"Bruce" wrote in message
...
"Paul Scott" wrote:
None of FGW's 2 car DMUs are diesel electric - I'm sure the only diesel
electric units (ie DEMUs) in use in GB are the Voyagers and Meridians.

The latest new small DMUs (the 172s used by LO and Chiltern) aren't diesel
electric either, and have surprisingly gone back to mechanical gearboxes
following the widespread use of hydraulic gearboxes...

Why surprisingly?

The six-speed mechanical gearboxes have much lower power losses than a
two-speed hydraulic transmission using a torque converter. This leads
to significantly improved fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions.

I'm not surprised myself - but there seem to be many critics who keep
suggesting it'll never work, usually based on what happened about 40 years
go...

Paul S