Friday, January 28, 2011

CN locomotive throws a piston - a reasonable distance


This is Canadian National locomotive number 2699, a 212 ton machine powered by a 183 liter, 4,400 hp V16 4 stroke diesel engine.

Shortly before this picture was taken, while working under load, 2699 experienced what is known in the trade as a "catastrophic uncontained engine failure". The train was passing the town of Independence, LA, at the time.

The first picture below shows that the engine exploded and one of the 16 cylinder-packs that form the engine was ejected through the engine bay body side and thrown clear of the locomotive.
In addition to this the piston from that cylinder was thrown free by the force of the failure. It was ejected so violently that it traveled through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby home where it imbedded itself in an interior wall.

Thanks to Peter for sending this in.

3 comments:

Nathan Giesbrecht said...

Wow! That's incredible! Sure glad nobody was hurt (at least it appears that way).

OG said...

Been looking for an article on this for my school project thanks

Bowerbird said...

Wow so happy everyone is safe. and it is scary to imagine that this happen just a few years back