Recent content by TrainMaintainer

Functionally, at least, you do get this very thing with a number of diesel-electric locomotive engines. It's often advantageous to have the generator running at a higher RPM than the actual engine (electrical efficiency, higher frequency output, etc), so you do sometimes see the generator geared...

Can't help you with the manufacturer but it's a pretty close copy in most regards of a Monarch Model A/AA/AB. Which are damn fine machines.

Does a 2 (or more) cylinder hot-bulb diesel have to have a separate "bulb" for each cylinder, or can they share a preheater/vaporizer? Probably a bonehead question but I cannot see a reason why they can't share. Someone fancy explaining why?

Actually wasn't unknown in the UK, to be honest. Mad Jack, a machinist friend of my late father, had a 1930s Monarch lathe and Bridgeport mill with hydraulic power. No access to 3 phase power in the area back then so a bunch of the job shops had hydraulic powered shops driven by whatever castoff...

Connahs Quay, near Flint. Right on the English border. Didn't know about the Amish machine shop thing! Very cool.

Hi. Newbie alert! As the handle probably gives away, I fix trains for a living. I also have an unhealthy addiction to playing with machine tools, new and old. I've recently developed an interest in model engines, with a view to eventually building a real diesel-electric model locomotive. Then...