In 1941, ALCO made the first of the BIGBOY series Steam Engines for UP to tackle the western U.S. mountains with long drags. This engine was rated at 6000HP. The question is: in what year did the FIRST DIESEL engine produce 6000HP? 1949, 1954, 1967, 1969, or 1971?
I would guess…1969?
Tom
1969 - First ‘Production’ engine. The dual engine ‘Centenial’ class on the UP. Now I suspect you are angling at the Baldwin ‘testbed centipede’ with the fleet of small prime movers in it. IIRC, it was supposed to have something like 8 of these power plants and have 6000 hp. It only got half of them and ran at the 3000 hp level before being sold or scrapped. I think UP was interested(figures…). The production centipedes that PRR got were 3000 hp engines - bought in pairs, drawbar’ed together from what I understand.
Jim Bernier
Single unit or Multiple units??
Single unit or Multiple units (ABBA for instance)??
Single unit or Multiple units (ABBA for instance)??
Sorry for the tripple post… My browser is kind of screwey tonight…
I think there’s an echo in here! [(-D]
I was thinking the Centennials too!
Rotor
Didn’t the DD35A crank out 6000hp? I am not quite sure on year either. Why the he** am I posting???
Are you asking diesel engine (as in block, crank, injectors, turbosupercharger and pistons), diesel locomotive (as in a set of ABBA F3s which makes 6000 HP), or a single diesel locomotive unit?
I would imagine that the first diesel engine built by Rudolf Diesel never produced anything near 6000 horsepower–so, in response, never–the first diesel engine could never have produced 6000 horsepower!
This could be a trcik question but the Baldwin Centipedes owned by the PRR were originally rated at 6000HP and were downrated to 5000 HP because the turbocharger was a constant headache so my guess is 1949.
You realize that steam TE isn’t measured in horsepower but in drawbar pull, so any comparison isn’t really useful, right?
On the contrary: late steam engines most certainly were measured in horsepower. Even many earlier engines were rated at some point. The Frisco 1522, for example, is rated at 3600 hp at track speed.
All steam has a horsepower rating, but it doesn’t equate to true pulling power like on diesels. Factor of adhesion and drawbar pull are more important than raw horsepower, which is why the true power of steam was measured in pounds of drawbar pull.
The history channel ran a great program last night on Mega Machines, and one of the segments was on the BIG BOY, they gave all the stats such as the coal it burned per hour, the water it used, etc. The coal was auto feed of course, and the fire box they showed was emmense!! What an inferno!! No fireman on earth could have manually fired that beast. It was indeed , per UP , rated at 6000HP.
But then then went on to say that no diesel was build that matched the Big Boy’s 6000 HP until 1969. I was totally surprised by that, but it is true!!
You’re going to have to be a bit more specific about what you mean. There are and have been some gigantic marine diesel engines that produce far in excess of 6000 HP.
Or do you mean a single unit diesel locomotive with a single diesel engine?
Andre
5000 hp; two 567 V16 rated at 2500 hp each
Diesel-Electric locomotives are rated by the horse power of the diesel engine, not the drawbar hourse power. Steam locomotive were rated for horsepower in several ways: cylinder horsepower, and drawbar horsepower being the most common.
In 1952, EMD sent a hotrodded F7 ABBA set to test on the N&W. They were nominally 1750 hp each (F9/GP9 horsepower), or 7000 hp for the set. Measured drawbar power peaked at 5400 hp, or 1350 hp per unit. The inefficiency of the generators, wiring, motors, parasitic losses (power for the fans, lights, etc), and friction account for 400 hp per unit.
Guys, come on, we are talking about TRAINS here not ships and other huge diesel machines, stay focused…TRAINS. .[:D][:D]
And we are talking about single units, not two BIG BOYS or two or three Diesel units. Did anyone else watch the History Channel last night? Just curious
They had the turbines between the Big Boys and the Centennials…