Nostalgia & History > It's still allve: SP 9010 moves again...

Not the first time since 1969 -- but it's always noteworthy that the world's only remaining Krauss-Maffei ML 4000 C'C' diesel-hydraulic "Series Unit" can now be started fifty-six years later with just the twist of a switch.

Well, not just a twist -- the 2,000HP Maybach Mercedes-Benz turbo V-16 needs its cooling water preheated to at least 95ºF before attempting a start. And that whirring pump sound is bringing the oil pressure up to at least 70 psi, upon which the Brown-Boveri BBC Dynastarter automatically kicks in and spins the roller crankshaft until compression ignition gets underway in each six-valve cylinder beneath dual overhead camshafts.

The idle immediately stabilizes at 680RPM. The volunteer crew of this miracle-on-rails restoration currently keeps the throttle below the fifth notch; that oil smoke is normal for an MD870 four-cycle motor, but the new rings and liners aren't fully seated yet, which exacerbates the tendency. The unit will eventually have newly-installed elements of its cooling and hydrostatic systems put back online, and road testing under load will commence next.

For this day in April, two members of the international volunteer crew were treated to some hands-on rewards for their across-the-Atlantic contributions to this amazing project, via some short shuttles within yard limits and sight of the shops. Those who've been following the restoration closely over the years will note that the boxy-but-rounded-and-beveled filler extensions for the eight walkway sandboxes are starting to show up in place. They're the very last of the many 'scratch' fabrications needed to restore this once-stripped and neutered derelict; all eight are built, several are in place, and four will be functional once again.)

The next operations will happen as the railroad is available and when the project requires the unit to build some hours on the VDO engine counter gauge. We can hardly wait for public events for the shining beast, but that'll take a bit more patience, and some more detailed attention by the crew at the Niles Canyon Railway in California's San Francisco Bay Area. Yet to be tested, for instance, is the unit's hydrodynamic brake, a simple turbine attached to the end of the Voith transmission. In SP service and in German road testing, these equivalents to a diesel-electric's electro-dynamic brakes could bring a train to a near-standstill, a decade or more before extended range dynamics became available from domestic U.S. sources.

For those who've wondered what these KMs sounded like, here's your video! This 9010 volunteer remembers them vividly, and awards sixteen thumbs up for the mellow sound of this compact V-16 and its three-converter Voith transmission -- back to life thanks to Howard P. Wise, international cooperation and enthusiasm, and the all-volunteer crew of the Pacific Locomotive Association.

~ Bob Z.

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Fantastic!
Great Job on a top notch restoration!

Rob in Fremont

Wow! Congratulations to all involved in the restoration! Great job!

Excellent!
Bob

When the engine was new, the 95-degree rule applied? If so, how did one go about complying? Was it easy, or did KM figure shutdowns would be rare enough they didn't need to make warmup easy?

This is one of the best railroad restoration stories you can hear about and the unit looks wonderful.   I do have a question about the comment about the cooling system needing to be preheated to 95 degrees.   That's a pretty warm temperature which sounds stranger when it involves the cooling system of all things.   Since I'm not an engineer or a mechanic, can someone explain if heating a cooling system to that high of temperature is normal for large diesel engines like this and why it would have to be that hot?   

Thanks.

Questions about the cooling system, here goes!

When new, the KMs had a pair of Hagenuk diesel-fired preheaters. The Maybach tolerances were designed for a minimum cooling water temp of 95ºF before starting. Can I explain which parts and why? Nope, not here -- although one can assume ring-to-liner and valve clearances would be pertinent, as well as the fact that combustion is via prechamber and nozzle burner, so the works would all work best when equalized in temp, and not at various disparate freezing temps from overnighting in Winter.

But suffice to say that the Maybachs have a great deal in common with automotive engines of the period. Did SP religiously preheat them before starting, as is indicated in both the service and operator's manuals? I think we only can guess how often that happened, but I think we also can guess the answer. Although leaving them idling was typical of the period when emissions and fuel consumption were just on the bubble of public scrutiny; KM engineers were probably as unhappy with SP's leaving them running for a month as they were with cold cold-starts.

The preheaters were removed from SP 9010 when the No.1 Radiator Room was emptied of all ancillary equipment, radiators, and fans -- to provide space for an onboard generator for camera, sound, and lights during the unit's 1969 conversion. (Search: Simulator Camera Car SP 8799.)

As with many of those removed ancillaries, it was up to the ingenuity of the Niles Canyon restoration team to improvise a solution for missing functions, since the original components were/are either unavailable or prohibitively difficult to secure. The unit's future does not include 100-car freights or Tehachapi all-day climbs in Run 16, so smaller air compressor, hydrostatic pump, generator-alternator, and cooling water preheater are up to the new task, and have been devised, adapted, and fitted for road testing. (The 'Book of Face' "Southern Pacific 9010" group will walk you through every last permutation of decisions, engineering, and realization. With pictures. Each component has had its learn-on-the-job assignment, and the process is ongoing, with turnkey reliability being the goal.

~ BZ

The Maybach engine sounds really nice, and the 9010 is just beautiful.  B

Mind blowing.

Mind boggling what these Niles Canyon folks have done--the unit looks like it just arrived from Germany!!

Mind boggling.  Just amazing.

Incredible. I hope to see this beauty up close someday. She purrs like a vintage Benz.

That's amazing!!!
Loved those "Krauts".
But,doesn't 9010 have a bell?
I've never seen a locomotive move unles the bell is ringing.
TAH

90mac Wrote:
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> That's amazing!!!
> Loved those "Krauts".
> But,doesn't 9010 have a bell?
> I've never seen a locomotive move unless the bell
> is ringing.
> TAH
Perhaps they didn't want the sound of the bell to cover up the sound of the motor.

Probably one of the most difficult restorations in diesel locomotive history. Great job, but what else would you expect from a Howard led team? Thanks BZ

One term I didnt understand is the roller crankshaft why is it called that? 

This is without a doubt one of the most amazing restorations ever. I do note something that raises a question in my own mind (you already answered the temperature thing). I note you only have 2 sand boxes on the fireman's side and only 1 on the engineer's side. Have they been fabricated and simply not installed or are they simply not going to be replaced?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/25 09:19 by Railbaron.

The sandbox filler extensions were added to the original KM design before testing commenced in late 1963.

Concerns by SP centered over the eight under-walkway bins (think of eight big laundry room tubs) feeding the sander valves at each truck corner. To service them, the adjacent hood doors could not be open. And it required one person on the walkway and another feeding the sand hose through the handrail, or extensive extra labor if it was one person doing the task. 

Several solutions were tried or suggested. Correspondence in the SP 9010 files gathered by our German team members indicate that feed pipes at a higher level were considered, both against the hood and outboard of the railings. Eventually the idea of doing two jobs with one device won out -- eight "sandbox filler extensions" were crafted to empty into the under-walkway bins, effectively doubling sand capacity for the unit, which became 48 cubic feet.

You'll notice oddities which challenged Howard Wise and crew in the replication -- all eight were removed when Chassis 19106 was converted to a non-powered Simulator Camera Car recording platform in 1969, and the feed openings were welded shut (with sand still inside!)

The sloped tops have square lids over round orifices meant to accept the standard SP 4-inch sand filler hoses. But it's those odd kick-outs that had the crew scratching their heads. The boxes are rounded at bottom, which makes sense for flow. They also dump into a full-size opening with no restrictions. But the kick-out bevels are on the inboard (fuel tank facing) sides of all eight boxes -- plus, there's a smaller beveled kick-out at the mating edge of those!

Why? We speculated. But the most plausible answer from an engineer familiar with German procedures suggested to the crew that the kick-outs were meant to provide flow relief for moist sand; that the extra relief at the bottom would break up any tendency for moist sand to form a non-moving block and stick in the extension bodies without flowing. In the absence of controverting theories, we're accepting this one provisionally as being the simplest answer for a complex solution!

Last thing: German loading gauge clearance has the units built to a maximum of 3000mm for the rail transit from Munich factory to Bremen harbor docks. AAR clearances are greater, and to exploit the additional room available in their new homeland, the walkways were built to use "extender kits" for handrail posts and walkway edges, to be applied after delivery in Houston. The sloping mounting of the sand filler extensions theoretically allowed for diagonal fine-tuning of the overall clearance, but in practice the boxes and mounting studs were permanently fixed somewhere in the middle of the potential travel, and before the units shipped. (Travel to the docks was with narrow provisional handrails for point units only; no filler extensions, walkway lips, or production handrails were fitted, and the sandbox openings were covered with flat plates; small round access covers were installed on the blanking plates for only the leading powered units of the travel consists.)

Ask an SP crewman how they felt about the sharp flange and pointy corners on the boxes, when traversing a rocking walkway in the dark! We have to be careful ourselves, 'we' being 9010 volunteer crew, to not cause the utterance of blasphemies. SP added a two-inch band of reflective Scotchlite striping to the inside three surfaces by about October of 1964, and all fifteen Series Units like 9010 got the warnings applied. We have 1980s white beaded Scotchlite, and will need to determine how to tint the material reliably to match the 1960s yellow-green-ivory of the 3M product pre-1980.

Such has been the complexity of re-creating these deceptively un-simple "boxes" filled with sand. All are fabricated, three are applied, all will be potentially functional. (We scooped out each under-walkway bin of 45-year-old sand soup before commencing.)

Thanks for the compliments on the work. The crew is appreciative, and we are regularly amazed as a crew that this has all been accomplished... at all!

~ BZ

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Thank you for an exceptional explanation of the sand boxes; much more detailed than I could have ever expected.

Notch16 Wrote:
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> we are regularly amazed as a crew that
> this has all been accomplished... at all!

Amazement isn't the word for the rest of us --
mystification is better. How can this be possible?
As if you showed us someone flying around
by flapping his arms.

I don't have the book -- dunno what 8799 looked like,
and how much KM stuff was still there, underneath.
Seems like just recreating the cab, with all that glass,
would be impossible enough, before you ever
get to the difficult parts.

Basically, it looked like this. No parts nor batteries included! Some dedication and mild insanity required. ;-)

~ BZ

Photo by HP Wise, 2008



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/25 16:55 by Notch16.

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