Existing comment:
Union Pacific Super Turbine Locomotive #26
The World's Most Powerful Locomotive
Locomotive #26 is among the largest locomotives ever built. It's strong enough to pull 735 fully loaded freight cars. That's a train seven miles long!
Locomotive #26 uses a turbine engine, like a jet airplane. The turbine engine powers electric generators that turn the wheels. Locomotives like this are called "BIG BLOWS" because they make a deafening noise like a jet airplane flying by.
Locomotive #26 traveled over 1 million miles hauling heavy freight between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Ogden, Utah. It is one of two surviving "BIG BLOWS' on public display. The other one is at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.
Fun Facts:
Built: 1961
Weight: 849,248 pounds
Length: 179 feet
Engines: 8500-horsepower gas turbine
Fuel Capacity: 24,384 gallons of diesel
Top Speed: 65 miles per hour
Retired: February 28, 1970
The tender for the turbine is a retrofitted steam locomotive tender filled with Bunker C Oil.
Bunker C oils are called residual fuel oils (RFO) or heavy fuel oils. Used frequently in the past. |