Technology
The V 200 had two fast-running (1500 RPM) V12 diesel engines. The transmission was hydraulic, each engine drove one bogie set via a hydraulic torque converter. The maximum speed was 140 km/h. The prototypes had a maximum power of 1,471 kW, the V 200.0 had a power of 1,618 kW. Unlike some other diesel-hydraulic locomotives the V 200 was famous for its high reliability. Maybach (type MD650), Mercedes-Benz (type MB820Bb) and MAN (type L 12 V 18/21) engines were used. The hydraulic transmissions fitted to the locomotives were supplied by Maybach (type Mekydro K104U) and Voith (type LT306r/rb). Although differing in several ways - for example the Mekydro K104 transmission had a single torque converter and four mechanicanical gear stages while the Voith L306 had three different-sized torque converters - the engines and transmissions were designed so that the various types were completely interchangeable, not just amongst V 200.0 but with other locomotive types (V80/V100) and diesel multiple units (VT11, VT08 & VT12) that DB ordered around the same time as the V 200.0. It was not uncommon to find a single locomotive with one Mercedes engine and one Maybach unit running together. The MAN engines were only fitted to five locomotives in 1959 as an experiment and these locomotives eventually had their engines replaced with the more common Maybach or Mercedes engines.
In 1960 Mercedes-Benz bought a controlling shareholding in the Maybach company. In 1966 the diesel engine operations of Mercedes-Benz were re-branded as Maybach Mercedes-Benz Motorenbau GmbH. In 1969 the company was renamed Motoren- und Turbinen Union Friedrichshafen GmbH, more commonly known as MTU. At this time all the engine type designations changed, the Maybach MD650 became the MTU 12 V 538 TA 10 and the Mercedes MB820Bb became the MTU 12 V 493 TZ 10. Materially the engines remained the same.
Read more about this topic: DB Class V 200
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)