EMD Displays – 567B Training Engine

In 1947 EMD constructed two displays of the complete machinery set of an F3 diesel locomotive. These showed the 16-cylinder 567B engine, D12 main generator, and accessory rack positioned as they would be in the locomotive engine room.

The machinery set pictured below was built for the 1947 EMD Training Center, located in the southwest corner of the plant. It was displayed with the engine cooling fan and radiator hatch, and the locomotive dynamic brake hatch, hung in their proper location above the machinery, suspended by steel rods from the ceiling. This was basically the locomotive machinery set without the carbody.

The Training Center machinery set had a 567C engine replace the 567B after 1953. It was further modified with a 567D3A engine around 1964 and the F-unit roof hatches were removed. It was later equipped with a 645E3 engine and AR10 traction alternator in 1966. The machinery set remained in the Training Center until its replacement by a new Training Facility in the 1990s.

PC

No wonder EMD dominated the postwar diesel market with sales aids like these. Plus they could win over a reluctant master mechanic.

Of course it helped that EMD's were the most reliable, too.

Phil Mulligan

quote
"Of course it helped that EMD's were the most reliable, too."

Yes after five iterations from 567(V) 567(U) 567A 567B to 567C in less then 15 years I accept.
But IMHO I see the Alco 539/539T the more reliable in the 660 and 1000 hp class in 1939-1953.

The 539 and 539T are extraordinary engines. However they are capped at 1000 HP at 730 rpm. I think the Russians are still using them (copied from Lend-Lease RSD-1's). See those green shifters on Russian military trains.

Alco understood that and was designing a new, lighter, engine. As we know that did not go as well as Alco wanted but eventually we got the debugged 244 and the 251.

FM had an outstanding submarine engine but it couldn't make the transition to land use. Could be not having the entire ocean to cool the engine was a problem.

Baldwin used an engine heavier and slower than the 539. They did acceptably powering shifters but in higher horsepower applications they did not do well. When Hamilton's engines came available, BLH stuck with the ancient De La Vergne.

I think a De La Vergne supplied auxiliary power to Noah's Ark.

Phil Mulligan

Upon completion of the merger of BLW and L-H into BLH in 1951, a Hamilton locomotive engine was brought to Eddystone and placed under test in the laboratory. The tests were presided over by Hamilton's chief engineer who had designed the engine; he was now BLH's chief engineer.
...
The same chief engineer who designed the Hamilton engine was the same chief engineer who ultimately made the decision to terminate its production: Fred J. Geittman.

Mr. Geittman's decision was approved by George A. Rentschler who headed General Machinery Corp. at the time that the model T69SA and T89SA were developed...

The loyalty of Mr. Rentschler and Mr. Geittman to the origin of the model T69SA and T89SA would have precluded any possibility of abandoning them as a prime mover for BLH locomotive had there been any logical reason not to do so.

--- John F. Kirkland "The Diesel Builders" (Fairbanks Morse & Lima Hamilton volume)

Musta been a pretty crappy engine if they stuck with the De La Vergne in preference.

As the engines of competitive builders got lighter and faster, the slow-churning De La Vergne stood beside them like a Silurian monster of a forgotten age. Baldwin never wavered from this standard, and died with it.

--- Jerry A. Pinkepank "The Case for Baldwin" TRAINS December 1967

Model Railroader John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid has a stegosaurus dinosaur that did occasional switching and cargo handling. Wonder if an SP Baldwin was the inspiration.

Phil Mulligan

General Machinery in addition to Hamilton engines (WWII replacements for Brill gassers and Beardmore 1920's diesels are reliable) produced the Hooven-Owens-Rentschler submarine diesel. This was a double-acting (power stroke in both directions) diesel that had a superior power to weight ratio.

The H-O-R engines were installed in several USN fleet boats where they set new records for unreliability. One boat had to cross the Bay of Biscay in 1942 with only the APU working. (she had supported the North Africa landings) I think one reason she survived is the Germans couldn't believe a sub in the Bay of Biscay in 1942 wasn't one of their own U-Boats.

All the H-O-R diesels were replaced with Cleveland (Winton) 278's.

Phil Mulligan

Didn't Baldwin also spend a couple years developing an opposed-piston engine at the PRR's behest, only for it to not pan out?

Yes, and Alco also got drawn into the opposed-piston engine design competition in 1944-1945. US Patent 2,416,045. See article in Railfan & Railroad, October 2011, beginning on page 33, and the discussion section "Everybody wants OP engines". The article was based on a technical program that was originally developed for NMRA and ARM events.

PC

Wasn't the H-O-R Owens the same one that did the welded frame for Fairbanks-Morse that is cited in the '045 patent?

The "Owens" in H.O.R. was Job E. Owens who formed a predecessor company (Owens, Elbert & Dyer) in 1845. The name was then carried through subsequent merger and ownership change to Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co. in 1882.

PC