Shimbleshanks
Member
As students of railway history will know, Brunel's bold attempt to build a railway worked by atmospheric power in Devon eventually came to naught. While it did hold out the attractive prospect of a railway without heavy locomotives, able to tackle with ease steeper gradients than locomotive-worked lines of the era, in the end the problems of maintaining an airtight seal in the vacuum pipe with the materials of the time (basically, greased leather flaps) proved too much. The system was prone to frequent breakdowns which were particularly disruptive, because a leak in the pipe brough all trains on the line to a stop.
But if Brunel had access to more modern materials would he have been more successful? A few years later, vulcanised rubber was invented, which might have been more succesful at maintaining the seal than leather.
Eventually, I guess, electric traction would have proved to be more attractive than atmospheric power but in the meantime it would have meant a railway free of expensive, heavy, dirty locomotives. Driving an atmospheric train would, I guess, have been a less skilled, specialsed job and it could of course have been done by one man, not two. Could it have changed the course of railway history?
But if Brunel had access to more modern materials would he have been more successful? A few years later, vulcanised rubber was invented, which might have been more succesful at maintaining the seal than leather.
Eventually, I guess, electric traction would have proved to be more attractive than atmospheric power but in the meantime it would have meant a railway free of expensive, heavy, dirty locomotives. Driving an atmospheric train would, I guess, have been a less skilled, specialsed job and it could of course have been done by one man, not two. Could it have changed the course of railway history?