I'm wondering how you would control direction on this beast. I believe some marine diesels were (or are) direct drive, and direction is controlled by shifting the valve timing, but the text on this one says it was 2-stroke valveless.
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Paul of Covington I'm wondering how you would control direction on this beast. I believe some marine diesels were (or are) direct drive, and direction is controlled by shifting the valve timing, but the text on this one says it was 2-stroke valveless.
I have a 2-stroke snowmobile engine (gas) that has 'reverse'. When the reverse switch is activated, the engine is stopped and then fired in the reverse direction. When the switch is used again, the engine will operate in the forward direction.
I have no idea of how it was done with this beast.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Unless I am more than usually mistaken, you're describing the Fell-system locomotive. Here is a page with basic information on it.
And here is a bit more on the operation of the locomotive.
For those who just want to see a general diagram of the arrangement:
The 4LV38 motor is described as 'direct reversing' which means that it would be fired and injection-timing-advanced for reverse rotation. This would also affect the air injection for starting and slow speeds. The McKeen cars reversed their gas engine rotation rather than interposing or providing a separate reverse gear arrangement in their mechanical transmission.
I can see no objective reason why this would be particularly difficult to implement on an engine of the 4LV38 design.
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