US2234365A - Steam locomotive driven by high speed piston steam engines - Google Patents

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H. CARL March 11, 1941.

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DRIVEN BY HIGH SPEED PISTON STEAM ENGINES Filed NOV. 26, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jn van for:

H. CARL March 11, 1941.

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DRIVEN BY HIGH SPEED P ISTON STEAM ENGINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 26, 1938 ('9'. 4 .772 van for:

7fezwu'c/h M H. CARL March 11, 19-41.

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DRIVEN BY HIGH SPEED PISTON STEAM ENGINES Filed Nov. 26, 1938 4 Sheets-Sheet .5

March 11,1941. CARL 2,234,365

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DRIVEN BY HIGH SPEED PISTON STEAM ENGINES Filed NOV. 26, 1938 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Big. 7

Patented Mar. 11, 1941 2,234,365

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DRIVEN BY HIGH SPEED PISTON STEAM ENGINES Heinrich Carl, Kassel, Germany, assignor to Henschel & Sohn, Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Kassel, Germany Application November 26, 1938, Serial No. 242,462 In Germany December 15, 1937 1 Claim. ((31. 105-37) Applications have been filed in Germany Deusual running wheels, therefore say between 1000 cember 15, 1937 and April 1, 1938. to 1300 mm. Driven wheels of this diameter The invention relates to steam driven 1000- will, at high speeds of travel, run with very high motives, more particularly locomotives designed numbers of revolutions, and consequently the for high running speeds, in which each individual improved individual axle drive according to the driven axle is driven by a high speed piston invention will, in contradistinction to all known steam engine mounted upon the sprung frame. similar drives, lead for the first time to the pos- The high number of revolutions of the steam sibility of attaining the required high speed of engine necessitated by structural and economical the driven engine, not by the employment of a 0 requirements, has, in the hitherto known conconsiderable ratio of transmission of the usual 'structions of such individual axle drives, always toothed wheel transmission gear, but predomibeen attained by the employment of toothed nantly or even exclusively by. the employment of wheel transmission gears. The driven wheels at high number of revolutions of the driven axle used in these constructions have a fairly large itself. Apart from the above mentioned advandiameter (about 1600 mm. and more). These tages, such a driven axle having particularly known constructions have the following drawsmall driven wheels has the additional advantage backs: of a minimum value of the non-sprung mass,

In order to use for each axle the simplest pos which was hitherto quite unattainable. This feasible toothed wheel transmission gear, that is a ture is very valuable in connection with fast gear comprising only one pair of toothed wheels, travelling loc t ves owing to t u i g saV- 20 it would be necessary to mount the driving ening of the railway track.

gine between the wheels within the frame. This Constructional examples of the invention are would render accessibility of the engine very difillustrated in the accompanying drawings. ficult owing to the boiler being superposed over Fig. 1 is an elevation of a locomotive having the engine, and consequently it would be very small driven wheels and individual drive of each difiicult to watch the operation of the engine. aXle by means of outwardly mounted Steam Moreover, it would be very difiicult and expensive gines and a simp toothed wheel a s s n to dismount the engine for the purpose of a thorgear.

O ough inspection or repairs, as it would be neces- Figs. 2 0 4 are Sections s fOHOWSZ sary to dismount with the engine the whole set 2 a Cross ec on line of wheels and the toothed wheel transmission. Fi 3 a Se o e a By mounting the engine outside, that is by Fig. 4 a section on line IVIV of, Fig. 3,

fixing same to the outer surface of the frame, it Figs. 3 and 4 showing the cylinders l5 and I6 M is indeed possible to make the driving engine of the engine directed toward the front end of easily accessible and readily dismountable. In the locomotive. this case, however, it is necessary to use in the 5 ShOWS p y in CrOSS Section d p t y hitherto known individual axle drives, rather in front view a second constructional form, in complicated transmission gears containing severwhich the toothed wheel transmission gears are al pairs of toothed wheels, in order to enable the mounted outside and in front of the driven intermediate shaft between the steam engine and wheels. 40

the gear to be mounted beside the driven wheels, 6 s a cross Section p y in v r whilst maintaining the required transmission sponding to Fig. 5. ratio. Fig. 'l is an elevation of a locomotive in which The present invention provides, in contradisthe driving steam engine operates the driven tinction to the known constructions, an imwheels directly without the use of any toothed proved arrangement of an individual axle drive, wheel transmission gear. which embodies the feature of the required high Fig.8 is a cross section on line VIIIVIII of speed of the engine and at the same time com- Fig. 9.

0 bines the features of perfect accessibility of the Fig. 9 shows on a large scale the driving enengine with the simplest possible construction of gine of an axle having two cylinders arranged in the force transmission between engine and driven V-formation, and the corresponding driven wheel. axle. These advantages are attained by the em- Referring first to Fig. 1, it will be seen that ployment of a particularly small driven wheel dithe driven wheels II have the same diameter as ameter, which, in the case of normal gauge 1000- the rear running wheels l2 of the locomotives. motives, should be equal to the diameter of the The driven wheels consequently have numbers 55 of revolutions which are so high that only a rather small toothed wheel transmission ratio is needed in order to obtain a very high number of revolutions of the steam engines, for instance 1000 to 1200 revolutions per minute at a travelling speed of the locomotive of about 175 km. per hour or about 110 miles per hour Allthe details of the locomotives are diagrammatically shown in Figs. 2 to 4.

The driven axle [3 provided with driven wheels ll of the reduced size, is driven by a steam engine l5, l6 fixed upon the frame l4, through a toothed wheel transmission gear I1, I 8 and a resilient clutch IS. The steam engine consists in this constructional example of two individual cylinders l5, IS, the cranks 20, 2| of which are displaced one with regard to the other through 90. An essential feature of this construction is the mounting upon the outersides of the frameld, which is in usual manner sprung by means of springs 22 with regard to the driven axle l3, this mounting ensuring very perfect accessibility. The crank shaft 23 of the steam engine I5, I6 is carried past the driven wheels II, to the toothed wheel transmission gear I1, l8 arranged inside the frame, the casing 24 of the gear being likewise mounted upon the frame. The toothed wheel l8 is mounted upon a hollow shaft 25 mounted in a casing 24, said shaft carryingone half IQ of the resilient clutch. This clutchis, in the construction shown, constructed as a spring cup clutch, the second half 26 of the clutch being fixed upon the driven axle I3. The force transmission between the clutch halves I9 and 26 is, in known manner, effected by springs 28 interposed between the two halves and mounted in casings 21.

' The construction according to Figs. 1 to 4 having a transmission gear arranged inside the frame, is particularly suitable in all cases in' which the driving engine consists of two units arranged one on each side of the locomotive, and provided with a common transmission gear.

On the other hand, the construction shown in Figs. and 6 is particularly suitable in cases in which each individual axle is driven from one side only, that is in whichthe steam engine appertaining to a driven axle is mounted as a self-contained unit at one side of the locomotive only. In such constructions the engines of adjacent axles are alternately mounted upon the right and the left hand side of the locomotive. In the constructional example of Figs. 5 and 6, each steam engine appertaining to an axle 13 or l3 possesses two cylinders 28, 29 arranged substantially in the same plane and inclined one with regard to the other by 90, the connecting rods of the cylinders" acting upon a common crank 34. One memberof the crank is constructed as a toothed wheel 3|, said wheel engaging with a second toothed wheel 32 mounted in front of the driven wheel I l The'crank shaft 34 and the shaft 36 of the toothed "wheel'32 are mounted in a casing 35, which is fixed by means of the cylinders 28, 29 and lugs 30 to the frame M. The transmission of force from the shaft 36 to the wheel ll again takes place by means of a resilient clutch constructed as a spring cup drives one half 33 of the clutch being mounted on the shaft 36, whilst the wheel ll itself constitutes the other clutch half. In this construction, not only the engine but also the toothed wheel transmission gear are mounted outside upon the frame in an easily accessible position. The small wheel diameter again enables a single pair of toothed wheels to be used as the transmission gear, and the casing 35 is wall mounted upon the frame M.

In many cases the reduction of the diameter of the driven wheels forming an important feature of the invention, and the consequential increased number of revolutions of the axles, enable, even with a direct coupling of the engine with the driven axle, the dimensions of the driven engines to be kept sufficiently small. Thetotal arrangement assumes then its simplest form, inasmuch as toothed wheel transmission can be entirely avoided. A constructional example of such an arrangement is shown in Figs.7to 9. The steam engine consists in this case each of two cylinders 30, 3| mounted at an angle of about 90, the connecting rods 32, 33 of the cylinders acting upon a common crank pin 34. This construction of the steam engine is particularly Suitable for "individual axle drive owing to the very perfect balancing of the masses, and'the very small width, that is, horizontal dimension, of the .engine. The engines are fixed upon the outer sides of the frame 35 which is sprung with regard to'the axles 38, and are consequently easily accessible and readily exchangeable. The crank shaft 36 of eachengine is, in this case, located in front of a driven wheel 31 and forms an extension of the drivenaxle 38. The resilient clutch is again constructed as a spring cup drive, one half 39 of which is mounted upon the crank shaft 36 whilst the other half is constituted by the driven wheel 31 itself. The steam engines may obviously, in this case as well as in the constructional example of Figs. 1 to 4 be constructed in any other suitable manner, that is to say they may have different numbers of cyl inders and different arrangements of the cylinders and so on, and they may for each individual axle be mounted at one side of the frame only.

There are cases in which the limiting profile of the locomotive, does not permit of the crank shaft to be placed sufliciently low for directly driving the axles in accordance with Figs. 7-9, even though the number of revolutions of the driven wheel is high enough to permit of such, a drive being used. The resilient clutch 39 located between the crank shaft 36 and the wheel 31 does, to a certain extent, permit of the centre of the crank shaft being placed slightly higher than the centre of the wheel. If, however,'this displacement of the centre is not sufiicient for the purpose, the employment of a-simple toothed wheel transmission gear according to Figs. 1 to 6 must be resorted to,- this gear, in such cases, having either no effective or only a very small transmission ratio and serving-merely for the purpose of enabling the driving engine to be placed at a slightly higher level.

I claim:

In an individual axle drive for steam locomotives, the combination of: a frame; a plurality of driven axles carrying wheels of -a diameter of 1000 to 1300 mm.; spring suspension means interposed between said frame and said driven axle; a plurality of completely enclosed independent steam-operated engines rigidly mounted outside upon said frame and having crank shafts coaxial with said driven wheels; resilient clutches interposed between said .crank shafts and said driven axles, said engines each comprising two cylinders displaced through an angle of 90.

HEINRICH CARL.

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