Thread: A log of my updates on my '32 Brookville highboy

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Thank you for that link, Roger. That confirms the reasons I've heard over the last 40 years working with all the Class 1 RR's in the U.S. and EMD (now part of Caterpillar; formerly part of GM) and GE who manufacture the loco's. Even Alco was still operating back when I first started.

exhaust is done so countdown to ignition: 10, 9, 8, ....

Oh yeah, that looks awesome!

When my dad first went to work for GE, the first two things I recall the first day when moving to Schenectady in their '41 Chebbie was the mega monster GE plant, then driving down Erie Blvd (which was the site and now filled in Erie Canal) and past ALCO and seeing several brand new STEAM engines sitting ouside of their shops - which of course made my day as my grandfather was an engineer with Michigan Central. 40,000 plus worked at GE and another 16,000 at ALCO. There might be 3-4000 at GE now and ALCO is gone and Schenectady, "The City That Lights and Hauls the World" is a dump

Speaking of engines - this is one I worked on in Spain in 2004/5:

3-gas-turbine.jpg

This GT is only a small part of the project - add a generator, a steam turbine, and an HRSG(boiler), inlet and exhaust system along with train loads of other claptrap to make up a 3-400MW plant.

Sorry about the nostalgia trip, back to Nick's '32

Dave,

We are just keeping the thread alive for Nick's first test drive coming soon. 400 MW sure trumps my 32 MW. Is yours a compound generator where the spent heat energy from the gas turbine is being used in a steam turbine?

You guys sure have worked on some mega engines/gensets!

We have a couple " generators " that produce about 1200mw each.
Man that would be some hp!!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

You guys sure have worked on some mega engines/gensets!

I don't work on them, just operate them.

Nick has to be close to that first drive with the 550 hp 427, weather permitting.

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Dave,

We are just keeping the thread alive for Nick's first test drive coming soon. 400 MW sure trumps my 32 MW. Is yours a compound generator where the spent heat energy from the gas turbine is being used in a steam turbine?

In steam turbine technology that's a term with a double turbine. With a gas turbine as the prime mover, it's generally called by GE a combined cycle or STAG (STeam And Gas) plant. It tends to get a bit complicated as to layout - they are often designed with the gas and steamers in one line up, powering a single genset, others use one to as many as four GTs, each powering a genset, then a good size ST running a 5th gen set. We did that at a project of mine Mahmoudia, Egypt with smaller frame size GTs. I sure wish I still had my photos, but they got left in the project files when I retired

Nick, it appears that you're tailpipes are welded to the rear bar, which I assume is bolted to the frame.
If so, aren't you worried about that vibration (noise)?
Usually a rubber isolator is set between the pipe and frame, allows the system to move to prevent stress / flex - fatigue failures and help keep the vibration noise out of the cab.

Just curious how it acts once you get to drive it.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Nick, it appears that you're tailpipes are welded to the rear bar, which I assume is bolted to the frame.
If so, aren't you worried about that vibration (noise)?
Usually a rubber isolator is set between the pipe and frame, allows the system to move to prevent stress / flex - fatigue failures and help keep the vibration noise out of the cab.

Just curious how it acts once you get to drive it.

Yeah, I wondered about the welded pipes when I saw that picture, too, but I let it pass. Besides the vibrations exhaust systems grow with the every startup simply due to the thermal expansion through the system, so they are hung rather than being direct coupled. If it's welded all the way you're going to have some pretty good forces on that nerf bar weld.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm seriously considering your suggestions and looking at what will happen as things flex and get hot and cold. I'm also wondering if I wouldn't rather have an exhaust I can quickly drop and run straight open headers ...if for no other reason that to scare away big bears that might come on my property. Whatever I do, you'll be the second ones to know.

I use just a harden rubber washer on mine, might be an easy out for you Nick. It acoustically decouples the exhaust from the mounting point and allows a fraction of the movement of a hanging rubber donut isolator.

If you look at the coefficient of expansion for steel and assume a nominal ten foot length for the pipes the movement from a 50F ambient to nominal 180F exhaust temp (higher with CAT's) yields over 1/4" of growth. It's proportional to the change in temperature, so going from a frigid winter day to operating temps is going to be more. Bob, you's will be flexing that vertical mount, and the donut provides very little for isolation with the bolt coupling both rigid parts.