The remains of Brunel's atmospheric railway at Didcot Railway Centre

An atmospheric railway is a railway in which air pressure or vacuum is used to drive trains. The first commercial application of the system was the line from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) to Dalkey in Ireland. This system was also used by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 19th century on a 52-mile section of the South Devon Railway between Exeter and Plymouth, England and on the London & Croydon Railway in 1845, but was soon abandoned. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (4023x1965, 4682 KB) Summary Brunels Atmospheric Railway remains at Didcot Railway Centre. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (4023x1965, 4682 KB) Summary Brunels Atmospheric Railway remains at Didcot Railway Centre. ... Brunel before the launching of the Great Eastern. ... General view, including engine sheds, of part of the site on a cold January day The Didcot Railway Centre, located in the Oxfordshire town of Didcot, is a comprehensive exhibition of Great Western Railway rolling stock. ... Pressure (symbol: p) is the force per unit area applied on a surface in a direction perpendicular to that surface. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... Dún Laoghaire (Irish pronunciation ; anglicized pronunciation ) is a seaside town and a ferry port situated some 12 km south of Dublin city centre, and is the administrative centre of the county of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. ... Dalkey Hill Dalkey (Deilginis in Irish) is a town in southern County Dublin. ... Brunel before the launching of the Great Eastern. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, England. ... The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in England, UK. It is located at , . In the 2001 census its population was recorded at 111,066. ... Plymouth is a city in the southwest of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... The London & Croydon Railway (L&C) was incorporated in 1835, and the line to West Croydon was opened June 5 1839. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

The supposed advantage of the atmospheric system was its hillclimbing ability, but Brunel chose to test the system on a relatively flat section. Brunel simply assumed that the system would work, because the mainline to Cornwall was designed to contain some very challenging gradients of up to 1 in 38. While railways have a great ability to haul very heavy loads, this advantage only really applies when the tracks are fairly level. ...

The atmospheric system did not work, for the following reasons:

• Failure of the tube seals, likely due to rats eating the leather sealing strip greased with tallow.
• Shunting the trains into atmospheric formation was difficult or cumbersome.
• The pump stations every few kilometres had to be continuously run and were expensive to operate.
• The hillclimbing abilities of the system were not adequately tested.
• It was not clear how atmospheric railway tubes could be compatible with railway points.
• Telegraphy may not have been advanced enough to co-ordinate the pump stations and trains properly.

Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Grease is a lubricant of higher initial viscosity than oil, consisting originally of a calcium, sodium or lithium soap jelly emulsified with mineral oil. ... It has been suggested that Railway Switching be merged into this article or section. ... Optical Telegraf of Claude Chappe on the Litermont near Nalbach, Germany Telegraph and telegram redirect here. ...

Brunel's "atmospheric caper"

The extension of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's broad gauge railway westward from Exeter towards Plymouth by the South Devon Railway Company was one of his interesting though ultimately unsuccessful technical innovations. Instead of using locomotives, the trains were moved by Clegg and Samuda's patent system of atmospheric (vacuum) traction, whereby stationary pumping engines sucked air from a pipe laid between the rails, the trains being moved by a piston running in this pipe and connected to the underside of a carriage. Brunel before the launching of the Great Eastern. ... Great Western Railway broad gauge steam locomotives awaiting scrapping in 1892 after the conversion to standard gauge. ... Plymouth is a city in the southwest of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. ... The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, England. ... A locomotive (from Latin loco motivus) is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... piston + connecting rod Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ...

The section from Exeter to Newton (now Newton Abbot) was completed on this principle, with stationary engines spaced every two miles, and trains ran at approximately 20 miles per hour (32 km/h)^[1]. Fifteen-inch (381 mm) pipes were used on the level portions, and 22-inch (559 mm) pipes were intended for the steeper gradients west of Newton. Unfortunately, the technology required the use of leather flaps to seal the vacuum pipes. In view of the harsh environment of the line, which runs directly adjacent to the sea and is soaked with salt spray in even moderate winds, the leather had to be kept supple by the use of tallow, which is attractive to rats; the result was inevitable – the flaps were eaten, and air leaked in, destroying the vacuum. Location within the British Isles Newton Abbot is a market town in Devon , England on the River Teign, with a population of 23,580 (2001 census). ... Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat, which was originally suet. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ...

Atmospheric-powered service lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental services began in September; operationally from February 1848) to September 10, 1848^[2]. The accounts of the SDR for 1848 suggest that the atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d per mile (£0.10/km) compared to 1s 4d (£0.04/km) for conventional steam power. Part of the problem was that the engines had to be run for longer than expected as they were not, at first, connected to the telegraph and so had to pump according to the railway timetable, until the train passed. Many trains ran very late! September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Optical Telegraf of Claude Chappe on the Litermont near Nalbach, Germany Telegraph and telegram redirect here. ...

The system was never expanded beyond Newton, although several of the engine houses were built. Similarly, the proposal to use the same system on the Cornwall Railway was not pursued. The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway (7 feet 0. ...

There are remains of several South Devon Railway engine houses, including that at Starcross, on the estuary of the River Exe. It is a striking landmark and a reminder of the atmospheric railway – which is also commemorated in the name of the village pub. A section of the pipe, without the leather covers, is preserved in Didcot Railway Centre. The South Devon Railway engine houses were built in Devon, England, to power the atmospheric trains on the South Devon Railway between Exeter and Plymouth. ... Starcross is a small riverside town on the west bank of the estuary of the River Exe in Devon. ... The River Exe rises on Exmoor in Devon, near the north (Bristol Channel) coast of the county, but flows more or less directly due south and reaches the sea at a substantial ria on the south (English Channel) coast. ... An amusingly named pub (the Old New Inn) at Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswold Hills of South West England A pub in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh, Scotland A public house, usually known as a pub, is a drinking establishment found mainly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada...

Recent Applications

The Aeromovel® Corporation markets an automated people mover which is air driven. The light-weight trains ride on an elevated concrete box girder which houses electrical motors that drive air inside the box girder, creating a constant air flow. Each train car has a square plate protruding into the box girder. The plate acts as a sail and can be rotated into the air flow to catch the wind and accelerate the car. Systems have been built in Porto Alegre, Brazil (a two-station demonstration line) and Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta, Indonesia (a 2-mile, 6-station loop serving a theme-park).

See also

• Cable railway - a more successful albeit slow way of overcoming steep grades.
• Funicular - A system of overcoming steep grades using the force of gravity on downbound cars to raise upbound cars.
• Pneumatic tube
• Steam catapult - the arrangement of seal and traveller is essentially the same, albeit all steel.
• Dalkey Atmospheric Railway

Cable railways are railways with very steep gradients and use stationary engines to haul the wagons up and down the hills. ... Angels Flight, Los Angeles, California with gantlet track configuration Duquesne Incline, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with full length parallel tracks The Gütschbahn in Lucerne, Switzerland – from an 1893 guidebook A funicular, also called funicular railway, inclined railway, inclined plane, or, in the United Kingdom, a cliff railway, is a system of... Pneumatic tubes, also known as capsule pipelines, are systems in which cylindrical containers are propelled through a network of tubes by compressed air or by vacuum. ... F/A-18 a split second after the red hold-back bar (on far left) has released and the catapult is hurling the aircract down the deck An aircraft catapult is a device used to launch aircraft from ships — in particular aircraft carriers — as a form of assisted take off. ... The Dalkey Atmospheric Railway (March 29, 1844-April 12, 1854) was an extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. ...

References

1. ^ Dumpleton. Brunel's Three Ships, Intellect Books, 2002. ISBN 1-84150-800-4
2. ^ Parkin, Jim. Engineering Judgement and Risk, Thomas Telford (publishers), 2000. ISBN 0-7277-2873-3

External links

• Brunel's Atmospheric Railway
• Dalkey Atmospheric Railway
• railway history site