NS invests in cleaner locomotives for Atlanta yard

Federal grants supported engine retrofits for 10 locomotives and more are expected next year, according to Norfolk Southern.    Norfolk Southern is deploying 10 low-emission switching locomotives in Atlanta in 2015 and three more next year to help reduce air pollution, company officials said. 
   The major equipment retrofit was made possible by federal assistance from the Department of Transportation’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. 
   Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Mark Manion, Norfolk Southern’s chief operating officer, dedicated five locomotives at a ceremony Tuesday at the railroad’s Inman Yard. Atlanta is a major hub in the NS network.
   The “Eco” locomotives meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier-3 standards for diesel emissions and each year will produce 6.6 fewer tons of particulate matter and 155 fewer tons of nitrogen oxides associated with smog and acid rain than the older units they replace, according to Norfolk Southern.
   Pollution reduction will be accomplished by a combination of powered and engineless locomotives called “slugs,” Mark Duve, Norfolk Southern’s chief mechanical engineer for locomotive design, told American Shipper.
   The Inman yard will get 15 slugs to go along with the 13 powered locomotives.
   At low speeds for switching cars in rail yards and short-distance transfers to nearby facilities, torque for pulling power is more important than horsepower. Big diesel engines are more efficient at higher horsepower.
   The new equipment pairing will allow NS to distribute power from the mother unit and feed traction motors in the slugs that are geared to each axle, saving even more fuel and emissions because each locomotive doesn’t require an engine.
   EPA Tier 4 standards are just beginning to take effect for new locomotive builds.
   “This is right now the best you can get for yard and local operations with regard to emissions,” Duve said. “When you operate Tier 3s with slugs you’re significantly below the Tier 3 threshold and very close to Tier 4 emission” standards.
   The Eco units were designed and built by NS at its Janiata, Pa. locomotive ship near Altoona using components from locomotive builder Electro-Motive Diesel. Duve said the railroad changed out the entire engine, modified the cooling system, installed a new control system to balance the load on the engine, changed the underframe that holds the engine, and reconfigured the operator’s cab to meet the latest crash worthiness standards.
   CMAQ grants covered 65 percent of the upgrade cost. Under the law, yard locomotives are only required to meet Tier 0 to Tier 2 emission standards when they are overhauled. NS overhaul cycles can be as long as 15 years because the locomotives have such long lifespans. The federal subsidy allowed NS to convert the locomotives to a better emission tier sooner than normal because economically it doesn’t make sense to replace the older units, Duve explained.
   NS received $16.4 million in CMAQ grants for its Atlanta yard, as well as another $6.2 million for locomotives at its Macon, Ga., yard and $900,000 for the yard in Rome, Ga.
   Each “Eco” unit can replace two older, less-efficient locomotives. 
   “Over the last five years, we have significantly lowered greenhouse gas emissions of our locomotive fleet, achieving an 8.5 percent reduction per revenue ton-mile,” Manion said in a statement.
   Railroads are increasingly sensitive to community demands for cleaner air, especially in urban areas, because they don’t want their operations to be restricted by local governments in any way. Reducing fuel consumption, as well as carbon and smog-forming emissions also plays well with cargo owners who are trying to demonstrate their environmental responsibility to customers by making their supply chains as green as possible.