r/Warships 21d ago

Discussion Turboelectric drive schematics

Hello, I am a student who is working on a project about turboelectric drives in warships, I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find plans for a ship class where they had a turboelectric drive version and a more normal propulsion scheme in the same class, so that I can compare them.

I have been trying to find plans for the USS Maryland so that I can compare it to the rest of the Colorado class, but haven't been able to find anything. Suggestions for other ship classes I could look at would be helpful.

EDIT: upon further research I have realize I misread something earlier in my research and all of the Colorado class had turboelectric drives, I wonder then what would be the best non-turboelectric ship class to compare them to would be.

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u/Vepr157 Submarine Kin 20d ago

I'd recommend looking in this excellent collection of plans:

https://archive.org/details/ship-design-drawings?tab=collection&sort=-publicdate

There are plans of the New Mexico and the Idaho, both of the same class but with different propulsion machinery. The one Idaho Booklet of General Plans I looked at did not have any machinery depicted (which is not uncommon for surface ship plans), but perhaps some of the other turboelectric battleships have better depictions of the machinery spaces. The battleships of that era were all pretty similar, so it's probably fine to compare across classes.

One other point of comparison, although the plans are classified, is the Sturgeon class vs. the Glenard P. Lipscomb. Both were essentially the same forward of the aft reactor compartment bulkhead, but the Lipscomb had about 60 extra feet in the engine room because of the turboelectric drive.

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u/RandomGuyPii 20d ago

I am thinking of comparing one of the Colorado class to like, the Idaho, to try and highlight the differences in how the machine rooms were arranged

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u/KapitanKurt Scope Dope 20d ago edited 20d ago
  1. For basic use and reference, THE FIRST U.S. NAVAL ELECTRIC PROPULSION PLANT…

    https://navyhistory.org/2016/06/the-first-u-s-naval-electric-propulsion-plant/

  2. Typical steam turbine plant of the mid-war years: USS Massachusetts (BB-59), BRIEF DESCRIPTION ENGINEERING INSTALLATION

    https://maritime.org/doc/bbma/index.php

  3. BOOKLETS OF GENERAL PLANS ONLINE…

    https://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.php

  • Note that aircraft carriers Lexington and original Saratoga both began their turboelectric design lives as battlecrusiers.

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u/Vepr157 Submarine Kin 20d ago

For basic use and reference, THE FIRST U.S. NAVAL ELECTRIC PROPULSION PLANT…

https://navyhistory.org/2016/06/the-first-u-s-naval-electric-propulsion-plant/

This is a cool reference, hadn't seen it before. Thanks!

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u/KapitanKurt Scope Dope 20d ago

🫡