Apparently, the horns on NS's Dash 9s are now equipped with a "make the turbo on the EMD behind you blow up" function!

Awesome timing !! The turbo went at the EXACT moment he initiated the air horn.

One hell of a railfanning experience I'd say.It's quite interesting as to how they look when they are puffing smoke like that.It looks just like a steam engine.Awesome video and it was really cool how you got that kind of thing on film.Amazing video!!

White smoke from a diesel engine indicates more fuel than compression and oxygen in the cylinder, most commonly caused by a fuel injector "Washing Out" (mechanically failing, allowing a flood of diesel into that cylinder. Black smoke, conversely, usually indicates a blown turbocharger. Great video of the hole going out!

Great capture, being at the right place at the right time with video camera running.

Actually oil out the exhaust side of the turbo does come out mostly white, worked on a car with the same problem and I had the same mis-thought as you at first. The smell gave it away. Also water steam dissipates quite quickly, the smoke in the video stuck around for a good while.

Most turbo failures I have seen result in flames and black smoke. This looks like a cylinder liner failure where coolant is entering the cylinder and being flashed into steam. The steam would be oily too. I got a shot of an ALCO 630 doing the same thing and it was a cracked cylinder liner. White steam tinged with blue from the oil.

Great video. A return to the age of steam locos. I see a lot of train traffic in the summer, as my boat is harbored next to a rail yard. I like seeing the trains go by. The shunters not so much, as they tend to hog the crossing. Badly designed yard. The gates close when they're doing regular work. Never seen a breakdown though.

I think that the lead loco isn't a C40-8W, but a C40-8 spartan cab ;) Great moment captured on camera, thanks for sharing :)

Holy crap! That was a great catch, usually don't see that in videos too much!

Nothing quite like a large diesel in a potential runaway situation to RAISE YOUR PULSE. These engines can burn the crankcase oil as fuel. Since airflow is usually un-restricted, a turbo gasket like this can cause the engine to very quickly over-rev and send very heavy cast iron pistons on a lively trip. I'm glad to hear no-one was hurt and the engine could be repaired. Thanks for the video!

It is a dash-9 because the radiators are thicker... Thanks for the comment!! and your welcome!

* I think I can, I think I can*, ( cough, cough,cough) ah the hell with it, I;m done the other 2 can do it....... cool video

Im also a big railfan and was suprised to see the amount of smke comming out of that unit. 4 unit average length freight, you'd think it wouldnt be struggling so much as to blow the turbo like that. Lol. Great video

WOW!!! Plume of Oil Vapor!!! You record enough, and odds are you eventually get some really cool stuff!!!

Me thinks that was a steam locomotive in a previous life.

After the start the boost pressure maxed blowing the turbocharger . Wide open with a heavy load does this.

WOW! Great catch and video!

Wow, a good blast of Smoke from that EMD engine! :) Nothing like the feel and smell of Lube Oil in the morning~! :) Great Catch.

@Railroader007 Agreed, this happened on a ship I was stationed on, we were running 700rpm on both mains (twin Alco v16's) for about 4 hours and rapidly loss pressure in the turbo. The head fractured, most likely from too much stress and the fact that both mains are extremely old..

The funny part is that it was a EMD, not a GE!

That had to stink really bad! Great catch, and nice video! Keep 'em coming =)

Damn thats pretty sweet! Great video!

So do these stick wide open when that happens? Seems to me it's burning on it's own oil and can't be shut down hence the acceleration as soon as the smoke started...

Awesome Video Man dont think ya could get a Better Smoke show than that theres alot of people that know everything aint there

@ddd3240 Thank you very much sir, I am glad to hear that you and your grandkids enjoy trains and the excitement that comes with them. And you are welcome! Have a Merry Christmas!

that is really amazing! Nice video!!

Wow, that's crazy. Ex-CR SD70 2573.

Excellent vid!!

Very cool and thank you.

awesome! my uncle worked for the railroad,he got a kick out of this!

HAHA!! RIGHT ON CAMERA as soon as he blew the horn :) NICE!!

Nice catch, that maintainer in his truck probably called them on it too. They can isolate that engine and use the remaining power to move them along. That is, as long as they don't have steep grades to contend with, or more cars to pick up.

Thank you!

What I really like, is at 1:26 where you can see they cut power from the blown loco and it loaded up the others! Note the black smoke from the lead engine. They others all probably loaded up as well to compensate, but you can't tell because of the huge cloud of oil smoke... I agree, it is pretty blue as it passes, and it sounds like you know it did ; }-~

Just a couple of questions. One, do you know if this loco was shut down before any serious damage was done and two, did that loco sound any different to the other three (whehn it passed) or did the horn drown it out? It's just that, being a diesel mechanic myself, it looks like the whole turbo went bang, not just the oil seal. Please understand I'm not trying to doubt what you know, but I'm just curious.

Maybe a dumb question, but is an operator required in each engine, or are the electronics all chained together to be driven from the cab in the front?

Dude that is amazing!

Neat video, I haven't had it happen on one of my trains yet, wouldn't want it to lol but, I have had to move some oiled up double-stacks from a mainline set-out, to a house fuel rack to get steam cleaned, due to an engine/turbo malfunction. If I was in your position, I'd of been so pissed lol.

A foggy day in old London town! I guess the engineer couldn't have stopped without blocking the crossing?

1:46 That musta stunk!

Those crossing bells sort of sound like the only down here around Manassas :)

Very very smooth video!

that train wanted some attention so decided to give a nice big smoke show. That smoke must have smelt nice! :P

Good catch

Thank you!!

I have had the same thing happen to me on a semi-truck before. It left just as much smoke behind too!

Gives new meaning to "The fog rolled in". :)

should have seen the show we put on today, had two gp-9's spitting fire out the stacks, sparked a couple grass fires but thats just details

Great video.

@juliachan1987 Oil, I've seen it happen on my friends cars when they go the cheap route when adding a turbocharger to their cars. The oil lubricates the turbo impeller, and if there is a leak it's metal on metal. It heats up superfast and explodes. Usually, you just have to replace the turbo, other times you have to replace everything. Cool video!

Very interesting!

Q: can you close down the individual blown unit from the lead loco in a multi-unit consist like this?

Whoa! Thats pretty cool!

Right place at the right time! Nice Catch!

woah...i never thought a train can break down like a car. till i saw the movie planes, trains and automobiles LOL!

By any chance, would this be an old CONRAIL engine in NS paint? About 10-years ago I saw a CONRAIL unit coming out of the Big Four Yards in Avon, IN that did the same exact thing. It was like someone laid down an instant fog screen in the area and it lasted for about 1 to 2 minutes. Neat capture on your part - I didn't have a camera when I saw it.

Yowza! That is some serious smoke! Bet is smelled nasty! Great video BTW.

@Batojiri1 Where do you come up with every time? I think the fact that I spent 2 years in Heavy duty diesel Mechanics school carry a state license and railroad for a living I think gives me a pretty good idea... Just saying, when was the last time you worked on an sd70?

Love the smell of Napalm in the morning! Diesel smells good! Downwind at Rochelle IL railfan spot does the same effect..

thanls! @Slonya23

@megs905 The Engineer probbaly had a button titled "railfan surprise" lol and it smelled great....

WICKED CATCH!!! NICE JOB!

@AmtrakCSXRailfan to add to your reply...oil isnt burning in the "turbos crank case" the turbo seal goes bad and lets oil into the exhaust side of the turbo letting it flash off. same as dumping oil into the tail pipe on your car. turbo is still boosting but its pouring oil into the exhaust

Beautifull!!!!

@watchingcrazycrashes black smoke is actually unburnt fuel and white/ blue smoke is burnt oil, it was caused by the oil burning in the turbo's crank case causing the white smoke with a blue tint in the video. this would be referred to as a blown turbo. Also, it was a very warm day not a cool one. Thanks for the comment though

wow but it pulls and pulls and pulls damn that power is crazy *.*

I wonder if it was running away (the prime mover, not the locomotive) ?

thats was awesome

shows the airflow around the train pretty well.

That's a LOT of oil!

aweome sound

BLAH!!!! That white smoke STINKS!!!!

is it normal on NS that sounding the horn on the lead unit blows up the turbo in a trailing unit?

Ive always wanted to operate a locomotive

Was that on the former Conrail Chicago Line????

how do you say 100% blown turbocharger gasket ??

those engines would make one heck of a bong

is this same as blowby or it's differant ?? thank for the vedio

nothing bad and a nice horn

I wonder if they can shut down that number 3 loco from the front unit or do they need to stop to do it?

I do not know if it was shut down or not... but I do know that the loco did not sound very different than usual. hope that answers your question and thanks for the comment!

I know how diesel-electric trains work, but I didn't know they had turbochargers... cool! and lucky shot

That was cool.

Looks like fog rolled in.Spectacular smoke

@TankCrusher210 Thats because there is tons more of them. I've seen many manufactures have problmes before including Alco,EMD,GE, Whitcomb & more. It usually depends on how well maintence is kept up on them

This is engine oil, not fuel.. most likely a cracked cylinder liner feeding oil into the combustion chamber and not being fully burnt.

@AmtrakCSXRailfan what did it smell like? any differnt

@kodiak410a determining something as "exploding" is subjective to society and this is the way I veiw it as. Your invision may have been different, but that's what makes the world different, thanks for watching!!!

@fabzcardon Turbochargers only last so long and eventually the bearings go out, causing it to stop turning suddenly. And the white smoke was probably caused from the oil which is used to lubricate the turbo bearings leaking into the hot exhaust.

@ps3dethman1 I would expect to find some sort of shut down mechanism on just about every diesel, but there are a couple of videos where it either failed to operate as intended, or was non-present. Usually, partially burnt oil produces copious amounts of grey smoke, which is consistent with what I saw in this video.

@basspiq i belive they have air dams in front of the turbo just incase this were to happen, they cut off the air supply so the engine can not run. also it will only run away if oil it aslo going into the intake side, and there would be ALOT of black smoke.

I love how it went off right as the horn was sounded, like a steam whistle. It didn't blow a turbocharger, it was undercover as a steam locomotive!

@justinmoss101 Usually heavy black smoke when a turbo goes. It is black because there is too much diesel and not enough air in the combustion chambers. This can lead to high EGT under a load and cause engine failure.

Oh man, I wond what the engineer thought when he looked back. LOL

@juliachan1987 did he stop and check it out, and was he just trying to get the train out away from populated area?

So the lead is a dash 9? I never kenw GE made non-widecab dash-9s.

@iRECKONER You took the words right out of my mouth!

Man it made its own Fog

reminds me of the good ol days. 1800's locomotives are back again. sortof,lol ;)