Nostalgia & History > They're HEEEEERE!! SP 9010 KM Trucks have arrived!!

They’re (really and truly) heeeeere!!!

The last available bogies (trucks) in the world that could allow SP 9010 to run on its own someday… have arrived! The journey has been three years and more in the making, involving efforts in three countries, three languages, multiple remote site visits, a bit of international and cultural diplomacy, transit or passage on several of the seven seas, and a tremendous amount of patience and faith.

We first learned of the existence of these former SP Krauss-Maffei trucks and their intact and refreshed axle gearboxes and geared axles almost four years ago. At the time it was a pipe dream, because the Plasser & Theurer RM 63 ballast cleaner upon which they were built in 1970 was still available to earn its trade. But it was soon retired, and once we were alerted by friends in the UK, we began a basically relentless campaign to bring the trucks to Brightside.

Now, with the splendid support and backing of the Pacific Locomotive Association, gracious promotional and fundraising campaign assistance from the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, and the generous and constant monetary contributions through our PayPal link by SP 9010’s worldwide fans -- “viewers like you” — we have succeeded in making this impossible scenario become just another item on SP 9010’s “To Do” list. As in: "use geared trucks to make rear powertrain active.” Okay! Now, that may take more patience, and it won’t happen overnight. There are many more items to attend to on 9010’s physical and mechanical reawakening before we’re ready to lift it off its feet and roll a freshened and happily geared truck under the rear. But it used to be a ridiculous notion. And now, it’s reality.

We love reality. Especially when it matches our wildest fantasies. Welcome home, English Steel Truck Castings Numbers 8 and 12: once upon a time we didn’t even know you were out there. But today, we’re glad you were!

More photos and details here:
http://sp9010.ncry.org/trucks.html#020314

~ The SP 9010 Crew
http://sp9010.ncry.org

Photography by Lynn-Kai Chao



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/14 20:51 by tracktime.

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Definitely exciting, I have followed the restoration for a while and watching the transformation has been inspiring. I am all in to see the trucks reinstalled.

Posted from iPhone

Here's a shot of the truck that will be used sitting behind the locomotive in the shop at Brightside Yard.We were pleased to see it rolled easily with all drive shafts turning.

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Thanks, Mr. Tracktime! It's not often we get to say that a day is truly historic, but this has to qualify. Thanks to everyone who supported or donated to this "impossible" acquisition!

~ BZ

"The journey of a thousand miles, begins with one small step." I'd say that, you good people, have put a lot of small steps behind you and are taking GIANT steps, these days. The end of the "journey", draws nigh. Well done!

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

SOUND GREAT NOW GET TO WORK LET SEE IT MOVE OR YOUR ALL FIRE CAN'T TO SEE IT

TOM

Hello

sweet!!!

Chris

That last photo makes me wonder: how in the WORLD did these things ever work as planned??! All that hydraulic fluid under such high pressure, to pull a long, heavy train?? I'm just amazed.

Interesting. Sort of a reminder that there’s a bit of misunderstanding about what's actually ‘hydraulic’ about a diesel-hydraulic drive.

It's gears and driveshafts that move the train; machinery, not high pressures. Inside those gearboxes in the last photo are bevel gears that look something like the final drive in an automobile differential. Not the same, but the same basic idea. Pressure has nothing to do with the transference of power -- that's just gears moving in gear oil, driven by driveshafts with splines and U-joints. Again, very much like an automobile.


For power distribution, the ‘hydraulic’ part is the fluid in the transmissions, and that’s not strictly about high pressure either; it’s all about resistance and torque transference. The Voith hydraulic turbo-transmissions — unlike auto transmissions — have no gearboxes (other than reverse gearing), but have three torque converters for different speed ranges. But each of those in turn function very much like the single torque converter in an automobile's automatic transmission.

There's also hydraulic fluid that impels things like the radiator fan motors, and provides activating pressure for the pneumatic radiator shutter cylinders, but those are separate systems driven by a separate hydrostatic pump.

The drive technology was in common use even here -- the Budd RDC has a similar drivetrain in principle. The only thing truly experimental about these KM units were the fact that they were super-sized hybrids of European and U.S. parts and components -- though almost all of the major drivetrain parts were European.

So to think of hydraulic pressure moving the train, say like extreme hydraulic pressure moves an actuating cylinder on a crane or a press, isn't really what's going on. It's a hydraulic fluid medium in the transmissions that imparts and distributes torque across a range of rotational speed. And in fact, the diesel-hydraulic transmission could apply high percentages of torque at zero RPM of the drivetrain, and not burn up like electric traction motors would eventually do. That was one of the big sales points, and it was quite true and worked quite well. Think of an automatic transmission car holding on a hill by the throttle alone, except that in a car, do it too long or too often and that's abuse, but in a hydraulic locomotive, it's just part of the operating envelope.

The problems with SP's hydraulic locomotives weren't with the hydraulic drivetrains. It was the differing philosophies between U.S. and European operators around preventative maintenance and frequent overhaul, coupled with lots of small failures of vendor-supplied components and a basic intent by the U.S. railroads to apply U.S. rules to European machinery.

The drivetrains were given basically a thumbs-up by SP in the end, but by the time the units were requiring full rebuilding and overhaul, SD45s were rolling off the EMD assembly lines. Even those had their problems, but it was known technology in the U.S. style, and there was no longer a need to use 'foreign' mechanical designs to achieve high horsepower, high tractive effort, and allow unit reduction — which in the late 1950s was simply not available in 4000HP single unit diesel-electrics.

But the hydraulic parts worked pretty well overall. And all that you see in those trucks are fundamentally basic gears and shafts.

~ BZ

Thanks, Fillipe! There may be no CVRD KMs left, but the spirit lives on in 9010, I think!

~ BZ

Bob -

You can see my video of the trucks rolling to the backshop at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5PVW2S9Slk

The link Howard posted doesn't seem to work.

Henry

Thanks, Henry... yeah, there were a couple problems accessing the YT vid.

Howard says the units rolled silently and smoothly. It's incredible to watch those shafts turn!

~ BZ

hkbaum Wrote:
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>
> The link Howard posted doesn't seem to work.
>
Unfortunately, the link I posted to the 9010 update email list required the user to log into Google. I won't go into what I think of that nonsense. If you want to see the short video of the movement, go to youtube and enter "sp9010 bogies" into the search box. The quotes are not necessary.

Howard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/14 15:55 by sp5623.