Abstract
THE London Passenger Transport Board is utilizing parts of old railway coaches from the “Central Line” of the underground system for building at its Acton works Diesel locomotives for hauling ballast and maintenance trains, or for emergency use in the ‘tubes’. These duties are at present performed by tank–type steam locomotives. It is arranged to collect current from the live 600–volt track rail, or be propelled by its self–contained generating set as circumstances may require, and it is capable of hauling a 600–ton train on the level or one of 300 tons up a 1 in 34 gradient. The length of the vehicle is 57 ft., its width 8 ft. 2 in., its height 9 ft. 5 in., and the tare weight in running order is 62 tons 12 cwt. According to the Electrical Review of May 16, only the oil engine and generator with some switch–gear had to be purchased in fabricating the train. The passenger compartments of two old driving cars were cut off, leaving the equipment compartments with motors and driver's cabs; these were joined together. The locomotive can be controlled from either end. Its engine is of the Petter ‘superscavenge’ airless injection, two–stroke cycle, cold starting type. The six cylinders develop 506 b.h.p. at 675 r.p.m. The engine is started by means of compressed air at 350 lb. per sq. in. The generator, which was made by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd., is a level–compounded shunt machine with a continuous rating of 750 amp. at 450 v. The traction equipment consists of two series–parallel sets with automatic relay controlling notching.
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Diesel–Electric Tube Locomotive. Nature 148, 81 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148081b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148081b0