuels in america remains relatively static there were slight yearly variations but things were about to change and by the late 1970s the average cost of any refined fuels had nearly tripled hence fuel efficiency became a huge factor in deciding what engines to use sadly for horsepower junkies and trained geeks the details were no longer economically viable the gas turbine's last hurrah took place the day after christmas in 1969. now more than 50 years later a few details have been lovingly restored by railroad museums around the country but though they may look new on the outside the cost of renovating their engines and running gears is prohibitively expensive so the chances of them ever again thundering down the tracks are slim to none so i really hope you found today's video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe also if you've got a suggestion for a future video please do use the comments below i look there for ideas so if you come up with something that you think might work on this channel let me know and thank you for watching [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 372,041

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Id: pXXi3siVA_Q

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 29 2021