BR No. 18000
| 18000 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 18000
|
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| Number: | 1 |
| Manufacturer: | Brown Boveri , SLM |
| Year of construction (s): | 1949 |
| Retirement: | 1960 |
| Axis formula : | (A1A) (A1A) |
| Genre : | Main line locomotive with combined electric and gas turbine drive |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Length over buffers: | 19,200 mm |
| Trunnion Distance: | 11600 mm |
| Bogie axle base: | 1800 mm |
| Fixed wheelbase: | 3600 mm |
| Total wheelbase: | 15200 mm |
| Empty mass: | 110.7 t |
| Service mass: | 119 t |
| Top speed: | 145 km / h |
| Installed capacity: | 1,865 kW (2,500 hp) |
| Starting tractive effort: | 267 kN |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 1232 mm |
| Impeller diameter: | 965 mm |
| Motor type: | Brown Boveri gas turbine |
| Motor type: | Gas turbine |
| Power transmission: | electric |
| Drive: | Brown Boveri gas turbine; Direct current generator; 4 DC drive motors |
| Train heating: | Steam heating (oil-fired boiler) |
The 18000 is the prototype of a gas turbine locomotive for the express train service of British Railways (BR). Together with the BR 18100 built by Metropolitan-Vickers for comparison purposes , it was intended to develop an everyday drive.
history
The chief engineer Frederick William Hawksworth of the Great Western Railway (GWR), one of the predecessor companies of British Railways founded in 1948, ordered a gas turbine electric locomotive from Brown Boveri in Switzerland in October 1946 , which was delivered in 1949 to what is now the western region of BR . Brown Boveri had the mechanical part of the locomotive manufactured by SLM in Winterthur .
The locomotive was completed on October 24, 1949 and took its first test drive on the same day. Several test drives were then carried out in November, including with SBB Am 4/6. In February 1950 she was transferred to England, where she was used in scheduled service from the 1950 summer timetable.
The 18000 was mainly used by British Rail before express trains in their "Western Region" between London-Paddington , Bristol and the south-west of Great Britain until 1960.
After being phased out by the BR, the locomotive came into the possession of the ORE (Office des recherches et d'essais). The vehicle was converted into the B44 ORE test vehicle in the SBB Bellinzona workshop , with the drive system being expanded. The B44 was used as a towed test vehicle for static friction measurements and braking tests. The locomotive number 18000 was retained.
Between 1976 and 1980 it was parked at SBB's Erstfeld depot on the Gotthard Railway .
After that it was erected as a memorial on the area of the technical research institute in Vienna Arsenal until the 1990s . From there it was brought back to England, where an external work-up was carried out.
Whereabouts
The 18000 is preserved in a museum in Great Britain at the Didcot Railway Center.
Technical
In terms of the gas turbine and the generator, the locomotive is a further development of the Am 4/6 of the SBB from 1941. In contrast to its predecessor, however, the British locomotive is a pure bogie locomotive, since locomotive construction has meanwhile moved away from the Had turned away frame locomotives. In contrast to the Am 4/6, it is possible with the 18000 to initiate all control processes from both driver's cabs. The locomotive is intended for seated service, which was not a matter of course at that time.
The four traction motors individually drive the outer wheelset of the three-axle bogie.
The locomotive has the serial number 3977 of the SLM.
drive
The combustion air is sucked in through the side walls. The lubricating oil coolers are also housed in the air inlet openings. The air is first forced through the air preheater by the fan before it reaches the combustion chamber with a pressure of around 5.1 kg / cm². The air-gas mixture is passed from the combustion chamber into the gas turbine and the exhaust gases are released into the open via the heat exchanger. When entering the turbine, the air-gas mixture has a temperature of 600 ° C, the exhaust gases when leaving the locomotive is still 250 ° C. The shafts of the fan and the gas turbine are mounted on both sides and connected to one another. On the fan side, the gear drive is attached, which reduces the speed in a ratio of 1: 6.6. The full load speed is specified for the gas turbine fan group 5300 / min, for the generator 800 / min. The generator is firmly connected on one side to the coupling flange of the gearbox and only has a bearing on the opposite collector side, where the generator's fan wheel is also located.
In addition to the gas turbine, the locomotive has an auxiliary diesel which is responsible for the external excitation of the main generator and the supply of the auxiliary system. The six-cylinder Sauerer diesel engine directly drives a generator with a continuous output of 40 kW at 100 volts and 1150 rpm, the maximum speed of the diesel engine is specified as 1500 rpm. It is possible to move the locomotive only with the help of the auxiliary diesel engine by feeding two traction motors from it.
The gas turbine is started by operating the main generator as a motor with the auxiliary diesel generator. In this case, the rotor and stator windings are connected in series (functionality of a series motor) and the gas turbine system, which is coupled to the generator via a gear, is brought up to ignition speed. The ignition speed is around 1/5 of the full load speed. Then diesel oil is injected with the combustion chamber nozzle and ignited, whereupon the gas turbine group accelerates independently and the auxiliary generator is switched to auxiliary operation. After a few minutes, when the gas turbine has warmed up, you can manually switch to the heated heavy fuel oil.
The four drive motors have an hourly output of 394 kW each at 636 volts and 1290 rpm. They are permanently connected in parallel and each have their own reversing switch, maximum current relay and motor contactor. The power transmission to the drive wheels takes place by means of a BBC spring drive.
A nickel-cadmium accumulator with 54 cells and 200 Ah is installed as a battery for starting the auxiliary generator group . This also supplied other auxiliary drives when the diesel generator was at a standstill.
Others
The 18000 was painted black. The roof and the bogies were painted silver gray.
literature
- Gas Turbine Locomotives for British Railways . In: The Engineer . tape 187 , 7th January. London 1949, p. 25-27 ( gracesguide.co.uk [PDF]).
- British Railways Gas Turbine Locomotive No. 18,000 No.I . In: The Engineer . tape 189 , 19th May. London 1950, p. 608-610 ( gracesguide.co.uk [PDF]).
- Karl Sachs : Electric traction vehicles . tape 2 . Frauenfeld 1953, p. 660-662 .
- SBB gas turbine locomotive on 4/6 . In: Loki Special . No. 13 . Goldach October 1996, p. 60, 102-106 .
- British Railways Gas Turbine Locomotive No. 18,000 No.II . In: The Engineer . tape 189 , 26th May.London 1950, pp. 626-628 ( gracesguide.co.uk [PDF]).
- OSNock: Western Region Gas Turbine Locomotive in service . In: The Engineer . tape 192 , 13th July. London 1951, p. 40-41 ( gracesguide.co.uk [PDF]).
- Tests on Gas Turbine Locomotive No. 18,000 . In: The Engineer . tape 193 , 16th May. London 1952, pp. 664-667 ( gracesguide.co.uk [PDF]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ British producer of gas turbines. Compare Metropolitan Vickers in the English language Wikipedia
- ↑ Compare the meaning of the person FW Hawksworth in the English language Wikipedia
- ^ The Engineer, 1950, p. 608
- ^ The Engineer, 1949, p. 26
- ↑ Loki Special No. 13, page 60
- ↑ Loki Special No. 13, page 105
- ↑ For the history and extent, compare the Western Region of British Railways in the English language Wikipedia
- ↑ Loki Special No. 13, page 105
- ↑ Loki Special No. 13, page 105
- ^ Article Didcot Railway Center in the English language Wikipedia
- ^ The international encyclopedia - trains and locomotives, David Ross, transpress Verlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition 2005, p. 279