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. This changed as development reduced the size and weight of the engine. Therefore, the engine's potential as a railroad prime mover was not initially recognized. However, the massiveness and poor power-to-weight ratio of early diesel engines made them unsuitable for propelling land-based vehicles. Rudolf Diesel considered using his engine for powering locomotives in his 1893 book Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors zum Ersatz der Dampfmaschine und der heute bekannten Verbrennungsmotoren. It was not a diesel, because it used a hot bulb engine (also known as a semi-diesel), but it was the precursor of the diesel. In 1896, an oil-engined railway locomotive was built for the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, England, using an engine designed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart.
The earliest recorded example of the use of an internal combustion engine in a railway locomotive is the prototype designed by William Dent Priestman, which was examined by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin in 1888 who described it as a " mounted upon a truck which is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two-axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks.
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Petrol–electric Weitzer railmotor, first 1903, series 1906 1.5 Early diesel locomotives and railcars in Australia.1.4 Early diesel locomotives and railcars in Asia.1.3.3 Diesel railcars for regional traffic.1.3 Early diesel locomotives and railcars in Europe.1.2.2 First American series production locomotives.1.2.1 Early North American developments.1.2 Early diesel locomotives and railcars in the United States.Diesel–hydraulic transmissions were introduced in the 1950s, but, from the 1970s onwards, diesel–electric transmissions have dominated. They offered greater flexibility and performance than steam locomotives, as well as substantially lower operating and maintenance costs. The economic recovery from World War II caused the widespread adoption of diesel locomotives in many countries. In the United States, diesel–electric propulsion was brought to high-speed mainline passenger service in late 1934, largely through the research and development efforts of General Motors dating back to the late 1920s and advances in lightweight car body design by the Budd Company. In 1933, diesel–electric technology developed by Maybach was used to propel the DRG Class SVT 877, a high-speed intercity two-car set, and went into series production with other streamlined car sets in Germany starting in 1935. In 1930, Armstrong Whitworth of the United Kingdom delivered two 1,200 hp (890 kW) locomotives using Sulzer-designed engines to Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway of Argentina. The first successful diesel engines used diesel–electric transmissions, and by 1925 a small number of diesel locomotives of 600 hp (450 kW) were in service in the United States. This is because clutches would need to be very large at these power levels and would not fit in a standard 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)-wide locomotive frame, or wear too quickly to be useful. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited power band, and while low power gasoline engines could be coupled to mechanical transmissions, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmission. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression-ignition engine in 1898, and steady improvements to the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratios to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels.Įarly internal combustion locomotives and railcars used kerosene and gasoline as their fuel. These Pacific National-operated locos show three styles of diesel locomotive body: box cab (rear), hood unit (center) and cab unit (front).Ī diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine.