An Experimental Railway Journey at High Speed

Abstract

ON November 30, the London and North Eastern Railway made an experimental run with a train from London to Leeds and back, to demonstrate what the possibilities were with steam as compared with oil. For the outward journey, the train was made up of locomotive No. 4472, a ‘Flying Scotsman’ engine, with a dynamometer car, a first-class corridor coach, a dining car and a brake van, while for the homeward journey two other corridor coaches were added, increasing the weight behind the engine from 145 tons to 205 tons. The train left King's Cross at 9.8 a.m. and arrived at Leeds at 11.39 a.m., the distance being 185-7 miles and the average speed being 73-4 miles per hour. The,return journey was begun at 2.0 p.m. and ended at 4.37 p.m. During the return run, between Grantham and Peterborough, a maximum speed of 100 miles an hour was recorded, while during the climb from Tallington to Corby the speed was never less than 80 miles per hour. The experimental run was intended as a test of the steam locomotive b.urning coal on a service similar to that now run in foreign countries by trains with Diesel-engined locomotives. The most notable of these trains at the present moment is the Flying Hamburger, which covers the distance between Berlin and Hamburg daily at an average speed of 77 miles an hour. The line over which the Flying Hamburger travels is level and without curves, while the line between King's Cross and Leeds has gradients up to 1 in 100, and several speed restrictions. Such a passage as that made on November 30, of course, could not be made without a certain amount of dislocation to other traffic and it was expensive; but it showed that the potentialities of sthe steam locomotive for high-speed work have not been exhausted. It is noteworthy that the engine used is stated to have run some 44,000 miles since its last overhaul.