Depends on the type of locomotive traction generator - DC or AC.
DC (older) locomotives are cranked by dumping battery power to the main generator. The generator becomes a motor which spins up the diesel engine.
Newer AC locomotives require a separate geared electric or pneumatic starter. This is because the traction generator (actually an AC alternator) cannot be motored on battery current. Two starters are are generally used to achieve the crankshaft RPM required for reliable cold starting.
AFIK no starting aids (glow plugs, manifold heaters, etc) are required on mainline diesel locomotives.
Incidentally the sound of a pneumatic-start locomotive getting cranking up is one you are not likely to forget!
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of David Brown Tractors - by Samuel Kennedy. I was born in 1950 and reared on my family�s 100 acre farm. It was a fairly typical Northern Ireland farm where the main enterprise was dairying but some pigs, poultry and sheep were also kept. Potatoes were grown for sale and oats were grown to be used for cattle and horse feeding. Up to about 1958 the dairy cows were fed hay with some turnips and after that grass silage was the main winter feed. That same year was the last in which flax was grown on the farm. Flax provided the fibre which w
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