R.o.B Motive Power
The Motive power page
Early years: The early railways used horses to move their trains. Engineers at the time were only starting to understand the principals of getting a boiler mounted on wheels and then on to rails to move these trains. People such as Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson would however become famous names in the development of locomotives. They both worked on the principals of James Watts' steam engine to design and build these locomotives. In February 1804 Trevithick's revolutionary locomotive hauled a train of coal along the Penydarren tram road in Wales. His locomotive 'Penydarren' was the first such to do this. At the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in September 1825, George Stephenson's locomotive 'Locomotion' hauled a train of coal and passengers the 16 odd miles from Shildon to Stockton. Along with Trevithick's earlier success this was to set the future for Railway and Locomotive development. 'Locomotion' was found to be more economical and efficient than horses and much faster traveling at about 12 mph with a full train. The early locomotives were not entirely reliable though as they were too light and people were not entirely used to operating them. Also the tram roads that the locomotives ran on were of the crudest form initially built for horses. In fact the SDR spent most of its time using horses for the haulage of its trains as it had found that 'Locomotion' was quite unreliable in the long run. Owners of collieries were also somewhat distrustful of this new technology and were wary of paying out the initial expenditure required to build an engine. Sadly this resulted in the stagnation of railway development.
With the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in 1829, a route built for the use of locomotive hauled trains, its directors wanted to find a locomotive that was not only capable of hauling a heavy train under certain conditions but also one that would be efficient and reliable in the long run. So at Rainhill on the newly constructed line, trials were carried out where the locomotive engineers of the day brought there locomotives and tested them against each other. The winner of the Rainhill trials was Robert Stephenson the son of George. His locomotive named 'Rocket' proved to be the most efficient beating all the others hands down. The directors immediately gave Robert the chance to design and build further locos for the railway and so railway development was set back in motion. Not only this, Robert Stephenson's design was to set the precedent for future Steam locomotive design and manufacture. From then on railway construction developed at a rapid rate, with the construction of more and more powerful and efficient locomotives railways were constructed and modernized creating a network of railways that were to cover the country. Railway companies built their own locomotive works and even sold their products to other smaller companies or abroad. Even Robert Stephenson opened his own railway works in the North east of England. Railways that could not afford their own rolling stock and Locomotives would agree with the nearest large company for them to operate the line thus giving many companies chance to expand and new ones to develop.
Grouping years: By the beginning of the 20th Century railways were the ultimate in travel with Locomotives traveling up to 60 or 65mph. By the grouping of 1923 there were over 130 different railway companies, with thousands of different designs of locomotives. With the grouping a new era in railway design was to begin. The big 4 inherited all these different types of locomotive making it very difficult to maintain them economically. Some were nearly 50-60 years old while some were still coming out of the locomotive works. Attempting to economies and build more efficient fleets of locomotives the big 4 companies started on a process of standardization and construction of more powerful mixed traffic, goods and express locomotives. This would set the example for the future British railways who again would inherit a wide variety of locomotives. From the thousands of designs came such locomotives as the Coronations and Duchess Class of the LMS, A1 A2 A3 and A4 of the LNER, Castle and Kings of the GWR, and the Nelson and Schools of the southern who were also experimenting with and developing their electric network. This standardization brought about more economical locomotive manufacture and maintenance in a period recovering from the First World War. Most of these locomotives were to last up to the end of steam in the 1960s.
Nationalization: With the nationalization of the railways in 1947, the new British Railways again inherited a wide mixture of locomotives. Learning from the past experiences of the grouping railways it was soon decided that a standard of locomotives should be created. Trials were under taken of the ex grouping locomotives to find the strengths and weaknesses of each class in different environments. This resulted in A3s running from London Victoria to Brighton and Castle class locos climbing Shap. Not only were Steam locomotives been developed but diesels as well. The British Railways received delivery of 2 diesel locomotives that had originally been designed and purchased by the LMS, these diesels 1000 and 10001 were in their own right to be the pioneers of diesel loco development. Even on the southern where electricity had taken the place of steam traction on most suburban lines developments were underway to develop more efficient electric locomotives and trains. So the years after nationalization were another turning point in motive power history. The standardization of steam traction allowed for greatly simplified workshop practice, introduction of standard components and reduced production and maintenance costs. Spare parts could be used on any standard class locomotive and the cab layout of each locomotive was the same. Though there were different types of locomotive they all had the same basic layout and components. These locos though reducing the wide variety of locomotives inherited from the grouped companies also ran in parallel with the the engines mentioned above that had gone towards the design of the standard fleet. However with the modernization plan of 1955 it was decided that electric and diesel traction was the way to go forward. It was decided that by 1970 there would be no steam left on Britain's railways. Diesel design and manufacture took off and slowly but surely steam locos were withdrawn until a final push was made in the mid 1960s and all steam except 3 locos were off the rails. Electrification of the west coast main line was of great benefit to the railway though it was sad to see the end of steam. Journeys with diesel and electric locomotives which were cleaner, faster and more powerful greatly improved the lot of the traveler by rail. They also provided competition for a growing road network that was taking the passengers of the railways and in to their own comfortable cars.
Today: We live with the effect of the modernization plan and also its continued development for railway motive power. Where trains were loco hauled, now multiple unit operate a quicker more efficient timetable with new trains changing timetables that have been in place since the 1960s, for example the timetable for South west trains who operate out of London Waterloo, used to operate on a basic timetable from 1964!! But as of 12/12/2004 a totally new timetable has arrived as with many other train operating companies. Today we live with faster more efficient trains whose dwell times at termini is reduced as there is no need for coupling and uncoupling of locomotives is unnecessary. Trains such as the Virgin Pendolino, now travel on the West coast tilting round corners at 125mph where steam locomotives used to travel at 50-60 on the climb to Scotland. The East coast mainline was itself electrified many years after the North Eastern railway had the idea of electrifying its main line between Newcastle and York. Now trains travel from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh and Glasgow at up to 140mph. All rail operators have some form of new train or motive power with new technology and comfort. The face of rail travel is changing, for the better for the commuter and rail traveler but sadly in some respects for the rail enthusiast with even more standardization of the rail fleet. Freight hauliers now have a tendency to use the very powerful class 66s, while the Bombardier built Desiros are starting to take the place of older EMU stock in different parts of the country. However some of the older locomotives have a new lease of life as the class 47s have new engines fitted and become class 57 instead. The railway scene has to change to survive and along with it as engineers and railway companies have seen since horse draw train days, motive power and rolling stock has to change with it to create a modern rail system.