PETROL LOCOMOTIVES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10303, 10 March 1905, Page 4

PETROL LOCOMOTIVES.

For light railways, as well as for factory, mining, amd quarrying work, if has long been recognised, says Engineering, that the petrol locomotive offers important advantages over either steam or the electrical system, not only because of its lightness, but because of the fact that only when running is there expenditure of fuel. Where the use- is intermittent there is great economy. Very consider, able interest, therfore, attaches to the locomotives which the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company have recently constructed fo.r light railway work, because they solve all the problems that are associated with the practical application of this type. It is true that the petrol prime mover lias been fitted on board large railway carriages, .-jaul has made them self-propelling; but' this involves the reconstruction of roiling stock, whicih for local traffic may be justified, whereas with the petrol locomotive now introduced existing rolling stock is quite suitable; and, moreover, when occasion demands, the locomotive may draw one or any number of. passenger carriage* or of mineral waggons. The cost of (reserve rolling slock is thus less, as the petrol locomotive costs much less than the selfpropelled car. The Wolseley Company luiiS made a concession to prejudice, because the general outward appearance of the steam locomotive is closely reproduced, the funnel m this rase being--debat-ed for the exhaust. The results of swe^d a>nd traction tests of this very light locomotive were very (satisfactory. Although the total weight of the engine, with ten iiours' fuel supply on board, is only 2 tans 15 cwt., it was found that a constant draw bar pull of 11 cwt. was registered on a lengthened test. The engine ca<n hiiul loads up to 15 tons at eight to ten miles per hour, and one notable foiture of the trial was the facility with which the locomotive got under way, the rate of acceleration being very .satisfactory. This is accounted for by the fatit that it is propelled by a high speed engune, geared down wry •considerably. The consumption of petrol is 0.1 gallon per horse-power per hour, so that at full power the consumption would approximate to two. gallons,, which at s£d per gallon, .gives a, fuel cost of lid per hour for the full load of 15 tons, which is certainly a very low rale. The particular motor fitted to the locomotive Js one which is quite able to run on very inferior petrol, and, owing to the provision of a chimney, the slight odor from the exhaust proves quite inoffensive, and is carried well into the atmosphere.