Train with awesome fire coming from it?

Question

tonight I heard a train coming.. I live by the tracks- I have my whole life, nothing new right?

well my son wanted to go outside & see the "choo-choo" so we hurried out there and I saw the trains engine shooting orange/red flames into the air about 5 feet.. it looked like it was coming out of where the smoke usually does (but it was kinda far away)

Seeing those orange/red flames against the black night sky was amazingly pretty. It went behind distant houses before I could see it again, but anyway- like I said: I lived by the train tracks my whole life & never seen it..

What were the flames coming from the train?

my mom mentioned it was something to "clean the RR tracks" but I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Does anyone know what she's talking about?

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Yes, this is an incident that can occur every once in a while.  The locomotives that run over the road are turbocharged, and in the case of some GE locomotives, there is a failure mode of the turbocharger where just what you described can happen.

I have many pictures of this phenomenon, and it is pretty spectacular!

Answer 2

The correct term for this is "flames out the stack" ...This can happen when either stuck injectors dump raw fuel into the exhaust or as the result of a bad turbo in the locomotive does not burn off the fuel because the crew was probably not making horsepower and notched up the throttle into the 8th notch hoping that would increase their speed and horsepower when in fact all it does is create more unburned fuel dumping into the hot exhaust stack...I have been sent on road runs numerous time to find out the cause and have seen Locomotives "stacking flames" even at idle...Had one crew sitting at a crossing waiting for the Engine House to show up and when we did there were flames puffing 20 feet into the air so the first thing I asked the stupid crew was why didn't you shut the engine down and they said they weren't told to even tho half the neighborhood had reported it to the police and fire depts.

Answer 3

Flames eh?

Anything like this youtube video of a GE shooting flames out the stack?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYpXwLg5G...

There are many 'hoggers' who have answered this already but I this at least shows what I think is happening.

Answer 4

Wow, Natalie..that sounds scary...I hope everyone is k...wouldnt want to be on that train..you tc/ Natalie, and God Bless you and your family;)

Answer 5

We have some GE Dash 8 units that will do that on occasion.It is raw fuel getting dumped into the exhaust manifold that's doing it.They are more likely to do i if the throttle is advanced too fast from a low throttle position.If they keep doing it we are supposed to shut them down so they don't burn up.GE engines are 4 stroke engines so the engines in them wind up slower than EMD units which are 2 stroke engines.It is a fuel management problem that causes it.I haven't seen any of the brand new GE's do it.Awesome looking wasn't it?

LOL Rango I wasn't going to admit to it but I have done the same thing!Funny how easily we're amused when your grade level indicator is working properly and not talking to you.

Answer 6

LOL!! I live by train tracks too!! That sounds scary, your mom mi9ght be right but maybe the engine had been going to fast, and then it exploded!(maybe like in a car)

HOPE THIS HELPED!!!!:D

Answer 7

It would be the engineer sanding the tubes I would say, as this is to clean them for a more efficient operation of the loco. but then again I may be wrong and you may get the correct answer from an engineer that pops up on this site.

Answer 8

The GE turbos have always been twitchy.  Some years back (actually, when Christ was a cadet) there has been several that exploded on the old U-boats (GE 'UB' series locos) when working hard.  Messages were put out to stay off the cat walks if under load.

The only reason I can think off for this phenomena is that GE 4 stroke diesels have a "true" turbocharger on them, which is powered by the engines exhaust, the same as an automobile.

But, the EMD 2 stroke engines used a hybrid, of sorts.  Here, the turbo was gear driven up through run #5, and operate as a true turbo in run six through eight.

Older engines, SD9s, Jeeps, etc, had carbon trap caps that had to be cleaned regularly.  Build up of carbon in the exhaust system would have the same result, with high flames into the air out the stack.

But, for a really spectacular light show, nothing beats the dynamic brake grids when they burn up.  It is like having a portable lightning storm with ya.

And, yes, entertainment has been severely curtailed in the absence of the caboose...

Any more hogheads here and we can have a Union meeting...

Answer 9

Excess fuel is the problem. I've seen stack sparks from old EMD 248's . It looks scary as h**l, but it just goes out after a few seconds. Now for the rest of the story, I'm a retired Navy Engineman. Every time they dumped the load off of our generators the d**n flames and sparks would fly out the stack vents in the engine room. Scared me a few times but after a while you get used to the Electricians goofing around. So Hogheads, you ain't alone for the show!

Answer 10

Ha, i see you already have the same answer as I was giving, the GE dash 8.

In my experience, there was a series of General Electric locomotives a few years back, if the air filters were dirty, and you throttled off for awhile and than came back out hard on the throttle, it would shoot bright orange flames and belch black smoek out the stack for quite awhile.

I never expereienced another series of locomotives that would shoot flames out like those ones.

I have to admit making it do that if I had one in the consist while we running along the interstate from time to time.

In the middle of a long dark night you get your entertainment wherever you can.  :=)

The answer I see above about sanding the tubes is absolutely correct except it was a term used on steam locomotives, the hoghead would introduce sand into the system to scour built up soot from the firebox and stack. My Dad told me about doing it, he would scoff at steam locos in the movies with all the black smoke coming out, he would say they were just sanding the stacks and if a fireman was worth is salt it wouldnt be smoking like that LOL.

What your Mom may have been referring to is the rail grinder. It is a highly specialized train wiht lots of grinding wheels that reshape the rail. (odd as it seems rail wears and gets rough same as a gravel road and needs resurfaced occassionally)

Seeing one of those working at night is awesome too, they throw sparks and fire from several dozen grinding wheels at the same time. Looks like the train is floating on a bed of sparks.

Answer 11

=]

Answer 12

If you are based in the UK then it's the Network Rail Train that has been built to re-grind the track, so making thrain jurneys smoother when you travel on the train & also prolongs the tracks life as it cleans all the muck that has built up on the line.

The track grinding train is used in other countries mind, so if you are outside the UK then it will probably be the same sort of train, doing the same job.

I hope that my answer helps