Not a scene you'd see in Japan...

[railsquid]

From about 1:55

 

 

Ex-Tokyo Metro stock on the right.

[cteno4]

I guess he hit the Afterburners! 

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

Yikes!!

[Socimi]

MAX POWAH!

[chadbag]

So was that "dirty" exhaust burning?  (Exhaust with a lot of unburnt fuel mixed in?)

[cteno4]

Afterburners!

[railsquid]

Anti-mosquito protection?

[miyakoji]

These are GEs with the 7FDL engine, there's a lot of discussion around the net about what's happening here.  One of the explanations I read that seems plausible is that when throttling up, fuel supply is increased but the turbocharger can't provide enough oxygen to support burning it all.  When the fuel gets to the end of the exhaust stack where oxygen is present, it ignites.

[Martijn Meerts]

cleaning overhead wires obviously 😉

 

[railsquid]

Seems to be a frequent occurrence:

 

 

 

[katoftw]

Looks more like oil burn off to me looking at the black smoke.

[Sheffie]

Was the locomotive possibly made by MicroAce? That might just be excess grease burning off. 

[Welshbloke]

Deltics and HSTs were both prone to this. Oil or carbon respectively would build up in the exhaust if they idled for too long, and eventually catch fire. The best way to deal with this was a good blast of power to blow the fire out (and clear the cause of it). Ideally before anyone called the fire brigade as they made far more fuss than a quick blast of full throttle would!