CHICAGO — Lake Bluff Mayor Tom Skinner gets an earful from residents about trains idling noisily for hours at the little north suburb’s station, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Wearing his other hat Monday — as regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Skinner helped trumpet the solution: a new system that lets diesel engines run more cleanly, save fuel and make less racket.
In a rail yard at 14th Street and Canal, an engineer cranked up a locomotive to its cold-weather level, then shut it down and let the new technology take over. The sound fell from a roar to a hum.
Noise is cut by 80 percent, according to Kim Hotstart Co., the Spokane, Wash.-based manufacturer of the emission control device.
“In Chicago neighborhoods, idling trains are a problem for both pollution and noise,” said Marcia Jimenez, the city’s environment commissioner.
She noted that the device reduces nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, air toxics and other pollutants. An idling locomotive can belch five tons of emissions a year, but the new device may cut that by up to 90 percent.
Fuel savings are significant. A locomotive that ordinarily burns 24,966 gallons of diesel fuel a year will go through only 3,121 gallons with the new technology. And oil consumption will drop from 250 to 31 gallons a year.
Instead of idling for hours, locomotive engines can be shut off while the new device, which measures about 2 feet by 3 feet by 4 feet, heats engine oil and coolant, charges batteries and powers cab heaters.
The system has been installed on seven switchyard and road locomotive engines at a cost of under $200,000. One of 40 projects nationwide to cut diesel pollution and noise, the Chicago effort is the only one involving locomotives.
“We hope it will serve as a model for other parts of the country,” Skinner said. It will help meet tougher diesel emission limits due in 2004 and 2007.
Partners in the project with the EPA, city and manufacturer are the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Wisconsin & Southern railroads.