Road switcher locomotive

However, twin control engineer positions have fallen into disuse as almost all operations are now run "short hood forward".

[citation needed] EMD was the last to enter the field and failed to capture much of the market with their first road switcher the BL2.

Although at one point 4,500 kW (6,000 hp), net for traction, units were made, these quickly fell into disuse, and most have been scrapped by North American railroads.

For economic and performance reasons, 1,900 kW (2,500 hp) and lower units generally have a DC generator, producing 600 volts DC, nominal, whereas 2,200 kW (3,000 hp) and higher units generally have an AC alternator with integral rectifier, producing 1,200 volts DC, nominal, (alternator/rectifiers remained an option on certain sub-2,200 kW (3,000 hp) units, for economic and service reasons).

[citation needed] Belgian state railways NMBS/SNCB operate 170 German built engines in their class 77, both for shunting and for mainline haulage.

Units have been operated by Russia, Belarus, Ukraine (as class ЧМЭ3, transliteration ChME3) and other ex-Soviet bloc countries, in Czechoslovakia (as class T669, later as ŽSR 770 and ČD 770 in Slovakia and the Czech Republic), on industrial railways in Poland (S200), in Albania (HSH T669.1), Iraq (DES 3101), Syria (LDE 1500) and in India (DEC 120).

It is widely used as a shunter on switch yards, but it is also used as a line locomotive, both for passenger and freight trains, on unelectrified tracks.

[citation needed] The DB Class V 90 and the Voith Gravita are heavy shunters suited for road switching tasks.

[citation needed] PKP class SM42 is a Polish 74-ton diesel locomotive used for shunting and light mainline haulage (version SP42 and SU42).

There would be five Type 1 classes built, as small batches from a range of manufacturers, in order to spread the experience of constructing the new diesel locomotives.

It had the Bo-Bo arrangement[3] and a top speed of 70 mph (115 km/h),[4] rather than the rigid 0-6-0 used for the 350 bhp (260 kW) low-speed shunting types.

[5] The later Swindon-built class 14 and Clayton Type 1 had low engine covers and a central cab to give better vision.

However the Clayton required a redesign of the reliable Paxman engines from the earlier designs to a new, and unreliable, horizontal layout.

[7] One deliberate attempt to build a road switcher was the hydraulic transmission prototype DHP1, built by a consortium of Rolls-Royce, International Combustion and Clayton.