Passenger Trains > Help...the new Psgr Units with MTU Prime Movers???

There was a recent thread about the new power with MTU prime movers. Built by Rail Power as I recall. But I can't recall which RR got these? Thought I'd saved this thread in "Followed Threads."

If somebody could supply the hyperlink, I'd most appreciate it?

I was going to try to see what the MTU prime movers sounded like, as I was on YouTube trying to see what the upcoming Metrolink EMD "Spirit" F125 units with the 1800 RPM V-20 Caterpillar C-175 engines might sound like (you can get a pretty good idea how those will sound with a startup of the V-20 and, a V-16 of the same series under load). At the high RPMs of those Cats, they almost don't sound like Cats, or 4-cycle engs...almost like a blend between an EMD and with a bit of Alco sound blended in. Interesting sound that the 4700 HP Metrolink EMD Spirit units will have (which on YouTube I saw were actually based on an MTU design adopted by Caterpillar!).

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3164402
Brookville is now delivering ten model BL36PH locomotives to Miami's Tri-Rail powered by a 20 cyl. 20V4000 MTU engine rated at 3600 h.p. Head over to YouTube and search for a KiwiRail(New Zealand) locomotive with that prime mover being fired up.

shed47 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3
> 164402
> Brookville is now delivering ten model BL36PH
> locomotives to Miami's Tri-Rail powered by a 20
> cyl. 20V4000 MTU engine rated at 3600 h.p. Head
> over to YouTube and search for a KiwiRail(New
> Zealand) locomotive with that prime mover being
> fired up.

Thanks!

Well...here's how the new TriRail units will sound under load and on the road (but with better horns). Kind of a cross between a GE and ALCO sound. (I prefer to hear 2-stroke EMDs at the head end of a psgr train, but oh well. :-( ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKcq8_LRdtI

Well-shot video of some very serious railroading in one of the world's most beautiful countries.

I'm thinking those motors sound not unlike the quick-running four-stroke Maybachs in the American Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulics of the 1960s. MTU is the successor to Maybach.

Looking forward to hearing the first good audio of the Tri-Rail units for sure...

~ BZ

Notch16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well-shot video of some very serious railroading
> in one of the world's most beautiful countries.
>
> I'm thinking those motors sound not unlike the
> quick-running four-stroke Maybachs in the American
> Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulics of the 1960s. MTU
> is the successor to Maybach.
>
> Looking forward to hearing the first good audio of
> the Tri-Rail units for sure...
>
> ~ BZ

I'm thinking that the new EMD "Spirit" F125 locomotives for MetroLink with the Caterpillar C175 V-20s may well sound almost identical to these? As both are 1800 RPMs with invertor HEP, and while scoping out the Cats on YouTube, found that Cat had borrowed the V-20 design from MTU, and one person said, "aside from the yellow paint, it's basically an MTU eng." Very interesting, that. Not sure how many RPMs the Krauss-Maffei's Mayback prime movers turned over (and surely didn't realize that MTU...one of the primary marine motors for yachts and even large ships...was a successor to Mayback), but, their 1800 RPMs are almost double the 950 RPMs of EMD 2-strokes, and the 1050 RPMs of the older GE FDL-16s and the GE GEVO-12s in the newer ES44AC/ES44EDC lines...just wonder how well they'll hold up. But both units will sure pack a lot of "PUNCH" horsepower-wise, 4700 HP for the new EMD "Spirit" units, with them normally only having a 600kW "parasitic loss" to HEP but up to 1025 kW (as the Amtrak standard is 800kW whether it be an F40PH, a GE Pepsi Can, or the ubiqitous GE P42DCs, or, 1072 horspower being taken away from traction on current AMTK units...not sure what the rating is for the EMD F59PHIs with their separate HEP GenSets, although they were available for "special order" for MU-Able HEP like the old GE P30CHs, but the only F59PHIs I know ever ordered with MU-Able HEP were the stillborn "Marlboro Train" pair which went to AMTK, and I'm sure this feature was disconnected since they didn't go into Intercity Service?). So PLENTY of traction horsepower left (around 4000-plus) to spare on both the new TriRail and Metrolink units from different builders. At least we know from the above link how the FL TriRail units already look...all I've seen so far of the EMD Spirit F125s for Metrolink is an artist's rendering in the July issue of Railway Age (p. 35). Which looks quite similar to the new Brookville Metrolink units. My main gripe as an old codger...all new psgr power pretty much looking the same now. :-( But at least Wabtec/MPI's MP36PH variants and MP40PHs (with the EMD 710, but, some being built for somebody actually coming with the GE GEVO-12...aghhh!!!)...at least most of the Wabtec/MPI units still use EMD prime movers.

Time to start a thread, with PIX, of all new-build passenger power soon, complete with pix, I think? (Though the EMD F125 Spirits won't be out until 2015).