GB874307A - Improvements relating to railway locomotives - Google Patents

Abstract

874,307. Locomotives. NAPIER & SON Ltd., D. July 3,1959 [April 3, 1958] ; No. 10931/58. Classes 79(1) and 79(2). A railway locomotive is provided with a reciprocating internal combustion engine operating as a gas generator driving gas turbines driving wheel axles, each turbine driving two or more axles through torque transmitting means capable of allowing relative rotation between the axles. The internal combustion engine, 10, may comprise sets of three cylinders lying along the sides of an equilateral triangle with crankshafts at the corners of the triangle, each cylinder having in it two pistons connected to different crankshafts, one co-operating with inlet ports and one co-operating with exhaust ports. A compressor, 11, may be mounted within the space surrounded by the cylinders and driven. by the crankshafts. Additionally or alternatively, a compressor may be coupled with an exhaust driven turbine. The gas turbine 16, Figs. 1 and 2, drives a gear reduction mechanism 18 comprising forward and reverse trains 21 and 22, a turbine shaft brake 23 and an output pinion 25 meshing with an externally toothed drum 26 provided with planet gears 27 and sun gears 28 and 29 from which extend output shaft 30 and 31 connected through universal joints 34 to propeller shafts 32 and 33. Through further universal joints 34 a gear mechanism is driven comprising an externally toothed drum 37 and sun and planet gears having output shafts 40 and 42 from which the wheel axles are driven by bevel wheels 41 or a propeller shaft 43 and similar bevel wheels. In a second embodiment, Figs. 3 and 4, for a locomotive having six driven wheels, the internal combustion engine 10 drives two gas turbines 50 and 51, each driving a reduction gear-box 58 from the output shaft 59 of which is driven a gear mechanism comprising a first differential 61 having two output shafts dividing the torque in the ratio of 2: 1 and a second differential 62 dividing the double torque output in equal ratios to drive one axle through the bevels 73 and another through a propeller shaft 75 and similar bevels. The first differential 61 comprises an input sleeve 65, planet wheels 65, an internally toothed output member connected to the shaft 67 and a sun gear upon a shaft concentric with the sleeved input shaft and from which the gears 68, 69, propeller shaft 70 and bevels 71 are driven driving the axle 55. In a modification of the first embodiment, Figs. 5 and 6, the gas turbine 80 drives a tandem reduction gear 81 from which two output shafts 91 are driven. Each output shaft is provided with a hydraulic coupling 87 comprising an element 88 from which, through the gears 90, 91 and bevels 92, an axle 85 is driven, and an output shaft 89 extending to a further shaft 91 which drives a further axle through a similar hydraulic coupling. An arrangement is also described in which several axles are driven by several such hydraulic couplings in series.