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Diesel vs steam: power at speed

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Posted by timz on Monday, June 9, 2008 6:57 PM

 fredswain wrote:
According even to the links I provided, wheel diameter is a factor when determining TE. Am I reading something wrong?

Could be a factor, depending on what info you're starting with. If you somehow know the motor's torque and gear ratio, you'll naturally need to know driver diameter to calculate the TE-- and you could calculate rail horsepower from that TE if you wanted. But if you're starting with the rail horsepower and locomotive speed, then driver diameter is irrelevant.

Same with a steam locomotive. If you somehow know the MEP of the steam in the cylinder, and the cylinder diameter and stroke, then you need the driver diameter in order to calculate TE. But if somebody gives you the rail horsepower at a given locomotive speed, then you know the engines TE at that speed-- whatever its dimensions.

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