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A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages.[1][2] The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three stages were used in ships, for example.[3]
Compounding became popular for railway locomotives from the early 1880s and by the 1890s were becoming common. Large numbers were constructed, mostly two- and four-cylinder compounds, in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the United States. It declined in popularity due to maintenance issues and because superheating provided similar efficiencies at lower cost. Nonetheless, compound Mallets were built by the Norfolk and Western Railway up to 1952.
- ^ van Riemsdijk, John T. (1970). "The Compound locomotive, Parts 1, 2, 3". Transactions of the Newcomen Society (2).
- ^ Van Riemsdijk 1994, pp. 4–9.
- ^ "The Pictorial History of Steam Power", J.T.Van Riemsdijk and Kenneth Brown, 1980 Octopus Books Limited, ISBN 0-7064 0976-0, p.101