The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 7 (October 1, 1938)
Developments in Diesel Traction
Developments in Diesel Traction.
Interesting information is contained in the recently published bulletin for 1937 of the Diesel Engine Users' Association. Progress in the application of oil engines to railway traction, it is stated, was fully maintained last year.
There are now some 3,600 railway-owned diesel locomotives, railcars and trains in service in powers of 75 h.p or more, and the present world rate of increase is about 800 a year. Note-worthy developments in Europe in 1937 were the introduction of two 4,400 h.p. diesel-electric locomotives on the Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean Railway; and the bringing into service on the German Railways of a new slow-speed, high-powered engine—an eight-cylinder vertical unit—in a four-car express train. Practically all the development in the case of horizontal engines, it is stated, has originated in Germany. A standard engine has been produced of 275 h.p., which is being used both singly and in pairs in Germany, and which is being taken up in other countries, as, for example, Norway and Brazil.