Internal combustion locomotive
An internal combustion locomotive is a type of
(UK: petrol), to produce rotational power which is transmitted to the locomotive's driving wheels by various direct or indirect transmission mechanisms. The fuel is carried on the locomotive.Benzene
Benzene locomotives have an internal combustion engines that use benzene as fuel. There were a number of commercial manufacturers of Benzene locomotives operating in the 1890s and 1900s. Deutz produced a successful locomotive in the late 1890s, based on a prototype for a manganese mine in Giessen.[1] In the early 1900s, Oberursel of Frankfurt sold locomotives for mining and tunnelling operations.[2] They did not see widespread use after the 1900s, being superseded by petrol and diesel locomotives.
Kerosene
Kerosene locomotives use kerosene as the fuel. They were the world's first oil locomotives, preceding diesel and other oil locomotives by some years.
The first known kerosene rail vehicle was a draisine built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1887,[3] but this was not technically a locomotive as it carried a payload.
A kerosene locomotive was built in 1894 by the Priestman Brothers of Kingston upon Hull for use on Hull docks. This locomotive was built using a 12 hp double-acting marine type engine, running at 300 rpm, mounted on a 4-wheel wagon chassis. It was only able to haul one loaded wagon at a time, due to its low power output, and was not a great success.[4] The first successful kerosene locomotive was "Lachesis" built by Richard Hornsby & Sons Ltd. and delivered to Woolwich Arsenal railway in 1896. The company built a series of kerosene locomotives between 1896 and 1903, for use by the British military.
Naphthalene
Petrol
Petrol locomotives (US: gasoline locomotives) use petrol as their fuel. The first commercially successful petrol locomotive was a petrol-mechanical locomotive built by the Maudslay Motor Company in 1902, for the Deptford Cattle Market in London. It was an 80 hp locomotive using a 3-cylinder vertical petrol engine, with a two speed mechanical gearbox. The second locomotive was built by F.C. Blake of Kew in January 1903 for the Richmond Main Sewerage Board.[5][6][4]
Although a number of one-off and small classes of petrol locomotives were built before 1914, it was the First World War that saw the introduction of mass-produced locomotives. In 1916, Motor Rail started production of its "Simplex" petrol locomotives, with 20-40 hp motors and 4-wheel mechanical transmission began to be used on 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) gauge trench railways on the Western Front.[7] The War Department also ordered large petrol-electric locomotives from Dick, Kerr & Co. and British Westinghouse, which used a 45 hp Dorman 4JO four-cylinder petrol engine driving a 30 kW DC generator at 1,000 rpm.[8] In all, 1,216 petrol-mechanical and 42 petrol-electric locomotives were used in service by the Allied Forces. Many of these petrol locomotives were sold off as surplus after the end of hostilities, and found work on small industrial railways. Motor Rail continued to develop and manufacture and develop the design, for several decades.[7]
Petrol-mechanical
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The most common type[
Petrol–electric
Petrol–electric locomotives are petrol locomotives that use electric transmission to deliver the power output of the engine to the driving wheels. This avoids the need for
Diesel
Diesel-mechanical
A diesel–mechanical locomotive uses
The mechanical transmissions used for railroad propulsion are generally more complex and much more robust than standard-road versions. There is usually a fluid coupling interposed between the engine and gearbox, and the gearbox is often of the epicyclic (planetary) type to permit shifting while under load. Various systems have been devised to minimise the break in transmission during gear changing; e.g., the S.S.S. (synchro-self-shifting) gearbox used by Hudswell Clarke. Diesel–mechanical propulsion is limited by the difficulty of building a reasonably sized transmission capable of coping with the power and torque required to move a heavy train.
In 1906,
Diesel-electric
Diesel–electric locomotives are diesel locomotives using electric transmission. In this arrangement, the diesel engine drives either an electrical DC generator (generally, less than 3,000 horsepower (2,200 kW) net for traction), or an electrical AC alternator-rectifier (generally 3,000 horsepower (2,200 kW) net or more for traction), the output of which provides power to the traction motors that drive the locomotive. There is no mechanical connection between the diesel engine and the wheels. The vast majority of diesel locomotives today are diesel-electric.
The important components of diesel–electric propulsion are the diesel engine (also known as the prime mover), the main generator/alternator-rectifier, traction motors (usually with four or six axles), and a control system consisting of the engine governor and electrical or electronic components, including switchgear, rectifiers and other components, which control or modify the electrical supply to the traction motors. In the most elementary case, the generator may be directly connected to the motors with only very simple switchgear.
Originally, the traction motors and generator were DC machines. Following the development of high-capacity silicon rectifiers in the 1960s, the DC generator was replaced by an alternator using a diode bridge to convert its output to DC. This advance greatly improved locomotive reliability and decreased generator maintenance costs by elimination of the commutator and brushes in the generator. Elimination of the brushes and commutator, in turn, disposed of the possibility of a particularly destructive event called a flashover, which could result in immediate generator failure and, in some cases, start an engine room fire.
In the late 1980s, the development of high-power variable-frequency/variable-voltage (VVVF) drives, or "traction inverters," has allowed the use of polyphase AC traction motors, thus also eliminating the motor commutator and brushes. The result is a more efficient and reliable drive that requires relatively little maintenance and is better able to cope with overload conditions that often destroyed the older types of motors.
In 1914,
Diesel-hydraulic
Diesel–hydraulic locomotives are diesel locomotives using
Hydrokinetic transmission (also called hydrodynamic transmission) uses a torque converter. A torque converter consists of three main parts, two of which rotate, and one (the stator) that has a lock preventing backwards rotation and adding output torque by redirecting the oil flow at low output RPM. All three main parts are sealed in an oil-filled housing. To match engine speed to load speed over the entire speed range of a locomotive some additional method is required to give sufficient range. One method is to follow the torque converter with a mechanical gearbox which switches ratios automatically, similar to an automatic transmission on a car. Another method is to provide several torque converters each with a range of variability covering part of the total required; all the torque converters are mechanically connected all the time, and the appropriate one for the speed range required is selected by filling it with oil and draining the others. The filling and draining is carried out with the transmission under load, and results in very smooth range changes with no break in the transmitted power.
The main worldwide user of main-line hydraulic transmissions was the
Gas turbine
A gas turbine locomotive is an internal combustion engine locomotive consisting of a gas turbine. ICE engines require a transmission to power the wheels. The engine must be allowed to continue to run when the locomotive is stopped.
Gas turbine-mechanical locomotives use a
A gas turbine offers some advantages over a
References
- ^ International Railway Congress Association (1899). "A Benzine Locomotive for Use in Mines and on Country Lines". Bulletin of the International Railway Congress Association [English Edition]. p. 276.
- ^ A Benzine Locomotive. 1904.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Winkler, Thomas. "Daimler Motorwagen".
- ^ ISBN 0715361155.
- ^ "Gasoline locomotives". Time.com. 28 September 1925. Archived from the original on November 18, 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ "Direct drive gasoline locomotives". Yardlimit.railfan.net. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9781473887657.
- ^ "Locomotive Notes and News". The Model Engineer: 225–226. 3 April 1919.
- ^ "Saunderson's Light Petrol Locomotive". The Locomotive. 15 March 1912. p. 62.
- ^ "Petrol locomotives for Standard and Narrow Gauge Rlys". The Railway Magazine. pp. 370–376.
- ^ "The Petrol Locomotive". Dun's International Review. January 1921. p. 143.
- ^ Walmsley, R. Mullineux (1921). "Electricity in the Service of Man". pp. 1628–1631.
- ^ Churella 1998, p. 12.
- ISBN 3-344-70767-1.
- ^ Lemp, Hermann. US Patent No. 1,154,785, filed April 8, 1914, and issued September 28, 1915. Accessed via Google Patent Search at: US Patent #1,154,785 on February 8, 2007.
- ^ Pinkepank 1973, pp. 139–141
- ^ Russian page on Э-эл2
- ^ "Shunting locomotives", www.cmigroupe.com, archived from the original on 30 September 2016, retrieved 2 December 2017
- ^ "Locomotives", www.gia.se, archived from the original on 2014-03-30, retrieved 2 December 2017
- ISBN 0760309752
- ^ "Espacenet - Original document".
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Gas Turbine Locomotive" Popular Mechanics, July 1949, cutaway drawing of development by GE for Union Pacific
- ^ "Rails and Gas Turbines". Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
Bibliography
- Churella, Albert J. (1998). From Steam To Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02776-0.
- Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973). The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide. Milwaukee WI: Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-89024-026-7.