Diesel-Electric Railway Traction

Abstract

In the past twenty-five years the diesel-electric locomotive has largely replaced the steam-locomotive in the United States and has gained much ground elsewhere. Diesel-electric traction represents the use of the diesel engine with the petrolelectric system of traction, both of which were invented in the 1890’s. The first experiments with petrol-electric traction were unsuccessful owing to the crudity of the available engines, but in 1903 a system was successfully applied to some railcars of the British North-Eastern Railway. Railcars of this type enjoyed considerable popularity on the continent of Europe and in America before 1914.