A General Electric locomotive model ES44AC with a GEVO engine runs on lube oil from a leak in the turbo charger - Dec 2008 Photographer unknown.

So... Doctor, what's happening here?
 
A number of issues are at hand. This General Electric (GE) locomotive diesel engine is running out of control burning lube oil. Electro-Motive Diesels (EMD) can also run away on lube oil, but for a different reason.
 
General Electric units have been nick-named "Toasters" due to a number of fires that have occurred. 90 percent of this problem with the GE's is caused by broken high pressure fuel pumps or lines that are an external item on the GE four stroke engine. The pumps or lines break for any number of reasons, fuel sprays onto hot exhaust manifolds and... you have a Toaster. Occasionally, an injector will loose a tip and spew fuel into a cylinder which ends up getting pumped out into the exhaust and catches fire. That's what has happened when you see flames roaring 15 feet out of the stack.
 
EMD's on the other hand have the low pressure fuel system confined to the inside of the top deck, and all the high pressure action is within the injector itself. Any fuel leak usually just results in diluted lube oil.
 
The burning of Lube Oil on GE's is fairly infrequent, but happens often enough that I think crews should be trained in dealing with it on the road. A means of choking the engine of air is the only way to stop it. Shutting down the Emergency Fuel Cutoff won't stop the engine. The engine is running on crankcase oil, not diesel fuel. This source of lube oil could come from a defective turbo that either lost the seal at the Impeller, or developed a crack in the housing, that allows the oil that lubes the impeller and turbine bearings to spray directly into the intake manifold and all cylinders. Once that happens it's a runaway unless the oil or air supply is cut off. In my mind an emergency damper in the air supply line to the turbo could resolve this problem if it arises.
 
In the days before EMD engines routinely came equipped with crankcase pressure protection, sometimes called an "EPD", they could run away on lube oil as well. However, the reason was fundamentally different. If the engine got sloppy internally and experienced enough internal blow by past the rings, it could pressurize the crankcase. An EPD will sense any pressure and shut the engine down long before if gets to a dangerous point. In any event, and engine without such protection could start to pump lube oil up past the rings and into the combustion chamber. If the engine is hot enough the fuel starts to burn. The governor automatically tries to cut the fuel supply off, but once running on lube oil it's the same as a GE and needs to have the air supply cut off. It's a scary thing to try and put garbage bags over the engine air intake filters to starve it of air. Anybody who has tested the overspeed cutout on an EMD knows the unsettling feeling of revving the engine over its normal limits of around 1,000 RPM. Imagine it running at way over that speed trying to put bags over the filters! Forget it... move away at a rapid pace I say.
 
The Diesel Doctor.