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Efficiency 2: Hybrid antecedents
There are few truly new ideas. While the hybrid technology that powers the Toyota Prius and other similar cars seems new, it traces back at least to 1930 when the New York Central railroad need some special locomotives to handle freight trains on Manhattan. New York City began banning steam locomotives in parts of the city as early as 1903, but the NYC was already planning on electrifying major sections where tunnels precluded smoke. The solution used a third rail to deliver power at 600 vdc. But given depression era finances, the railroad was looking for a less expensive alternative to provide power to the growing freight lines on Manhattan's west side. Switch engines spend a lot of their time sitting and waiting, or running with small loads, (much like a car in traffic) so the company sought to recover some of that lost energy.
Alco and GE built a prototype locomotive that could take power from the third rail, but also had a Diesel engine and batteries. (Here's a picture of a later production unit.) When running on the third rail, the locomotive functioned as a normal electric and charged its batteries. When the third rail stopped, it could run off stored electricity or start up a 300 hp Diesel engine to provide current to charge the batteries, just like a hybrid car. Bear in mind the technology was much cruder. That 300 hp engine had six cylinders with a bore/stroke of 10 x 12 inches and a maximum speed of 550 rpm! There were 240 lead-acid cells with a combined capacity of 301 kW hours. When pulling a train at its load capacity, the batteries would begin to run out after about two hours, even with the engine running. 42 locomotives of this type were built, mostly serving their life in New York, but a few made it all the way to Detroit, Boston and Chicago. If memory serves, those in Chicago would have functioned entirely as hybrids as the NYC RR never had any electrification here.
Efficiency 2: Hybrid antecedents
February 13, 2008
There are few truly new ideas. While the hybrid technology that powers the Toyota Prius and other similar cars seems new, it traces back at least to 1930 when the New York Central railroad need some special locomotives to handle freight trains on Manhattan. New York City began banning steam locomotives in parts of the city as early as 1903, but the NYC was already planning on electrifying major sections where tunnels precluded smoke. The solution used a third rail to deliver power at 600 vdc. But given depression era finances, the railroad was looking for a less expensive alternative to provide power to the growing freight lines on Manhattan's west side. Switch engines spend a lot of their time sitting and waiting, or running with small loads, (much like a car in traffic) so the company sought to recover some of that lost energy. Alco and GE built a prototype locomotive that could take power from the third rail, but also had a Diesel engine and batteries. (Here's a picture of a later production unit.) When running on the third rail, the locomotive functioned as a normal electric and charged its batteries. When the third rail stopped, it could run off stored electricity or start up a 300 hp Diesel engine to provide current to charge the batteries, just like a hybrid car. Bear in mind the technology was much cruder. That 300 hp engine had six cylinders with a bore/stroke of 10 x 12 inches and a maximum speed of 550 rpm! There were 240 lead-acid cells with a combined capacity of 301 kW hours. When pulling a train at its load capacity, the batteries would begin to run out after about two hours, even with the engine running. 42 locomotives of this type were built, mostly serving their life in New York, but a few made it all the way to Detroit, Boston and Chicago. If memory serves, those in Chicago would have functioned entirely as hybrids as the NYC RR never had any electrification here.
Posted by Peter Welander on February 13, 2008 | Comments (0)
Industries: System Integration
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