With the termination of Diesel's patent protection for diesel engine in 19 12, the advantages of this kind of engine are rapidly developed and widely used in marine propulsion and fixed equipment. However, the problems of large mass and low power-to-weight ratio of early diesel engines have not been effectively solved. At that time, the diesel engine did have many defects, and the biggest problem was the weight. Because the cylinder pressure of diesel engine is much higher than that of gasoline engine, the cylinder strength and volume of diesel engine are much larger than that of gasoline engine. At the same time, the air compressor used in early diesel engines was also very large, which made the whole diesel engine very heavy. This has caused certain obstacles to cars and railways used on land, so the potential of diesel engines as a power source for railway locomotives was not paid attention to at that time.
1906, Diesel, German railway engineer Adolf Klose and Swiss engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer cooperated side by side to establish Diesel-Sulzer-Kracz GmbH, which specializes in designing and producing railway diesel locomotives. In addition to producing traditional steam engines, Green Sulzer Engine Factory also started to produce diesel engines at 1898. Prussian National Railway (German: Preu &; SzligIsche Staatseisenbahnen) ordered a diesel locomotive from Diesel-Sulzer-Kracz Company on 1909 as a test. After three years of research, the world's first real diesel locomotive was born in Switzerland in 19 12. This diesel locomotive weighs 95 tons, has a power of 883 kW, and has a top speed of 100 km ... That summer, this locomotive made its debut on the Swiss winterthur-Romanschen railway. After a short trial run, it was delivered to the German Empire in September 19 12. During the trial operation of 19 13, some problems and faults were found one after another, and German and Swiss engineers also made continuous technical improvements. However, due to the outbreak of World War I in 19 14, further experiments were terminated.
On the other side of the ocean in the United States, Adolphus Busch, one of the co-founders of American beer manufacturer Anheuser-Bush, bought the license to produce diesel engines in the United States at 1898. Although the use of diesel engines in railway railcars was recorded as early as the early 20th century, this new power from transportation was not widely used in the United States. American General Electric Company set foot in the railway railcar market at the beginning of the 20th century, and Thomas Edison, one of the founders of General Electric Company, also conducted the experiment of electric railcar in 1880. General Electric Company first launched the prototype of electric locomotive in 1895. However, due to the high cost of electrification, General Electric Company turned its attention to diesel engines, and conceived an "electric" rail car that used diesel engines to generate electricity and supply power to traction motors, which was later an electric drive diesel locomotive. However, technical problems were encountered at the beginning of development. Because of the DC generator and motor variable speed control system invented by Harry Ward Leonard, the coordination between diesel engine and motor is very poor. By 19 14, there was a major technological breakthrough in research and development. Hermann Lemp, a general electric engineer, invented a reliable DC power control system and applied for a patent. The control system automatically couples the internal combustion engine regulator with the generator and traction motor, thus eliminating the need for a third party to manually adjust the engine on the diesel locomotive. The significance of this system is to solve the control coordination problem of electric drive diesel locomotive and become the ancestor of the control system of electric drive diesel locomotive in the future.
19 17 years, GE trial-produced an experimental electric drive diesel locomotive using the control system of Lepa, which was also the first electric drive diesel locomotive in the United States. 1923, new york City passed the Kaufman Act, which prohibited steam locomotives with serious pollution from entering the boundary of new york City. The purpose of this bill is to electrify all high-capacity railways in new york, but it is not cost-effective to electrify railways in low-capacity areas. Therefore, new york asked Ingersoll Rand to develop the diesel locomotive for shunting, namely "Boxcab", which adopts the engine, traction motor and control system of General Electric, and the locomotive power is 220kW, and was delivered in July 1925. The practical application of this kind of locomotive shows that diesel locomotive is a very economical choice when the cost of railway electrification is high at that time. 1In the mid-1920s, Baldwin Locomotive Works in the United States also designed and produced a prototype of an electric diesel locomotive, which adopted the electrical equipment of Westinghouse Electric, and was mainly used in sections where steam locomotives were difficult to run, such as places where water and coal were scarce. At this time, the diesel locomotive entered the practical stage, and its performance advantages gradually appeared. 1929, Canada National Railway ordered two diesel locomotives from Ximu Electric, becoming the first railway company in North America to apply diesel locomotives to railway trunk lines. On the other hand, diesel locomotives began to be widely used in the field of shunting locomotives. General Electric Company produced a series of small shunting diesel locomotives in 1960s+091930s, and Westinghouse Electric Company and Baldwin Locomotive Works also began to produce shunting diesel locomotives in 1960s +0929. However, due to the Great Depression not long after, Westinghouse Electric later stopped the production of locomotives and turned to provide electrical components for locomotives. Compared with the traditional steam locomotive, diesel locomotive has strong power, no smoke pollution and relatively easy maintenance. In the North American continent in the 1930' s, the electric diesel locomotive quickly became the main force on the railway trunk line, and the transition stage from steam locomotive to diesel locomotive was officially started, and some trunk diesel locomotives with a single power of 900 ~ 1000 kW appeared, such as the FT diesel locomotive successfully developed by 1939 EMD.
In Europe, Klaus-Maffei Wiegman, augsburg-Nuremberg Machinery Factory and Voith Company successfully developed the world's first hydraulic diesel locomotive-V140-and put it into use in 1935. This diesel locomotive is simpler in structure and lighter in weight than electric locomotive. Deutsche Reich Railways (DR) is very satisfied with the performance of this locomotive. Since then, the liquid diesel locomotive has become the main locomotive of the German railway trunk line.
After World War II, diesel locomotives entered a stage of rapid development. Due to the rapid improvement of diesel engine performance and manufacturing technology, and the popularization of exhaust gas turbocharging system, the power of diesel locomotives is generally increased by about 50% compared with that before World War II. In 1950s, the number of diesel locomotives increased rapidly, and DC electric diesel locomotives and internal combustion hydraulic pressure developed in a double track. 1960s, high-power silicon rectifier was successfully developed and applied to railway locomotives, and AC -DC electric drive diesel locomotives appeared, and the power level was further improved. With the development of electronic technology, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) trial-produced the AC -DC- AC drive diesel locomotive (Henschel-BBC DE2500) with the power of 197 1 year, which provided a new way for the technical development of diesel locomotives.