Gas turbine locomotive
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- This article is about gas turbine locomotives with mechanical transmission. For locomotives with electric transmission see Gas turbine-electric locomotive.
The majority of gas turbine locomotives have had electric transmission but mechanical transmission has also been used, particularly in the early days. Where electric transmission is used, the engine is usually a single-shaft machine in which one turbine drives both the compressor and the output shaft.
With mechanical transmission, the power turbine must be capable of starting from rest, so a more complex arrangement is necessary. One option is a two-shaft machine, with separate turbines to drive the compressor and the output shaft. Another is to use a separate gas generator, which may be of either rotary or piston type.
Examples of gas turbine-mechanical locomotives:
- 1933 Nydqvist and Holm, Sweden, 1-B-1
- 1951 Renault, France, B-B, 1,000 hp
- 1954 Gotaverken, Sweden, 1-C-1, 1,300 hp
- 1958 Renault, France, C-C, 2,000 hp
- 1958 Škoda, Czechoslovakia, 3,200 hp
- 1959 British Rail GT3, 2-C-0, 2,700 hp
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[edit] History
See Gas turbine for the early history of gas turbine development.
Work leading to the emergence of the gas turbine locomotive began in France and Sweden in the 1920s but the first locomotive did not appear until 1933. These early experiments used piston engines as gas generators. This idea has not been widely adopted, but it might be worth re-visiting. High fuel consumption was a major factor in the decline of conventional gas-turbine locomotives and the use of a piston engine as a gas generator would probably give better fuel economy than a turbine-type compressor, especially when running at less than full load.
[edit] France
The locomotives were built by Renault and had Pescara free-piston engines as gas generators. Each gas generator consisted of a horizontal, single cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine with opposed pistons. It had no crankshaft and the pistons were returned after each power stroke by compression and expansion of air in a separate cylinder. The exhaust from the diesel engine powered the gas-turbine which drove the wheels through a two-speed gearbox and propeller shafts.
[edit] Sweden
The Power gas locomotive was built by Gotaverken. It had a vertical, five cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine with opposed pistons. There was a single crankshaft connected to both upper and lower pistons. The exhaust from the diesel engine powered the gas turbine which drove the wheels through reduction gearing, jack shaft and side rods.
[edit] Notes
The free-piston engine was patented in 1934 by Raul Pateras Pescara (1890-1966). He was an Argentinian, who worked in Spain and France, and was prominent in Helicopter development in the 1919s.
[edit] Sources
- The Dumpy Book of Railways of the World, general editor Henry Sampson, published by Sampson Low, London, date circa 1960.
- "The Gas Turbine in Railway Traction" by M. C. Duffy, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 70 (1998-99), pp 27-58.
