In essence, the diesel is an electric locomotive with its own power plant. What is the difference? A true electric has its power provided either through overhead catenary or third-rail while a diesel-electric carries its own engine on-board.
In GE continued refining diesel technology when it tested an experimental model utilizing a GM prime mover a V-8 diesel engine designed by GE but based from German Junkers engines used in aircraft. A year later it launched formal production of these horsepower machines; the boxcab switchers were largely considered a failure although did find a few buyers; one went to the Jay Street Connecting Railroad 4 , another to the city of Baltimore and a final example to the U.
As a stand-alone manufacturer, GE exited the business shortly thereafter but in revisited the market by partnering with Ingersoll-Rand IR and American Locomotive to build a horsepower, boxcab switcher; GE supplied electric components while IR the prime mover and Alco the carbody.
As the late historian Jim Boyd notes in his book, " The American Freight Train ," the ton locomotive was finished in June, following tests at IR's plant in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania on December 17, and proved a success. It toured the country as GE's construction number and was eventually sold to the Central Railroad of New Jersey where it spent many years in switching assignments around New York City.
Small switchers proved the domain of diesels for many years as railroads remained distrustful of their ability to handle the rigors of main line service. The Electro-Motive Corporation, however, believed otherwise. The company began in as a small, privately-owned operation based in Cleveland, Ohio building inexpensive motorcars. In it was acquired by General Motors, then the world's largest industrial company, which saw potential in diesel-electric locomotives.
The first produced under the GM name were five, 1, horsepower boxcabs carrying Winton Engine Company model A, V diesel engines. Next, Electro-Motive upgraded the boxcab's prime mover with a rugged General Motors model model while shrouding it within a sleek carbody. A passenger variant, the EA, released in , began a long line of passenger diesels, the so-called "E" series.
Later, General Electric reestablished itself with its Universal series in the 's. To read more about the diesel locomotive, and variants thereof, please click here. For more resources and reading regarding locomotives please click here to visit the site's Works Cited section.
In a gentleman by the name of Andre Kristopans put together a web page highlighting virtually every unit every out-shopped by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. Alas, in the site closed. However, Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails. If you are researching anything EMD related please visit this page first. The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers.
Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive. The amount of information found there is quite staggering; historical backgrounds of wheel arrangements, types used by virtually every railroad, preserved and operational examples, and even those used in other countries North America and beyond. It is difficult to truly articulate just how much material can be found at this website.
It is a must visit! Today, there are tens of thousands of miles scattered throughout the country. Many were pulled up in the 's and 's although others were removed long before that.
It is an excellent resource with thousands of historic maps on file throughout the country. Just type in a town or city and click on the timeline of maps at the bottom of the page!
All content copyright American-Rails. Contact Us. About American-Rails. Creating The Site. Works Cited. Trevithick wrote on February 21, , after the trial of his High Pressure Tram-Engine, that he "carry'd ten tons of Iron, five wagons, and 70 Men George Stephenson and his son, Robert, built the first practical steam locomotive. Stephenson built his "travelling engine" in , which was used to haul coal at the Killingworth mine.
In , the Stephensons built the famous locomotive Rocket, which used a multi-tube boiler , a practice that continued in successive generations of steam engines. The Rocket won the competition at the Rainhill Trials held to settle the question of whether it was best to move wagons along rails by fixed steam engines using a pulley system or by using locomotive steam engines.
The Stephensons incorporated elements into their engines that were used in succeeding generations of steam engines. Stephenson's Patent Locomotive Engine. Though the first locomotive to operate on an American railroad was the Stourbridge Lion , built in and imported from England by Horatio Allen of New York, the British locomotives did not come to dominate American railways because they were too heavy for the relatively light and often uneven American tracks.
In fact, the Lion was soon relegated to functioning as a stationary steam engine. American inventors and engineers had been on a parallel course with the British and, as early as , John Stevens had petitioned Congress to support a national railroad. He had also built the first American steam locomotive in A multi-tube boiler engine, it ran on a circular demonstration track on his property in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb , built in , was the first American locomotive to pull a passenger car on a railroad. Though small it was powerful enough to convince the directors of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad of the practical application of the steam locomotive. An Act of Parliament authorizing the railway was passed in and it opened in Further, horse-drawn traffic could use the Stockton and Darlington upon payment of a toll. However, it used cable haulage by stationary steam engines over much of its length, with steam locomotives restricted to the level stretch.
These were arranged as an open contest that would let them see all the locomotive candidates in action, with the choice to follow. Rocket was the first locomotive to use a multi-tubular boiler, which allowed more effective heat transfer from the exhaust gases to the water.
It was also the first to use a blastpipe, where used steam from the cylinders discharges into the smokebox beneath the chimney to increase the draft of the fire. Later conjectural drawing of the Rainhill Trials: in the foreground is Rocket and in the background are Sans Pareil right and Novelty, author unknown, the Illustrated London News. The Stephenson brothers were accordingly given the contract to produce locomotives for the railway.
Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. The First Locomotives Learning Objective Characterize the first trains and their utilities.
As early as , railed roads were in use in Durham to ease the conveyance of coal. The primitive rails were superseded in when Benjamin Outram constructed a tramway with L-shaped flanged cast-iron plate rails plateways.
In , John Birkenshaw introduced a method of rolling rails in greater lengths using wrought iron, which was used from then onward. The first line to obtain such an act, in , was the Middleton Railway in Leeds.
The first for public use and on cast iron rails was the Surrey Iron Railway, incorporated in The first passenger-carrying public railway was the Oystermouth Railway, authorized in Key Terms rack and pinion railway A steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail.
But within 20 years there were more than 9,, as the U. By the beginning of the Civil War in , there were 30, miles more than 21, of them in the North , and lobbyists were clamoring for a transcontinental system across the nation. The number of railroad miles continued to climb until hitting its peak in That year there were more than , miles of track—enough to reach the moon from Earth.
When Englishman Richard Trevithick launched the first practical steam locomotive in , it averaged less than 10 mph. Today, several high-speed rail lines are regularly travelling 30 times as fast. In the 40 years since, the top speed of these trains has been steadily climbing, with a current world speed record of mph. Japan is no longer alone in the high-speed rail department however: France, China and Germany all operate trains capable of similar extreme speeds, and the plans are currently underway in the United States to construct a high-speed rail line connecting the California cities of San Francisco and Anaheim.
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