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I was just curious about the size of the engine in today's train engine. How many liters and horspower etc. Id appreciate any responses. Thank you very much!!
Eric Member # 674
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There is a variety of sizes of engines these days, with 3500-6000 HP, but most freight units run between ~4000 and ~5500 HP. Amtrak's GE P42's have 4200 HP, 16 cyl. engines. BNSF's (and other roads) GE C44-9W's have 4400 HP. EMD makes some (SD90MAC's) geared for as much as 6000 HP. If you're interested, you should locate a book called Modern Diesel Locomotives by Hans Halberstadt. It has a lot of information in it which you might find useful... Good luck, Eric
mikman Member # 624
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Just to give you some idea, a 16 cylinder 567 GM engine is 9072 cubic inches or roughly 149 litres, a 16/645 GM is 10320 cubic inches or roughly 170 litres and a 16/710 GM is 11360 cubic inches or roughly 187 litres displacement. In case you're unaware the 567, 645 and 710 figures relate to the capacity of a single cylinder which when multiplyed by the amount of cylinders in the engine gives you its size. I have a feeling the GE 7FDL type engine is 645 (or thereabouts) per cylinder but am not 100% sure on that. I think my calculations are fairly accurate but couldn't find a formula to change cubic inches to litres so I'm sorry if they're not accurate!
irishchieftain Member # 1473
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Mikman: Your conversions between liters and cubic inches seems to be right on the money.
The formula is this: CID × 0.016387 = Liters. Conversely, Liters ÷ 0.016387 = cubic inches.
This is coming from someone who'd like to see a 7.4-liter (454 cid) big-block V8 return to the Corvette, even though the new Z06, a 350-405 hp, is fast enough...
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