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Russia orders natural-gas locomotives
Not the best looking locomotive is it. I hope the Russians get an industrial designer to look at this thing and maybe give it some more pleasing lines? Oh well.
The thing with the Russians is, and always was, it doesn’t have to look good, it has to WORK.
Look at the T-34 tank, the AK-47, the Moisin-Nagant rifles and pistols, even some of their aircraft. They’d never win a beauty contest but the things work al right!
The builder’s newsletter (p 12 at http://www.tmholding.ru/journal/Transmashholding01_2014_eng_site.pdf) indicates liquified natural gas (LNG) as the fuel, not compressed. It also appears to be about 1200 hp, with DC traction. I assume the under frame tank carries diesel fuel for the necessary combustion initiation. Hope to see further reports of this unit’s performance.
What struck when seeing that engine were the many drop-dead hilarious African-American urban humor, urban I think, comedy routines with remarks exchanged each of which started with “your mother is so ugly that”… or Yo’ mama is so…
Those routines incredibly satisfy my opinion of that engine’s esthetic value.
WJA
YES, Yes, yes,
We’ve got to keep that thought,
In Korea, our F-86’s, a great looking fighter, fought what I thought was a a good-looking fighter, the Russian MIG-15.
Were its design elements an accident happening to the USSR?
I appreciate what everybody is saying. Getting the work done is first and foremost above all other considerations, but, gee whiz, can’t it look better than that? Come on.
A face only a (Russian) mother could love!
If the US s the largest producer of natural gas in h world as claimed by the petroleum industry, where is the US in the technological development of such an engine?
I hope the Russian engineers don’t read about the collision in New York with a natural gas driven truck on the tracks.