Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers
Volume 52 (1961)

Journal No. 285

Barton, H.H.C. (Paper No. 631)
Monorails. 8-33. Disc.: 34-59. Bibliography.
Very extensive history back to Palmer's system installed. Traces history of monorails from 1821, the date of the first and British patent specification, to 1960s. It draws attention to the road congestion problem facing the public and many authorities and emphasises the need for supplementary transport facilities. It discusses the application of monorails and track-guided rubber-tyred vehicles to this problem and describes some of their engineering features. Monorail history may be grouped into three periods. The first, from 1821 to 1900, was an experimental period from which two successful working designs emerged to be used in revenue earning service. During the second period, from 1901 until the end of World War II, further designs were developed and some monorails were built experimentally although none was used commercially. During the third and then present period the rapid growth of road traffic, which in some cases has reached saturation, has led to further consideration being given to the monorail and significant improvements to its design. Road congestion has also brought to notice the rubber-tyred track-guided vehicle which, with the monorail and the conventional railway, have been the subject of urban transport economic studies. The Appendix lists 86 monorail and allied schemes which have been proposed during these three periods. Forty-one have been built or were building; seventeen of these had been put to commercial use and twenty-four were built for demonstration purposes only. Individual stystems included the Palmer, Haddon,  Behr, Lartigue. There were several demonstration systems of the Lartigue system including the Peg Leg Railway between Bradford and Gilmore, Pennsylvania and another between Brooklyn and Coney Island. Two further American systems were the Enos Electric Railway and the Boynton Bicycle Railroad. The Listowel and Ballbunion in Ireland was well known. Eugen Langen developed the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (suspended railway )which linked Barmen, Elberfeld and Vohrwinkel. Brush constructed a car body for a proposed Kearney monorail (supported type) which would have connected North and South Shields by tunnel George Bennie's Railplane system was propeller-driven: there was a demonstration track near Glasgow, and a proposal to link Blackpool with Southport. More recent systems tended to opt for pneumatic tyres and included systems in Dallas and Tokyo. Two other systems were described in detail: the Alweg which travelled along a beam and the suspended Chateauneuf-sur-Loire system. Both were candidates to link London Airport to Central London.
Discussion: Kearney (37) particpated. At the meeting in Glasgow on 21 March 1962 E.R.L. Fitzpayne (29-50) participtaed and he suggested that Glasgow airport might have been better located at Prestwick rather than at Renfrew with a monorail connection to it.. 

Robson, A.E. (Paper No. 632)
Railcar development on British Railways. 60-99. Disc.: 99-145.
Author was Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, British Railways, London Midland Region.
Plan for the Modernisation and Re-equipment of British Railways, published in 1955, included proposals for a 4,600 vehicle fleet of diesel multiple-unit trains, including 300 then in use or on order. A programme of this magnitude, which together with the associated maintenance facilities involved capital expenditure in the order of £80 million, would not be embarked upon unless the Commission were satisfied on the economic justification for it. The fact is that consideration of this aspect of railway modernisation began in 1951 when a number of senior officers were appointed by the Railway Executive to consider and report on the scope for the employment of “light weight trains” and to recommend areas considered suitable for experiment on an appropriate scale.
T. Henry Turner.(113-14) stated that the front end of the railcar should have a slope backwards at the top. It should be recalled that when two steam locomotives passed one another at high speed there was nothing like the usual shock to the passengers or to the driver when the engines were Gresley streamlined “Pacifics”. If higher speed running was to be operated blunt-ended trains would not be good. The Gresley design was derived from Sir Nigel’s noting the chisel-shaped ends of the early French Renault railcars. Instead of hitting the passing train an alarming bump the air, displaced by the train, was deflected upwards. The newer Midland Pullman had a handsome if somewhat less effective slope back. Could the Author say how many steam engines had been displaced by his 4,600 railcars? The year that the report was presented to the Railway Executive, on the scope for the employment of lightweight trains, was that in which London suffered the tragic “smog” that quickly led to the Clean Air Act. But for the railcars there would have been one to two thousand more steam locomotives bringing disrepute to the railways on account of the steam, black smoke, sulphur and tarry grit that they emitted. The railcar programme had had a useful psychological effect on many passengers as had been mentioned, but the railcars had also been a very welcome boost to the railwaymen’s morale: they saw new tools coming into use and no longer needed to feel hopelessly out of date. Would the Author say why there was the little dotted line in the diagram of the new cooling system (Fig. 23) that appeared to indicate that the hot coolant was led from the cylinder into an air space? There it would become aerated and in the absence of an inhibitor would accelerate corrosion of the cooling system. Was the dotted line pipe essential to the system? In 1956 he had been chairman at a session of a symposium dealing with the internal corrosion of internal combustion engines. Three systems of anti-freeze corrosion inhibition for the cooling water were there described that soon after became recognised in British Standards. Each of them was good but aeration did not help to prevent corrosion. Was it really necessary to keep the screw coupling for these railcars? He had fought hard to get the Buck-eye type of coupling at the time of Nationalisation because he knew from his work in charge of the LNER laboratories that it had frequently saved many lives. He therefore felt disappointed that the screw coupling had been allowed to creep in again in the early railcars. In addition to the centre coupling of the former LNER being safer he beIieved that it helped to use the mass of the vehicles to damp down the lateral vibration from hunting bogies which was so unpopular with f are-paying passengers.

Journal No. 286

Hughes, J.O.P. (Paper No. 633)
The design and development of a gas turbine locomotive. 180-217, Disc.: 217-39. illus., diagrs.
GT-3: The advantages of a gas turbine as a power plant for locomotives were identified as:
gives high power with compactness and light weight, together with excellent reliability and a reduction in complication compared with other prime movers;.
torque at standstill may be made several times that at the design speed so that it is practicable to use a simple mechanical coupling to the wheels with an appreciable gain in tractive effort at speed, very appropriate for line service.
number of rubbing parts is few and the consumption of lubricating oil is very small.
requires very little maintenance and gives a high availability,
offers possibility of burning lower grade fuels.
no water required.
The disadvantages are that efficiency of the simple cycle gas turbine falls off substantially with a reduction from full power, and the cost per horsepower was higher than for other prime movers. When the project began there were a few gas turbine locomotives running in the world and some published results were available, it was thus possible to study what had already been done. With this knowledge and the advantages and disadvantages listed, it was decided that by using a two-shaft recuperative open-cycle machine, and associating it with a simple geared transmission of high efficiency, the combination would give a useful locomotive from which further developments could be expected to emerge.

Coates, P. (Paper No. 634)
The use of computers in railway engineering. 239-53. Disc.: 253-62.
Based on practice at Derby Works. Much of the calculating effort was placed on analogue computers although digital computation was advancing elsewhere.

Journal No 287

Alcock, John F. (Presidential Address)
Narrow gauge light railways. 269-90.
The paper is restricted to 2ft to 2ft 6in gauge railways. The main aim of the paper was to describe Hunslet diesel locomotives together with some electric locomotives. The Address also included an overview of steam locomotive development on these gauges. The earliest narrow gauge steam locomotives were placed in service almost exactly one hundred years before. Success on the Festiniog Eailway being quickly followed by nearby industrial railways and one of the first few was the Talyllyn Railway. Today we are fortunate to have this railway still with us, for it is part of our history. The adoption of a 2 ft. 3 in. rail gauge is believed to have been due to the existing quarry wagons being of this gauge. The slate quarries of North Wales had nearly all had their narrow gauge railways for years before the locomotive was heard of but modernisation was on the way and Wales undoubtedly claimed to be the first when it came to mechanisation with its increased productivity.
In 1870 Hunslet despatched the 7½in. 0-4-0 locomotive shown in Fig. 3 and shortly afterwards similar locomotives were being exported including the 8 in. 0-6-0 2 ft. 6 in. gauge type shown in Fig. 4, which was sent to India in 1876. More powerful types were soon available and in 1878 the 10 in. 0-6-4 tank engine Beddgelert shown in Fig. 5 was sent to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway. The pace of design and manufacture continued to increase steadily and the turn of the century was a period of great development, with something like 500 miles of track being laid annually.
Figure 6 shows a 4-4-0 type locomotive with 11½ in. cylinders built in 1900 for the Kelani Valley Railway in Ceylon, seven of which were despatched that year; No. 104 was in fact used over 50 years later in the filming of “The Bridge On The River Kwai”.
Exports were broadened in many ways during the early 1900s. The Kerr Stuart records show a very elaborate private steam rail motor coach for the Maharajah of Scindia in 1904 built to 2 ft. gauge for use on the Gwalior Light Railways, weighing 11 tons and fitted with an oil-fired Menyweather quick-steaming boiler, a steam turbine-driven generator, not only for electric lighting throughout, but also for two 12 in. electric fans. Figure 7 shows the first locomotive sent in to Cyprus for the construction of their 2 ft. 6 in. gauge railway in 1904 which remained in service in the harbour at Famagusta until the line closed in 1951, whilst the lower picture shows the same locomotive set up on a plinth and finally preserved to posterity. In 1906 the small 0-4-2 type tank locomotive shown in Fig. 8 was despatched to India for the 2 ft. gauge Howrah-Amta Light Railway and during the following 50 years Hunslet alone supplied to this group 72 locomotives of various types which increased in power continuously throughout these five decades.
One of the big achievements of this period was the building of the Otavi Railway: a 2 ft. gauge line built between 1903 and 1906 in South West Africa connecting the big mining areas at Tsumeb with the sea at Walvis Bay, a total distance of 361 miles. A report at the time compliments the contractors on building at the rate of 120 miles per year in a country where water had to be carried at times up to 100 miles for a labour force of 750 Europeans and 500 natives and it is of interest to note that we have at the present time locomotives for Tsumeb under construction.
Hunslet locomotives were supplied for military purposes to General Gordon in 1885 and for Lord Kitchener’s famous and final advance on Khartoum in 1898, but it was not until the First World War that we became involved in mass production. Light railways became the standard method of supplying the Army in France and a special 4-6-0 tank engine was designed with a maximum axle load of only 3.5 tons for running on a 20 lb. rail. No less than 155 of these were supplied during the War for use behind the lines and a typical operational unit is shown in Fig. 9.
Typical of the development over the years to which I referred earlier, Figs. 10(a and b) , show two Kerr Stuart locomotives supplied to the same customer for the same railway over a thirty-year period. Figure 10(a) is an 8 in. cylinder 4-4-0 tender engine supplied to the Gwalior Light Railways for 2 ft. gauge in 1895. Fig. 10( b) , however, is a 13½ in. cylinder 2-8-2 type tender engine supplied to the same railway in 1928. With a maximum axle load of only six tons this indicates the developments which took place after the First World War. In 1928 also we built a new 4-6-4 tank engine for the Kelani Valley Railway in Ceylon. This is shown in Fig. 11 and was a great advance on their previous locomotives; on 2 ft. 6 in. gauge with a working weight of almost 50 tons and a tractive effort of over 13,000 lb., this was a useful locomotive. About this time also the diesel locomotive made its appearance, but I prefer to keep this as a separate section and so continue with the story of the steam locomotive right up to the present day.
Steam construction during the Second World War was confined to standard gauge. There was still a considerable amount of light railway but by this time diesels were definitely the order of the day. After the war, however, there was still a great deal to be done. In 1949 we built some 2-8-2 locomotives for the 2 ft. 6 in. gauge Barsi Light Railway in India with a 15½ in. cylinder and a total working weight of over 60 tons in spite of a maximum axle load of only 6.8 tons, whilst the tractive effort was over 15,000 lb. This general class was originally developed by Nasmyth Wilson before the war and was also later built by Bagnalls. Thirteen of these locomotives are in service altogether and Fig. 12 shows one of the last supplied.
As late as 1959 the Dholpur Railway required something bigger and better than they had had previously on a maximum axle load of only 5.5 tons and for the first time we used aluminium for the cab and bunker (Fig. 13). Turning now to some of the more outstanding locomotives, reference must be made to the standard ZE Class 2 ft. 6 in. gauge locomotive for Indian Railways originally designed and built between the wars by Nasmyth Wilson but built mainly since that time by Henschels, Krauss Maffei and others. This is a 2-8-2 type tender engine, 16 x 18 in. cylinders, total weight in working order of 65 tons and a maximum axle load of 7.7 tons. These engines have a tractive effort of over 16,000 lb. and there are about 50 of them in service. For the very large locomotives of course the articulated types cannot be overlooked. On 2 ft. 6 in. gauge and again built for India between the wars, a very interesting unit is the 2-6-2+2-6-2 Kitson Meyer type built for the Kalka-Simla Railway; here we have a total weight of almost 70 tons with a maximum axle load of 8.45 tons and a tractive effort of 23,000 lb., but I have kept to the last the really difficult design problems set up by the 2 ft. gauge and the lighter axle loads. In 1940 we were approached by a cement works who had a 20-mile single track 2 ft. gauge line laid with 35 lb. rails. They were putting down a second kiln and so had to double their limestone intake over their railway. They had already considered the possibilities of laying a second track or completely relaying to a wider gauge with heavier rail but the cost was outside what they were prepared to pay and we were asked whether it was possible to produce a locomotive big enough to handle just double their previous requirements. To a specialist firm accustomed to this kind of work a completely new special design for one off only is not an unusual request, but it must also be remembered that with a long background in this kind of work there is invariably a good basis to fall back upon and we were able to use as a basis the Kerr Stuart locomotive built for Gwalior in 1928 and so with various modifications and modernisations we produced the 2-8-2 locomotive shown in Fig. 14 with a much larger boiler and a tractive effort of 13,500 lb. Another outstanding 2 ft. gauge railway is the South African Railways Avontuur Branch which runs inland from Port Elizabeth for a distance of nearly 200 miles. Van Staden's bridge on this railway is probably the highest 2 ft. gauge railway bridge in the world standing as it does some 250 ft. above the river. There is a very big yard at Fort Elizabeth where I recently saw seven or eight of the largest 2 ft. gauge locomotives in the world under steam. The N.G. tender engines with a tractive effort of over 16,000 lb. are exceptional by any standard, but the Beyer Garratt N.G.G. 16 Class 2-6-2 + 2-6-2 is a real leviathan. On 2 ft. gauge with a maximum axle load of only 6.9 tons we have here a locomotive weighing over 60 tons with a tractive effort of almost 19,000 lb. (Fig. 15) and it is interesting to note that no less than 26 of these locomotives are in service, the first being built in 1937 and the last as recently as 1959. Large Beyer Garratt locomotives are also in service on the 2 ft. 6 in. gauge Victoria Railways in Australia. Before turning to diesel I would like to make a brief reference to the large number of efforts made over a considerable period to produce geared steam locomotives. One successful type was certainly the Shay articulated unit built mainly in America by Lima before the First World War, whilst another rather special articulated type designed and built by Avonside in the early 1930's had a four-cylinder vee engine placed beneath a conventional superheated boiler with carden shafts straight from each end of the engine to each bogie (Fig. 16). With a 6.5 ton axle load and only four axles, these locomotives gave a tractive effort of over 12,000 lb.

Wood, F.H. (Paper No. 635)
Some features of design of diesel electric locomotives including the ‘Falcon’ locomotive. 291-309. Disc.: 309-16.
Presented before the Midlands Centre in Derby on 31 October 1962. Three locomotives considered:
Type “2” AIA-AIA, in service on the Eastern Region of British Railways and then fitted with Mirrlees 12-cylinder vee engines having an output of 1250, 1365, 1600 and 2000 h.p.
“Falcon” locomotive of 2800 h.p. Co-Co wheel arrangement fitted with two Bristol Siddeley Maybach 12-cylinder diesel engines.
Standard Type “4” locomotive of Co-Co wheel arrangement 2750 h.p. incorporating the Sulzer 12 LDA diesel engine

Journal No. 288

Macfarlane, I.B. (Paper No. 636)
Railcars in Australia with particular reference to the Budd Rail Diesel Car. 323-59. Disc.: 359-80.

Ray, R.K. (Paper No. 637)
Towards greater productivity on the railways. 380-90. Disc.: 390-3.
In India with assistance of the International Labour Organization. Author was funded to study in the USA, mainly at Syracuse University where case-study methods were being adopted.

Journal No 289

Maddison, T.B. (Paper No. 638)
Development of special wagons and containers for the bulk conveyance ot powdered materials. 399-432. Disc.: 432-55.
The development of special vehicles and containers for the bulk transport of powder and granular materials was rapidly becoming more of a science than an art. When consideration is given to the lack of available data on this subject, together with the lack of adequate testing facilities prevailing in the past both for road and rail developments it is surprising that this technique has reached such an advanced commercial stage.
The advent of the Development Unit on British Railways opened up a new opportunity of furthering the advancement of these techniques, and the facilities are now available at its workshop for pressure discharge testing of a large variety of materials at different pressures. lines were provided, enabling repeat tests to and fro to be carried out in rapid succession (shown diagrammatically in Fig. 33) . Arrangements were in hand to provide a pipeline 1,000 ft. long to enable the best conditions to be established for long discharge lengths with and without boosters of all types of powdered material from the finest to ½ in. cubes.

Garratt, C.H. (Paper No. 639)
Main works repair of diesel multiple units. 456-87. Disc.: 487-96.
Mainly reflected activity at Derby Works. Outlined methods and procedures evolved at a British Railways’ main Works for the main overhaul of diesel railcars. Details given of examination and repair of bogies, underframes, brakework, bodies, controls, engine cooling system, fire extinguishing equipment, lighting installations and heating systems, and the final testing of completed vehicles. The overhauling of power units and transmission was not dealt with, as this activity had already been described to the Institution.

Journal No. 290

Fletcher, S. (Paper No. 640)
Recording and controlling faults on diesel electric locomotives. 511-39. Disc.: 539-80.

Hunter, I.P. (Paper No. 641)
Development of the vacuum brake during the years of transition. 581-615. Disc.: 616-55.
Author was Development Engineer, Brake Division, Gresham & Craven Ltd.  Paper divided into: freight train braking, locomotive braking, and general developments,