Western Railroad Discussion > JOULE Unit at Pueblo Co

While not the greatest shots, here is the one I posted about earlier this am. After waiting south of town and deciding that it wasn't going to show in daylight hours, against my better judgement, I left to go back home. Got more than halfway there and got a msg that it was at Pueblo Jct, now.  So turned aaround and headed back to Pueblo. Realizing it was probably in the yard already, went to the one place where I figured I'd at least get a chnace to see it and perhaps get a shot or 2.  Here are the results.

Shot 1.  Looking into the west end of the BNSF Pueblo Yards from the 18th St Bridge BNSF 5673 leads the H SLADEN1 21A into the yard to do some work. The JOULE Unit is rear unit  No markings other than a couple of EMD Decals on the long hood and the Progress Rail on cab sides. Apparently this is the ex 100, that was in some of the propaganda material.

Shot 2.  The unit itself.  Colorful at least.

Shot 3. From the Dark Side just off 24th St in town..

Hopefully it sits a day or so here, where I might be able to get back over and get some better shots of it. We shall see.

Does this unit have a Model Designation? Or is it just JOULE.  Thanks for stopping.  All shots today at Pueblo Co 01-22-2023.   Be well, Ben

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Progress shows two Joule models with C-C trucks.  One is an SD70J and it looks in the photos to be about the right length for that model, at 74 feet. The GT38JC model is listed at 59 feet. I assume the test center has had to install some major equipment to feed this beast in order to run it.  Charging 8 MWh of batteries takes some serious infrastructure.

radar Wrote:
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> Progress shows two Joule models with C-C trucks. 
> One is an SD70J and it looks in the photos to be
> about the right length for that model, at 74 feet.
> The GT38JC model is listed at 59 feet. I assume
> the test center has had to install some major
> equipment to feed this beast in order to run it. 
> Charging 8 MWh of batteries takes some serious
> infrastructure.

To me this looks more like the 59 foot length, but I am probably wrong!!

RR

This is the first of an order of two SD40J to Pacific Harbor Line. They were rebuilt from old SD40s that arrived in Brazil for leasing by EMD / Progress Rail. There is a thread of mine showing it on a truck here on way to Rio de Janeiro port.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

pedrop Wrote:
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> This is the first of an order of two SD40J to
> Pacific Harbor Line. They were rebuilt from old
> SD40s that arrived in Brazil for leasing by EMD /
> Progress Rail. There is a thread of mine showing
> it on a truck here on way to Rio de Janeiro port.
>
> Posted from Android

Pedro, Thanks. In looking at some of the different specs on these JOULE Units, I thought perhaps it was the SD40J listed. Appreciate the answer.  Ben

Unit number 100 is at the EMD here.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5564541,5600026#msg-5600026

ns2557 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pedrop Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This is the first of an order of two SD40J to
> > Pacific Harbor Line. They were rebuilt from old
> > SD40s that arrived in Brazil for leasing by EMD
> /
> > Progress Rail. There is a thread of mine
> showing
> > it on a truck here on way to Rio de Janeiro
> port.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Pedro, Thanks. In looking at some of the different
> specs on these JOULE Units, I thought perhaps it
> was the SD40J listed. Appreciate the answer.  Ben

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

EMD received orders from Union Pacific and Fortescue Metal (Australia) for the model SD70JBB. It is said they will be delivered in 2023. It will be the return of BB locomotives in US.

>
> Pedro, Thanks. In looking at some of the different
> specs on these JOULE Units, I thought perhaps it
> was the SD40J listed. Appreciate the answer.  Ben

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Pedro,
Thanks for the information! I'm thinking ahead of what a safety cab version would look like! Ah! The Teslas of the railroads. We'll see. We all know thousands of miles of catenary is not feasible economilcally, so short of a diesel generating station on wheels (diesel-electric), just what will replace the diesel-electric as we know it? Hydrogen? Maybe, CP Rail is playing with that idea. Thinking back to when I was a kid "Atomic Locomotives" would have been powering trains for decades by now! Cheap text comment, "LOL".
Gonut

Could this be paired on a normal consist as a DPU? Charging itself on long downgrades with regenerative braking (or whenever the lead locomotive is in dynamic), and then turning on again when required to help push a train up a hill? Is this a production unit or some sort of demonstration locomotive?

I wonder why they did not name it GP70J instead of SD70JBB.

I wonder what the weight of the SD40J is. It does not look right with hardly anything between the trucks. Maybe the could add some batteries there.

It is interesting to note that brazilian rr MRS ordered a couple of Hybrid locomotives to Wabtech US. By the templates MRS tested here, the model will be bigger and higher an ES44.
EMD of Brazil produced a GT38H "hybrid" for Rumo rr. It is a medium size unit to substitute the G22 they have in the narrow gauge system. For while, only Vale mining ordered Joule model to EMD and China. A narrow gauge unit was produced by EMD and a broad gauge came from China. After some months in use, the EMD unit returned to EMD for an upgrade.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/23 19:45 by pedrop.

The SD70JBB will have 8 axles, BB+BB arrangment like the brazilian units.

EricSP Wrote:
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> I wonder why they did not name it GP70J instead of
> SD70JBB.
>
> I wonder what the weight of the SD40J is. It does
> not look right with hardly anything between the
> trucks. Maybe the could add some batteries there.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

As I know, this Joule is former PRLX SD40-2 8558 that came to Brazil years ago for Progress Rail leasing services and now is returning home as an SD40J.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

okcrr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could this be paired on a normal consist as a DPU?
> Charging itself on long downgrades with
> regenerative braking (or whenever the lead
> locomotive is in dynamic), and then turning on
> again when required to help push a train up a
> hill? Is this a production unit or some sort of
> demonstration locomotive?
Needs to be contributing not sitting idle while in route otherwise its just dead weight.  Having the other engines trying to recharge its fine but the idea is to get rid of them also I would think.  Problems with onsite charging are huge, power of that quanity is not always avalible on site. Noteworthy is Transit Coaches which run on battries, many properties, where they park them after routes, dont have enough power avalible in that area to charge them.  Oh but dont tell anyone but those nice green Coaches to charge them on site some properties have figured it out, install a very large diesel or NG powered genset.

The name JOULE is rather curious.  Does anyone know where the name came from?
SR

Here is all that I can find on "JOULE". Named for the English Physicist James Prescott Joule.

The unit of energy is the "Joule" - a Watt is just a flow of one Joule per second. The other popular unit of power is the "horsepower". The conversion is that one horsepower = 756 Watts.

Doesn't really tell ya the why it is named as such tho.   Ben

Ah!  Thanks.  I guess it's simply an electrical reference, not unlike Tesla.  (A name, BTW, that predates Musk's ownership of the automobile company)
SR

ns2557 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is all that I can find on "JOULE". Named for
> the English Physicist James Prescott Joule.
>
> The unit of energy is the "Joule" - a Watt is just
> a flow of one Joule per second. The other popular
> unit of power is the "horsepower". The conversion
> is that one horsepower = 756 Watts.

You may want to look that number up again. I'm pretty sure they taught us in high school (1955) that one HP = 746 Watts.


> Doesn't really tell ya the why it is named as such
> tho.   Ben

I think Progress Rail / EMD created the Joule name to battery powered locomotives because "joule" is the standard measurement for energy.

HotWater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ns2557 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Here is all that I can find on "JOULE". Named
> for
> > the English Physicist James Prescott Joule.
> >
> > The unit of energy is the "Joule" - a Watt is
> just
> > a flow of one Joule per second. The other
> popular
> > unit of power is the "horsepower". The
> conversion
> > is that one horsepower = 756 Watts.
>
> You may want to look that number up again. I'm
> pretty sure they taught us in high school (1955)
> that one HP = 746 Watts.
>
>
> > Doesn't really tell ya the why it is named as
> such
> > tho.   Ben

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

ns2557 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Doesn't really tell ya the why it is named as such
> tho.

Marketing.