We have just acquired a GE 80 tonner, built in 1944. It has the Cummins LI-600 engines. Overall it is in very good shape, except one of the engines is missing a head and intake manifold. The other engine is compete and we may try to start it on Monday.

How rare are the LI-600 engines these days, and is there any hope of finding parts for one? Was this model superseded by a more modern engine in later 80 tonners?

In the photos you can see that the previous owner stopped using the fuel tank for some reason and placed 55 gallon drums of diesel on the deck. There is hardly any rust on this unit, which is amazing considering it is sixty six years old.

We have a 1946 GE 80 tonner at the R&GVRRM. She was built new for Eastman Kodak and was the first diesel-electric to operate there. Take a look:



Our 80 tonner has the same engines as yours. One engine is operable, while the other arrived at our museum with a broken crank shaft. The working engine runs very well... in fact, it's probably the gentlest running diesel I've ever met. I don't know if that's by design or if it's just that well worn. You'll see what I mean if yours is anything like ours.

Anyways, I've heard that these engines are very hard to come by these days. The later 80 tonners had different engines. We are lucky enough to have a spare LI-600 that will serve as a parts donor when the time comes to repair our engine with the broken crank shaft. It's possible that we will have parts we can spare... for example, we will probably end up with 6 spare head blocks. I'm sure we could give up one for the sake of vintage 80 tonner preservation! Feel free to contact me.

Enjoy!

EDIT: I see in the classifieds section that you are also looking for maintenance manuals. We have all sorts of manuals that we could copy for you. Like I said, feel free to shoot me a message!

Joe,

I sent you a PM.

Where was the picture of the 80 tonner taken with the Amtrak engines in the background?

Thanks.

Later!
Mr. Ed

You probably already know this Rick, but if you search and inquire on lists having to do with heavy equipment preservation or marine engines you have a better chance of finding what you need than if you just try railroad lists. I've found a lot of hard to get bits and even better good advice on how to do difficult things from these sources.

dave

The LI-600 was never a common engine, and depending on the anticipated usefulness of the locomotive, acquisition of a spare running engine or even a failed engine that has some salvageable parts may prove to be worthwhile in the long term.

PC

The 80 tonner is at Larry's Truck Electric.

Is there a more modern engine that could serve as a replacement for the LI-600, should it not be possible to repair this engine?

There are any number of engines that can potentially be adapted but the problem is that most readily available engines nowadays that are of similar physical size are 1800 RPM or more and the LI-600 was a relatively slow 1000 RPM engine. Running modern engines at a maximum of 1000 RPM would often be far off their best performance, and in some cases might be detrimental to the engine. If you were seriously thinking about going to go to the trouble of adapting another prime mover and fabricating the necessary adapters to do the job, it might make better economic sense to install something quite recent along with a modern and suitable generator that would have a higher operating RPM and a higher horsepower output, putting the Diesel in its proper speed and load range, and use the new package as the sole prime mover.

Now watch everybody get upset with me for saying that.

PC

Preston just beat me to the punch with his note.

The later model (post 1950, or so) GE 80 tonners have a physically smaller, higher RPM diesel engine, and very different high-voltage electrical systems (I believe that the later traction motors are designed for higher RPM as well).

Do you happen to have the serial number for this unit? There was supposed to have been a 1944 80-tonner at Larry's that was built for the original Genesee & Wyoming. That unit would have spent its first 20 years or so, as a rather close neighbor to the Kodak engine that is pictured above.

JR

Yes, nowadays you can find quite a few modern prime movers that can do the work of both of this locomotive's original engines while occupying the space of only one of them. A CAT C27 immediately comes to mind, but there are engines from Cummins and others as well that would do the job very nicely. If replacement of an engine was to be considered you would want something new enough so that you can get parts for quite a while (why go to all the work otherwise), and it would be even better if it were an engine commonly used in railroad HEP service or current multi-engine applications that is familiar to present day railroad maintenance personnel.

PC

IF you are going to replace pretty much everything from the shell in and frame up - and I'm about the last to suggest you do for your purposes - I'd opt for something along the lines of the Cyclone Engine rather than another old school diesel. It would suit your mission of interpreting steam history but bring it up into the present day's experimental "green" time frame to complement your ancient huge stuff.

dave

This is the Genesee & Wyoming No. 20. LTE never owned it, but has been storing it since the owner moved their operation from McDonald a few years ago. Does this locomotive have historic significance beyond just being a 66 year old 80 tonner?

For comparison purposes, the gensets on our GE 70 ton centercab are Cummins NTC335 engines. That would not have been the original engine, the originals would have been probably NBIS running 1800 RPM full load and generating a total 380 horsepower.

The locomotive was sprung upon us quite unexpectedly, and we are really wondering what to do with it. It needs a good home where it can stretch its legs and be cared for. With these obsolete engines onboard its probably not wise to do much heavy hauling with it.

It doesn't look like the Cyclone engine is in production yet, but yes something like that installed on one end would be an excellent demonstration platform to compare and contrast so called "dirty" diesel technology with "clean" technology.

I could always install a flash boiler and steam turbine to drive the generator! :-)

With one servicable original engine left in the locomotive, if you were to install new machinery in the other hood, you could clean up that original engine and maintain it for "interpretive" use, perhaps just operating it occasionally for demonstration purposes.

PC

John Redden has corrected me on a few things in my post. Our 80 tonner, Eastman Kodak 6, was actually Kodak's second diesel locomotive... the first being a diesel-battery-electric. It was purchased second hand from the New York Central. (Road number 505.) Imagine that... a hybrid in 1944! Unfortunately, it was scrapped by Kodak in 1962.

Also, John believes our engines are actually Cummins L-6-1's, not LI-600's. Our spare engine may be a LR-6-1. I don't know what the difference is between these, or if they share common parts.

Thanks, John, for the corrections!

One final note: We ended up rewiring our 80 tonner years ago so that the remaining good engine would power all four traction motors. The single engine has enough power to do what we ask it to do... mainly light duty switching and pulling around a caboose or two for our visitors. This locomotive has given us nearly 30 years of service on one engine. At this point, I think the engine will outlast the aging electronics and wiring.