Union Pacific’s extraordinary 8,500-horsepower
“Big Blow” Gas-Turbine Electrics are coming to
Train Simulator, and Gary Dolzall tells their story.
The Union Pacific, through much of its long and accomplished existence, has dreamed large – and lived large – when it came to motive power.
The story of Union Pacific and its penchant for truly big locomotives arguably begins with a steam locomotive and wheel arrangement that was unique to UP – the 4-12-2. Constructed by American Locomotive Works between 1926 and 1930, the 9000-series 4-12-2s were powered by three cylinders, totaled 88 in number, and were, very fittingly, called the “Union Pacific” type. What followed, roughly a decade later, was, of course, the “biggest of the big” – the Alco-built, 4000-class 4-8-8-4 “Big Boys” that began rolling tonnage on the Union Pacific in 1941 and which grew to 25 in number by 1944 and served the railroad in regular freight service until 1959.
For the moment, let’s now flash forward to the diesel era, to the early 1960s and to a time when UP reapplied the “big locomotive” concept in the forms of Electro-Motive’s DD35, General Electric’s U50, and Alco’s C855 in the years 1963-65, then brought to life in 1969 the GE U50C and classic, 6,900-horsepower DDA40X “Centennial” diesels.
Rather neatly tucked right between those two eras of Union Pacific super power is another remarkable and captivating story: UP’s devotion to gas-turbine electrics.
Back in 1939, General Electric and the Union Pacific had collaborated on the development and testing of a steam turbine locomotive design (two, 2,500-horsepower units were constructed), but the experiment proved less than successful and the steam turbines were scrapped three years later. A decade later, General Electric and UP pursued another idea, this time a gas-turbine-electric. The first was GE No. 101, a 4,500-horsepower streamlined carbody locomotive than rode on a B+B-B+B wheel arrangement and featured dual cabs. GE at this time formally collaborated with American Locomotive Company (Alco) on production of the latter’s diesel electrics, and thus Alco also participated in the production of the turbine locomotives. Although it would for a time wear Union Pacific livery, work on the railroad extensively (and wear UP road number 50 while it did), this first GE gas turbine was a testbed unit never owned by the UP and by the early 1950s it, too, was stored and then retired.
But unlike the ill-fated experimental steam turbine of 1939, GE No. 101 proved to be the sire of a select generation of Union Pacific locomotives. In 1952, the first of ten Union Pacific-owned gas-turbine electric locomotives (“GTELs”) rolled onto the properly. Carrying UP road numbers 51-60, these locomotives were similar in design to GE No. 101, but with the exception that the units’ were fitted with only one control cab rather than two. To satisfy the turbine power plants enormous thirst for Bunker C fuel oil, the locomotives operated with a fuel tender. In 1954, Union Pacific again purchased more turbines – 15 this time – which carried road numbers UP 61-75. These units, again, were very similar to their immediate predecessors in being 4,500-horsepower locomotives riding on a B+B-B-B wheel arrangement, but their carbody styling differed in having open crew walkways which came to be called “verandas” or “gallery catwalks.”
Satisfied with the overall performance of the turbines (they were enormously fuel hungry, but at the time Bunker C fuel oil cost about 6 cents a gallon), Union Pacific and GE collaborated in the 1955 on developing what would become the most power locomotives in the world: UP’s “1-Class” 8,500-horsepower GTELs.
Between August 1958 and June 1961, Union Pacific Nos. 1-30 would be constructed at an estimated cost of $38 million and would be unlike anything built, before or since. Each 8,500-horsepower “locomotive” would consist of three elements: a control unit; a turbine power unit; and fuel tender. The control unit carried operating cab, auxiliary and support equipment including dynamic brake resistors, batteries, and, most importantly, an 850-horsepower auxiliary diesel power plant and generator. This auxiliary diesel and generator was employed to start the turbine power plant, to excite the dynamic brakes, and also for hostling the unit in terminals (rather than having to power up the fuel-hungry turbine). The turbine unit carried the GE gas-turbine power plant (which included intake unit, single-shaft gas-turbine, reduction gears, two main GE GT596 8500KW generators, and ancillary equipment); and the insulated fuel tender, constructed by Union Pacific from retired FEF-class steam locomotive tenders, bore 24,384 gallons of fuel. The control and turbine power units each rode on C-C wheel arrangements. All told, the locomotive and tender weighed some 610 tons, stretched more than 136-feet long, and, with 74:18 gearing, was capable of 65-mph maximum operating speeds.
At the heart of the locomotive, of course, was the GE turbine power plant itself: Its Intake and compressor, with an intake rate of 132,000 cubic feet of atmosphere a minute (maximum), compressed heated air (850 degrees) to six times atmospheric pressure, and then in a combustion chamber introduced 870 gallons of fuel per hour. Maximum turbine rpm was 4,860 (rpm at idle was 3,600), and from those statistics alone it is easy to comprehend why the howling-loud turbines earned the nickname “Big Blows.”
As the GTELs entered service, they were originally assigned duty on UP’s bustling mainline between Los Angeles, Calif., and Green River Wyoming. But in no small part due to their noise levels, their service in densely populated Southern California proved untenable, and the units’ service territory for the vast majority of their operating careers shifted east to the more open plains between Omaha, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah. Quite fittingly, of course, this placed the “Big Blows” in position – just as UP’s super steam power had before and its diesels would later, to operate across UP’s legendary Sherman Hill. Between Cheyenne and Laramie, the GTELs put on a mainline show never to be forgotten, typically lugging through tonnage and manifests (the turbines seldom worked in local or switching duty due to their fuel appetite and operating characteristics). Some of the turbines were even experimentally up-rated by UP to 10,000 horsepower.
Alas, one matter the gas-turbines could not conquer was the ever-climbing cost of fuel. By the late 1960s, the GTEL’s appetite for fuel made the locomotives uneconomical, especially in contrast to the potent second-generation diesels them coming on line. As a result, retirements of the 8,500-horsepower GTELs by UP began in August 1968 and all 30 were retired by February 1970. The majority of the units were traded to General Electric and their three-axle trucks reused on the GE U50C diesels built for Union Pacific. Happily, two GTELs survive today; Union Pacific 18 at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, and UP 26 at Utah State Railway Museum, Ogden, Utah.
Even more happily, the remarkable, extraordinarily powerful, and truly unique Union Pacific 8,500-horsepower “Big Blow” gas-turbine electrics will be coming soon to Train Simulator as a featured element of “TS2016.” Keep an eye out here at Engine Driver and on the Train Simulator Facebook page for more details and advance screenshots! – Gary Dolzall
Union Pacific’s extraordinary GE 8,500-horsepower Gas-Turbine Electric Locomotive {“GTEL”) is coming to Sherman Hill, and Train Simulator 2016, soon!
Throughout the decades, Sherman Hill was home to Union Pacific super power in the forms of steam, diesel, and gas-turbine locomotives. Regardless of the era, few if any of UP’s massive locomotives were more awe-inspiring than the 8,500-horsepower General Electric gas-turbine electrics constructed between 1958 and 1961.
Each of UP’s thirty 8,500-horsepower GTELs consisted of three elements; a control cab (above), turbine unit (below), and accompanying fuel tender. The control cab also carried an auxiliary diesel power plant; the turbine unit carried the locomotive’s real muscle in the form of the turbine power plant itself. Note: Content depicted is still in development.
On a snowy winter day at Cheyenne, Wyoming, UP GTEL No. 18 (above) prepares to head west, while on a much sunnier and warmer afternoon, UP 13 (below) rolls tonnage through Dale, Wyoming. All article screenshots by Gary Dolzall.
Operating on Sherman Hill’s Track 3, both the control and turbine units of UP 18 ride on C-C wheel arrangements and, together with their 24,000-gallon fuel tender, weight in at more than 610 tons.
Both unique and challenging will be the experience of taking the controls of a GTEL. As engineer, you will be controlling both the locomotive’s gas-turbine and auxiliary diesel power plants, as well as utilizing its advanced air and dynamic braking features.
Looks like a full crew is on hand to get “Big Blow” 18 ready for the road at Cheyenne.
The grandeur of Union Pacific super power – turbine style – operating across fabled Sherman Hill – await in the upcoming 2016 edition of Train Simulator!