Western Railroad Discussion > CORP Engine Blows Up...Caught on Video

A northbound CORP train was climbing "Airport Hill" in Roseburg, OR when CORP 2036 blew up. The GP38 in the middle of the consist was smoking heavily just prior to the hood doors blowing open letting a huge fireball escape. The whole scene was captured by a security camera and the resulting video is must-see!

http://nbc16.com/news/local/engine-fire-leaves-train-blocking-railroad-crossing-in-roseburg

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Nice...happened right after the two cars passed!

DFWJIM Wrote:
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> Nice...happened right after the two cars passed!

Jim -

The second "car" was actually a large "cruiser-type" motorcycle. The driver of the big bike seems to gun it just after the GP-38 exploded.

Don
Manoa Valley. O'ahu

Crankcase explosion?
I have been told that an EMD 2-stroke engine can do that and have seen the aftermath of it on a 567 in an SP SD-9.

Heated aspirations


Just before Winterail, at Dillard,OR. Funny that non dyno was leading five with dynos that day:)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/18 22:35 by SD45X.

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railstiesballast Wrote:
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> Crankcase explosion?
> I have been told that an EMD 2-stroke engine can
> do that and have seen the aftermath of it on a 567
> in an SP SD-9.

The low water/crankcase pressure device (Engine Protector) was/is designed to prevent crankcase explosions. Unless of course, someone has blocked the CCOP button in with a flag-stick wedged into the door frame, then they blow up really nice.

Needed more atomizer.

Possibly the air box drains were clogged and the inevitable accumulated fuel and oil mix simply detonated. Here at OERM we have permanent bucket located under UP #942 to empty the airboxes at the end of the day. I am sure the 942 is considerably more worn out than CORP's GP-38, but I could be wrong!

TomPlatten Wrote:
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> Possibly the air box drains were clogged and the
> inevitable accumulated fuel and oil mix simply
> detonated. Here at OERM we have permanent bucket
> located under UP #942 to empty the airboxes at the
> end of the day. I am sure the 942 is considerably
> more worn out than CORP's GP-38, but I could be
> wrong!

The big difference between museum EMD diesel units and regular road units, relative to "power assembly souping", is generally NOT related to being "worn out", but how little and infrequent the units are heavily loaded. Units in museums "soup" so badly because they are not loaded enough to keep the piston rings broken in (not all glazed up), while road units tend to be worked regularly.

For example, the EMD plant switcher rarely ever had to work hard as part of its regular switching duties. Thus, every 3 or 4 months, the plant switcher was tied onto a couple of new "big units" in dynamic brake, and loaded like crazy out on the one mile long test track. The first few passes produced huge clouds of smoke & sparks, and then eventually settled down to just a slight exhaust color. The whole process took about an hour and a half, and she was just as good as new again.

As far as the "explosion", that could have also been a catastrophic mechanical failure, something the crankcase pressure switch wouldn't prevent. A connecting rod or crankshaft breaking under power will certainly ruin somebody's day.

With respect to switch engines not working hard enough to keep things working right, on weekends SP's Bayshore Yard (San Francisco) would couple 3 SW1500's together and send them out on the Watsonville Hauler. My memory might be faulty on this part but I believe they swapped those 3 out with a different 3 at San Jose to complete the trip. Then on Sunday they'd reverse the process on the return to Bayshore just so they could "blow the carbon out of them" - and they did.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/18 14:05 by Railbaron.

A bit off topic but a neighbor of mine used to have a Camero that he would only drive on the weekend and would put very few miles on it. The vehicle kept having mechanical problems and as a cure his mechanic suggested that he drive the car more frequently. Problem solved...my neighbor drove the Camero more often and the mechanical issues disappeared.

Anyone know the heritage of CORP 2036? Looking at rosters around the web + a TO search and I'm coming up empty.

FiestaFoamer Wrote:
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> Anyone know the heritage of CORP 2036? Looking at
> rosters around the web + a TO search and I'm
> coming up empty.


If I had to guess this was one from the batch of Bay Line engines that went to Maryland and then Oregon. Without checking the frame it's hard to say, but possibly Ex-PC; there were several in that batch from them.

Pump