1949 is one of the first in a series of long years of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. This war could well develop into a real conflict, and both sides managed to acquire nuclear weapons. In 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, the Soviet pilot A. M. Tyuterev for the first time in the world broke the sound barrier in horizontal flight on a MiG-15 fighter, and in the same year at the NAMI Institute began to develop a ferry that could work on wood!
Even before the war in the 1930s, NAMI, which was then called NATI, was developing gas generating plants. Such installations made it possible to obtain gas for carburetor engines from everything that could burn: wood blocks, peat, coal, and even briquettes of pressed straw. At the same time, the developed installations were quite capricious in operation and heavy, and their capacity after switching to "pasture" was reduced by almost 30%.
At the same time, there were areas in the USSR in which from 40% to 60% of all trucks were powered by gas-generating engines. The point was that in those years there were only two main oil fields in the country - in Grozny and Baku. It was not so easy to deliver fuel from there, for example, to Siberia. But gas-generating cars were still created on the basis of gasoline ones, and Soviet engineers thought about creating a machine that would be arranged like a steam locomotive. Fuel would have to be thrown into the furnace of such a machine, and the steam pressure in the boiler would set the wheels in motion.
In Western countries, samples of such machines have existed for a long time. For this reason, in 1938, NAMI acquired a "six-ton dump truck of the British company Sentinel with a low-pressure boiler" (as the machine was called in Soviet documents) for conducting comprehensive research. The car purchased in England was fired with selected Donetsk coal. Despite the monstrous consumption of coal - the car ate 152 kg per 100 kilometers, the operation of the car was profitable. It was all about fuel prices, while gasoline cost 95 kopecks, and a kilogram of coal was only 4 kopecks.
In Great Britain, the USSR acquired a 6-ton Sentinel S4 truck, where these steam trucks were mass-produced. And although soon after the end of the First World War, the popularity of these cars in England fell, the Sentinel company was not going to abandon them. The company was one of the more conservative adherents of steam tractors and trucks, persistently working to improve their design. In 1926, the company launched a series production of its new series of two-axle vehicles "DG4", equipped with a high-pressure steam engine (up to 275 atmospheres), as well as a new all-metal cabin. Three-axle 12-ton trucks "DG6" (wheel arrangement 6x2) with a chain drive of the middle axle and balanced suspension of all rear wheels are also a novelty. In 1929-1930, several prototypes of DG8 (8x2) vehicles were produced, with a carrying capacity of up to 15 tons with a total weight of 23 tons.
That is, the company did not even think about abandoning the production of steam trucks. Beginning in 1933, she began production of the more advanced two-axle series "S4". It was a 4-cylinder steam truck featuring a fully enclosed wedge-shaped cab, worm gear, cardan drive of the rear wheels, all pneumatic tires, windshield wipers and electric headlights while retaining steam brakes. The truck could reach speeds of up to 56 km / h and outwardly looked very similar to ordinary gasoline cars, but it was given out by a pipe that protruded from the roof and a specific whistle of steam while driving.
Sentinel S4
Steam cars at that time proved to be indispensable for transporting goods in a hot state, for example, bitumen, which was heated by steam. The machines were produced until 1938, after which Sentinel switched to production only on orders. The most surprising thing is that there were orders for them after the end of the Second World War. So in 1949, 250 steam trucks were ordered by the Argentine Marine Department. And in 1951 one of the last Sentinel steam trucks - a 6x4 dump truck - was delivered to one of the British coal mines. The durability of these machines is confirmed by the fact that during the Second World War, about 200 machines of the first series "Standard", created at the beginning of the century, served in the British army. Today in England you can still find more than 10 different "Standards" that take part in the rallies of rare automobiles.
The USSR also wanted to make its analogue to this successful English steam car. Already in 1939, in the Soviet Union, on the YAG-6 chassis, a steam car was developed (possibly copied from English), which was supposed to run on anthracite or liquid fuel. However, they did not have time to build this car, in the last pre-war years the USSR had no time for exotic cars, and then the war began. However, after the victory, it was decided to return to this topic.
The designers of the Scientific Automotive Institute (NAMI) were given the task of creating a car that would run on wood. The car was planned to be used in logging, the project was ordered by the MGB and the GULAG, which were in charge of a large number of "lumberjacks". The use of firewood provided practically waste-free production.
After so many years, it is difficult to judge the true reasons for the creation of such cars. But according to one version, the car could be developed with an eye to the future, in which there would be a large-scale nuclear conflict. It is possible that the cargo ferry was supposed to play the same role in the country's defense capability as the steam locomotives, which continued to stand on the siding. In the event of a nuclear war, only wood could remain the only available fuel, and here the ferry car would prove itself from the best side.
It is worth noting that before NAMI specialists, no one tried to build a serial steam car running on wood. The energetic engineer Yuri Shebalin was appointed the head of this unusual project. As a basis for his development, he decided to take the 7-ton truck YAZ-200, which was mastered by the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant in 1947. The steam car created on its basis received the designation NAMI-012. A total of 3 copies were built.
The carrying capacity of such a steam car was supposed to be about 6 tons with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 14.5 tons, including 350-400 kg of firewood in bunkers and up to 380 kg of transported water in the boiler of a steam engine. The project provided for a maximum speed of 40-45 km / h, and firewood consumption was planned to be limited to 4-5 kg per kilometer. One refueling should have been enough for 80-100 kilometers. If the work on the project was completed successfully, it was planned to create an all-wheel drive modification and a number of trucks for various purposes and carrying capacity. It was planned to use them where the delivery of gasoline and diesel fuel was difficult, and firewood was in abundance.
Taking into account the bulky dimensions of the steam power plant, Yu. Shebalin and his colleague on the project N. Korotonoshko (in the future, NAMI's chief designer for off-road trucks) decided to use a layout with a three-seater cabin above the front axle. An engine room with a steam power plant was located behind the cabin, and then a cargo platform went. A three-cylinder vertical steam engine, which developed a power of 100 hp, was placed between the spars, and a water-tube boiler unit, which was manufactured in conjunction with fuel bins, was installed on the rear wall of the engine room.
On the right side in the engine room, the designers placed a 200-liter water tank and a condenser, behind them was an auxiliary steam turbine of "crumpled" steam, equipped with a combustion blower and an axial fan designed to blow off the condenser. An electric motor was also located here, designed to rotate the blower when the boiler was fired up. It is worth noting that the experience of developing steam power plants for compact steam locomotives of those years was widely used in the NAMI truck.
All equipment that required maintenance during operation and observation was located on the left in the direction of the truck. Access to the service areas was provided by doors and shutters of the engine room. The transmission of the steam car included a two-stage reduction gear, a three-plate clutch, propeller shafts and a rear axle.
Controlling such a machine, despite the fact that it was identical to the YAZ-200 truck in terms of the number of pedals and levers, required special training from the driver. At the disposal of the driver were the steering wheel, the lever for switching the cutoffs of the steam distribution mechanism (3 cutoffs for moving forward, they provided 25%, 40% and 75% of the power and one reversible one for moving backward). Also, the driver had a downshift lever, brake and clutch pedals, throttle valve control, as well as levers for the central parking brake and manual throttle valve control.
When driving on a flat stretch of road, the chauffeur mainly used the cut-off shift lever, rarely engaging downshifts. Starting off the car, overcoming small climbs and acceleration were carried out only by acting on the cut-off lever and on the throttle valve. At the same time, it was not necessary to constantly operate the gear lever and clutch, which facilitated the driver's work.
Three valves were placed under the driver's left hand at the back of the seat. One of these valves was a bypass valve, it served to regulate the water supply to the boiler by a drive feed pump, two more valves provided the start-up of an auxiliary turbine and a direct-acting steam feed pump at the parking lots. On the right side, between the seats, there was a lever for adjusting the air supply to the firebox. The shifter and bypass valve were used only when a failure of automatic pressure and water level control was observed.
A boiler engine of an unusual design was installed on the NAMI-012 truck. The driver did not have to constantly monitor the combustion process and supply new firewood to the firebox as it burns out. Small blocks of 50x10x10 cm in size were used as firewood. Firewood from the bunkers, as they burned out, were independently lowered onto the grate under the influence of their weight. At the same time, the combustion process could be regulated by changing the air supply under the grate, this could be done by an air pressure machine or a driver from the cab. One filling of bunkers with wood with a moisture content of up to 35% was enough for 80-100 km of run on the highway.
Even with forced operating modes of the boiler, the chemical underburning of the machine was only 4-5%. The good organization of the combustion process and the successful placement of the heating surfaces made it possible to use fuel with high efficiency. At forced and medium loads, the boiler unit could operate with an efficiency of more than 70%. At the same time, the design of the combustion system allowed, after a small alteration, the use of low-calorie fuel, such as brown coal or peat, as fuel.
Tests of the NAMI-012 cargo steam car, which were carried out in 1950, showed good results. It turned out that the dynamics of the steam car is not inferior, and in acceleration up to 35 km / h it even surpasses the YaAZ-200 equipped with a diesel engine. At low revs, the torque of the NAMI experimental car was 5 times more than on the YaAZ-200. When operating such steam vehicles in logging, the reduction in the cost of transportation for each unit of cargo was 10% compared to trucks with gasoline engines and more than 2 times compared to vehicles with gas generators. Test drivers appreciated the truck's simple handling, which also proved to be surprisingly very reliable in operation. The main attention that the machine demanded from itself was monitoring the water level in the boiler.
When using the trailer, the carrying capacity of the road train with the NAMI-012 tractor grew up to 12 tons. The curb weight of the truck was 8.3 tons. With a fully loaded trailer and its own on-board platform, the steam truck could reach speeds of up to 40 km / h, which was quite suitable for harvesting. The consumption of firewood in real operating conditions was from 3 to 4 kg per kilometer, and water consumption - from 1 to 1.5 liters. At the same time, the time required to start the movement of the truck / tractor after an overnight stay averaged from 23 to 40 minutes, depending on the moisture content of the firewood used.
Following the car NAMI-012 with a 4x2 wheel arrangement, an experimental all-wheel drive tractor NAMI-018 was created. At the same time, already in the early 1950s, all work on steam trucks in the USSR was curtailed. The fate of the prototypes NAMI-012 and NAMI-018 turned out to be unenviable. They, like many other interesting domestic developments, disappeared before they could become exhibits in museums. Thus, the world's first wood-fired cargo ferry was also the last vehicle of its kind.
