Horsepower Devotion: Union Pacific’s GE 8,500-horsepower Gas-Turbine Electric Locomotive (GTEL”) is coming soon to Train Simulator 2016 and Sherman Hill!

With Union Pacific’s remarkable 8,500-horsepower
Gas-Turbine Electrics coming soon to TS2016,
Gary Dolzall takes a closer look at the “Big Blows.”

Nearly 50 years ago, when General Electric and Union Pacific announced plans for a UP fleet of 8,500-horsepower gas-turbine-electric locomotives, the dean of American railroad journalists, Trains Magazine editor David P. Morgan, explained the matter with clarity: “Union Pacific has a devotion to horsepower that borders on sheer worship.”

Union Pacific’s “devotion” to horsepower had existed in the steam era, culminating with the Alco-built 4-8-8-4 Big Boys that, at 40-mph, produced 6,000 drawbar horsepower. Decades later, it would be applied to the diesel-electric, reaching a pinnacle with the 6,900-horsepower Electro-Motive DDA40X “Centennial” diesels of 1969. And in between, UP’s horsepower worship would be applied to gas-turbine-electric locomotives.

In truth, of course, Union Pacific’s commitment to horsepower was born from business savvy and the nature and volume of the traffic the railroad hauled. In the 1950s, as today, UP was a transportation system extraordinaire. When the GE 8,500-horspower gas-turbines-electric locomotives (“GTELs”) were conceived, UP was a 9,800-mile railroad that enjoyed an average freight-line-haul of 615 miles – nearly three times what was then the national average for U. S. railroads. Forty percent of that tonnage originated on connecting roads, and more than 50 percent of UP’s traffic fit into priority categories of manufactured products, agricultural goods, and perishables. In short, it was Union Pacific’s job to move masses of time-sensitive tonnage across the great American west – and do it fast. And Union Pacific succeeded admirably: In 1954, UP’s gross-ton-miles per freight-train-hour was 72,216, the best in the railroad industry.

Such was the compelling reason for Union Pacific’s horsepower devotion!

Which brings us back to the subject of UP’s 8,500-horspower gas-turbine electrics. As announced earlier in the Engine Driver article “TS2016: ‘Big Blows’ on Sherman Hill,” the extraordinary and iconic turbine will be coming to Train Simulator in September as a featured element of TS2016. As related in that earlier article, Union Pacific, by the mid-1950s, was already operating a fleet of 4,500-horsepower gas-electric turbines (UP 51-75) that has entered service between January 1952 and October 1954. But UP’s “devotion to horsepower” then put the 8,500-horsepower GTELs onto the drawing boards and into the order books at GE’s Erie, Pennsylvania locomotive plant.

Union Pacific’s “1-class” 8,500-horsepower turbines – destined to wear the mantle of the “most powerful locomotives in the world” – were constructed at GE’s Erie plant and then officially entered service between August 1958 and June 1961. Union Pacific initially ordered 15 locomotives, with options for two additional groups of 15 each (the final option was never taken up, so total production was 30 locomotives). Wearing UP road numbers 1 through 30, each 8,500-horsepower “locomotive” consists of three parts: a control unit; a turbine power unit; and fuel tender.

The control unit bore the operating cab, auxiliary equipment including dynamic brake resistors, batteries, and, most notably, an 850-horsepower Cooper Bessemer auxiliary diesel power plant and accompanying generator. The auxiliary diesel (a predecessor of GE’s FDL engine that would serve in its “U-boat” diesels) and generator was used to start the turbine power plant, to excite the dynamic brakes, and for moving the unit in terminals (rather than having to power up the big turbine). The control unit measured 69-feet, 6-inches in length and weighed in at 204 tons.

Behind the control unit, was the turbine unit – the heart of this big beast of a locomotive – which carried the GE gas-turbine power plant (which included intake unit, single-shaft gas-turbine, and reduction gears) to turn a pair of GE GT596 8500KW (3,500-horsepower) generators. The turbine power plant had 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 its combustion chamber introduced 870 gallons of fuel per hour. Maximum turbine rpm was 4,860; rpm at idle was 3,600. When operating at maximum power, the turbine’s blades spun at a velocity of 1,600-mph. The locomotive’s turbine unit measured 63-feet long and weighed 220 tons. Both the control unit and the turbine unit rode on pairs of three-axle powered trucks (a C-C wheel arrangement), and the locomotive thus applied in enormous horsepower to the railhead via a dozen GE 752E3 traction motors. With 74:18 gearing, the 8,500-horsepower turbine locomotives were capable of 65-mph maximum operating speeds.

The last component of an 8,500-horsepower GTEL was its fuel tender, which carried Bunker C (later Bunker M) fuel oil to feed the hungry turbine. These insulted tenders were rebuilt from retired UP steam locomotive tenders and carried 24,384 gallons of fuel. With the tender measuring in at 46-feet, 5-inches and weighing 186 tons loaded, the GTEL locomotive’s total length was 178-feet, 11 inches and its total weight 610 tons.

Union Pacific originally intended the new “Big Blows” to operate on its main line between Green River, Wyoming and Los Angeles, Calif., a route distance of 997 miles. But the big turbine power plant and those blades spinning at 1,600-mph produced, to say the least, a lot of noise, which proved unpopular in highly populated Southern California. So, instead the operating territory for the Big Blows was shifted east – to between Omaha, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah (990 route miles). For train enthusiasts, this happily resulted in the 8,500-horsepower turbines spending much of their lives tackling famed Sherman Hill, just as their earlier big steam kindred – the Big Boys – had done in a prior era.

As originally configured, the Big Blows produced 8,500 gross horsepower and were rated at 7,000 horses delivered to railhead. But UP, ever willing to coax more potency from its steeds, upgraded a number of the turbines to 10,000 gross horsepower and 8,500-horsepower available for traction. Given the turbines’ status as the “world’s most power locomotives,” the locomotives were typically assigned to priority and/or heavy through traffic on UP’s mainline hauls. When, by necessity, they were assigned to trains with local duties, the turbines typically were lashed-up for multiple-unit operation with diesels so the latter could assist with the switching movements.

Union Pacific’s 8,500-horsepower GTELs were, mechanically and operationally, successful – but sadly they fell fate to their enormous appetite for increasingly expensive fuel. With the likes of EMD’s DDA40X and GE’s U50C diesel leviathans on the horizon, UP began retiring the 8,500-horsepower GTELs in August 1968 and all 30 locomotives were retired by February 1970. Rather ironically, most were traded back to General Electric where their three-axle trucks were fitted under the 40 GE U50C diesels then being built for UP. Union Pacific saved two GTELs from the scrapper’s torch and Union Pacific 18 is handsomely restored at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, and UP 26 is on display at the Utah State Railway Museum, in Ogden, Utah.

And so, the countdown for the return of the Big Blows – on the rails of Train Simulator’s Sherman Hill route in TS2016 – begins! For anyone who witnessed the Union Pacific’s legendary gas-turbines in service, the moment was captivating and unforgettable, and that experience will again return with the arrival of TS2016 in September! – Gary Dolzall

Union Pacific’s “One spot” – the first of the road’s thirty 8,500-horsepower gas-turbines-electrics destined to carry UP roads numbers 1 through 30 – rolls out of Hermosa Tunnel on Train Simulator’s Sherman Hill route. All screenshots by Gary Dolzall.

Throughout the decades there was probably no single location more synonymous with UP’s horsepower devotion than Cheyenne, Wyoming. With a light snow falling on a wintry night, UP turbine 30 (above and below) makes a stop on the main line at the Cheyenne depot for a crew change.

An 8,500-horsepower GTEL consisted of a control cab, turbine unit, and accompanying fuel tender. The control unit included the operating cab, auxiliary equipment including dynamic brake resistors, batteries, and an 850-horsepower Cooper Bessemer diesel power plant. Note: Content depicted may still be in development.

The turbine unit – which alone measured 63-feet long and weighed 220 tons – carried the GE gas-turbine power plant (which included intake unit, single-shaft gas-turbine, and reduction gears) to turn a pair of GE GT596 8500KW generators. Maximum turbine rpm was 4,860 and when operating at maximum power, the turbine’s blades spun at a remarkable velocity of 1,600-mph.

The GTEL’s tender supplied the hungry turbine unit with fuel. The insulted tenders were rebuilt from retired UP steam locomotive tenders and carried 24,384 gallons of fuel and weighed 186 tons when fully loaded.

It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic setting to witness the “Big Blows” than across the rugged landscape of Dale, Wyoming. Union Pacific No. 1 rolls west under a rocky Dale outcropping (above), then crosses the great earthen fill at Dale Junction (below) on the Train Simulator Sherman Hill route.

Eastbound out of Laramie on a crisp winter morning, Union Pacific GTEL 22 begins the climb up and over famed Sherman Hill. The standard operating district for the 8,500-horsepower turbines was the 990 miles between Omaha, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah.

Remarkable – and unique – will be taking the throttle of a GTEL. In TS2106, you will be controlling both the locomotive’s gas-turbine and auxiliary diesel power plants, utilizing its advanced braking features, and be immersed in a cab with many operable features.

Union Pacific’s devotion to horsepower – turbine style – and the extraordinary experience of operating the iconic and powerful locomotives on legendary Sherman Hill is coming soon to TS2016!