One hears from time to time about a diesel being used as an emergency power source. In 1998 when an ice storm in the northeast knocked out power for days CN rolled a MLW down the street in one town to supply power. I'm curious of what needs to be done to make this setup work. Obviously we are talking about an ordinary freight locomotive (AC/DC transmission) not something with HEP (too easy!).

Say you have a Dash 2 EMD. You need to hold the engine 720 RPM so the AR10 (a ten pole machine) puts out 60 Hz. Maybe there's some throttle notch that sets the governor to 720 RPM or something close enough that it could be adjusted to 720.

You would to regulate the field so the voltage would hold to 480V. (Or maybe 600 which is another standard voltage transformers might be available for. But more likely 480V.) I presume the normal control would be trying to balance voltage and current to fully load the engine to a certain horsepower level associated with that throttle notch while here the voltage needs to remain constant regardless of variation in current draw.

I suppose maybe on a unit updated with microprocessor controls there may be a software function for this just like there might be on a unit with AC traction but I'd be curious how one would do it on a unit with simpler technology. I'm just curious and have no actual need to know!

Steve

A couple related things:



http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=65143

Actually the neatest thing on that site is the shredder driven by what appear to be a pair of EMD DC generators (D32?) being used as motors. As they are powered by a GE FDL engine / generator set one might wonder if the locomotives they were once a part of were ever MU'd!

Steve

I remember the story- I was more curious about how they steered/guided the MLW down the street with no rails. Did it move under its own power, or was it towed?

IIRC, it did some pretty extensive damage to the street- I guess the city decided it was a fair trade in exchange for having power back in the grid.