EMD Displays - Engine 2-Cylinder Cross Sections

Two-cylinder cross-sections of the front or rear of EMD engines were the company’s most frequently produced engine displays. One or more of these exhibits was manufactured for every type of 567, 645, and 710 series EMD engine. Generally the two rear cylinders were favored for this display since the that end of the engine included the timing gear train, and the rear main bearing was on a longer journal, providing enough support so that the cut-off crankshaft end would not require another bearing to support it. Displays showing only the crankcase rear end with no oil pan and no timing gear train were light enough that they could be mounted on casters for movement.

EMD did build some front end two-cylinder engine displays. These generally had the #1 and #2 main bearings and associated crankcase structure, making them longer and heavier than the displays of two rear cylinders. We had a 567D front end display in the Training Center that has full gear train and housings, pumps, and governor. It was mounted to a rotating floor pad, and “powered” by an electric motor hidden in the oil strainer box. The movement was transferred to the camshafts by bicycle chains hidden in the gear train housing.

EMD generally used retired engineering prototype crankcases for these engines that had been machined specially for instrumented testing and were not saleable to customers. For a museum creating a display of this type, a failed or freeze damaged engine would be a suitable starting point.

Electro-Motive showed these engines at open house events, industry trade shows, state fairs, several Worlds’ Fairs, and in their traveling training cars and training center. Some were also displayed at factory branch and warehouse locations.

These displays have no direct relation to the EMD two-cylinder “oil test” engines. Those engines were built in special crankcases and oil pans designed to accommodate balance shafts, they were not cut down from larger commercial engine crankcases.

The picture provided below is a 567U engine two-cylinder cross section at the 1947 EMD 25th Anniversary Open House event. For many more photos of the numerous displays at this event see R&LHS RAILROAD HISTORY #211 (Fall-Winter 2014), article beginning on page 42. This photo is shown on page 53 of that article. Note that the display is mounted on casters.

PC

Those would make a great display for a museum.

I notice that we agree yet again, Mr Springer...

That cross section 567U engine is a great project use for the remains of a dead engine, it has minimal structure, no gear train or oil pan, and is supported on a fabricated stand with industrial casters. Minimum weight, and readily transportable. EMD used photographs of that engine to illustrate portions of their engine parts catalog. If it was good enough for that use it is more than adequate for display in a railroad museum.

If the scrapper is hauling away dead ones from the back lot, maybe consider asking them to leave two cylinders of the engine crankcase and the end of the crankshaft.

PC

Good afternoon all,

Exporail currently has a cross section of a 567B on display. It was saved from the CP St-Luc Diesel shop in Montreal in the 1990s, and was in use for them as a training tool. Unsure if it was made by CP or EMD.

Len

That's a beautiful thing ...

A decade or a so ago, an organization was deaccessioning some of its excess inventory. After the auction, there were still a few things left over, one of them being a 12-567. I had told the organization that if it was "ever in the way," that I would be glad to take it off their hands. So the phone call came, "If you want it, it's yours."

I checked with She Who Must Be Obeyed before lining up the rollback and received the following response: "Look, Steph, you can do what you want, but you'll up and die someday and then I'll have that thing in the shop to dispose of ..."

All I wanted was a 567 to fire up now and then, and sit in my chair and watch it idle, taking me back to shore engineer days. It would have been the nice centerpiece for a marine engineering man cave. Wisdom prevailed and I declined.