If you had to put either steam, diesel or electric trains into ‘room 101’, which would it be and why? ?
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If you had to put either steam, diesel or electric trains into ‘room 101’, which would it be and why? ?
???
Being in my eightieth year my memory sometimes lets me down but I'm pretty sure that when I was a member of the Instution of Locomotive Engineers the consensus was that a national network of steam hauled stock had become a financial and operating liability. I doubt that much has changed but nostalgia is always with us … I gather vinyl records are proving more popular than CDs.
Michael Harding:
Being in my eightieth year my memory sometimes lets me down but I'm pretty sure that when I was a member of the Instution of Locomotive Engineers the consensus was that a national network of steam hauled stock had become a financial and operating liability. I doubt that much has changed but nostalgia is always with us … I gather vinyl records are proving more popular than CDs.
Michael I am sure you are right. But again the whole emphasis of the industry post war was to limp along. No real money was put into steam From a central point of view and individual companies were at the forefront of R&D.
I will give an example. Sentinel https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sentinel-Cammell_Steam_Railcar_No_5208_g.jpg#/media/File:Sentinel-Cammell_Steam_Railcar_No_5208_g.jpg made railcars. If I remember correctly, using a low water volume boiler, fully automatic, oil fired at 300psi.
From the website “The unit is articulated, the three coaches sharing four bogies instead of six that would be required if normal practice were followed. The boiler is a Woolnough ‘three drum’ marine type and is oil-fired. It supplies steam to a pair of six-cylinder engines which drive the wheels of two bogies via Cardan shafts. The steam boiler is in one end of the coach (3rd class because of the heat), the middle coach was 2nd class, and the end coach was 1st class. Each coach had a toilet appropriate to the class!
Top speed of the unit is over 60 mph and it seats 186 passengers. It was used on Cairo suburban services, based at El Wasta depot, some 50 miles south of Cairo. It also worked around Tanta, 50 miles north of Cairo. It was withdrawn from service in 1962, when it was put into storage at El Wasta.”
Technical Details
| Boiler | 335 psi three drum water tube boiler. |
| Engine | Two 6 cylinder single acting compact steam engine, driving the last and first articulated bogies of the power car. |
| Regulator | Housed in the boiler room. Controlled by hydraulics from driving compartment at either end of the unit. |
| Control | Notching up of engines by hydraulics from driving compartments. Series of lights to indicate regulator position and notched up position. |
| Boiler Feed | Automatic with a float valve controlling a feed water pump. Standby injector. |
| Fuel | Heavy Bunker C Oil which is heated, strained, reheated and blown under pressure into the boiler firebox. |
| Brakes | Standard Westinghouse air system |
No company, as far as I am aware, found reliable materials to produce, say 1000 to 1500psi boilers and therefore the thermal efficiency was never really improved. And more importantly the UK or Europe did not purchase any, thus giving Rolls Royce who took over Sentinel in 1956, no reason to continue.
Russ
I remember an article in one of the railway mags many years ago about the relative efficiencies of various types of steam locos v. diesel. There was a mention of a steam loco driver in India who would do all sorts of unpaid maintenance work/cleaning etc. on his loco which brought the efficiency almost on a par with the local diesels, however this was the result of a lot of extra labour!
As for overhead electrification (especially with the UK rail network's limited loading gauge) the cost of powering the whole network would be unfeasible plus the numerous problems with such structures. Talking with some line engineers on the WCML one of their main problems was birds sheltering under bridges in wet weather: damp bird perches on 25kV wire, shuffles under bridge, gap between bird and structure less than safe, arc strikes up carbonising bird and eventually burning through wire and dropping a mile of overhead line into the dirt!
Could I suggest some form of diesel-electric hybrid loco? Battery storage charged by a diesel engine running at maximum efficiency and with the engine available to give a boost when needed (on starting or steep gradients). This could be taken a step further with partial electrification of the rail network so instead of the diesel engine there are sections of overhead line or third rail or some other power transfer method, probably at stations where the heaviest power requirements would be needed for starting. Train uses power supply to charge up/start, runs on batteries for most of the route. Simples! No long runs of overhead wires. No pollution.
I would also think that there should be some development of lighter weight trains as well: at the moment I hate to think how much energy is being used just to get hundreds of tons of rolling stock up to speed (and wasted when it slows down) let alone the additional weight of passengers/cargo.
Michael Harding:
… I gather vinyl records are proving more popular than CDs.
That's very true! My local supermarket have started selling classic vinyl records some of which I have an original still…. ?
I'm lucky (or unlucky depending on your views) to live close to a mainline railway line and quite often see the Flying Scotsman on it's travels to different areas of the country. We always know when it's coming through as there's a huge crowd of spectators trudging through the farmers fields to line the track.
The standard diesel locomotives don't get as much attention… ?
Do they need the weight to stay on the track?
I'll put electric in room 101 just because they are very dependant, the other 2 can run happily on two pieces of parallel steel (minimal intrastructure) and to give diesel a boost, autonomous all day. Electric trains very impressive though, and on-board wifi is so much better than it was in 1900.
Relatively current steam locomotives were made by SLM in Switzerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Locomotive_and_Machine_Works which was sold to DLM AG https://dlm-ag.ch/en/
Russ. Many thanks for your response to mine. Having been involved in rolling stock development for many years, I found the details you posted very interesting. With the advantage of hindsight though one must suppose that the development was speculative, with little chance of commercial success because of the higher manufacturing and maintenance costs of mechanical designs. Electrical/electronic ones are therefore adopted whenever possible. Being a member of both the IET and IMechE, I seem to have backed both horses. Mike
Lisa. Noting yours, I thought you might find the following link of interest
< www.bbc.co.uk/.../business-57763301 >
People will always turn out to see something famous/excptional. One of my own treasured memories is watching Alan Pegler - the initial saviour of the Flying Scotman - inspecting the loco in the Paint Shop at Doncaster Works, prior to taking delivery from BR. It's had quite a career since then. Mike
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