These Trains Routinely Hit one Hundred Mph
Gasoline, naphtha, and distillate engines had been tried in motorcars and small locomotives with restricted success. Most had mechanical drivetrains -- very like a truck -- which weren't well suited to railroad service. The overall Electric Company developed an electric transmission system that had the engine drive a generator. The resulting electricity could be simply managed and used to energy motors on the axles, like those fitted to electric streetcars. This system was utilized to gas-electric motorcars and, later, to small locomotives. GE constructed three unsuccessful diesel-electric locomotives in 1918, and in 1925 started to furnish electrical equipment for Alco diesel-electric switchers. These were reasonably successful and pointed the method to the manufacturing of a number of hundred diesel-electric switchers prior to 1940. Developing a diesel powerplant able to surviving the rigors of mainline service was one other matter, and it was here that the upstart manufacturer E...