| 48 | B A L D W I N L O C O M O T I V E S |
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| locomotive and 26.4 per cent for the Diesel-electric, showing the Diesel locomotive to have been over 3 1/2 times as efficient as the steam locomotive; very significant figures when first cost and maintenance charges are to be considered. Dr. Brown also gives information on the weight of component details entering into the Diesel locomotive ensemble. He estimates that the prime mover, including its auxiliaries, takes about | manufacturing the Diesel motor used as the prime mover. After tests in the yards of its builders it was experimently exploited on several of the railways in the vicinity of New York City. The same combination of manufacturers has since built for the Long Island Railroad a similar machine of twice the power; its power plant being arranged as twin units, parallel within the cab. This later machine weighs 100 tons (333 lb. per horse-power). |
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44 per cent of the total weight
and the electrical equipment 30.5
per cent, leaving for the mechanical
structure and running gear
only 25.5 per cent. All electrical machinery is from the Swiss firm of Brown, Boveri and Company. The generator is of 800 k.w. capacity at 600 to 1100 volts and is directly coupled to the prime mover by a flexible coupling. The exciter, carried on the end of the generator shaft, is itself excited by an auxiliary dynamo operated by a storage battery. |
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| Recent internal combustion locomotive construction in the United States has been only along the lines of electric transmission. The General Electric Company built in 1924 a "gas-electric" engine of 175 horsepower for use around their Pittsfield Works. In 1925 a 300 horse-power Diesel-electric engine weighing 60 tons (400 lb. per horsepower) was built jointly by the General Electric Company, The American Locomotive Company and The Ingersoll-Rand Company, the last mentioned concern | It is now in preliminary operation on the Long Island Lines. In 1925 The Baldwin Locomotive Works produced a Diesel-electric locomotive of 1000 horse-power, the prime mover for which is a two-cycle, solid injection engine of peculiar construction and very light weight. This machine represents the largest unit ever attempted in the United States. It is the result of extensive research and experimentation to fulfill the requirements of a reliable self-contained unit of simplest possible ensemble and ease |
600 Horse-power G. E. Locomotive with Ingersoll-Rand Engine for the Long Island R. R. is similar in appearance. |
of control. This locomotive weighs 275,000 pounds (275 lb. per horse-power) and is mounted on two six-wheeled trucks having traction motors applied to four of the six axles. Its electrical equipment is of Westinghouse manufacture, with electro-pneumatic and magnetic controlling mechanism arranged for double-end operation. The Diesel engine is of the inverted "V" type with twin crank shafts geared to a central shaft on which is mounted the electrical generator. This locomotive is now undergoing intensive tests at the yards of its builders and on adjacent railway lines. |