Archangel12504

Regular steam engines have to spin down before spinning up the other way with a reversing engine. Thus the iconic scene in the film Titanic. In the case of that ship, only the two outboard props could go into reverse, while the center engine could only be stopped which hurt rudder Control. One of the primary features of turbo electric drive was the fact that all you had to do to go into reverse was reverse the polarity on the electric motors. In other words, a turbo electric ship could go backwards at full power. In short, reverse on a reciprocating steam engine required specialized equipment and took a significant amount of time. Turbo-electric resolved that problem, but was significantly heavier and more expensive than reciprocating engines and later steam turbines.