Technical
The SD50 is powered by V16 16-645F3 series diesel engine driving either an EMD AR11A-D14 or an EMD AR16A-D18 traction alternator. The power generated by the traction alternator drove 6 EMD D87 traction motors rated at 1170 amps each.
Depending on customer options, the SD50 was available with a multitude of traction-motor gearing ratio and wheel size options, the most common of which being the 70:17 ratio with 40-inch (1,000 mm) wheels, this allowed for a top speed of 70 mph (110 km/h). Other gearing options for the SD50 with 40-inch (1,016 mm) wheels include 69:18 for 76 mph (122 km/h), 67:19 for 82 mph (132 km/h) and 66:20 for 88 mph (142 km/h). 42-inch (1,067 mm) wheels were also available. Customers of the SD50 also had the option of either HT-C trucks (identified with a hydraulic shock on the side of the middle axle of each truck) or the earlier Flexicoil trucks, which only Conrail opted for. Some investigators implicated the HT-C truck in derailments in Amtrak's SDP40F locomotive fleet and Conrail chose to order SD40-2s and their first order of SD50s with the earlier Flexicoil C truck. The controversy surrounding the HT-C truck was eventually disproved, and Conrail's second order of SD50s as well as their SD60 variants were all HT-C equipped.
The SD50 could be equipped with fuel tanks sizes from 3,200 US gallons (12,100 l; 2,660 imp gal) up to 4,400 US gallons (16,700 l; 3,660 imp gal), had a lube oil capacity of 396 US gallons (1,500 l; 330 imp gal) and a cooling water capacity of 276 US gallons (1,040 l; 230 imp gal).
Read more about this topic: EMD SD50
Famous quotes containing the word technical:
“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)
“The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. Thus, “the whole is greater than its part;” “reaction is equal to action;” “the smallest weight may be made to lift the greatest, the difference of weight being compensated by time;” and many the like propositions, which have an ethical as well as physical sense. These propositions have a much more extensive and universal sense when applied to human life, than when confined to technical use.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In middle life, the human back is spoiling for a technical knockout and will use the flimsiest excuse, even a sneeze, to fall apart.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)