"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
11/10/2016 at 18:14 • Filed to: Trainlopnik, Tornado, external combustion engine
3
21|
"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
11/10/2016 at 18:14 • Filed to: Trainlopnik, Tornado, external combustion engine | 3
| 21 |
Tesla owners, who often tend to be of a messianic persuasion when it comes to the electron-powered cars, talk disparagingly of “ice” cars, as in internal combustion engine. Ices are the root of all evil.
Well, if you have a Tesla there’s worse than an “ice”.
Meet an ece.
Very old, isn’t it? Obviously a rolling museum piece from sometime early in the last century. Actually, no. Locomotive no. 60163 was built from 1994 to 2008 (in stages, as the money was raised) and has been producing all manner of noxious emissions since 2009. The eagle eyed might note the LED lights. Less visible are the
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,
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and
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, all required for running on main lines.
It’s unique, obviously, as nobody else would be daft enough to recreate a locomotive powered by an externally combusted engine in the 21st century would they?
They would in fact. There’s quite a remarkable list
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(some totally new, others incorporating various parts of old engines) and that’s just the UK.
TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:20 |
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It’s not really an ECE, it just has a very open exhaust. In some places the electricity for your Tesla comes from a very similar source.
djmt1
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:24 |
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Getting a damn ride on that thing is like finding the holy grail. At this point I wondering if I should just learn to be a driver/fireman and apply for a job. Hopefully it comes to the Severn Valley Preservation Railway so I’ve be able to use my position as a shareholder to get first choice on tickets but alas that day still alludes me.
Tekamul
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
11/10/2016 at 18:26 |
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No, it’s definitely an ECE. If the heat source is external to the expansion chamber, it’s an ECE. And this is a coal fired boiler. Definitely ECE
Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:26 |
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And I bet it corners like it’s on rails!
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Cé hé sin
> djmt1
11/10/2016 at 18:29 |
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Might have to wait for a few more to be built then!
May be a long wait though - some projects have an estimated completion date of 2030.
You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
11/10/2016 at 18:30 |
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Since the combustion takes place externally to (of/from?) the working fluid it is an external combustion engine.
Matt Nichelson
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:30 |
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Fun fact: This is the same engine that was used in the great race to the North episode of Top Gear.
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Cé hé sin
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
11/10/2016 at 18:30 |
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It is though. Ask the fireman. He’ll tell you just how external the combustion is!
RallyWrench
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:31 |
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I fell in love with that engine on Top Gear, it just looked brilliant steaming through the countryside.
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djmt1
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:31 |
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Well it’s not like we’re lacking steam trains in the UK so I guess I can find something else in the meantime.
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Cé hé sin
> Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
11/10/2016 at 18:39 |
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If you go at the correct speed.
Sadly it’s all too easy
to fall off the rails otherwise.
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 18:42 |
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I guess my definition of internal vs external engines is incorrect. I considered these internal combustion because you are burning the coal within the assembly to generate the steam while I thought of an external combustion engine as some thing like a Sterling engine where you can just look at it and go “there’s a fire outside of that”.
jimz
> Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
11/10/2016 at 19:00 |
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If I had a rotten tomato handy, it’d be sailing your way right about now.
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jimz
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
11/10/2016 at 19:02 |
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it’s external combustion because the fuel+oxidizer (coal/wood/oil) and the working fluid (water) are kept separate; the fuel never acts directly on the moving assembly.
although you are correct in that a Stirling engine is one type of external-combustion engine.
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Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> jimz
11/10/2016 at 19:31 |
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jimz
> Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
11/10/2016 at 19:42 |
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“This video contains content from Eagle Rock. It is not available in your country.”
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Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> jimz
11/10/2016 at 19:46 |
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That’s a shame... Here’s another version:
And a review on the Plymouth Horizon...
Mondial goes to 11
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 20:07 |
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ICE is cleaner than ECE. Photo of ICE powered ICE in ice via Wikipedia. This is actually the first I heard of the ICE TD, the diesel-electric version. All other variants are pure electric.
Stephenson Valve Gear
> Cé hé sin
11/10/2016 at 21:45 |
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I love steam locomotives! Tornado is a fantastic accomplishment... not easy to build a full size loco these days, it took a lot of effort and perseverance from the group that did built it. Not to mention funding. A tip of the hat to our friends across the pond!
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Cé hé sin
> Stephenson Valve Gear
11/11/2016 at 09:02 |
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The group behind Tornado haven’t stopped there either! They moved on to the
Prince of Wales project
. Coincidentally another group is building a variation of the same loco.
Spoon II
> Cé hé sin
11/11/2016 at 14:51 |
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This reminds me of something that I’ve always been curious about. How long/far would you have to drive a Tesla before the pollution offset makes it cumulatively better for the environment than driving, say, an old VW Bug the same distance. This is when you take production of the vehicle/battery into account as well. Who knows, thanks to modern production techniques, maybe the answer is that it’s immediately better (but I doubt it).