I was browsing in search of an elusive quarry, a 1939 German pneumatic railcar…when I came across what has to be the most bizarre locomotive I have ever seen. A diesel engine mounted on a reciprocating steam frame driven by air. I was even more surprised to find that these engines are well known enough in Europe to have sired model railroad replicas. Are there any other contenders stranger than this?
At the risk of stereotyping, German engineers often have a tendency to propose unnecessarily complex designs and this seems to be one of them. It appears to be an attempt to avoid an electric drive by using existing technology of the period. I’m unaware of the state of torque converter technology at that time so this may be a precursor of diesel/torque converter designs which were common in German railroading in the immediate post-steam era.
Why do you classify this as unnecessarily complex? They simply took a steam locomotive chassis, which was well understood, and placed a diesel engine driving a compressor on top of it. At that time no one had been able to reliably get the power out of a diesel engine using a generator. With a generator of that time the engineer had to control both the throttle setting of the diesel and the excitation of the generator while doing everything else he had to do. Either you wasted a lot of fuel by setting the throttle too high for the excitation, or you stalled the engine. Guess which one the engineers favored. A compressor on the other hand is a very simple solution. Very energy inefficient, but simple.
Since CNJ 1000 and her sisters were already in service, somebody must have figured out how to control a diesel-electric before this ??? was built.
If you want to see a REALLY STRANGE diesel-non-pneumatic-steamer, check Page 246 of The Great Book of Trains (Salamander Books Limited, London, 1987) The Kitson-Still 2-6-2T had 8 (count 'em) double-acting cylinders, steam on the packing gland side, diesel on the other. The diesel exhaust and cooling water generated the steam in a conventional-looking boiler - aided as necessary by a burner in the firebox. It would start from rest as a steamer, then the diesel side would cut in as speed increased. Thermal efficiency was higher than a pure diesel, and vastly higher than a true steam loco.
http://www.lner.info/locos/IC/kitson.shtml
Unfortunately, the maximum horsepower was only 700 - barely sufficient for service on a light-traffic branch. Further development was a casualty of the Depression.
Chuck
ive seen numerous pictures of this type but never knew its real motive force…always figured it for the typical “heavy”[(-D] europeein’ locomotive…learned new trivia thx
assuming 1939 as the date…EMD and others were building diesels for here and for export that had generators and seemed reliable…reading farther in the link in the original post seems it was almost a craze in eastern europe…with opposed pistons (al la FM?) diesel over air…maybe coal became scarce??? war looming???.. make a neat live steamer…uh live dieseler???
Get out your copy of Kirkland’s “Dawn of the Diesel Age”. This locomotive was made by the Germans for the Russians before the First World War. There also was a Diesel mechanical in the order. It used a multiple speed gearbox. I wonder how they shifted.
As for CNJ 1000 and its sisters, the electrical controls were not automated at all. The engineer had to control the excitation of the generator manually. The ALCO/GE/IR boxcabs, as well as the competing Balwin/Westinghouse locomotives all shared this problem. It wasn’t solved until sometime during the depression when Dr. Lempe, working for GE, got an insight while watching the ammeters on the NYC passenger diesel working the Putnam Division.
There’s lots of strange stuff on Berliner’s website (EMD DDP-45, V-2 hiss-bomb, etc.) though the page you linked to contains loco’s actually built. My general impression is that Berliner is a lunatic - and emphatically my kind of lunatic…
Mr. Spock always had it right-fascinating, captain!
I was going to say the 1939 Swiss electric-steam locomotive was bizarre,but it seems “normal” compared to those locomotives.The Swiss took a coal burning 2-6-0,put a pantograph on top,a electric heating element in the boiler.The rreason for it was in case Hitler would put a coal embargo on Switzerland.
No, this locomotive was quite ordinary…
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/diesair/diesair.htm
I do know of some designs from the 1970’s for the SAR which used a 60 foot long compressed steam tank with a meyer configuration for main line work…
Let us not forget the FELL locomotive with the variable number of coupled diesal engines ( 1 to 4) and the gear box from HELL!!!
The Brazillian locomotive adapted to burn coffee beans and the Irish locomotive that burned turf…
The BUDD rail car fitted by the NYC with a jet engine.
The swedish gas turbine locomotive that always caused the wood sleepers to catch fire.
The two great builders of locomotives with wheels that turned in oppositte directions at the same time. In the case of Webb the front pair forwards -the rear pair backwards. Or Tolmann, who improved on this, by getting wheels to turn in differing directions, ON THE SAME AXLE…
The variable gauge locomotives -some with more than one wheel on an axle -some with hydraulic rams to spread the gauge!!!
The history of the locomotive is plastered with design mistakes -even the great OVS Bulleid himself made an almighty cock up with Leader -the tank top was too high to be filled from a water stand and had to be filled from a hose in the signalmans hut. 5000 gallons via garden hose…
regards
ralph