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Marine diesel

mowingman

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That sound is really great. Next to an old Alco, it is best locomotive engine I have heard, I believe.
Jeff
 

kshansen

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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
That sound is really great. Next to an old Alco, it is best locomotive engine I have heard, I believe.
Jeff
Many of those Alco's were built a few miles from where I grew up. Did get a tour of the place sometime in the 1970's before they closed it down. Unfortunately they did not have any running on the test stand the night I was there.
 

59 North

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Alaska
Many of those Alco's were built a few miles from where I grew up. Did get a tour of the place sometime in the 1970's before they closed it down. Unfortunately they did not have any running on the test stand the night I was there.
I worked at a job site for a time that had several Tugs and AHTS in the area. 16 and 20 cyl EMDs common at the time. One large tug had a pair of 18 cyl Alcos, start ups were noteworthy! Large engine sounds were part of the day, Alcos had a great sound all their own.
 
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John C.

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They ran the Napier’s in the river boats in Vietnam. I was taking a school at the Little Creek Amphib base in Virginia in 1976. I was walking around the base and came by a fenced in area and there were four of those engines with five or six of those boats. I asked one of the older guys about them. He said the ran huge horsepower and there were two per boat. These boats and engines came out of country just before the fall and had sat there ever since.
 

bccat

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Langley B C
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Retired millwright,Heavy Equipment Operator
Many of those Alco's were built a few miles from where I grew up. Did get a tour of the place sometime in the 1970's before they closed it down. Unfortunately they did not have any running on the test stand the night I was there.
I worked on Alco’s for over 20yrs, I hated the 244’s as they were labour intensive, 251 were the best 6,v8,12,16, did them all, load tested them also, it was a thrill to load test a 3600hp loco, turbo exhaust inlet would be a cherry red glow, set firing pressures by setting individual fuel racks lots of fun at full load, I wonder why I have tinnitus lol
 

Spud_Monkey

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Your six
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Will say from experience trying to repower a 40 to 80 feet fishing vessel while in the water is nerve racking and so is it when you pulled the Twindisc transmission cause it ate the spider drive. Some engines are cooled by scooper valves on the hull that you have to trust to be blocked off right by the diver since someone cut corners and didn't put a valve inline, or you have to loosen the packing on the prop shaft to pull it back away from engine/trans and hope you don't loosen it too much. Either or which is done wrong you will go down with that vessel before you got out the engine room.
 

John C.

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My time at sea was pretty lucky being in the navy. I've looked at a couple of fishing boats that just made me cringe to think anyone went out on the ocean in them.
 

Spud_Monkey

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My time at sea was pretty lucky being in the navy. I've looked at a couple of fishing boats that just made me cringe to think anyone went out on the ocean in them.
If the size doesn't make you cringe you should see the shoddy work done on them especially the ones owned by the natives. Makes you wonder how they even get out of the harbor. Nothing done to USCG standards or even ABYC codes for that matter, as redundancy bilge pumps, yeah that ain't happening and if so I doubt they would function when the time came.
 

DMiller

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Hermann, Missouri
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EMDs in most of the larger tows on the Mississippi, a few had Alcos but a LIMITED Few, could always tell as one crawled up current against the governors. Smaller machines had Detroit Diesels. Is still Alco train engine loving company the Arkansas Missouri Rail Line where they are now upgrading and reducing their use.

Side note, the Company I am driving for has a sister company, the Hermann Sand and Gravel company, the larger tow they own had a Catastrophic Engine failure and fire in ST Louis three days ago. 3600hp EMD power.
St. Louis Firefighters Fight Fire On Tugboat - UPI.com
 

59 North

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Alaska
They ran the Napier’s in the river boats in Vietnam. I was taking a school at the Little Creek Amphib base in Virginia in 1976. I was walking around the base and came by a fenced in area and there were four of those engines with five or six of those boats. I asked one of the older guys about them. He said the ran huge horsepower and there were two per boat. These boats and engines came out of country just before the fall and had sat there ever since.
I saw one at Coronado. Our Unit was there for a Training course, Amphib school.
Sailors made sure we saw the "Sea Bat", Ha Ha!, while aboard an LST.
 
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59 North

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Apr 8, 2021
Messages
74
Location
Alaska
EMDs in most of the larger tows on the Mississippi, a few had Alcos but a LIMITED Few, could always tell as one crawled up current against the governors. Smaller machines had Detroit Diesels. Is still Alco train engine loving company the Arkansas Missouri Rail Line where they are now upgrading and reducing their use.

Side note, the Company I am driving for has a sister company, the Hermann Sand and Gravel company, the larger tow they own had a Catastrophic Engine failure and fire in ST Louis three days ago. 3600hp EMD power.
St. Louis Firefighters Fight Fire On Tugboat - UPI.com
The Company I worked for a time in the '90s, (I believe still have), 2 large Tugs with Alcos. V-16s if I recall.
 

59 North

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74
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Alaska
I worked on Alco’s for over 20yrs, I hated the 244’s as they were labour intensive, 251 were the best 6,v8,12,16, did them all, load tested them also, it was a thrill to load test a 3600hp loco, turbo exhaust inlet would be a cherry red glow, set firing pressures by setting individual fuel racks lots of fun at full load, I wonder why I have tinnitus lol
I have found an interesting book on the 251, written by a person who knows the series.
Lots of pictures and info.
I never worked with these engines, just find them interesting.
 

59 North

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Alaska
I posted a Waukesha on #33.
Interesting.
The only Waukesha I think I recall ever being around was in a P+H crane ( flat windshield!), may have been late '40s/early '50s vintage, that my father had, in mid-late 60's. 4 cyl slow turning engine running on gasoline. Engine fairly large in size. Seem to recall it being capable of being converted to diesel? I never ran the machine.
 
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skyking1

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washington
Interesting.
The only Waukesha I think I recall ever being around was in a P+H crane ( flat windshield!), may have been late '40s/early '50s vintage, that my father had, in mid-late 60's. 4 cyl slow turning engine running on gasoline. Engine fairly large in size. Seem to recall it being capable of being converted to diesel? I never ran the machine.
That was one of the pair from the '60s in a diesel electric Navy derrick. It made 250 volt DC, 315 horsepower at 720 RPMs.
The other one had a bad cylinder but it would run apparently very roughly. But if you have load stuck up in the air you didn't have any other option.
 
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