Heilmann Locomotives
Jean-Jacques Heilmann of France developed a new type of steam-electric railway locomotive, for which he took out a patent in 1890.
First Locomotive
1892-3 The first prototype was built. It was designed by Heilmann in collaboration with Charles Brown. It had a horizontally-opposed two-cylinder steam engine driving a DC generator. A small vertical engine drove a separate dynamo which supplied power for excitation and for carriage lighting.
The electrical equipment was supplied by Brown, Boveri et Cie. The six-pole dynamo was designed for minimum weight. It had a ring-wound armature, whose outboard bearing was housed in a three-armed bracket bolted to the stator casing. Its normal output was 600 HP at 400 rpm, and the maximum was 750.[1].
The engines, designed by Charles Brown, were built by the Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee, while the bogies were produced by the Compagnie Francaise de Materiel de Chemins de Fer, at Ivry. The main engine had one high pressure and one low pressure cylinder. The cranks for the HP and LP pistons were 180 degrees apart, so that the pistons moved in and out in unison. The engine was mounted transversely, and the design was constrained by the available width. In fact the cylinder covers emerged through the sides of the locomotive's body. Steam was admitted by semi-rotary Corliss type valves, worked by eccentrics. The valve gear was very simple, having no expansion gear, and with no requirement for reversing the engine. Steamflowwascontrolled by a double beat throttle valve.[2]
Steam, unsuperheated, was supplied from a horizontal Lentz boiler with a corrugated firebox.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
An excellent source of information on Heilmann's first locomotive is here [3]
Second Locomotive
Another locomotive (some sources say two) was built, improving on the initial design.
No. 8001 had a conventional Belpaire boiler supplying a Willans and Robinson high-speed vertical steam engine developing 1350 IHP at 400 rpm. The engine directly drove two DC dynamos. The exciter was driven by a small Willans engine developing 18 kW at 550 rpm. The electrical equipment was once again supplied by Brown Boveri .
The main engine was most unusual for the time, in having six cylinders. It was a compound engine, the 300 mm bore high pressure cylinder and the 480mm low pressure cylinder diameter being arranged in tandem. The piston stroke was 400 mm. A separate crankshaft, gear-driven from the main crankshaft, operated the piston valves. This shaft also drove the governor.
The use of six cylinders was proposed by Mark Robinson of Willans & Robinson and by Natalis Mazen, of the Compagnie de l'Ouest.
More information here.
Zoomable photograph of the Willans engine at the Willans and Robinson works at Rugby here. This shows the unusual construction of the crankcase, which was a riveted fabrication rather than the normal iron casting, presumably to save weight.
The locomotive made its initial test run on 12 November 1897. The entire weight of the locomotive,including coaland water, was available for adhesion, and the engine produced very little hammer blow. [4]
See Also
Sources of Information
[4] Electric Railways: 1880-1990 by Michael C. Duffy