Distillate fuel, distallate prime movers - Classic Trains Magazine

Knnashley wrote:

What is distillate fuel - gasoline, diesel, kerosene, or other? What is a distillate prime mover (engine) - spark iginition or compression ignition? Compression ratios?What companies made them? Dates in general use? I've seen many mentions in the railfan literature, but never a clear explanation/description.

The distillate engines are best represented by the Winton engines in the EMC railcars. These were conventional spark ignition gasoline engines with low compression ratio by current standards and capable of running on fuel of about 40 Octane rating.

The "distillate" was a refinery product that contained the fractions between the highly flammable gasoline and the tar like fuel oil, and is generally thought of as being like diesel oil or kerosene, but didn't have a fixed specification and could vary depending on the type of crude oil going through the refinery. The Wintons could burn it, but they had to be started and warmed up on real gasoline.

The Santa Fe gave up and used unleaded gasoline from the mid 1930s because the cost saving from using distillate was exceeded by the increase in maintenance costs on the engine. This was particularly so in the case of the big V-16 in the articulated Santa Fe baggage car unit. known as the "old Pelican".

M636C