Giesl ejector

A Giesl ejector is a suction draught system for steam locomotives that works on the same principle as a feedwater pump.

This ejector (German: "Ejektor", "Flachschornstein" or "Quetschesse") was invented in 1951 by the Austrian engineer, Dr. Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen. The Giesl ejector ensures improved suction draught and a correspondingly better use of energy. The existing blastpipe in a locomotive is replaced by several, small, fan-shaped, diverging blast pipes, from which the diffuser gets its flat, long-drawn out shape.

Giesl claimed that his ejector enabled a saving in coal of between 6 and 12 % - although in practice the maximum saving was more like 8 % - and an increase in power of up to 20 %. Many railway administrations converted their steam engines to Giesl ejectors, including the ÖBB, ČSD and Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) in East Germany, as well as railway companies in Africa, China and Japan. The licence fees were not paid in every case, it being said that often they almost cancelled out the saving in coal. In the DR it was assessed that the Giesl ejectors would pay for themselves within a year, as a result of which they converted over 500 locomotives; primarily the Classes 38.10, 50, 52 and 65.10. The most famous individual locomotive with Giesl ejectors is the trial express locomotive 18.201.

External links

* [http://www.eisenbahnfotograf.de/ausland/oebbdampf/oebbdampf.htm www.eisenbahnfotograf.de] - Numerous photos of steam locomotives with Giesl ejectors (German)]
* There is a relevant English-language forum at [http://germanrail.8.forumer.com/index.php Railways of Germany]