Re: GAS ELECTRIC ENGINE

David Starr spake thus:

The transmission was always electric. To get a train, even a single car gas electric train, moving from a dead stop, requires the engine, running at hundreds of RPM to be coupled to the wheels, running at zero RPM. No one has ever make a clutch strong enough to put a railcar into motion. Automatic transmissions had not been invented in the 1920's. The only workable transmission in that era was electric, an engine powered generator and street car style traction motors turning the wheels.

Actually, not quite true: you're forgetting, for instance, the ill-fated hydraulic diesels, made by Krauss-Maffei, that SP tried out for a while. Purely mechanical power transmission. They worked, but the excessive maintenance required eventually killed them.

Last time I poked around the old SP Locomotive Works in Sac'to, I saw a K-M parked in the lot with a bunch of other weird pieces of equipment. Quite a sight.


--
I hope that in a few years it [Wikipedia] will be so bloated that it
will simply disintegrate, because I can't stand the thought that this
thing might someday actually be used as a serious reference source.
Because in its current form, it's not to be taken seriously at all.

- Horst Prillinger (see
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.prillinger/blog/archives/2004/06/000623.html)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: GAS ELECTRIC ENGINE
    ... car gas electric train, moving from a dead stop, requires the engine, running at hundreds of RPM to be coupled to the wheels, running at zero RPM. ... The only workable transmission in that era was electric, an engine powered generator and street car style traction motors turning the wheels. ...
    (rec.models.railroad)
  • Re: Railroad Fuel Efficiency Sets New Record
    ... The electric motors then move the train. ... So what you are saying is that in an automobile the engine does ... So are you saying that an automobile transmission is an electric ... what drives the mechanical apparatus that turns the wheels. ...
    (misc.transport.road)
  • Re: Railroad Fuel Efficiency Sets New Record
    ... but the electric motor in a locomotive is essentially the ... The diesel engine is the prime mover. ... Just as the transmission in an automobile is ... what drives the mechanical apparatus that turns the wheels. ...
    (misc.transport.road)
  • Re: Modelling a Car
    ... I use a torque curve from which I get the torque using 'lookup table'. ... The RPM for the engine lookup table is back calculated fro wheel speed. ... This torque is then multiplied in the transmission and finally delivered to the wheels. ...
    (comp.soft-sys.matlab)
  • Re: Ford, Chevy, Dodge trucks, can we discuss the benefits without a cat fight?
    ... Red line on the tach of my '01 Duramax is about 4700 rpm for grade braking ... Either way the engine and transmission ... transmission no matter where you move the shift lever. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)