Internal Combustion Home Appliances

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

It's a Renault advritisng campaign going back to 2011



Renault have a strategic partnership / Alliance with Nissan - (They own 43.4% of Nissan and many of their cars are common platforms now)

(LOADS of appliances in this).
 
In real life you can buy a gas motored blender-one that even has a V-twin Harely Davidson motorcycle motor!Watched a video of it mixing a smoothie.It was built into the counter of the smoothie stand and has the handlebars and handlebar throttle!There are a few out there!In the video the gas powered toy dog was a hoot!
 
My Amish neighbors

Still use gas powered wringer washers. At one time Lehman's hardware in Kidron Ohio imported a Saudi Arabian made copy of the classic Maytag wringer washer.
 
I think steam-powered household appliances would be exciting. In the days of steam locomotives, the air conditioning in the passenger cars operated on steam; I'm not sure about the refrigeration in the fresh food cars.  
 
Gasoline washers

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I remember years ago my mother telling me a story about a friend of hers from high school who’s mother was killed when their gasoline powered washing machine exploded. Mom grew up in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. Evidently they must not have been very safe.
 
Air powered appliances

Are common in some Amish settlements. They convert appliances to run on pneumatic compressed air motors. Grain mills, KitchenAid mixers, Vitamix blenders etc. They joke that compressed air is "Amish electricity"
 
Amish also uses hydraulic power,too-from a central gas or diesel engine pump.
More efficient than air but more expensive.
Train fresh food or freezer cars-they can run from wheel mounted compressors or small diesel engines when the car is parked.When the car is moving the compressor was turned by one of the wheelsets.They were also well insulated so they could stay cold for a very long time with no power.
 
Rail car refrigeration...

Last night the local PBS station (KQED) aired "East of Eden", the Steinbeck classic with an equally classic James Dean in his last movie role. In the plot Dean's character, Cal, has a father who had a vision of shipping lettuce from the Salinas Valley, where they had a farm, across the country in refrigerated rail cars. Only problem was, their way of refrigerating the cars depended on blocks of ice. Well, their first shipment got delayed in the mountains and everything melted; lettuce ruined. I guess refrigeration units of the day were too bulky to put on trains.
 
Yes,in the older days before the refrigeration units became available food cars were packed with ice and the food.The bonus of the mechanical refrigeration was there could be more room for food!The chiller unit was mounted under the car.
 
On a stretch of track between the College Park and Greenbelch Metro Stations, the track is parallel to the CSX track and lot of afternoons, I see trains with Tropicana Cars with big refrigeration units mounted on the front. Those could be electric & run off the breaker panel in the second engine. The power for the train comes off a panel in the engine closest to the cars. A friend who loved trains got to work as a customer service person for AMCRAP and ride trains for a living. He told me a nightmare story about a long train from Washington to Boston one cold Sunday night after Thanksgiving. The engine with the power take off panel was old and the breakers had suffered repeated use at peak loads so they were twitchy and not going to run at anywhere near full load anymore then more cars were added to the train. It boiled down to either a little heat and no lights beyond emergency lighting in the cars or no heat and more lights. His survey of the passengers turned up that they were will to put up with the first option for the first leg to Baltimore and Philly where enough people got off that they could drop some cars and have more light and heat, but he bitched about the sorry state of the rolling stock and they did not have full heat until after NYC. Unless they have changed things, only the engine closest to the cars can supply power to the cars. 

 

The blocks of ice for RR cars explains why the ice and coal companies were usually located by the train tracks near the depot in old towns. We used to go there for blocks of ice to make ice cream in the summer. Now the ice plant is condos or something.

 

Some time ago I read about someone living in a refrigerated rail car in California as a kid. It was so well insulated that it was cool inside even in the summer and it was easy to keep warm in the winter.  
 
Some freight trains had power generator cars that would provide power for electric refrigeration cars.The wheel driven compressors are less popular now.When I used to ride VRE trains to the VOA DC plant downtown-Federal Center or La Fant Plaza stop for the vRE train.One day there was a BAD derailment in the Alexandra freightyard.And many of the cars were the Tropicana ones-guess folks North of DC didn't get their OJ that day and a few afterward until the mess was cleaned up.Was late for work that day as our train had to literally creep into town.You could see the thick insulation in those Tropican cars-several in worth!Also since some of the track was torn up-crews were rebuilding the track.We were on another track.
 
I remember taking Amtrak pacific Coast Starlight from Berkeley to Portland back in the '70's. I had brought a back pack with sleeping bag, and wanted to bring the sleeping bag with me to the car I'd be riding in. But the porter said the cars were all heated and I wouldn't need it.

Needless to say I froze my tail off that night on that damn train. There wasn't any heat in the car, and the staff would not let me retrieve my sleeping bag from the luggage car. And, they couldn't provide me with a blanket. I was not a happy camper on that train!
 
It's a wonder there is any

passenger rail service. What the interstates didn't kill, bad management did.
The PRR/Penn Central/NY Central B&O mergers should have worked.
Out west it was AT&SF, Burlington, SP, UP.
Ironic as that was, Europe with it's high speed autobahns managed to retain rail service as well as develop high speed service. The modern DB is even a joint stock corporation.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top