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| Rolls Royce 01/02/2015 at 22:19 #68646 | |
BarryM
2158 posts |
New locomotives for South Africa. Article Barry Barry, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 02/02/2015 at 12:43 #68667 | |
Jersey_Mike
250 posts |
The press release is suffering from a bit of cut and paste syndrome since MTU has been the go to power plant for Chinese export locomotives for a few years now, the New Zealand DL class coming to mind. By taking such close ownership of its subsidiary's action it seems to me that Rolls had a bit of GE envy, who also make both gas turbines and locomotive diesel engines. If I were them I'd still be careful. The current Chinese export locomotives are likely to suffer from reliability problems, and even though MTU's prime mover is reliable enough, it is still a small bore marine use diesel being used in a rail application. That means higher revs and more cylinders (20) to get the same amount of power, which means more wear and tear which then requires more maintenance. Multiply by finicky German engineering and I wouldn't want to own these engines in 5-10 years. This is a typical move by China however. With state support the builders can undercut GE and EMD and for the railways these deals can be very tempting, even if the engines will crap out in half the time. Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 03/02/2015 at 07:30 #68701 | |
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kbarber
1742 posts |
" said:The press release is suffering from a bit of cut and paste syndrome since MTU has been the go to power plant for Chinese export locomotives for a few years now, the New Zealand DL class coming to mind. Little high-revving engines have been used in railway locos before. The Deltics did pretty well. Charismatic machines too. I grew up with them as next door neighbours (and Biggleswade was 100mph territory)... a fine sight & sound flying through with the controller wide open (often with a rousing chorus of 'Ilkley Moor' to go with it). Happy days. Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 03/02/2015 at 09:30 #68704 | |
Peter Bennet
5402 posts 
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Most (all?) HSTs are MTU powered now and have been for years; 125 mph running day-in day-out. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 03/02/2015 at 18:22 #68722 | |
postal
5265 posts |
" said:Most (all?) HSTs are MTU powered now and have been for years; 125 mph running day-in day-out.And binary driving (particularly on GWML) which is reportedly the worst way to operate a diesel engine. “In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 03/02/2015 at 20:23 #68724 | |
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Jersey_Mike
250 posts |
" said:As much as I love Deltics, I'm not sure I would hold them up as a beacon of reliability. :lol: The class exemplifies the trade off with better power to weight ratios offset by decreased longevity. 1950's vintage EMD E-Units of 2000-2400hp can be found operating in many places today. Quote: Most (all?) HSTs are MTU powered now and have been for years; 125 mph running day-in day-out.Will be interesting to see how they hold up in the near future. Also, I assume you give them proper maintenance. In Chinese (and American) service such engines will be tested with heavier loads and less maintenance. Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 04/02/2015 at 08:18 #68743 | |
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sorabain
72 posts |
" said:" said:Would "binary driving" be either 0 throttle or full throttle?Most (all?) HSTs are MTU powered now and have been for years; 125 mph running day-in day-out.And binary driving (particularly on GWML) which is reportedly the worst way to operate a diesel engine. Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 04/02/2015 at 09:57 #68748 | |
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postal
5265 posts |
" said:" said:Correct. Apologies for not explaining in the original post." said:Would "binary driving" be either 0 throttle or full throttle?Most (all?) HSTs are MTU powered now and have been for years; 125 mph running day-in day-out.And binary driving (particularly on GWML) which is reportedly the worst way to operate a diesel engine. “In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe Last edited: 04/02/2015 at 09:57 by postal Log in to reply |
| Rolls Royce 04/02/2015 at 11:02 #68761 | |
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kbarber
1742 posts |
" said:" said:As much as I love Deltics, I'm not sure I would hold them up as a beacon of reliability. :lol: I don't think they had any significant reliability problems once the early bugs were chased out of 'em. There were only 22 of them but they ran all the top line expresses on the ECML for a good many years, then they were 'relegated' to such as the Hull expresses when the HSTs came in and went out in a blaze of glory, taking (somewhat illegal - no black boxes then) advantage of the 125mph line speeds. Ken d'Ath (who ended up as principal of Ilford Training School) always harboured an ambition to take a deltic + 8 from Huntingdon to Peterborough (16 miles) in 8 minutes pass to pass. He never achieved it, but he did manage it in 9 minutes. (The deltics were - supposedly - limited to 100mph.) Even then, at the end of their lives, their reliability was as good as any other disiesel. Log in to reply |