Hi everybody.
Falcus, there is no real reason why modern diesel engines should not be shut down immediately on the power units coming to a physical halt.
Real reason? Well, apparently Every class 1 in the U.S. disagrees, and from what others have posted, the U.K., Russia, and I would wager OZ as well.... Though the Real Reason may not be mechanical to every operator that operates this way, I would wager the reasons I outlined would be enough of an incentive, true or not, for any Pencil Pusher that has never actually driven a locomotive, or fixed one, to cling to outdated policies. For all I know it could even be a Union Stipulation so that Crews left sitting in a locomotive isn't forced to sit in the cold (Stranger things have happened). Whatever the reason, the Reality is that BNSF in Seattle runs their Gevos for hours/days/weeks on end in Idle, and I can confirm this with my own eyes. Thats real reason enough to somebody with the power to make that decision..... Apparently others around the nation can do the same, as many here have attested as will any number of Youtubers.....
After that, if you want to ammend that first sentance to "Mechanical Reason", then at least for short term usage, I would agree entirely with you. Long term, not so much. I have yet to see Gasket Material that will convince me its "Thermal Expansion Stress Proof" (Or impervious to the stresses incurred while expanding and contracting whenever the engine gets significantly cooler or hotter)...... Unless Large Diesel Mechanics are making use of some hitherto unknown to me technique or material that is exclusive to large Diesel Engines....
As far as Glow Plugs, I don't actually recall mentioning Cold Starts once in my post.... I did talk about Thermo-dynamics indirectly and how it affects engine usage though. Further, I'm fully aware of them, as I deal with them daily playing with Cummings & Ford Powerstroke (Shudders) Engines for my current job. After that, considering I do it daily through the Winter, Fall, and most of the Spring, I'm fully aware modern Diesel Locomotives have barely any issue with Cold Start since the inclusion of Glow Plugs.
As far as the Warehouse manager you mention, that sure sounds like a case of Justice Served. I'm glad he was ousted.... But I don't really see how it has much bearing on the current topic. Bad Maintenance will always cause more problems, health included, but we're talking about preventing wear and tear with good Maintenance...... Trying to dodge Maintenance is bad practice all around, but that particular locomotive sounds like it was due for it, and his decision to run it had more to do with hiding the state the engine was in through creative booking rather then actually preventing further maintenance (More like burying his head in the sand so he could pretend it wasn't needed)....
In the U.S. at least, the FRA absolutely requires engine checks every so many miles, and when certain conditions are met (Pretty much anything that would require an Engine Rebuild) it needs be taken care of or the engine "downed" until such time as its issues are taken care of and can be returned to service. In the End this works out cheaper for the Railroads as well anyway, particularly as the infrastructure to keep this kind of Maintenance Cycling going has now been in place for a good 30-40 years as far as I know on the Class 1s.
Although I would go along with what Falcus stated in his posting regarding wear and stress on engines could be caused by continuous stopping and starting, that probably is not the situation now with the modern materials being used. Evidence of that would be the fact that car manufacturers would not be fitting systems such as the above to my car and many others if there was any danger of excessive wear in the car engine.
Actually, AFAIK, most gaskets have been made from the same materials for the better part of about 40 years or so. The last big revolution in Materials Design for Gaskets occured in the 70s IIRC. Cars are still made of Steel, though with the inclusion of Fiberglass and Plastic, and Gaskets are generally some collapsible material, notably some kind of composite of Graphite or Carbon, particularly Head Gaskets, which in most engines are the biggest pain in the ^&* to replace and generally the single most labor intensive and thereby expensive bit of maintenance an engine can go through short of being re-machined in any notable way.
Next, as I understand it, what an Auto Lube system does, as JJanmarine breifly talks about, is to protect the Turbo Chargers Metals from being left too hot without fresh cool air or Lubricant to cool it. The only real difference this makes however, again as I understand it, is that instead of absolutely having to allow a Turbo Charger Equipped Engine a "Cooling Down Period" after heavy use before shut-down (Allowing the engine to Idle, for most Car-Truck sized engines 5-10 minutes, I'd have to imagine closer to 30-40 for Locomotives), is that you can now shut it down whenever and the automated system will kick in and in theory give it the cooling it needs until it is sufficiently cool to not damage itself (Where as before once you shut an engine off, it was the equivalent of a boat anchor regardless of Temp, and it would melt or damage itself all it was allowed to.....).
Its a nifty device, and depending on how the system is powered perhaps even economical (I haven't studied them over-much, none of what I drive has them), but I'm sure its another system to perform Maintenance on, there will be ways for it to fail. For instance I'd bet theres a good chance in the event of a crash involving an Engine Compartment Compromise that this system may not even kick in, in which case you may very still have a very hot Turbo Charger to deal with on top of everything else, which is no different from diesels 20-50 years ago anyway. The more complicated the plumbing...... At the end I would think these are at best insurance against Operators shutting down loco's too early, or at worst entirely superfluous to most Rail Operators. Generally speaking once a crew arrives anywhere after a long haul the locomotives have to sit while the crew puts it where it needs to be, and performs whatever they need to to leave the locomotive. Which in many places might be as simple as get up and leave the engines running, or as complicated as checking the train or leaving it in a state where it's easy for the next crew to do something with it.
As far as information for your own device, I would check to see where its getting its lubricant from. If its using Engine Oil, it probably won't require much attention from you at all, but if it has its own reservoir of something it needs that will need to be checked, probably at least as periodically as the Engine Oil/Coolant. Generally Turbo Chargers and the systems involved in their use and maintenance are nothing anyone without a decent familiarity with the things want to mess with. They're hot, and though sturdy enough, fragile in their own way that most people won't really understand (Think of the most EMO girl you've ever dated, and this behavior IMHO is the product of the inability to design a "One size fits all" solution to Engine Thermo-Dynamics). But hey, as you mentioned it, Aren't Warranties Grand? lol.
Anyway, post meant to be informative. Hope it accomplishes that. Thanks for reading if you did,
Falcus
