Blown Engine

[pappy]

One of the members in the Garden Railroad club sent me this.

"This is Canadian National locomotive number 2699. It is a 212 ton machine powered by a 183 liter, 4400 hp V16 4 stroke diesel."

"Shortly before this picture was taken, while working under load, 2699 experienced what is known in the trade as a "catastrophic uncontained engine failure". The train was passing the town of Independence, Louisiana, at the time.

The first picture below shows that the engine exploded and one of the 16 cylinder-packs that form the engine was ejected through the engine bay body side and thrown clear of the locomotive.

In addition to this, the piston from that cylinder was thrown free by the force of the failure. It was ejected so violently that it traveled through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby home where it imbedded itself in an interior wall."

 

[pappy]

Two more pics.

 

[1911]

Now that's some high compression!

 

[MANUCHAO]

Wow..really emphasizes the meaning of "blown" eh !!!

 

[sl33p3]

yeehaaa... .souvenirs!!!

 

[gr8wrk]

yeehaaa....lawsuit!!!

 

[pappy]

yeehaaa....lawsuit!!!

I highly suspect the railroad will be taking care of the home without much grief.

I thought the term "catastrophic uncontained engine failure" was appropriate, and funny.

I was also intrigued by "183 liter, 4400 hp V16 4 stroke diesel". That is one hell of an engine.

 

[OGBeno]

I thought the term "catastrophic uncontained engine failure" was appropriate, and funny.

The transportation industries love euphemisms to explain things like bad engineering, failures, etc. The more technical it is the worse it sounds...

Here are some good ones from the airline industry:

"Uncontrolled migration of internal components"= the ******* engine just blew up.

"Uncontrolled descent into terrain"= the plane just crashed into the ******* mountain.

"Irregular Operations"= your plane is delayed indefinitely and your are screwed.

"Value added/a la carte convenience fees"= your bags are going to cost $150 to take underneath the plane. Deal with it.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

"Uncontrolled descent into terrain"= the plane just crashed into the ******* mountain.

Correction: "the plane lost control and crashed."

It's sibling is "Controlled Flight Into Terrain" = the guys up front had control of the plane, but flew it into the ground anyway. (also referred to as getting lost).

That's an amazing picture of the entire cylinder assembly to be blown off. I guess there is a downside to individual cylinder heads, after all...

You can find videos of diesel locomotives being started cold, it's pretty amazing to watch a machine and engine that big try to get going. No wonder they don't shut them off often!

Dan

 

[pappy]

""Uncontrolled descent into terrain"= the plane just crashed into the ******* mountain.

Correction: "the plane lost control and crashed."

It's sibling is "Controlled Flight Into Terrain" = the guys up front had control of the plane, but flew it into the ground anyway. (also referred to as getting lost).

I suspect to the folks on the plane it really doesn't matter.

 

[SteveLCetc]

Not to mention it was not the plane itself that lost control...

 

[Markh]

I used to make my living working on locomotives for Burlington Northern Railroad. In the seven years I was there I never saw anything like that. It must have made quite a noise when it let loose.

 

[Voodoo FJ]

That's crazy, but it also cool looking at it from a pyromaniac viewpoint