Idea: Third rail/Diesel hybrid for Southern.

[RAGNARØKR]

If DC to AC conversion were to be driven by energy saving, the focus would be on lines consuming most power, which has got to be the terminals and approaches: lots of tracks, lots of trains, plenty of stop-start.

West-of-Woking might give loads of "miles converted" points but not such a high "KWH saved" gong, as wiring-up London Bridge and Victoria to East Croydon (etc). Dual system EMUs could operate through on to the 3rd rail beyond which would be converted "in due course" and I guess some rural lines might take a while get converted to AC.

The Southern Railway CL70 and BR CL71 locos (and CL74?) had a booster/flywheel system, as a flywheel is an energy storage device, does that mean they were hybrid-locos?

Not quite. The power loss occurs when there are extended distances between feeder stations eg on the long stretches beyond Woking. So the approaches to the London terminals are less of a problem. And regeneration also helps as the trains slowing down provide power for those that are accelerating - that is the theory anyway. Network Rail's strategy is to work from the most distant points inwards towards London, where it gets difficult. So the London area is likely to remain a DC island for longest.

 

[LE Greys]

Hmm, the idea of a new ED might make sense (I'll call it the Class 75 for now), but only as a d.c. version of another design (which I'll call the Class 38). Seeing pairs of Type 5s on RHTTs recently only makes me more concerned that we often see huge wastage of horsepower when a small Bo-Bo could handle the trains far better. Something about the same size as a 33, but a bit lighter, with a decent power unit putting out around 1,750 hp. If we took the same body, bogies, motors and so on and basically replaced the power unit and generator with d.c. equipment and a smaller engine (perhaps 750-1,000 hp) we might have a lower-cost design. Even better if both designs could MU, and especially if both were compatible with 66s.

We'll work on the Class 88 upscaled a.c. version later.

 

[HSTEd]

The best locomotive for RHTT trains is probably an MPV really.

 

[The Ham]

You could have quad-mode trains with diesel and 750V, 1,500V (to run on the Tyne and Wear Metro), and 25kV. Or replace the conductor rail with silver - it is a better conductor.

Gold is an even better conductorm so why not replace them with that!

 

[d5509]

Hmm, the idea of a new ED might make sense (I'll call it the Class 75 for now), but only as a d.c. version of another design (which I'll call the Class 38). Seeing pairs of Type 5s on RHTTs recently only makes me more concerned that we often see huge wastage of horsepower when a small Bo-Bo could handle the trains far better. Something about the same size as a 33, but a bit lighter, with a decent power unit putting out around 1,750 hp. If we took the same body, bogies, motors and so on and basically replaced the power unit and generator with d.c. equipment and a smaller engine (perhaps 750-1,000 hp) we might have a lower-cost design. Even better if both designs could MU, and especially if both were compatible with 66s.

We'll work on the Class 88 upscaled a.c. version later.

Hmm? . . . something based on a 67 with a smaller power unit and an electrics package derived from a dual system EMU perhaps ?

 

[fireftrm]

....or to return to a prior post, a 73 perhaps!

 

[RAGNARØKR]

Gold is an even better conductorm so why not replace them with that!

Brill. Hadn't thought of that. Could use the Bank of England's gold reserves as conductor rail. More use than leaving it in a vault. It is a rather soft metal so eventually would all end up in the ballast, but then the ballast plus gold could be "mined" for its gold. Pity Gordon Brown had half of them flogged off.
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So basically a fleet of these...

That was a war time thing, wasn't it? Coal was hard to get hold of and hydro electricity as regarded as almost-free, so they stuck a heating element in the boiler. If I recall they ran for several years like that before going back to coal only. The all-electric Swiss railways kept a small fleet of steam locomotives until at least the late 1950s - they were used for shunting eg at Bellinzona, Chiasso and Basel. The locos at Basel looked like a near-copy of the LMS 2-6-4 tanks.

Sweden electrified early on that basis and there are electrified lines with about half a dozen trains a day. They also kept an entire fleet of steam locos as back-up until 1975.