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Clean Air Railroad Technology Event at Union Pacific The Union Pacific (U.P.) presented a Railroad Technology Event in their Roseville rail yard on April 10, 2002. Ton for ton, locomotives contribute a lot less pollutants into our environment than trucks. But, can the design of these locomotives be improved to be even more environmentally cleaner? This event demonstrated the concern and commitment by Union Pacific to implement locomotive technologies to make life healthier for everyone. Photo Sets: Set #1 / Set #2 / Set #3 / Set #4 / Set #5 / Set #6 This event was a showplace of products currently in use and other new products being investigated or tested by the U.P. The amount of time and money being spent by the Union Pacific in this endeavor shows they are serious about this effort. I was very impressed to see that U.P. has an Environmental Policy and their commitment to it. The Union Pacific continually seeks new ways to minimize environmental harm and is proud of their efforts in pursuit of this goal.
The meeting first started off with a safety briefing. Then, a little background information about the Union Pacific was provided. They explained that the U.P. operates 500 freight trains per day in 23 states using 7000 locomotives (including switch engines). Covering up to one third of the locomotive population for the entire North American plateau, I would say that's a mouthful. Looking at the overall view of things, their interest in clean air is understandable. The Union Pacific has numerous fueling locations in the country. 10% of the total volume of fuel consumed by Union Pacific is consumed from their 2 sites in California alone. Operating on 28,000 miles in 28 states, there is a lot to be concerned about. Within the last 7 years, U.P. has improved their fuel efficiency by 11%. Major factors such as speed (power demand is a squared function), terrain (flat versus mountainous), service (intermodal, manifest, bulk), operations (dispatching, line capacity), technology (new locomotives, devices), all play a factor, as well as the weather. Everyone knows that trains are more fuel efficient and produce less smog than trucks, but by what factor? The rail to truck advantage is one double-stack container train = 280 tractor trailers. A train is 2-4 times more fuel efficient than trucks per ton-mile and emits one third the NOx of trucks per ton-mile. 1400 new energy-efficient road locomotives are being acquired in 2000-2002. During that same period, U.P. is retiring 1100 older road units of which many will be purchased by third world countries. U.P. also has 147 locomotives using 6000 HP technology (62 EMD, 85 GE) in service since 1966 as well as the largest AC fleet in the western world (1800 units). Those comprise 25% of their stock. Over time, the Union Pacific has been adding more and more onboard environmental protection features to their Trains. 97% of their fleet has retention tanks for waste fluids. 40% of their fleet has impact-resistant fuel tanks and 1400 units acquired since the year 2000 is EPA compliant with Tiers 0 and 1. This is 20% of their entire fleet. At the Union Pacific open house, the SD70M and C44ACCTE road locomotives were shown. These locomotives that are under test and review feature automatic engine start-stop controls from GM's Electro Motive division and by ZTR Control Systems. Other products include an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) from EcoTrans Technologies, a unique hybrid switching locomotive from RailPower Technologies, and an impressive switcher from CIT.
Idle operation is responsible for approximately 3% of exhaust emissions on mainline locomotives and 14% of total exhaust emissions on switcher locomotives. In both cases, these emissions can be reduced by 50% or more by using "SmartStart" by ZTR Control Systems (www.ztr.com US:952-885-8122 or Canada:519-452-1233) or the automatic engine start/stop system from Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors Corporation (GMC) (www.gmemd.com David Richmond:916-789-4201). The equipment automatically monitors the locomotives' battery voltage, engine temperature, air reservoir pressure, ambient temperature, battery current and system setup conditions during idle operation. These products significantly outperforms the manual shutdown policy.
ZTR also has an Excitation/Wheel Slip control System that significantly improves the pulling power of locomotives. Other products include their hardware/software systems that are custom tailored to provide remote control and monitoring, analysis, problem tracking, service dispatching and reporting for locomotives, wastewater treatment and facilities and power generation/load management systems. For those with older locomotives, they have complete electrical control systems, "Nexsys" & "Nexsys II," designed to dramatically improve the performance and reliability of these units.
EcoTrans Technologies LLC (
The blue 1500 and 2000 THP Road Switching Locomotive from CIT www.cit.com 212-536-9397) are impressive units.
The cost benefit analysis is rather impressive. Just the savings on the fuel alone is more than $100 a day.
The performance impact has a 40% increase in adhesion over older model switches.
In fact, the GP20D is equivalent to one GP38-2 with road engine at the flick of a switch.
I was very impressed with their 360 degree cab visibility (huge), low cab sound and vibration levels with heated
front and rear tinted windows as well as all season climate control (of course).
RailPower Technologies (www.RailPower.com 604-687-8470)
has come up with an innovative solution for a quality switcher at a good price.
By putting in a 1,750-hp Electro-Motive diesel from a 1950s switcher and replacing
it with a 6-liter Daewoo reciprocating engine and 55,000 lbs. of lead-acid batteries,
the company still had to add nail clippings to concrete ballast to make enough grabbing weight for their beast, the "Green Goat."
The small engine keeps the batteries constantly charged and the specially designed batteries are changed out every ten years.
With direct response, wrap around windows overlooking a long low hood, much less moving parts,
and a savings of 30% on operating costs with a 90% NOx reduction over conventional switchers,
the "Green Goat" is impressive as a completely functional 2,000 HP switching locomotive. Obviously, very quiet!
Well worth investigating.
I will be at the RailPower Technologies Corp site in early July, 2002,
for a more in depth report on not only their "Green Goat" but also in
regards to other innovative technology that meets the company's goals
of cleaner and cheaper power.
A frenzy of people concerned with the environmental aspects of the equipment were motivated to attend this event.
Most of these attendees were quite impressed with the environmental aspects of the equipment on display.
It seems that the future is soon going to enjoy companies coming forth with even more
sophisticated products to enhance our air quality as well as give our
freight industry the muscle to move heavy cargo with even more amazing results.
I wish to thank Mike Furtney and Cathy Hickanbotham of Union Pacific Public Relations.
It was about a 30 minute ride by shuttle van on a beautifully clear day from the Sacramento airport to the
Union Pacific Roseville rail yard. Mike and Cathy were there to greet me to this meeting so that I didn't
have to wander around trying to find everything.
Photo Sets:
Set #1 /
Set #2 /
Set #3 /
Set #4 /
Set #5 /
Set #6
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