Progress Rail opens Muncie, Indiana locomotive assembly operation

Friday, October 28, 2011

Almost one year to the date of announcing its decision to locate a locomotive manufacturing facility in Muncie, Ind., Progress Rail Services Corporation officially opened its Muncie operation.

Progress Rail announced the site selection in October of 2010 and began work in earnest in January 2011. In less than 10 months, the facility has produced completed diesel-electric locomotives for its customers.

“We are proud to be in Muncie, Ind., today celebrating the official opening of our locomotive assembly plant. We look forward to being a part of this community’s economic future for many years to come,” said B.Ainsworth, president and CEO of Progress Rail. “We have assembled a talented and dedicated group of local employees eager to meet our customers’ needs. As we continue to grow our business and build additional manufacturing capacity, Progress Rail will be well-equipped to produce and support the largest global population of locomotives.”

http://www.rtands.com/newsflashes/91.html

2.

Cp refreshes locomotive fleet

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Canadian Pacific Railway has brought 61 new high horsepower GE Evolution Series AC locomotives into service. The new EVO locomotives will increase capacity, enhance service reliability, further the company’s long train strategy, reduce emissions and contribute to the company’s one-two percent annual fuel efficiency improvement target. CP will also begin to modernize a portion of its low and medium horsepower locomotive fleet. The remanufacture of these locomotives, which will take place over the next several years, reduces fuel consumption and ongoing maintenance costs.

http://www.rtands.com/newsflash/cp-refreshes-locomotive-fleet-4801.html

Exercise 9. Read the text, title it and render it in English. Use the words and phrases:

In spite of the fact that, put into service, not to come into use/ not to be widely used, because of, make a decision, consumer, petroleum products, account for, replace something by/with something, consumed, liquefied natural gas, relatively, rich reserves, existing, replace, set up a record, non-electrified lines, disassemble (break up) a train, experimental loop, ecostandard, control system, CCTV (closed circuit television), remote control.

Несмотря на то, что первый газотурбовоз был построен в 1938 году и его пытались ввести в эксплуатацию в Швейцарии, Франции, США, Германии, даже в СССР, этот тип локомотивов не получил распространения ни в Европе, ни в Америке по экономическим причинам. Газотурбовоз – это локомотив с газотурбинным двигателем (ГТД). На газотурбовозах практически всегда используется электрическая передача: газотурбинный двигатель соединён с генератором, а вырабатываемый ток подаётся на электродвигатели, которые и приводят локомотив в движение. Газотурбовоз в несколько раз дороже тепловоза или электровоза. Тем не менее, в конце сентября 2010 года был построен новейший российский локомотив –газотурбовоз ГТ1-001.

Почему российские инженеры приняли решение о разработке этой машины? Железнодорожный транспорт – один из крупнейших потребителей нефтепродуктов в России. Доля потребления дизельного топлива составляет около 9% от общего потребления в стране. Поэтому железнодорожники поставили задачу замены к 2030 году 30% расходуемого автономными локомотивами дизельного топлива природным газом.

Но основное преимущество газотурбовоза перед другими типами локомотивов – возможность развивать огромную мощность при сравнительно небольших размерах и массе.

Итак, испытания газотурбовоза ГТ1-001 закончены. Это первый в мире турбовоз, работающий на сжиженном природном газе. Запасов последнего в России много, и стоит он недорого.

При своих небольших размерах ГТ1 – один из самых мощных существующих локомотивов, способный заменить пять тепловозов. В январе 2009 года ГТ1-001 поставил рекорд, официально занесенный в Книгу рекордов Гиннесса - он провел по экспериментальному кольцу в Щербинке поезд общей массой 15000 т, то есть 159 вагонов! А сможет провести состав весом и в 20000 т.

Много это или мало? Если брать поезда, ведомые несколькими локомотивами, то мало. Рекорд самого тяжелого состава держится с 2001 года, когда австралийцы составили поезд из 682 вагонов, груженных железной рудой (общая масса 82000 т), и восьми локомотивов. Но если говорить об одном локомотиве – то это, безусловно, рекорд.

Мощность газотурбовоза – 8300 кВт. РЖД собираются использовать его в сибирской части России, где довольно много неэлектрифицированных веток.

Базой для газотурбовоза послужил серийный электровоз ВЛ15 – от него взяты рама и тележки. Испытания показали, что газотурбовоз может развивать скорость до 100 км/ч. А 17-тонная емкость для сжиженного природного газа обеспечивает локомотиву 750 км пробега.

Стоит отметить, что мощность современных серийных электровозов может быть гораздо выше, чем 8300 кВт. Вопрос стоял именно в постройке мощного локомотива, независимого от электрической сети. Высокая мощность газотурбовоза позволяет железнодорожникам унифицировать вес поездов. При передаче состава с электрифицированных участков пути его не придется расформировывать под тепловозную тягу, как вынуждены делать сейчас.

Хотя ГТ1-001 стоимостью 200 млн. руб. вдвое дороже любого тепловоза, он дешевле в ремонте и обслуживании.

Есть и еще одна, «политическая» причина, которая делает газотурбовоз перспективной разработкой, – это европейские экологические нормы.

ГТ1 оснащен современными системами управления. В кабине установлен контроллер, который регулирует мощность и скорость движения. На дисплеях отображается информация о работе двигателя. Газотурбовоз оснащен системой видеонаблюдения. Кроме того, в ГТ1-001 применена новая система дистанционного управления тормозами при помощи радиосвязи.

Listening and speaking

Exercise 1. You are going to watch ‘BNSF Locomotive Technology.’ The BNSF Railway is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second-largest freight railroad network in North America.

Before you watch a video answer the questions.

1. What is technology?

2. What advances in locomotive technology do you think this video is about?

Exercise 2. Watch the video. Which words do you hear?

1) look for way, 2) medium-distance transportation, 3) low emission 4) technical developments, 5) electric traction, 6) technological innovation, 7) switch locomotive, 8) industry leader

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences.

1. ______, fewer emissions, and reduced highway congestion make rail the most environmentally-friendly form of land transportation.

2. In addition, BNSF has introduced more efficient and cleaner operating diesel engines to yard ______, the ultra low-emission jet set locomotives at three fuel efficient engines that start and stop ______ to match operating power ______.

3. BNSF is also testing several locomotives that use alternative fuels including liquid ______ and biodiesel.

4. The latest concept locomotive is the ______ fuel cell switch locomotive.

5. BNSF plans to continue to be an industry leader in ______, ______, and implementing green technology, not just for its locomotives but across all parts of its operations.

Exercise 4. Choose the correct variant to complete the sentence.

The testing helps identify ___ of the new technology.

1. the profits as well as the losses

2. the advances as well as the pitfalls

3. the benefits as well as the challengers

Exercise 5. Is this exactly what you hear?

1. BNSF railway can move one ton of freight from Los Angeles to Chicago on more than 5 gallons of diesel fuel. (yes/no)

2. And BNSF continues to look for way to reduce its locomotive fleet to become more fuel efficient and environmentally-friendly. (yes/no)

3. BNSF is retiring older less efficient locomotives while adding more than 1600 new switch locomotives. (yes/no)

4. These locomotives are up to 15% more fuel efficient than the units they replaced and are the cleanest-burning locomotives available for heavy-haul freight movement. (yes/no)

5. BNSF believes it is in the best interest of our company and our nation to look at sustainable alternative technologies and fuels. (yes/no)

Language spot

Relative clauses

Exercise 1. Put in who/that/which/whose/where.

1) A driver is a person ________ job is to control the movements of the train.

2) We had no difficulty finding the railway station. We asked a policeman _______ was very helpful.

3) Electric traction can be used on the lines _______ the traffic is sufficiently dense and high capital investment can be repaid.

4) Stone and brick buildings replaced the wooden sheds, _______ often caught fire from the sparks of a passing steam locomotive.

5) At locations _______ it is desired to have trains pass each other, a passing siding is constructed.

6) The railroad industry has a safety record ________ is the envy of many other industries.

Exercise 2. Sometimes the preposition comes at the beginning of the relative clause before which in formal English. Complete the sentences using a preposition at the beginning of the relative clause. Use the information in brackets.

1) (In Russia, 43,100 km of track are electrified.) Russia has the second largest network in the world with 85,200 km of track, 43,300 km of which are electrified.

2) (Vehicles are joined together into trains by different means.) The means ________ are of two kinds – automatic and non- automatic.

3) (Communities are frequently proud of their passenger stations.) Passenger stations are frequently civic centres _________.

4) (In the highway system signs and signals largely supplement what the driver sees.) Unlike the highway system, _________ the rail control system must provide the driver with information beyond the immediate visual scene.

5) (The rails are laid with a small space between the ends since rails expand and contract a little with changes of temperature.) Since rails expand and contract a little with changes of temperature, a small space is left between rail ends in relation to the temperature _________.

Exercise 3. You must use that when it is the subject of the relative clause. When it is the object, you can leave it out. Choose the sentences in which you don’t need that.

1) Safety is an issue that pervades the entire railroad industry.

2) Millions of American people reached the new territories with the help of the railroads. Later, trains transported the goods that they produced.

3) Most of the states that entered the US after the Civil War owed their rapid growth to the railroads.

4) The safety systems that railroads have developed continue to be improved.

5) The US railroads and Federal Railroad Administration work hand-in-hand to improve the safety of the cars, the locomotives and the trains that they make up.

6) Speaking of the £5bn investment programme, CEO David Higgins said that the investment would turn the Great Western into “the most advanced intercity railway in Britain.”

Exercise 4. When that is the object of the relative clause, you can leave it out. Find the place of the word that.

1) A passenger locomotive needs to provide electrical power for light and heating or air conditioning for the entire train it is pulling.

2) Customers can complain about the service they receive.

3) The points he stressed in his report were very important.

4) Federal standards are based upon the speed and tonnage any line is designated to carry.

5) The global effort is being made to improve the efficiency of transportation vehicles, such as automobiles, buses, trucks and trains, and to reduce the massive amounts of pollutants they emit.

6) A typical cause of delays on some railways sometimes stems from the fact that dispatchers may not be aware of how the decisions they make affect the overall transport plan.

7) Neither the report nor the comment it elicited in press gave any indication of the number of inspectors railroads themselves have, or the body of rules railroads live by to provide the safety of people and avoid damage to goods railroads transport.

8) Before a railroad is built there are usually several alternative routes to be considered. Experts choose what they consider to be the best route. The choice they make has much to do with the success or failure of the new railroad line.

9) A route, though less expensive to build, may run through unsettled country. Hence it may be wiser to build the more expensive line for the sake of the greater local business it can get.

Exercise 5. Complete the sentences with a relative clause.

1 Tom recommended a train to us. We took a train Tom recommended to us.

2 Railways have safety inspectors. What is the number of safety inspectors __________?

3 Railways live by rules. What are the rules __________?

4 Railways transport various goods. What are the goods __________?