[modeleng] Hybrid engines, was Re: Electric Motors

Talking of  hybrid engines, one thing that has always fascinated me is some
of the strange ideas that have been tried with locomotives over the years.

One of the most unusual was the Kitson-Still steam-diesel hybrid, which was
built in 1924.
It had 8 double-acting cylinders, in two horizontally opposed rows, across
the engine, with steam on one side of the pistons and diesel on the other.
Steam was supplied by the boiler which could be started on oil, but them ran
from the heat of the diesel exhaust and cooling system.
.
When starting the boiler was fired up in the normal way, sufficient to
achieve some 5 m.p.h, when the diesel fuel was injected into the cylinders
and the diesel sections  fired. They, in turn, provided heat to the boiler,
thus generating more steam.

Strange as it sounds, it actually worked, achieving an efficiency of some
40%.


Now, who is going to build a model of one? !!

alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

www.alanstepney.info
Model Engineering, Steam Engine, and Railway technical pages.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles & Dorothy Brumbelow" <cbrumbelow@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 1:06 AM
Subject: [modeleng] Re: Electric Motors


A number of years ago, Live Steam and Modeltec in the states published brief
articles about folks who used small gasoline engines, batteries, and
alternators with electric motors to replicate the operation of diesel
electric locomotives.  Live Steam was February 1979.  I can't remember at
the moment which Modeltec issue it was.  Both operated a lot like the hybred
automobiles which are beginning to be sold.  Charles



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