Alan Batie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "Speaking of locomotives, I see that yesterday Bombardier announced a new locomotive using a Pratt&Whitney jet instead of a diesel to power the thing. I assume it's still powering a generator..."
I missed the reference to P&WC (Canada) engines (turbines, not 'jet'). on the news last night. I think Sikorsky fabricated about 5 trainsets of 'turbo trains' used for years in Toronto-Montreal service and a few other places. The only one I saw was a burned out set that was on the company property for temporary storage. Independent comments from friends suggest the old turbos were really neat. The maintenance and operating people managed to wreck engines right and left presumably due to lack of training (to be polite). You can expect the systems will be better although all the people who worked on these units would have been laid off when they reached 20 years on the job. Don't get me wrong; the engines will be derated so much, they will have Diesel reliability. P&WC engines power several DeHaviland and Canadair (Bombardier) aircraft. I think the engines are efficient enough to compete with Diesel, but don't suit freight engine designs because they are very light and a bit more expensive. ______________________________________________________________________
