Just afore the sun went down last night, I got this nice 'glint' shot, And this old gal has a bad taste in color coordination! And the 4734 looks to have had recent engine work done , too. The longhood over the engine is a different shade of red!
My thoughts are similar. Figure that the 'toasting' required an engine swap out or rebuild. And any handy carbody would do, or that the original was so cooked it was warped beyond feasible repair. Here's a better pic of the KCS unit's coloring,
Pays to read the fine print, even on a locomotive. Below the word "SOUTHERN" one can just make out the word "Mexico". Looks like something got a little too spicy.
A little jalapeno please??? Did a little digging, and the carbody change occurred either fall of '18 or spring '19. Why? is the question?
These new units have a higher pressure fuel injection system to help with the emissions. That leads to more frequent failures at fuel line gaskets, which then spray high pressure diesel at the hot exhaust stacks. Voila!! Ignition and fun fires to watch!
That feature is standard equipment since the U-boats... Explosion? Maybe with Uncle Fester at the controls...
The dash 7's weren't as high as the dash 9 and later. I don't remember what the dash 8's had, but it didn't seem like they 'toasted' themselves as often.
It's all about emissions and pressures, the fuel rack pressures on these newer prime movers is kinda scary, they atomize fuel to the point the flash point is lower than some of the environs they operate in, one little crack in a high pressure fuel line, then a spray of hot atomized fuel, on a red hot turbo, and WALLA, SHOW TIME !! The hotter the fuel burns, the cleaner they can make combustion, the harder it gets to cool the engine, the larger the radiators, enter/after cooling. AH, the simplicity, safety and sound of a SD9.....
I cut my teeth on -2's, then progressed to GP-9's, SD40's, SD-9's and whatever else MRL was having us fix over at LRC. Then the NdM U-boats showed up. Oh wow! Those were a lot of fun, and the sound of them working Bozeman pass was incredible! Give me either on older 567 or 645 or GE anyday for great sound!
Caught a bit of activity this week, and more snow today! Which made for a nice snow coal train! Got "stuck" at the Whistle Stop crossing after filling my tank. Missed the first half of the train, though I did watch the power go by! Then later yesterday, I got "stuck" at the west Glendive crossing by a bare table train heading towards Sidney! And lastly, a new to this area coal load heading out in light and cold snow!
