Western Railroad Discussion > Gensets on the Pasadena Sub local

A few posts down of the Pasadena Local with a GP40X, inspired me to ask if the Pasadena local has ever run with Burlington Northern Santa Fe's 3GS21B or 3GS21C Gensets? Thanks for any replies.

SantaFeRuss

Don't know about the local but a baretable movement back in April this year had one leading westbound. These are the best looking Gensets of the lot, in my opinion.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2741855,2741855#msg-2741855

I've never seen them on the local, but have seen them on baretable trains to Irwindale (which are probably now a thing of the past with the siding there chopped up at one end). And that was likely due to the fact that baretable power came out of San Bernardino, whereas the Pasadena Local's power is based at Kaiser yard.

Here's the 1303 eastbound through Glendora after picking up a set of cars from Irwindale in November of 2010.

Rich



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/12 07:34 by PasadenaSub.

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Only one loading, figures...

Or is that how there "supposed" to work...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/12 06:14 by ats90mph.

ats90mph Wrote:
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> Only one loading, figures...
>
> Or is that how there "supposed" to work...

I don't know the answer in terms of how the engines are wired, but think about it:

Diesels are most efficient when running full out. Gensets work by only turning on as many prime movers as they need to get the required power, ramping up from only one running to having all 3 going full bore.

Now, if you have two of them coupled together and only need notch 4 to get you there, is it better to run 3 engines at full bore or 6 engines at 50%. From a fuel and emissions point of view, you are better off just running 3 and leaving the others shut down until they are needed.

I don't know if it actually happens, but I can imagine shoving the throttle up to run 8 to get the train started, and then notching back to 3 or 4 to maintain the desired speed. And having the gensets go to 6 engines to start pulling, and then start shutting down engines and rebalancing the load as the load decreases.