WELCOME
Faster, Higher, Stronger Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of experimental trains…
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he Olympic motto ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ could just as easily be applied to the development of railways over the last two centuries. What Wh h follows is the story ryy (so far) of our constant search for machines that will wii run faster, carry ryy more people or freight more efficiently and reach places denied to existing technology. Many of these machines were initially top-secret, hidden from sight to prevent rival nations or competitors from stealing the advantage, while others were famously high-profile, both in success and failure. Some have gone on to change the way we travel and move goods, many others proved to be technological dead-ends, while some continue to be under development after several decades, waiting for technology and materials to catch up with wii the idea. From high-pressure steam to magnetic
levitation via rocket-propelled railcars and atomic locomotives, there’s never been a shortage of creative engineers and inventors looking to change the world with wii new concepts. That’s what makes this subject so fascinating – whether those ideas were utterly practical or verging on the insane, there have almost always been people willing wii to back them and develop prototypes to test the concept. We couldn’t feature every ryy experimental locomotive or train, but we’ve done our best to bring you a representative selection of the most successful, most radical and, of course, those that didn’t fare so well. In the beginning, all locomotives were experimental. After Aff years of experiments wii different forms of rail traction, the with legendary ryy Rainhill Trials of 1829 proved the superiority of Stephenson’s design and, with wii gradual improvement, it remained dominant
until the mid-20th century ry. y However, before the end of the 19th century ry, y electricity was showi wing i that more efficient forms of propulsion were possible, and the advent of the internal combustion engine changed the world from the 1920s onwards. In recent decades, the emphasis has been on achieving higher and higher speeds, wii some predicting that steel wheels on with steel rails have reached their limit. Concepts such as MAGLEV, MA A and more recently, Hyperloop promise incredible speeds but have yet to deliver in the real world. Who Wh h knows what might come next? What Wh h we do know is that the human race will wii continue to try ryy and go faster, move greater tonnages of freight and move around more efficiently, and that railways are likely to play a major part in that for the foreseeable future.
Ben Jones Editor
Experimental Trains
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CONTENTS 014 018 020 022 024 028 032 034 038 040 044
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EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN STEAM BACK-TO-FRONT LOCOMOTIVES A CLEARER VIEW THE MIDLAND’S MYSTERIOUS PAGET LOCOMOTIVE STEAM TURBINES STANIER’S ‘TURBOMOTIVE’ FURY BY NAME HUSH-HUSH: GRESLEY’S HIGH PRESSURE EXPERIMENT GETTING A BOOST IMPROVING THE BREED KITSON-S STILL STEAM-D DIESEL HYBRID
Experimental Ex E Exp xpe xp errriim eri me men en e ntta tal aall T Tr Trains rain aaiin ins
045 048 050 056 060 064 067 068 070 072 074 076
LEADER: STEAM’S LAST GASP? BR ‘9F’ EXPERIMENTS THE QUEST FOR ECONOMY DIESEL MAKES ITS MARK MAIN LINE DIESEL PIONEERS SOUTHERN GIANTS: 10201-203 SR 11001 ONE LOCOMOTIVE, SIX ENGINES: THE FELL DIESEL FIRST OF THE TYPE 1S: BR 10800 MORE POWER, MORE SPEED DELTIC: EE’S GAME CHANGER FAMOUS FOUR: THE 1960S DIESEL PROTOTYPES
082 084 088 094 098 102 106 110 118 124 125 126
EXPERIMENTAL BR DIESELS BIRTH OF AN ICON: BR’S HIGH SPEED DIESEL L TRAIN RAILCAR RENAISSANCE MONORAIL! THE JET AGE GT3: EE’S BRAVE EXPERIMENT AHEAD OF THE CURVE THE SPARKS EFFECT ELECTRIC PIONEERS THYRISTOR TESTBED: 87101 BREAKING THE MOULD: 89001 HOVER & FLY
AUTHOR: Ben Jones PRODUCTION EDITOR: Pauline Hawkins DESIGN: Lucy Carnell, atg-media.com COVER DESIGN: Mike Baumber ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sue Keily SALES EXECUTIVE: Craig Amess REPROGRAPHICS: Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield and Angie Sisestean PUBLISHER: Steve O’Hara PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Dan Savage COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Nigel Hole MARKETING MANAGER: Charlotte Park DISTRIBUTION: tradesales@mortons.co.uk classicmagazines.co.uk/tradesales PRINTED BY: William Gibbons And Sons, Wolverhampton ISBN: 978-1-911276-48-7 PUBLISHED BY: Mortons Media Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR Tel: 01507 529529 COPYRIGHT Mortons Media Group Ltd, 2018 All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ern Steam Revival
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BULLEID’S ‘LEADER’ One of the most controversial and most expensive failures of the steam era was O.V.S. Bulleid’s unconventional ‘Leader’ 0-6-6-0T, designed to replace a range of vintage pre-Grouping classes on branch line and secondary work away from the Southern’s electrified network. Just one of these massive machines was ever completed before the project was scrapped by BR. See page 45 for more. COLOUR-RAIL
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Experimental Trains
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JET SETTER English Electric’s Gas Turbine 3 (GT3) was first proposed in the early-1950s but not built until a decade later, by which time BR was firmly committed to diesel traction. In main line tests, the red-brown prototype proved to be hugely powerful and capable, but like all railway gas turbines heavy fuel consumption was its downfall. Some argue that it should never have been built at all. RAILWAY MAGAZINE ARCHIVE
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Experimental Trains
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T I LT & Z O O M
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Experimental Trains
Designed to tilt around curves without losing speed, like a motorcyclist, the Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was BR’s solution to increasing speeds on conventional routes such as the West Coast Main Line. It was built in both gas turbine and electric versions, although only the latter ever carried passengers. Drawing in influences from aerospace technology it was years ahead of its time but was sadly cancelled in the mid-1980s and most of the cars were scrapped. Today’s Virgin West Coast ‘Pendolino’ tilting trains employ Italian technology imported from FIAT/Alstom. RAIL PHOTOPRINTS
Experimental Trains
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ONE RAIL OR TWO?
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Experimental Trains