Nostalgia & History > A Big Day for Krauss-Maffei

Here is a description of yesterday's first unassisted run of K-M SP 9010:

Howard Wise and his colleagues met up around 9;00am.  The goal was to fire up the 9010 and make the mile or two run East to Sunol.  At Sunol they'd top off the K-M's water supply at the depot and then return to the house in Brightside.  A simple but significant outing.  This would be the 9010's first time away from the House on her own, and in so doing:  The first Krauss-Maffei to operate on an SP Mainline since 1968!  Oh, and the water at Brightside is hard well water.  At Sunol the depot has softer city water- better for the K-M's long term health.

It all went without a delay or hitch-  Easy Peasy!   Smiles all around!

Once back in Brightside Yard members of Howard's team were each given a turn on the engineer's cushion to run up the yard and back- I guess it kinda made it real for everyone after years of work: a real operational* K-M!
A huge thank you to Jim Evans and Howard Wise for inviting me along to record the day's success.
SR

*It'll be a little while yet before SP 9010 joins in on regular Niles Canyon Railway events, there' are still several details to attend to. 
(Did anyone else notice there's no front coupler?  I was goning to say something, but it seemed rude, what with everyone being so nice and all...   )

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Is that amount of smoke "normal" or are there adjustments still to be made?

Dunno. With any luck Howard or one of his team will see this and explain all.

I suspect she barely reached operating temperature. I was afraid they’d foul the plugs!
SR

SR - great bunch of photographs! Some real fun and dramatic wides.

Posted from iPhone

Great drone photo coverage!
Regards, Jim Evans

Super coverage, Thank you Boiling Man. Who would ever have thought one of these dinosaurs would ever run again? Were the cabs really that shade of puke green when new?
Yes, I saw the missing front coupler and was curious was it anything unique to K-M or easiliy replaced from another loco? This would be a problem running around a consist to make a return trip.
Too Cool!
Gonut
 

The rings need to be broken in. 

Howard

Gonut1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Super coverage, Thank you Boiling Man. Who would
> ever have thought one of these dinosaurs would
> ever run again? Were the cabs really that shade of
> puke green when new?
> Yes, I saw the missing front coupler and was
> curious was it anything unique to K-M or easiliy
> replaced from another loco? This would be a
> problem running around a consist to make a return
> trip.
> Too Cool!
> Gonut
>  

I was teasing about the front coupler.
I overheard some discussion about it and it was nothing dramatic- they were swapping couplers around for some reason. I was busy with my photos and didn’t listen too carefully- the tone of the conversation didn’t sound like it was anything particularly interesting.
SR

I was kidding about fouled plugs too, btw.
My daughter likes to say I’m a fun Dad- but not always a funny Dad.
Kids.
They cut to the quick.

sp5623 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The rings need to be broken in. 
>
> Howard

Thanks SR for covering this event. Nice photos from above and bellow. 
Howard,
Can't find anything on the restoration page, wondering if the Maybach was torn down and had rings and bearings replaced? Or?
Thanks for your amazing efforts 

Dave

dmaffei Wrote:
 
> Howard,
> Can't find anything on the restoration page,
> wondering if the Maybach was torn down and had
> rings and bearings replaced? Or?
> Thanks for your amazing efforts 

The "rebuild" was covered on Facebook.  I got tired of maintaining the web site. 

Howard

Nice bunch. Hope they can do something about the smoke. AQMD country.
JB

Great set of photos and Howard and crew have to be given a lot of credit for restoring that hulk.  A long hard journey getting close to the end.  Thanks a million for the coverage.   TomE

3rdswitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice bunch. Hope they can do something about the
> smoke. AQMD country.
> JB
>
> IMO, tell them to look away for a few minutes, the nicest thing i can say about the smoke.

With all diesel ( compression-ignition) engines 'blue smoke' 
is the clearest indicator of a cold engine-block, as well as cylinder heads,
water jacket, coolant expansion tanks, radiators, etc..

There's a LOT of iron to heat-up, and a lot of water ( block-cooling) 
to heat up,  and injectors are not temperature compensated to 
lower the amount of fuel at low throttle, or 'idle' conditions.

So, running around with no cars takes a long time to heat up a cold 
engine block that has been 'cold' for such a long time.

During "HP Standardization load-testing",  it takes hours to --- slowly---- bring
the whole locomotive up to higher operating temperatures ---- Any, all dismals 
burn "blue smoke" ( unburned fuel),  until "loaded"  for the entire 'warm-up' 
to get the coldest parts of the block, turbocharger, and radiators up to 
operating temperatures.

it takes very little fuel to 'blue-smoke' ---- and you don't get any benefit from
turbo-chargers ----- util your in throttle-6, or better "loading levels"
So, available O2 at idle is VERY low, and the fuel runs very rich ---- and in
extreme cases, the engine may repeatedly come to a stop, because there
insufficient RPMs to maintain hot combustion chambers....
You have too many pistons all firing, but 'no-load'....therefore, too much fuel
for 12 or 16 cylinders.. ... on no electrical load...

​W.

 

Great photos SR. Thanks for sharing.