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
Diesel-Zarlatti locomotive alone, but when running they were powered by a mixture of steam and compressed air. The steam was needed to prevent the cylinders icing up, because compressed air cools when it expands. Diesel-Zarlatti locomotive The Diesel-Zarlatti locomotive was a prototype railway locomotive, built in Italy in 1929, which adopted a hybrid diesel-steam transmission system. In the 1920s, there was a search for alternatives to the steam locomotive for railway traction, to reduce cost and improve efficiency. The main alternatives were railway electrification or the use of an internal combustion engine, such as the diesel engine. A disadvantage of the internal