Diesel-Electric Locomotive

From Object Wiki

Diesel-electric locomotive, 1947. Model, scale 1:24
Manufacturer	(Unknown)
Production years	(unknown)
Production location	(unknown)

After the end of the Second World War the British railway companies experimented with more efficient and powerful diesel or electric traction for replacing steam locomotives. The London, Midland & Scottish Railway, with English Electric, built a prototype diesel-electric locomotive in 1947. Many thousands of essentially similar locomotives were built for British Railways in the following two decades.

[edit] How it works

This locomotive has a very large and powerful diesel engine to drive generators which provide electricity. This is then controllable by the driver, when it powers the traction motors fitted to the wheels. A diesel engine relies upon compression ignition to burn its fuel, instead of the spark plug used in a petrol engine. If air is compressed to a high degree, its temperature will increase to a point where fuel will burn upon contact. This principle is used in both four-stroke and two-stroke diesel engines to produce power. Unlike a petrol engine, which draws an air/fuel mixture into the cylinder during the intake stroke, the diesel takes in air alone.

[edit] Memories

[edit] In the Science Museum

The Museum acquired this object in 1977 from the British Railways Board Inv. 1977-5406

This object is currently on display in the Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain exhibition at the Science Museum, London.