I work for a railroad and was told by several people I work with that the fuel we pump into locomotives is a cheap low grade fuel that will gel in cool temps and provide poor performance in an automobile at any temp and ruin injector pumps!
Is this a load of B.S. so we won't steal their fuel (most locomotives hold 4500 gallons or more so who would notice) or is there some truth to this? P.S. it is dyed red for tax purposes.

There is a lot of propganda out there. You can read such scary stuff in the Arizona DOT's pamplets to discourage people from running un taxed fuel. You will get in big trouble from the tax police if you run red dyed fuel. As far as I know home heating oil, and #1 and #2 diesel will burn in any diesel. You may void a warranty if you use off road or any "non-automotive" diesel. It may lack some additives in on road diesel but nothing that would hurt most diesels. Actually the rail road fuel probably has a higher cetane rating and is probably better for your car. It might clog your filters faster since I doubt for those large of engines it is critical to have particle removal. Certainly it would burn fine in a 70's or early 80's benz

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My Daily : 96 E-300 Diesel with 195,000 miles
Retired: 92 300D 2.5 T 345K miles and for sale
Retired: 95 E320 157K miles and currently parked with blown engine

Both retired cars are for sale as is my w124 shop inventory

one of the ultra-heavy grades of "bunker oil" like the diesels in ocean-going ships, but that may have been a foolish assumption.

Possibly. I didn't think they were that big. I would guess the diesels in locomotives are small compared to ocean going vessels. If it was bunker oil there would not be much reason for red dye. My research shows locomotives use common diesel fuel

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My Daily : 96 E-300 Diesel with 195,000 miles
Retired: 92 300D 2.5 T 345K miles and for sale
Retired: 95 E320 157K miles and currently parked with blown engine

Both retired cars are for sale as is my w124 shop inventory

I have seen some large diesels from ferry boats on the west coast of Canada and they are nothing like locomotive diesels 10 times the size. These things only produce 4400 hp at about 1100 rpm only god knows about the torque!

Bunker used on ships is usually #6. Locomotives in warm cliamates use #4. #4 and 6 need to be heated to burn.

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

Omegaman,

The fuel for RR Diesel engines is to viscos for Small Diesel engines. MB Diesels are designed to run on #2 Diesel, the RR fuel is probably # 4 or higher. Maybe if you cut it 50% with #1 fuel (kerosene) it would work ok in warm weather.

P E H

I am god.

21,000 lb-ft.