NOVEL TYPE OF ELECTRIC RAILWAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 67, 13 December 1920, Page 6

NOVEL TYPE OF ELECTRIC RAILWAY

Al; a. time when many countries are tending towards regulations for"' Ibo standardisation of electric traction equipment on railways, a British engineer comes- forward with a proposal for a radically new type, applicable in particular to railways in countries overseas, where olectric power is not available along the route. His suggestion is that the trains should be hauled by locomotives of a special design, illin engines being oil engines of an improved type and driving electric generators, which supply current to motors geared to tho driving wheels. This arrangement gives great efficiency in the engine and very flexible 6poed c6ntrol. In addition, it is proposed that each locomotive should be in electrical contact witlr an overhead ■<?ire, and'that the rails should.be bonded! to form a continuous electrical conductor. When a locomotive is standing at' a station tho generator continues io run. and thus supplies current in the overhead line. Again, when a train is running down hill, tho motors generate electricity, and feed into the line also. Tho power thus supplied is used to assist other trains in surmounting gradients at high speed. By this means, chich really affords an interchange of power between trains, the engines need not be so heavy or powerful as is required where each unaided' has to haul 'he heaviest train up the steepest gradient. As crude oil is used on the locomotives, and as a high efficiency is claimed, the arrangement offers peculiar rdvantagns in lines running through undeveloped territory whero coal and water •\rn scarce. Many of the advantnprfs of electrification are retained without tlio disadvantage attached to laree ond costly generating stations on land, with long transmission mains to feed tha line at> intervals.