Diesel locomotive Therefore, diesel traction became economical for shunting before it became economical for hauling trains. The construction of diesel shunters began in 1920 in France, in 1925 in Denmark, in 1926 in the Netherlands, and in 1927 in Germany. After few years of testing, hundreds of units were produced within a decade. Diesel-powered or "oil-engined" railcars, generally diesel–mechanical, were developed by various European manufacturers in the 1930s, e.g. by William Beardmore and Company for the Canadian National Railways (the Beardmore Tornado engine was subsequently used in the R101 airship). Some of those series for regional traffic were begun with gasoline motors
Steam diesel hybrid locomotive a steam engine offered a high starting torque—a tractive force of was available—while a diesel engine offered a high fuel efficiency and it was considered desirable to combine the two. In outline the machine resembled a conventional 2-6-2T steam locomotive, but it had four pairs of horizontally opposed cylinders (13½ inch bore × 15½ inch stroke—343 × 394 mm) mounted longitudinally above the frame and driving a crankshaft placed between them, with the further drivetrain by gears. The cylinders were made double-ended, with the rod end of each cylinder for steam and the closed end fitted with a diesel injector.