(The following story by Rick Stouffer appeared on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review website on July 13, 2010.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A pair of locomotives that date to the mid-20th century soon will be switching rail cars inside AK Steel’s Butler Works — while using less fuel and emitting less pollution than comparable engines.
Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad Inc. officially put the first of the two locomotives remanufactured through a public-private partnership into service on Monday.
The locomotive uses a pair of 700-horsepower engine-generator sets that are designed to lower fuel consumption by more than 20 percent.
The engines cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 58 percent, hydrocarbons by 94 percent, carbon monoxide by 37 percent and particulate pollution by 80 percent, the railroad said.
As part of the agreement to receive $1.24 million in federal funding, Buffalo & Pittsburgh agreed to use both refurbished locomotives in and around its Butler rail yard.
Butler County is classified as a “nonattainment” area by the Environmental Protection Agency, meaning its pollution levels consistently exceed national standards.
The refurbished locomotives, both about 60 years old, are expected to each cut nitrogen oxide emissions, for example, by more than 23 tons annually.
“This is a prototype across all of our railroads,” said John C. Hellmann, CEO of Greenwich, Conn.-based Genesee & Wyoming Inc., parent company of Buffalo & Pittsburgh.
Genesee & Wyoming owns 62 railroads in four countries, including 51 short lines in North America.
Jerry Vest, vice president of government and industry affairs for Genesee & Wyoming, said the company is focused on cost efficiency and another company executive, Dave Powell, vice president of motive power, had the idea to rebuild the locomotives that otherwise would have been scrapped.
“No regional railroad ever has rebuilt a switching locomotive from an existing piece of equipment,” Powell said. “Both locomotives actually came into the yard on flatcars.”
The refurbishment primarily included completely new wiring and control panel, a new hood section, a new nosepiece, and the two engine-generator sets, modular in design and totally self-contained.
Genesee & Wyoming doesn’t break out revenues for its individuals railroads. The parent in 2009 recorded a profit of $61.5 million, on revenue of $544.9 million, down from $72.5 million of revenue of $602 million in 2008.
Physical work on the newly commissioned engine began in January, but the process of putting together public and private funding for the $1.7 project began nearly three years ago.
The locomotive’s sister is about 50 percent refurbished. Both refurbished locomotives will be used to move railcars within AK Steel’s huge Butler Works complex.
“We administer the CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality program) for the federal government,” said Jim Hassinger, CEO of the regional planning organization Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. “EPA and the Department of Transportation have encouraged metropolitan planning organizations like us to consider diesel engine retrofit projects because of the air quality benefits.”
All work was completed at Buffalo & Pittsburgh’s facility in Brookville, Jefferson County, by railroad employees, saving labor costs, Powell said.
“You can change an engine on this locomotive in about four hours, it takes a minimum of three weeks to change-out an engine in a traditional set-up,” Powell said.
With two engines under computer control, only one engine is used until the load is sufficient to start its twin.