Prototypical prime mover (diesel engine)

primal · Post by **primal** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:39 am

I was wondering after seeing pictures of all these small prototype motors as a train buff with no experience of any kind in machining. I was wondering if a replica of a 4400HP diesel locomotive prime mover could be built to run just like the real thing in 1:8 scale with the same look. If so how could I go about building one and what kind of cost would I be looking at?

srrl5 · Post by **srrl5** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:54 am

A month ago I went to the Men, Metal amd Machine show in Visalia CA. I could not belive some of the model IC engines there that ran. It would take either a lot of time or money but it could be done. That is the kind of modeling I love. But still prefer Steam.

David

vfmvfm · Post by **vfmvfm** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:46 am

primal wrote:I was wondering after seeing pictures of all these small prototype motors as a train buff with no experience of any kind in machining. I was wondering if a replica of a 4400HP diesel locomotive prime mover could be built to run just like the real thing in 1:8 scale with the same look. If so how could I go about building one and what kind of cost would I be looking at?

A V16 2 stroke say, typical of many EMD locos, is not practical at 1:8 with a diesel. The torque ends up being high for a long crankshaft. An analogy would be the design of a steam boiler where the thermodynamic don't scale but can be made to work, albeit differently.

You could fake it, but I'd rather have a working diesel.

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