Well, things have changed...again. The ILSX 1389 has been reinstated into service as of a couple days ago. The unit actually never left the property. It was sitting in Glencoe and earning a whole $1 a day for storage for the past couple months.

_________________
- Back Online!

_________________
The railfan side

My pictures

_________________
- Back Online!

Does this mean a delay in the arrival of the 39-2's?

_________________
Milwaukee Road Matt

No. The only thing delaying the GP39-2s is MAC themselves.

_________________
- Back Online!

Ok I was starting to get a little worried they may have cancled the purchase, hope they get here before the summer.

_________________
Milwaukee Road Matt

The locomotives have already been payed for and they still need power, so they're coming. Personally, I hope the units either arrive now (which won't happen) or arrive sometime after May. I want to shoot them when the paint if fresh in snow or preferably with green leaves. Spring time doesn't make for the most attractive landscapes.

Also, don't get too excited when they finally do arrive because they will be going straight into the shop at Glencoe to be fitted with "SmartStart."

_________________
- Back Online!

xray<--------------No so smart, so could you explain "SmartStart" Mike?

_________________
MyPhoto's
More of myPhoto's

It's a system that allows a locomotive to be shut down in cold weather without the block cracking. It uses antifreeze rather than water and saves fuel when the engine is not in use.

_________________
- Back Online!

smart start uses water not anti freeze in fact it has nothing to do with what kind of coolant the engine uses,it makes the locomotive have the ability to start and stop the engine on its own based on various sensor inputs such as water temp,batt. volts, and ambient temp

If it uses water then how does it not freeze when it's below 32F? The antifreeze is what allows the engine to shut down in cold weather, just like your car.

_________________
- Back Online!

Mike I am going to have to argue with you too and agree with frontierfan. do you remember the stupid CP units that would shut down when you were sitting in the siding and it would kill the heaters until you moved the reverser and it restarted......it is a fuel conservation thing.

they don't freeze because the water stays warm while it is running, they will shut down after a preset time limit of no activity is reached, provided the water temp is at a certain temp. a water temp sensor will restart it when the water temp falls below a set temp. I programmed a few when I was taking PLC classes in college.

I'm sure they will put antifreeze in them, make sense prolly cheaper then the Smart Start.

_________________
A BNSF fan by default.

_________________
- Back Online!

well i work on them for a living and the term CP uses is smart start. TC&W uses anti freeze in the engines because that is what that engine specifys since its a catipilar engine in most of them, otherwise its just straight water with a rust preventer added called Nalco, so if the engine stops for some reason there is a valve that opens to drain the water before the block cracks most of the time and on a side note all soo sd60s are being equiped with this optoin and are getting overhauls this year. Try and google smart start locomotive

I can't speak for the CP units, but what the TCW uses is completely different than the CP.

_________________
- Back Online!