Diesel Locomotive Noise Sources, Reduction Strategies, Methods and Standards

Abstract

Diesel locomotives are the mainstay of modern railway systems. Despite the fact that they are noisy and polluting compared to electric locomotives, they continue to remain popular across the world. This is because they can run in areas where electric supply is either unavailable or unreliable, and also because in times of war their service does not get affected even if electric power lines get damaged. Since most railway networks cut across highly populated areas, efforts have to be made to ensure that diesel engine noise is reduced to a minimum. In this chapter this need has been addressed. Specifically, the chapter explains the working of a modern diesel engine locomotive in brief. Such an understanding is important, as all noise generating mechanisms in a diesel locomotive are tightly coupled with its working. Next, different types of noise emanating from a diesel locomotive have been described. Such a description will help the reader assess the nature of each noise component in terms of its magnitude and its frequency spectrum. Next a method to develop noise reduction strategy of diesel locomotive noise is proposed. Next, the chapter explains a diverse suite of noise reduction methods. These methods can be passive or active. The range of passive methods is fairly large. All these methods have been described in detail. This is followed up with a description of important regulations related to locomotive noise. Finally, an exhaustive list of relevant international standards has been provided. These references will be very useful to the reader if she is involved with reduction of train and locomotive noise.