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Rob, thanks for the reply.
Why were the sparks a problem, setting fire to dry vegetation in the summer months i presume?
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When a diesel engine idles for long period of times, carbon & soot builds up in the exhaust. First time the locomotive goes to Notch 8 all that carbon & soot is blown out...as hot as the exhaust. At night you'll see it as ambers and it can start fires on dry vegetation.
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As Zack mentioned, normally aspirated units (non-turbocharged) can often emit hot embers from the stack when throttled up under load. Reason for the arrestors is to catch sparks which can potentially start lineside fires.
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All diesel engines can do this Rob, the naturally aspirated ones are more likely to allow bigger chunks out. The turbocharger on the other EMD versions will break-up the chunks in the impellers of the turbo. And EMDs aren't the only ones that will launch ambers...I've seen ALCos do the same thing after they've been idling for a while. And I'm not aware of a non-turbocharged ALCo model still out there pulling tonnage.
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I'm aware of that, Zack. Perhaps I should have been clearer in stating it _mostly_ affects non-turbo equipped units, however, not exclusively. Also, we're talking about burning embers being ejected from the stack. "Amber" (sic) on the other hand is something else entirely
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amber?s=t
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And this is what happens when a locomotive stays in low throttle ranges for months and the maintenance crew feels it's time to clean it out:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=192519&nseq=21
As far as non-turbo Alco locomotives, there are still a number of S-1s and S-3s around in short lines, museums and industrial switchers. While carbon sparks are one thing, Alcos (especially the larger Century units) had a trick up their sleeve in being able to shoot 12 foot flames into the air. There was an article in a TRAINS magazine about Illinois Central's C636s where crews learned to do this by putting the throttle in Run8 then back to idle quickly to flood the manifold with raw diesel fuel, then opening the throttle again, causing it to ignite. The line that cracks me up every time is along the lines of "this was best done at night while passing through small towns of Illinois."
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Thomas, what a great story about the big Alco'S. Thats the beauty of a less than refined and clever diesel injection system!
I guess the modern EFI systems have put paid to all that.
Thanks all!
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