Diesel engine
The Diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel, injected into the combustion chamber, is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to the mechanical compression. Diesel engines work by compressing only the air; this increases the air temperature inside the cylinder to such a high degree that atomised Diesel fuel injected into the combustion chamber ignites spontaneously. With the fuel being injected into the air just before combustion, the dispersion of the fuel is uneven; the process of mixing air and fuel happens entirely during combustion, the oxygen diffuses into the flame, which means that the Diesel engine operates with a diffusion flame. The torque a Diesel engine produces is controlled by manipulating the air ratio; the Diesel engine has the highest thermal efficiency of any practical internal or external combustion engine due to its high expansion ratio and inherent lean burn which enables heat dissipation by the excess air.
A small efficiency loss is avoided compared with two-stroke non-direct-injection gasoline engines since unburned fuel is not present at valve overlap and therefore no fuel goes directly from the intake/injection to the exhaust. Low-speed Diesel engines can reach effective efficiencies of up to 55%. Diesel engines may be designed as either four-stroke cycles, they were used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in ships. Use in locomotives, heavy equipment and electricity generation plants followed later. In the 1930s, they began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of Diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the US has increased. According to Konrad Reif, the EU average for Diesel cars accounts for 50% of the total newly registered; the world's largest Diesel engines put in service are 14-cylinder, two-stroke watercraft Diesel engines. In 1878, Rudolf Diesel, a student at the "Polytechnikum" in Munich, attended the lectures of Carl von Linde.
Linde explained that steam engines are capable of converting just 6-10 % of the heat energy into work, but that the Carnot cycle allows conversion of all the heat energy into work by means of isothermal change in condition. According to Diesel, this ignited the idea of creating a machine that could work on the Carnot cycle. After several years of working on his ideas, Diesel published them in 1893 in the essay Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Motor. Diesel was criticised for his essay, but only few found the mistake that he made. Diesel's idea was to compress the air so that the temperature of the air would exceed that of combustion. However, such an engine could never perform any usable work. In his 1892 US patent #542846 Diesel describes the compression required for his cycle: "pure atmospheric air is compressed, according to curve 1 2, to such a degree that, before ignition or combustion takes place, the highest pressure of the diagram and the highest temperature are obtained-that is to say, the temperature at which the subsequent combustion has to take place, not the burning or igniting point.
To make this more clear, let it be assumed that the subsequent combustion shall take place at a temperature of 700°. In that case the initial pressure must be sixty-four atmospheres, or for 800° centigrade the pressure must be ninety atmospheres, so on. Into the air thus compressed is gradually introduced from the exterior finely divided fuel, which ignites on introduction, since the air is at a temperature far above the igniting-point of the fuel; the characteristic features of the cycle according to my present invention are therefore, increase of pressure and temperature up to the maximum, not by combustion, but prior to combustion by mechanical compression of air, there upon the subsequent performance of work without increase of pressure and temperature by gradual combustion during a prescribed part of the stroke determined by the cut-oil". By June 1893, Diesel had realised his original cycle would not work and he adopted the constant pressure cycle. Diesel describes the cycle in his 1895 patent application.
Notice that there is no longer a mention of compression temperatures exceeding the temperature of combustion. Now it is stated that the compression must be sufficient to trigger ignition. "1. In an internal-combustion engine, the combination of a cylinder and piston constructed and arranged to compress air to a degree producing a temperature above the igniting-point of the fuel, a supply for compressed air or gas. See US patent # 608845 filed 1895 / granted 1898In 1892, Diesel received patents in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States for "Method of and Apparatus for Converting Heat into Work". In 1894 and 1895, he filed patents and addenda in various
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotive have been developed, differing in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combusition locomotives and railcars used gasoline as their fuel. Dr. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression ignition engine in 1898, steady improvements in the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratio to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited torque range, while low power gasoline engines can be coupled to a mechanical transmission, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmission; the first successful diesel engines used diesel–electric transmissions, by 1925 a small number of diesel locomotives of 600 hp were in service in the United States. In 1930, Armstrong Whitworth of the United Kingdom delivered two 1,200 hp locomotives using Sulzer-designed engines to Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway of Argentina.
In 1933, diesel-electric technology developed by Maybach was used propel the DRG Class SVT 877, a high speed intercity two-car set, went into series production with other streamlined car sets in Germany starting in 1935. In the USA, diesel-electric propulsion was brought to high speed mainline passenger service in late 1934 through the research and development efforts of General Motors from 1930–34 and advances in lightweight carbody design by the Budd Company; the economic recovery from the Second World War saw the widespread adoption of diesel locomotives in many countries. They offered greater flexibility and performance than steam locomotives, as well as lower operating and maintenance costs. Diesel–hydraulic transmissions were introduced in the 1950s, but from the 1970s onwards diesel–electric transmission has dominated; the earliest recorded example of the use of an internal combustion engine in a railway locomotive is the prototype designed by William Dent Priestman, examined by Sir William Thomson in 1888 who described it as a " mounted upon a truck, worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes.".
In 1894, a 20 hp two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers. In 1896 an oil-engined railway locomotive was built for the Royal Arsenal, England, in 1896, using an engine designed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart, it was not a diesel because it used a hot bulb engine but it was the precursor of the diesel. Following the expiration of Dr. Rudolf Diesel's patent in 1912, his engine design was applied to marine propulsion and stationary applications. However, the massiveness and poor power-to-weight ratio of these early engines made them unsuitable for propelling land-based vehicles. Therefore, the engine's potential as a railroad prime mover was not recognized; this changed as development reduced the weight of the engine. In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing Diesel engines since 1898; the Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel locomotive from the company in 1909, after test runs between Winterthur and Romanshorn the diesel–mechanical locomotive was delivered in Berlin in September 1912.
The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railroad in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. During further test runs in 1913 several problems were found. After the First World War broke out in 1914, all further trials were stopped; the locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h. Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through the mid-1920s. Adolphus Busch purchased the American manufacturing rights for the diesel engine in 1898 but never applied this new form of power to transportation, he founded the Busch-Sulzer company in 1911. Only limited success was achieved in the early twentieth century with internal combustion engined railcars, due, in part, to difficulties with mechanical drive systems. General Electric entered the railcar market in the early twentieth century, as Thomas Edison possessed a patent on the electric locomotive, his design being a type of electrically propelled railcar.
GE built its first electric locomotive prototype in 1895. However, high electrification costs caused GE to turn its attention to internal combustion power to provide electricity for electric railcars. Problems related to co-coordinating the prime mover and electric motor were encountered due to limitations of the Ward Leonard current control system, chosen. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp, a GE electrical engineer and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system. Lemp's design used a single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, was the prototype for all internal combustion–electric drive control systems. In 1917–18, GE produced three experimental diesel–electric locomotives using Lemp's control design, the first known to be built in the United States. Following this development, the 1923 Kaufman Act banned steam locomotives from New York City because of severe pollution problems; the response to this law was to electrify high-traffic rail lines.
However, electrification was u
Canada
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border, its capital is Ottawa, its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra, its population is urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Various indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Beginning in the 16th century and French expeditions explored, settled, along the Atlantic coast.
As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces; this began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with Elizabeth II as its queen and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the federal cabinet and head of government; the country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education.
It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. A developed country, Canada has the sixteenth-highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the twelfth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index, its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village but to the entire area subject to Donnacona. From the 16th to the early 18th century "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named the Canadas. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country at the London Conference, the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. By the 1950s, the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom, which considered Canada a "Realm of the Commonwealth"; the government of Louis St. Laurent ended the practice of using'Dominion' in the Statutes of Canada in 1951. In 1982, the passage of the Canada Act, bringing the Constitution of Canada under Canadian control, referred only to Canada, that year the name of the national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
The term Dominion was used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Métis, the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers; the term "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal documents, including the Constitution Act 1982. The first inhabitants of North America are hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago; the Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, complex societal hierarchies, trading networks; some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.
The indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000
EMD GP7
The EMD GP7 is a four-axle road switcher diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954. Power was provided by an EMD 567B 16-cylinder engine; the GP7 was offered both with and without control cabs, those built without control cabs were called a GP7B. Five GP7B's were built between March and April 1953; the GP7 was the first EMD road locomotive to use a hood unit design instead of a car-body design. This proved to be more efficient than the car body design as the hood unit cost less to build, was cheaper and easier to maintain, had much better front and rear visibility for switching. Of the 2,734 GP7's built, 2,620 were for American railroads, 112 were built for Canadian railroads, 2 were built for Mexican railroads; this was the first model in EMD's GP series of locomotives. Concurrently, EMD offered a six-axle SD locomotive, the SD7. ALCO, Fairbanks-Morse, Baldwin had all introduced road switchers before EMD, whose first attempt at the road-switcher, the BL2 was unsuccessful in the market, selling only 58 units in the 14 months it was in production.
Its replacement, the GP7, swapped the truss-framed stressed car body for an un-stressed body on a frame made from flat and rolled structural steel members and steel forgings welded into a single structure, a basic design, still being employed today. In heavy service, the GP7’s frame would bow and sag over time; this defect was corrected in models. The GP7 proved popular, EMD was able to meet demand after opening a second assembly plant at Cleveland, Ohio. Locomotives in EMD's GP-series came to be nicknamed ‘Geeps’. Many GP7s can still be found in service today, although most Class 1 roads stopped using these locomotives by the early 1980s; the "GP" designation stood for "general purpose", while the "7" had no meaning other than matching the EMD F7 cab unit in production. The GP7, GP9 and GP18 locomotives share a similar car-body. Most GP7s had three sets of ventilation grills under the cab, two pair of grills at the end of the long hood. However, some late GP7s were built with car-bodies. Early GP7s had a solid skirt above the fuel tank, while late GP7s and early GP9s had access holes in the skirt.
Many railroads removed most of the skirt to improve access and inspection. Locomotives could be built with the engineer’s control stand installed for either the long hood, or the short hood designated as the front. Two control stands for either direction running was an option, but one end would still be designated as the front for maintenance purposes; the GP7 was available with or without dynamic brakes, a steam generator installed in the short hood was an option. In the latter case the 1,600 US gallons fuel tank was divided, with half for diesel fuel, half for boiler water. One option available for locomotives without dynamic brakes, was to remove the two 22.5 in × 102 in air reservoir tanks from under the frame, replace them with four 12 in × 150.25 in tanks that were installed on the roof of the locomotive, above the prime mover. These "torpedo tubes" as they were nicknamed, enabled the fuel and water tanks to be increased to 1,100 US gallons each, although some railroads opted for roof-mounted air tanks and 2,200 US gallons fuel tanks on their freight ‘Geeps’.
There are five GP7s on A J Kristopan's EMD Serial number page that reused previous serial numbers: B&O 6405, CRI&P 1308, L&N 501 and 502, SLSF 615. These rebuilt units were rebuilt as new on new frames. Another rebuild by GMD is that CN 4824 was rebuilt as a GP7 with parts from an F3A in October 1958. A few production GP7s and four of the GP7Bs were built with 567BC or 567C engines starting in March 1953 through May 1954; these are noted on the roster above. Many railroads rebuilt their GP7s with low short hoods. Missouri Pacific Railroad upgraded their GP7s with 567BC engines and replaced the standard EMD 2-stack exhaust with a 4-stack "liberated" exhaust, raising their power output to 1,600 horsepower. Illinois Central Railroad rebuilt most of its GP7s with 567BC engine blocks, liberated exhausts, paper air-intake filters, 26-L brakes. All but the first locomotive rebuilt had their front hood reduced in height for improved crew visibility; the IC designated these rebuilt locomotives GP8. The IC acquired many second-hand units through Precision National Corporation, started offering GP8 rebuilding services to other railroads.
In the 1960s the Alaska Railroad purchased several standard GP7s from the US Army and rebuilt them into GP7Ls by removing the high hood on the head end and replacing it with a low hood for better visual clearance Numerous GP7s have been preserved on tourist lines and in museums. Holders include: List of GM-EMD locomotives List of GMD Locomotives "The History of EMD Diesel Engines". Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2005. "Illinois Central Railroad 1969 locomotive diagram book". Icgphotos.com. Retrieved September 2, 2008. "Northern Pacific Railway diesel locomotiv
EMD 567
The EMD 567 is a line of large medium-speed diesel engines built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. This engine, which succeeded Winton's 201A, was used in EMD's locomotives from 1938 until its replacement in 1966 by the EMD 645, it has a bore of a stroke of 10 in and a displacement of 567 cu in per cylinder. Like the 201A, the EMD 645 and the EMD 710, the EMD 567 is a two-cycle engine. EMD's chief competitor, GE, now makes EMD-compatible replacement parts. Eugene W. Kettering, son of Charles F. "Boss" Kettering, joined Winton Engine in 1930. He moved to Detroit in 1936, was a central figure in the development of the 567 and the Detroit Diesel 6-71, he moved to EMD in 1938, became Chief Engineer at EMD in 1948 Division Director in 1956 and subsequently Research Assistant to the General Manager in 1958 until his retirement in 1960. In 1951, Eugene Kettering presented a paper to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers entitled History and Development of the 567 Series General Motors Locomotive Engine, which goes into great detail about the technical obstacles that were encountered during the development of the 567 engine.
The 567's designers started with a tabula rasa, systematically eliminating each of the 201A's many deficiencies which were preventing the earlier design from becoming successful in freight service, although the 201A was successful in the less-demanding passenger and switching services. The 567 design had nothing in common with the 201A except the two-stroke cycle itself: each and every component of the 201A was replaced with a new design the "dipstick", to paraphrase one of Kettering's off-handed comments; the 567 proved to be exceptionally successful in passenger, freight and stationary services, counting its two successors, the 645 and 710, which are not materially different from the 567, collectively have given nearly 80 years of exceptionally reliable service to those applications. As but one example of the achievements of the tabula rasa design: whereas the Winton 201A was doing well with a 50,000-to-100,000-mile piston lifetime, the 567 achieved a 400,000-to-500,000-mile piston lifetime, in at least one case, reached a 1,000,000-mile piston lifetime, a 10:1 to 20:1 improvement.
All 567 engines are two-stroke V-engines with an angle of 45° between cylinder banks. The 201A was 60° between cylinder banks; the 710, 645, 567 are the only two-stroke engines used today in locomotives. The engine is a uniflow design with four poppet-type exhaust valves in the cylinder head. For maintenance, a power assembly, consisting of a cylinder head, cylinder liner, piston carrier, piston rod, can be individually and easily and replaced; the block is made from flat and rolled structural steel members and steel forgings welded into a single structure. Blocks may, therefore, be repaired, if required, using conventional shop tools; each bank of cylinders has an overhead camshaft which operates the exhaust valves and the unit injectors. The 567 is laid out with engine accessories at the "forward" end and the power take off at the "rear" end; the blowers and camshafts are at the "rear" end of the engine, with the blowers mounted above the power take off. All engines have mechanically-controlled unit injectors.
All 567 engines utilize forced induction, with either a turbocharger. The turbocharger follows EMD's innovative design that uses a gear train and over-running clutch to drive the compressor rotor during low engine speed, when exhaust gas temperature alone is insufficient to drive the turbine. At higher engine speeds, increased exhaust gas temperature is sufficient to drive the turbine and the clutch disengages, turning the turbo-compressor system into a true turbocharger; the turbo-compressor can revert to compressor mode momentarily during demands for large increases in engine output power. While more expensive to maintain than Roots blowers, the turbocharger reduces fuel consumption and emissions, while improving high-altitude performance. Additionally, EMD's turbo-compressor can provide a 50 percent increase in maximum rated horsepower over Roots-blown engines for the same engine displacement. Horsepower for aspirated engines is derated 2.5 percent per 1,000 feet above mean sea level, a tremendous penalty at the 10,000 feet or greater elevations which several Western U.
S. and Canada railroads operate, this can amount to a 25 percent power loss. Turbocharging eliminates this derating. 567AC engines and 567BC engines, both of which modifications eliminate the engine's "water deck" and substitute a "water manifold", as well as 567C and 567D engines, may be upgraded to use 645 power assemblies, theoretically achieving an increase in horsepower, but not without corresponding changes to the engine's Woodward governor which activates and controls the engine's "fuel rack". Although this power increase is not recommended, horsepower-for-horsepower updates (e.g. 2,000 hp or 1,500 kW 567D to 2,000 hp or 1,500 kW "645D"
Electro-Motive Diesel
Electro-Motive Diesel is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its subsidiary Progress Rail Services. Electro-Motive Diesel traces its roots to the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation, a designer and marketer of gasoline-electric self-propelled rail cars founded in 1922 and renamed Electro-Motive Company. In 1930, General Motors purchased Electro-Motive Company and the Winton Engine Co. and in 1941 expanded EMC's realm to locomotive engine manufacturing as Electro-Motive Division. In 2005, GM sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners, which formed Electro-Motive Diesel to facilitate the purchase. In 2010, Progress Rail Services completed the purchase of Electro-Motive Diesel from Greenbriar and others. EMD's headquarters, engineering facilities and parts manufacturing operations are based in McCook, while its final locomotive assembly line is located in Muncie, Indiana.
EMD operates a traction motor maintenance and overhaul facility in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. As of 2008, EMD employed 3,260 people, in 2010 it held 30 percent of the market for diesel-electric locomotives in North America. Harold L. Hamilton and Paul Turner founded the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922, soon renaming it to Electro-Motive Company; the company developed and marketed self-propelled railcars using General Electric's newly developed internal combustion-electric propulsion and control systems. Hamilton started his railroading career as a fireman locomotive engineer, on the Southern Pacific Railroad became a manager with the Florida East Coast Railway before he left railroading for a marketing position with the White Motor Company, an early manufacturer of heavy trucks, in Denver. Training and service agreements were part of the marketing package, which he would carry over to EMC. Aware of recent developments in electric propulsion, the technology of heavy vehicles, the needs of branch line services of railroads, he recognized the opportunities for internal combustion power with railroading.
Financing himself, he quit his truck sales position and set up shop in a Chicago hotel with his partner and a designer. In 1923 EMC sold two gasoline-powered rail motor cars, one to the Chicago Great Western and the other to the Northern Pacific. EMC subcontracted the body construction to St. Louis Car Company, electrical components to General Electric, the prime mover to Winton Engine Company of Cleveland, Ohio; the motorcars were delivered in 1924 and worked well, fortunate for the fledgling company, because the sales were conditional on satisfactory performance. In 1925, EMC entered full-scale production. In 1930 General Motors was seeking to enter production of Diesel engines and broaden their range of applications, they purchased the Winton Engine Company, who had in their product line a variety of stationary and marine Diesel engines and spark-ignition engines for heavy vehicles. GM saw EMC's role in developing and marketing Winton-engined heavy vehicles as fitting their objectives and purchased the company shortly after the Winton acquisition, renaming it Electro-Motive Corporation.
Supported by the GM Research Division headed by Charles F. Kettering, Winton focused on developing Diesel engines with improved power-to-weight ratios and output flexibility suitable for mobile use. Eugene W. Kettering, son of Charles Kettering, led Winton's side of the development project. In 1933 EMC designed the power setups for the Zephyr and M-10000 streamliners, a breakthrough in the power and speed available with their propulsion systems; the Zephyr used the first major product of the new GM-Winton venture, a 600 hp, eight cylinder version of the Winton 201A Roots blown, uniflow scavenged, unit injected, 2-stroke Diesel engine. As the Budd and Pullman-Standard companies entered contracts to build more Diesel-powered streamliners, they became major customers for EMC. Diesel power had been shown suitable for lightweight trains. Seeing expanding opportunities with Diesel, EMC invested in a new locomotive factory and started development work on the locomotives that it would produce; the new headquarters on 55th Street in McCook, west of Chicago, remains the corporate headquarters.
The 1935 EMC 1800 hp B-B development design locomotives featured the multiple-unit control systems that became the basis of cab/booster locomotive sets, the twin engine power unit format that would be adopted for the Zephyr power units in 1936 and EMC's E series streamlined passenger locomotives that their new factory began producing in 1937. Prior to their introduction of the E units EMC was in production of switch engines, which remained the mainstay of their production until Dieselization of freight and passenger service hit full stride in the mid-1940s; the GM-Winton research and development effort continued through the mid-1930s, building on experience with the Winton 201A, to develop Diesel engines to better meet the specific needs of locomotive use. The fruit of that effort was GM's new 567 engine, introduced by their renamed Cleveland Diesel Engine Division in 1938; the new engine upgraded the horsepower of EMC's E series locomotives to 2000 per locomotive unit and increased reliability substantially.
In 1938, EMC started to increase its reach up the chain of locomotive production by transitioning from General Electric equipment to in-house produced generators and traction motors. With Eugene Kettering moving to EMC that year, EMC moved into a leading role in further development of GM's locomotive engines. GM-Winton-EMC's long development efforts put the company in an advantageous position
Steam generator (railroad)
A steam generator is a type of boiler used to produce steam for climate control and potable water heating in railroad passenger cars. The output of a railroad steam generator is low pressure, saturated steam, passed through a system of pipes and conduits throughout the length of the train. Steam generators were developed when diesel locomotives started to replace steam locomotives on passenger trains. In most cases, each passenger locomotive was fitted with a steam generator and a feedwater supply tank; the steam generator used some of the locomotive's diesel fuel supply for combustion. When a steam generator-equipped locomotive was not available for a run, a so-called "heating car" fitted with one or two steam generators was inserted between the last locomotive in the consist and the rest of the train. Steam generators would be fitted to individual cars to enable them to be heated independently of any locomotive supply. In Ireland, Córas Iompair Éireann used "heating cars" as standard and CIÉ diesel locomotives were not fitted with steam generators.
During the early days of passenger railroading, cars were heated by a wood or coal fired stove—if any heat was provided at all. It was difficult to evenly heat the drafty cars. Passengers near the stove found it uncomfortably hot, while those further away faced a cold ride; the stoves were a safety hazard. Cars were ignited by embers from the stove in a wreck, when a dislodged stove would overturn, dumping burning coals into the car; the use of steam from the locomotive to heat cars was first employed in the late 19th century. High pressure steam from the locomotive was passed through the train via hoses; the dangers of this arrangement became evident in the accidents. In 1903 Chicago businessman Egbert Gold introduced the "Vapor" car heating system, which used low pressure, saturated steam; the Vapor system was safe and efficient, became nearly universal in railroad applications. When steam locomotives began to be retired from passenger runs, Gold's company, now known as the Vapor Car Heating Company, developed a compact water-tube boiler that could be fitted into the rear of a diesel locomotive's engine room.
Known as the Vapor-Clarkson steam generator, it and its competitors remained a standard railroad appliance until steam heat was phased out. In 1914-16, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul Railway electrified some 440 miles of their line going over the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Range with the 3 kV DC overhead system; the motive power was EF-1s and EP-1s by American Locomotive Company with electrical equipment by General Electric. These articulated 2-section engines in passenger version were equipped with 2 oil-fired steam boilers, one in each section. In Great Britain, steam generators were built for British Railways diesel locomotives by three firms - Spanner and Stone. All types were notoriously unreliable and failures were common. In Poland Vapor steam generators were fitted to diesel passenger locomotives SP45; the boilers were removed in the 80s and 90s and replaced with 3 kV DC generators driven by main engine, when maintenance became too expensive and remaining cars not fitted with electric heating were withdrawn from service.
The New Zealand electric locomotives class ED, used in and around Wellington, were fitted with oil-fired steam boilers manufactured by the Sentinel Waggon Works. The boilers appeared to have been used rarely and were removed during the locomotives’ operational lives; these burned diesel fuel, a lightweight fuel oil. The term steam generator refers to an automated unit with a long spiral tube that water is pumped through and is surrounded by flame and hot gases, with steam issuing at the output end. There is no pressure vessel in the ordinary sense of a boiler; because there is no capacity for storage, the steam generator's output must change to meet demand. Automatic regulators varied the water feed, fuel feed, combustion air volume. By pumping more water in than can be evaporated, the output was a mixture of steam and a bit of water with concentrated dissolved solids. A steam separator removed the water. An automatic blowdown valve would be periodically cycled to eject solids and sludge from the separator.
This reduced limescale buildup caused by boiling hard water. Scale build-up that occurred had to be removed with acid washouts; the New Zealand ED class electric locomotive used around Wellington from 1940 had oil-fired water tube boilers for passenger carriage steam heaters, which were removed. Diesel-hauled passenger trains like the Northerner on the North Island Main Trunk had a separate steam heating van, but the carriages of long distance trains like the Overlander used electric heaters supplied by a separate power or combined power-luggage van. In British electric locomotives the steam generator was an electric steam boiler, heated by a large electric immersion heater running at the line voltages of 600 volts from a third rail or 1,500 volts from an overhead wire; the Polish electric locomotive EL204 of 1937 was fitted with an electric steam generator supplied from overhead lines. The locomotive was destroyed during the second world war. Steam heated or cooled rail cars have been replaced or converted to electric systems.
Wisps of steam issuing from normal service cars are now history in the UK, USA, much of the rest of the world. In the UK, much preserved stock, including mail-line certified railtour sets, still retains steam heating capability as well as electric heating, this is still sometimes used when the trains are being operated by steam locomotives or pres
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