Back in 1980, the member railroads authorized the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to conduct testing of locomotives to study diesel exhaust emissions. The Research & Test Department was allocated a budget to develop a mobile testing lab that could be taken to railroad facilities to measure fuel and air flow inputs and emissions and power outputs of locomotives. Our test plan was to select locomotives that had recently been overhauled and compare their emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide to locomotives of a similar make and model that were at the end of their useful lives, just prior to overhaul.

The R&T Department had offices in Washington, D.C., where I was located, and in Chicago on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Chicago office conducted a great deal of testing in support of the AAR’s Mechanical Standards and had much useful equipment available. We converted a motor home they had into the new mobile lab and worked with a contractor that was experienced in measuring emissions from fixed facilities like power plants. Bench-work and equipment racks were designed and installed, measurement equipment purchased, computers acquired, (which we had to learn how to use—remember, this was 1980), and an array of other equipment obtained and outfitted. This is a little story about the creativity and ingenuity of some of the railroad people who actually made it work.