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Grand Canyon Railway Locomotive 237 Rebuild - Part 5
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Rear well removed; photo provided by GCR Maintenance Crew
The rebuild of former Amtrak locomotive 237 continues at the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, Arizona. The engine room is completely stripped with the exception of a few electrical cabinets and the handbrake. As they worked on the wall material, it soon became apparent that the right side of the locomotive has significant rust. They removed all of the body panels on that side and have just started replacing them. The toilet, located in the nose of the locomotive, had water leaks over the years also creating rust. They had to replace the floor material. The rusted steel piping is being replaced with PVC. The rear wall of the locomotive has been also removed to make space for the 450kw generator set (genset).
The maintenance shop was able to locate a used Caterpillar genset in Flagstaff, Arizona just down the road from Williams. It has very few hours and the price is right. The paperwork to purchase the genset has been started and the crew is excited to have it on site shortly.
The biggest element of this locomotive rebuild is the installation of this genset. It has never been done before with this configuration. Two members of the shop force (Sam and Walt) made a trip to San Jose, California to look at some Caltrans locomotives that have similar modifications. What makes the configuration complicated for the GCR is the limited amount of space inside the railway’s f-40 engine compartment. The San Jose engines have an older style Caterpillar 450 engine and generator that is very compact. The newer Caterpillar engines with the same capacity are larger and require more space for intake air cooling required to meet modern emission requirements. The crew knew they needed to lengthen the carbody by two whole feet. But even with this extra space they would not be able to fit a modern Cat engine in the 237 carbody without giving up a lot of power. The decision was made that they would need an older engine.
The Cat genset located in Flagstaff has an engine which is the same model as the ones used in the Caltrans locomotives but the generator is different. It is 14 inches longer. The question was could they make it fit? Before the genset arrived on site, the crew made a mock up to make sure everything would fit.
There are two electrical panels in the back of the F-40s. These are used to house the contractors for operating the HEP system. In the Caltrans engines these were relocated to other locations for a significant cost. The GCR crew hopes to avoid this extra cost by not moving them. The new genset is narrower than the original HEP generator so width is not a problem. The length though would be tight.
They devised a plan to suck the air compressor up under the lube oil cooler, then mount the oil filter canister (at a whopping 24” in diameter) above and between the air compressor and generator. It was tight but looked doable.
The Caltrans San Jose engines have a wall between the HEP generator room and the main engine room. The wall keeps the heat of the engine apart away from the cooling air needed for the HEP generator. With the planned modifications to get the new genset to fit, there is now no room for this wall. The crew looked at it and devised a ducting system to take cooling air directly from outside the carbody.
On the Caltrans engines, the genset sit directly in front of the rear wall of the locomotive. This required them to eliminate the rear door of the locomotive. This rear door allows the crew to exit the locomotive into another locomotive or passenger car. The GCR crew would be OK without the door but decided they would prefer to have one. They looked at their mock up and decided that by sucking the air compressor forward, they gained enough room to provide a walkway between the rear wall and the genset plus have enough room to open a door.
With lots of creative thinking and moving the parts around like puzzle pieces, they were able to fit everything in to the carbody and keep everything they wanted!
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 Six of the Locomotive Rebuild
For more information about the Grand Canyon Railway or to book train tickets to the Grand Canyon go to www.thetrain.com.
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