Greetings,

I have a diner. I considering converting it from steam to hot water heat. Additionally, I contemplating a gen-set for it. Can someone tell me how many KW's a car of this nature uses (requires from a gen-set)? This includes AC usage, appliances, lights, etc.

Thanks,
Gerald W. Kopiasz

hrrhs@aol.com

> Greetings,

> I have a diner. I considering converting it
> from steam to hot water heat. Additionally,
> I contemplating a gen-set for it. Can
> someone tell me how many KW's a car of this
> nature uses (requires from a gen-set)? This
> includes AC usage, appliances, lights, etc.

> Thanks,
> Gerald W. Kopiasz

Here's some basic info, but the best private car advice you can get will be from a fellow member of American Association of Private Railcar Owners (AAPRCO, aaprco.com) or the Rail Passenger Car Alliance (RPCA, rpca.org). Join up now! Anyway, you can get by with as little as 20KW total. We have run effective multiple day, cross country trips on cars with as little as 2KW for the galley!

Before you bid on the first gen set you see on E-Bay, decide what you're operating profile will be. It's a diner for how many people? How much freezer and refrigerator capacity for how many days. What functions will be non electric, i.e. gas or Presto log stove, gas or oil furnace and hot water heater, dry ice refrigerators. Maybe you can slave off a paired lounge car or Amtrak HEP and avoid the gen set all together. Do you expect to run in North Dakota in the dead of winter? That will take more KW than operating in more comfortable regions.

How much terminal prep time will you have? Boarding passengers right out of the coach yard has different KW demands than being able to precondition the car on shore power or over several hours on the generator.

Then there's the gasoline vs diesel question, budget, fuel consumption, and "bargain" units to sway the final decision. Even with my bias for a GM Detroit 71 (the standard of mechanical refrigerator cars for years, and thus supportable along the railroad in the proverbial "East Nowhere") if you have access to a orphan brand diesel unit at surplus prices, that's an effective way to get started.

The short answer: With a blank checkbook and no other information, for general railroad diner use, get a 50 to 65KW gen set.

Francis Wong


flwong@danceart.net

Also, if you are hanging something under the car, watch your clearance. The generator could foul station platforms, dwarf signals, switch stands and third rail if you are planning to go into New York.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

Gerald, as I understand it, you are in the Omaha area. If that is the case, you have a couple of resources right in your neighborhood.

You can go over the UP's passenger car shop in Council Bluffs and talk to the people there. Having an a ctive fleet of 50-plus cars to operate and maintain, including several diners, they can give you some answers, tips, and pointers. They have some of the exCNW cars that had hot water heat when they were still CNW cars.

There is also Bill Kratville, of Auto-Liner Corp, which has or had several cars and has done some extensive car work in the past.