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Grand Canyon Railway Locomotive 237 Rebuild - Part 6
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Basic location of genset in back of locomotive - photo: GCR Maintenance Crew
The genset has arrived in Williams and the Grand Canyon Railway Maintenance Facility. See before and after pictures in the slideshow at the end of this article. The after picture was taken at the shop with most of the modifications completed. Notice the missing radiator, air cleaner, exhaust muffler, electrical panels, alternator, and batteries. The frame has also been shortened and narrowed to fit in the locomotive carbody and rubber vibration dampers were added between the engine and the frame. A test fit was tried and it fit even better than they hoped, with plenty of extra room.
The diesel engine is being rebuilt by Progress Rail in Kentucky. GCR has requested that they utilize a Tier 0 emissions kit provided by General Electric. The traction control system is provided by another company. GE designed the Tier 0 emissions kit to use the original Locomotive Control System, known as a “Dash – 2”. The traction control system replaces the Dash – 2 system and therefore is not part of GE’s original design of the emissions package. The railway believes that the two systems would work together but GE will not provide a Tier 0 certification if the Dash – 2 system is not used. The railway decided that the Tier 0 certification is more important than the traction control. So, the traction control portion of the rebuild project was removed and the original Dash – 2 electronics will be maintained.
One of the major challenges of this project is meeting the railways environmental goals. The GCR Maintenance Shop’s standard operating procedure for sandblasting and painting parts requires that these are done outside when the wind speed is less than 5mph. Unfortunately, even a “calm” day in Northern Arizona has winds over 5 mph. The crew knows that the morning hours have less wind so they start sandblasting and/or painting at 6:30 am and work until the wind picks up, usually around 8:00 am. That’s a short window of time for them to get a lot of work done. They finished sandblasting the fuel tank. Next on the list is checking it for cracks. The engine room doors have all been cleaned up and are almost completely painted.
The air dryer system was removed and sent to the vendor to be rebuilt. The vendor took a look at it and informed the railway crew that it can not be rebuilt. The system is no longer in production and many of the parts are no longer available. The decision was made to upgrade to the current system.
The main generator and traction motors both had unexpected parts that needed replacing. This has added extra time and cost to the project.
Written with Eric Hadder – Grand Canyon Railway Locomotive Shop Manager
For an overview of the entire locomotive #237 rebuild click here.
Click here for - Part Two of the Locomotive Rebuild
Click here for - Part Three of the Locomotive Rebuild
Click here for - Part Four of the Locomotive Rebuild
Click here for - Part Five of the Locomotive Rebuild
To Learn More About the Grand Canyon Railway and to Book Tickets to Ride the Train to the Grand Canyon - go to www.thetrain.com
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