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They're huge, they're powerful and they run and run.But how was a young director to capture the essence of these diesel engines on film?
Remember the awe you sometimes felt as a child?
Stefan Ebling experienced such a moment while - standing in front of an engine the size of a house. Ebling had never seen anything quite like it before When MAN B&VV gave the young film director from Wiesbaden the job of putting the world of large diesel engines onto film, he knew little more about them than what he had absorbed from Hollywood movies: scenes of engine rooms with whooshing pistons or mechanics placing their stethoscopes on the outer shell to determine whether everything within the diesel engine was running smoothly.
But the reality turned out to be vastly different. His first visit to company headquarters in Augsburg was an initiation of sorts. "I was simply overwhelmed as I stood in front of those gigantic engines," he says. "It was difficult for me to imagine how you could actually transport these giants, much less put them in ships." Ebling has plenty of corporate film-making experience having worked with companies such as DaimlerChrysler, Braun and Deutsche Bank.
But the reality turned out to be vastly different. His first visit to company headquarters in Augsburg was an initiation of sorts. "I was simply overwhelmed as I stood in front of those gigantic engines," he says. "It was difficult for me to imagine how you could actually transport these giants, much less put them in ships." Ebling has plenty of corporate film-making experience having worked with companies such as DaimlerChrysler, Braun and Deutsche Bank.
But the diesel engines presented him with a unique and monumental challenge. How could he tell the story of these giants bound for the belly of a ship?
BRAVING CROCODILES AND RED ANTS Ebling and producer Thorsten Krack, from Frankfurt based Gehrisch & Krack Filmproductions AG, decided that the last thing they wanted to make was another high tech industry film. Instead, they would show what makes these engines tick. That set out to look for people who work with the engines and know just how important it is that they work reliably. To track down these diesel masters, Ebling and Krack had to do a lot of traveling: they shot scenes in the company's headquarters in Augsburg, in the development department in Copenhagen and at the Hamburg harbor. They also filmed at the Panama Canal. Filming on location at the famous passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific was both exciting and challenging. With the sea pounding, Ebling climbed up a rope ladder on board the Danish container ship Maren Maersk. Lurking below in the water was a large salt-water crocodile. "It was a good thing I saw it after I was safely on the deck," he jokes. While on board the Maersk, Ebling filmed the journey through the 80 kilometer-long canal. Krack stayed on land and filmed the ocean going giant as it worked its way through the narrow passageway.
In the locks, the world of diesels really comes together. Just like the ships, the locks rely on the power of diesel engines. The Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks get their electricity from a power plant in Panama City driven by MAN B&W engines. Thats where Ebling and Krack found their first diesel master Crispo Ruiz, the power plant's executive director. "If we didn't provide electric energy seven days a week, 24 hours a day everything at the canal would grind to a halt. The ships would lose control and ram the walls of the locks." Ruiz says. To prevent that the ships are slowly pulled into the lock by an electric loco motive. But it still remains a tight squeeze. "Officially, the distance is 60 centimeters" Ebling says. "But when I took a look from above, it seemed as though a common house match wouldn't fit between them."From Panama City, the film crew flew off to a Diesel-driven power plant in the jungle on the border with Colombia a region that can't be easily hooked up to a city power system. "The MAN B&W engines are helping with development efforts here. Without them, there just wouldn't be any electricity." Krack says. There was one other thing that stuck in his memory: the huge bright-red ants that crawled through the bushes there. "But they weren't nearly as big a threat as the crocodiles," Ebling adds.
In the locks, the world of diesels really comes together. Just like the ships, the locks rely on the power of diesel engines. The Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks get their electricity from a power plant in Panama City driven by MAN B&W engines. Thats where Ebling and Krack found their first diesel master Crispo Ruiz, the power plant's executive director. "If we didn't provide electric energy seven days a week, 24 hours a day everything at the canal would grind to a halt. The ships would lose control and ram the walls of the locks." Ruiz says. To prevent that the ships are slowly pulled into the lock by an electric loco motive. But it still remains a tight squeeze. "Officially, the distance is 60 centimeters" Ebling says. "But when I took a look from above, it seemed as though a common house match wouldn't fit between them."From Panama City, the film crew flew off to a Diesel-driven power plant in the jungle on the border with Colombia a region that can't be easily hooked up to a city power system. "The MAN B&W engines are helping with development efforts here. Without them, there just wouldn't be any electricity." Krack says. There was one other thing that stuck in his memory: the huge bright-red ants that crawled through the bushes there. "But they weren't nearly as big a threat as the crocodiles," Ebling adds.
BIG BUT RELIABLE
Panama, the journey led to Hamburg, where the Hong Kong Express of the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company was pulling into port. The ship is bigger than the Maren Maersk and has an even larger diesel engine. Here, too, Krack and Ebling had an astonishing experience. 'The main engine was so big it took up three stories. You simply can't imagine it if you haven't seen it with your own eyes," Krack says. Peter Plein. captain of the Hong Kong Express, told them why the engine had to be so big. "To stay on schedule, we often have to maintain a speed of 24 knots for days on end - even in heavy seas. That demands a lot from the engine, and I have to be able to rely on it."
Klaus Ulrich Vogt, known to every one on board simply as "chief", is the technical head on the Hong Kong Express and oversees engine maintenance. When Vogt, dressed in his white outfit, walks by the high-tech touch screens of the main 12K48MC engine or lack and forth between the futuristic drive units, he reminds you of the onboard engineer Scotty in the "Star Trek" science-fiction series. Vogt knows diesels through and through. And those days when stethoscopes were used to determine whether everything was running smoothly have long been a thing of the past. Technology now takes care of that job for him. "The K98 needs little maintenance and uses fuel very efficiently. We always stay on schedule with this engine." Vogt says.
When you listen to development engineer Torbjorn Moller talk, you also feel as though you have been thrown into the world of science fiction. Moller works at the MAN B&W plant in Copenhagen. "You can regulate the fuel supply of these new, intelligent diesel engines completely with the touch screens," he says. "Earlier, that always had to be done manually on the engine."Ebling found the last diesel master for his film at the place where engines have been built for a century-company headquarters in Augsburg. Technical consultant Horst Köhler is a diesel star. When he talks about his engines, you feel an admiration for a technology that has never given into short-lived trends even as innovation after innovation has been introduced. A diesel is reliable and indestructible. "Our engines remain in operation for 40 to 50 years," Köhler says. "And they are being improved constantly.'' In the film. Ebling lets Horst Köhler have the last word: "Right now, there is no system anywhere on the horizon that can replace the diesel." It runs and runs and runs.
