All I can say is........

"WOW"

Jas...

I feel the same way

Well That's what they Get

when your racing along and you hit the NOX some engines just come apart.

Yikes

I used to live a stones throw (or engine piston ejection distance) from a railway line - but several years ago they tore up the rail and now I have an ATV thorough fare beside my house - quads in the summer, sleds in the winter zoom zoom. 

Bizarre!

Now is that "Wierd or What?"

On the upside, at least there wasn't a layout sitting below the point of impact on the house...

Interesting story, thanks.

WOW!

A friend of mine had the same thing happend to a 1972 Pontiac Lemans "back in the day", only the piston (and all of its associated hardware) went down through the oil pan!

-George

Mystery Solved

Well that explains the leftover rod bolts from the last engine rebuild!

72 LeMans you say?

Pontiac Lemans "back in the day", only the piston (and all of its associated hardware) went down through the oil pan!<

My father and I drove one for some 90,000 miles and that never happened. The car had to be junked because my father wasn't allowed to drive it anymore and it wasn't forth fixing up.

Irv

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But when you read up on these emgines, this becomes very surprising occurance. From what I read, they do not compress in the bottom end as your usual 2  stroke. Instead they are force feed  intake from the top.  So to get the piston to  " flight thru the air with the greatest of ease "  .... is surprising. Would require the cylindre to pivot and fire the piston like a canon.     I know the pistons and cylindres are easier to remove that many  engines but this is strange.  Plus a broken conn rod at below 900 RPM.

I'd like to work in this type of forrensics field.

What was a CN locomotive

What was a CN locomotive doing in Louisiana?  BTW I seem to recall several Volkswagen engines meeting the same fate under my lack of care many years ago.  The memories are all just a foggy dream  - I just can't say why.

No Explanation

In my younger days I had the good fortune to crew on a top alcohol dragster team. I can assure you that when parts decide to exit a motor they defy explanation and at times appear to violate the laws of physics. I am not surprised in the least the prime mover piston was hurled through the air. The pressures in the crankcase go off the scale when combustion pressures are no longer contained above the piston. The resulting carnage to the motor is often much more severe than one would imagine. Parts that you would expect to be damaged are not while others that you think are bulletproof strong get blown to bits.

But when you read up on these

The piece that flew out and landed on the ground is the cylinder head and liner.  The head is welded to the liner and bolted to the engine.  Speculation is that the bolts holding the power assembly in place were not torqued correctly and broke, resulting in this failure.  Once the head/liner launched, the unsupported piston was soon to follow.

Interesting that this story is making the rounds now,  the incident happened in April 2007.

+ +

Ah ha !.. so we can mark it as SPAM then  ...  Hate it when these old things re surface.

++

" In my younger days I had the good fortune to crew on a top alcohol dragster team. I can assure you that when parts decide to exit a motor they defy explanation and at times appear to violate the laws of physics. "

Granted. But Alcohol dragster are usually not simply turning at 900 RPM when it all lets go. These diesel engines make max HP at 900RPM, granted at 24:1 compression . I was reading large container ship diesel engines  make max HP at 150 RPM.  

Since the whole cylinder, head, sleeve came out as a unit  I would expect the piston to be stuck or remain inside or fall a few feet fruther and not get shot out from a  cannon.  The track and engine are surelly higher than the single storie roof of the house. The angle the piston comes thru the roof and imbeds into the wall means it had to go sky high.

This is all speculation but just for the fun of it. 

Crankcase Ignition

As often happens in a race motor when rings give way or a piston burns the crankcase gets pumped full of fuel and then ignites. Jettisoning parts at high velocities is the end result. Even if there is no hole for them to leave through they seem to have a nack for making a hole of their own. The prime mover's crankcase may have become a very high volume combustion chamber.

Boom

I knew I had a pic or two stashed somewhere. This is the net result of crankcase ignition. I am guessing the loco's motor looked similar on the bottom end except with much more massive pieces parts. Sometimes things just go boom.

What was a CN locomotive

CN runs on the old Illinois Central route down to New Orleans and other parts in the South.  I live just a few miles from CN's Mays Yard in Harahan, LA (few miles outside of New Orleans).

This is Also a Very Old story.

This happened many years ago.  I like Shaun live in South La.

Insurance

Imagine the insurance claim on the house...."A train piston smashed into my house"....insurance company: " your insurance police does not cover this type of acident" 

No Claim

CN paid for the damage and they are self insured. 

Engine ID

Minor note for original poster, engine is IC 2699 not CN 2699. Take another look at the cab lettering in the photo.

My dad was on this train

He was the conductor on this job. I showed him the pics and he said there was fire shooting out the side of the engine after it blew. He said it just went BOOM! They shut the engine down and continued to MCComb. He was suprised when he walked back at what he saw. He stated that there was oil everywhere! 

I'm not surprized that there would be oil everywhere!

The Fairbanks-Morse diesels that we had on the Coast Guard ships I was stationed on each had 400 gallon oil sumps.  I would expect that a modern locomotive prime mover with over twice the horsepower would have a sump that would measure in the hundreds of gallons capacity.