(The following story by Guy Tridgell appeared on the Southtown Star website on October 12.)
CHICAGO — CSX Transportation believes it has found the answer to the chronic complaint of locomotives choking neighborhoods near rail yards with diesel exhaust with engines that run around the clock.
The company will become the first railroad in Illinois to use what the freight industry calls “green” GenSet locomotives.
Instead of a single hulking diesel engine, GenSet locomotives rely on a series of electrical generators, similar to the ones that temporarily provide juice to buildings during power outages.
“A lot of people think there is a diesel motor powering these locomotives,” said Dennis Biegel, CSX’s senior road foreman of engines in Chicago, aboard one of the new GenSet models at the company’s 59th Street yard. “It is actually done by big generators.”
Biegel said the GenSet locomotives in CSX’s fleet will use three generators equipped with a sleep mode.
After one minute, the first generator shuts down if it’s not in use. After five minutes, the second one will turn off, eventually followed by the third.
When it is time to start the loco motive again, an onboard computer will start the one that had been shut down the longest.
“You can walk away from locomotive,” Biegel said. “When it’s time to go to work, it’s away you go.”
And that should bring relief to communities that for years have endured the pollution from traditional diesel engines that idle constantly because of long starting times, especially in cold weather.
The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will be almost half, according to the company.
By next year, CSX will have nine of the new engines moving and positioning cars filled with freight in various yards across the country. Four of them will serve Illinois.
In the Chicago area, CSX operates yards on the South Side, in Bedford Park and near Blue Island.
Biegel said there are other advantages to the new technology.
Because the diesel motor in a conventional locomotive is so big, the engineer cannot see through the rear window, creating a potential safety hazard. But the cabs in GenSet locomotives feature a 360-degree view.
There also is a savings.
CSX, Biegel said, can spend up to $2.3 million for a new locomotive run solely on diesel.
The price for a new GenSet edition is $1.8 million.
“This is probably something that should have been done a long time ago,” he said.