Nostalgia & History > SP 9010's Maybach MD 870: It's alive...

It happened about 11:30AM Pacific Standard time yesterday, in the Pacific Locomotive Association's Brightside, California Yard.

After nearly a half-century of slumber, the Number 2 Maybach V-16 twin-turbocharged diesel motor of the world's only surviving USA Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulic road locomotive roared to life -- and blew everyone away as it settled into a smooth, steady, clean idle!

This short video picks up at about the 1:40 mark into cranking. White smoke had been issuing lazily from the stack butterflies since about :06 into the cranking. Crew Chief Howard Wise and diesel consultant/SP 9010 friend Tom Hambleton kept all eyes and hands on the motor as it cranked. There had been a previous attempt a few weeks ago, and that didn't result in a start. The crew found a tennis-ball-sized hole in a turbo exhaust elbow. That was repaired, provisions were made to get more battery power to the Dynastarter so cranking speed could increase, and we hoped for the best. And by "the best" we were completely willing to accept whatever a 54-year-old motor wanted to give, after waking from a 48-year nap. Mellow piston music is not something you expect from a 2000HP high-output German diesel prime mover that hasn't run since Lyndon Baines Johnson was still in the White House. The best we hoped for is that a few cylinders would "clag" gruffly to life. And maybe we could urge it to coarsely clear its throat, by coaxing it along, nudging it… and being extremely forgiving about the definition of "running." But what happened in only a few seconds after it coughed to life and cleared its lungs was almost too incredible to be believed!

During the extended idling, with perfect shutdowns and flawless quick restarts, the operating temps of the motor (which was preheated overnight) never got above 160 degrees F and all seemed quite in order. Howard Wise and volunteers from around the world have been working on the motor towards this day since 2010, when it was first barred over by hand. It has newly-rebuilt injectors from our friends in the UK, and has been inspected, lubed, massaged, pressurized, and otherwise cajoled and encouraged to be ready for a responsible attempt at starting.

We weren't disappointed. One of our PLA crewmembers said yesterday he thought it was running cleaner than PLA's workhorse SD9E, and it was! Today was a long time in coming. The crew will savor it for just a while, before getting back to work. The governor isn't online yet, we still have work on the charging system, and the transmission can move to final inspection and load testing now that the motor is connected and able to run.
 As Howard likes to say: “It was a good day.” And then some!

Look for PLA member and SP 9010 volunteer FiveChime to post more photos of this once-in-a-lifetime event!

~ BZ

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Here, you can watch as Howard works the fuel rack by hand. Listen to that mellow, bass baritone sound! No churning or thrashing -- just smooth and symphonic chords. We were simply amazed.

Listen also for the spooling down of the twin turbos -- they're running free and fine. We're with you: we can't wait to move on down the railroad! It'll be a while yet... but now it's possible.

Who'da thunk it?

~ BZ
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/17 14:08 by Notch16.

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The word I never use: Awesome!
Truly Awesome!
SR

That is AWESOME!!!  Who would have thought that it would ever get to this point.  Great job Howard and the rest of the SP 9010's crew.

Notch16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here, you can watch as Howard works the fuel rack
> by hand. Listen to that mellow, bass baritone
> sound! No churning or thrashing -- just smooth and
> symphonic chords. We were simply amazed.
>
> Listen also for the spooling down of the twin
> turbos -- they're running free and fine. We're
> with you: we can't wait to move on down the
> railroad! It'll be a while yet... but now it's
> possible.
>
> Who'da thunk it?
>
> ~ BZ
>  

Bob,

It sounds great!  Here and in your book, you always call it a motor instead of an engine.  Is that German parlance?

Nice work! I never thought I'd get to hear one of those.

So that's whay they sounded like?

Congrats to everyone involved. Must feel great to see your labor of love come to life.

Posted from iPhone

A milestone event to witness.  So neat when the Maybach started to run on its own and the cap off was the eruption of cleaning its pipes .  Gerry

That is fantastic news. Great to see and hear.

Great post...best regards to all involved....and good luck in the future.

Who would have ever imagined that this would be possible?!  Well done!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

> It sounds great!  Here and in your book, you
> always call it a motor instead of an engine.  Is
> that German parlance?

Ja, more or less! In the book I used day-before-month, Nr. for Number, and motor for prime mover. We sometimes say bogies and speak of the Driver's desk as well!

Thanks from the crew for all the nice comments!

~ BZ

What is the condition of the other motor?

Posted from Android

Huge milestone for the 9010.  Thank you for sharing your achievement with us all here.

Congratulations to all involved and thank you for bringing this beast back from the dead for us.  

NYSWSD70M Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is the condition of the other motor?

Cylinder and piston damage to 9010's second Maybach (Motor #91120, originally installed in one of the 1961 carbody-style Prototypes) was the reason for our KM's retirement in late 1968. 

After inspecting the damage, the diesel tech did not replace the rocker assembly cover. Water had nearly 40 years to gather and pool, and the cam assemblies on that side of the forward Maybach are rusted beyond salvage. We suspect water also made its way into the crankcase. All attention has been focused on the rear Maybach, since it's the only one with an adjoining transmission and from our first investigations seemed promising. 

We intend to preserve that motor, but since one "powerplant" will serve 9010's and our needs, there is no formal plan by our group to revive it. We'd love to have both Maybachs running as well, but even getting this far is way beyond our original scope of work. Once all the ancillaries are in place, the motor and radiator room hoods are back on and their bodywork done, and the unit is motoring hydro-mechanically down the ROW, we can start to dream again. And nothing is in the way of that but time, person power, and money. :-)

~ BZ

Notch16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NYSWSD70M Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What is the condition of the other motor?
>
> Cylinder and piston damage to 9010's second
> Maybach (Motor #91120, originally installed in one
> of the 1961 carbody-style Prototypes) was the
> reason for our KM's retirement in late 1968. 
>
> After inspecting the damage, the diesel tech did
> not replace the rocker assembly cover. Water had
> nearly 40 years to gather and pool, and the cam
> assemblies on that side of the forward Maybach are
> rusted beyond salvage. We suspect water also made
> its way into the crankcase. All attention has been
> focused on the rear Maybach, since it's the only
> one with an adjoining transmission and from our
> first investigations seemed promising. 
>
> We intend to preserve that motor, but since one
> "powerplant" will serve 9010's and our needs,
> there is no formal plan by our group to revive it.
> We'd love to have both Maybachs running as well,
> but even getting this far is way beyond our
> original scope of work. Once all the ancillaries
> are in place, the motor and radiator room hoods
> are back on and their bodywork done, and the unit
> is motoring hydro-mechanically down the ROW, we
> can start to dream again. And nothing is in the
> way of that but time, person power, and money.
> :-)
>
> ~ BZ

Thanks for the response.  I agree that one running motor is an amazing feat!  You guys are doing great!

Amazing work!  Congrads to everyone on the SP 9010 team.  Outstanding!

Z

Very encouraging!   With years and years of reading about locomotive retirements, this counters it all!
I'll add, I'd take an old, dirty, burbling, smoking locomotive anyday, over today's newer, quieter, cleaner, sanitized units.

 

Interesting circle here, the Maybachs were 1800 rpm engines and here CAT is back to the high
speed prime mover in their commuter engines. Funny, Hegel who proposed the dialectic that
history repeats itself, was a German!

Out