The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first deep-level underground tube railway in the world and the first major railway to use electric traction. When the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) was authorised in 1884, it was intended to be a cable-hauled line, but during the construction phase, the promotors decided to use electric traction, despite the fact that the technology was in its infancy.[1] Two prototype locomotives were built by Mather & Platt in 1889, to a design by Dr Edward Hopkinson, with Beyer-Peacock supplying many of the mechanical parts. No. 1 used motors mounted directly on the drive axles, while No. 2 had motors driven through gears. Trials were conducted in December 1889 with No. 1 and two passenger cars. No. 2 was also used for testing, but it is not clear whether it pulled any cars. A production run of 14 locomotives was then built, numbered 1 to 14, duplicating the original numbers 1 and 2. Each had four wheels, with Edison-Hopkinson motors fitted to the axles, which were permanently wired in series. A 26-step rheostat was used to control the speed, and a switch which altered the connections to the armature was used to reverse the direction of travel. The locomotives were small and short to fit within the small diameter tunnels, which were 10 feet 2 inches (3.10 m) at the northern end of the railway, and 10 feet 6 inches (3.20 m) on the straighter southern section, to allow higher speeds.[3] The cab was built along the centre line of the locomotive with a door at each end and the controls and equipment mounted on the sides. There was a single driving position at one end of the locomotive with the power controller on one side and the Westinghouse air-brake valve and hand-brake column on the other. The controls worked directly so no form of multiple-unit control was ever possible. Each locomotive could haul three coaches at up to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) on good track, providing a service speed of around 11.5 mph (18.5 km/h). At the end of a run, the arriving locomotive was trapped in the platform by its carriages. A replacement locomotive hauled the train away on the next trip and the released locomotive was then available to head the next incoming train (this is called slip working). The train air-braking system, controlled by the driver, was fed from an air reservoir on the locomotive and, as the original locomotives were unable to generate their own compressed air, the reservoirs were recharged at Stockwell Station from an air line maintained at 80 psi (5.5 bar). Later, locomotives were fitted with compressors. The railway was opened on 4 November 1890 by The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and locomotive No. 10 carried a commemorative nameplate with the name Princess of Wales to celebrate its use on that occasion. There was soon a need for an additional two locomotives to operate the service. Nos. 15 and 16 were built by Siemens with a modified design of motor, which attempted to overcome the problem of burnt-out armatures that had plagued the line since its opening. In 1895, the C&SLR itself built locomotive No. 17 at Stockwell depot, and carried out a series of tests on locomotives 12, 15 and 17, as more locomotives would soon be needed for the extensions being made. They ordered three more locomotives from different manufacturers in 1898, which were equipped with four-pole motors, a more efficient control system using series-parallel switching of the motors, and on-board compressors. The motors were still mounted on the axles. Another two locomotives (Nos. 21 and 22), which were built at Stockwell Depot, included further refinements and were the prototypes for the final batches of locomotives. Nos. 23 to 52 were built by Crompton to an improved design, including nose-suspended motors connected to the axles by a single reduction gear, but still bore a strong external resemblance to the original locomotives. Between 1904 and 1907, locomotives Nos. 3 to 12 were rebuilt with new electrical equipment to improve their performance. Following the introduction of new locomotives and the abandonment of the restrictive King William Street terminus in 1900, the C&SLR was able to run trains with four cars.[6] Five-car trains were introduced from 1907. Six-carriage trains were briefly operated in 1914/15 and from October 1923[8] before the last part of the line was closed for reconstruction and tunnel enlargement in November 1923. The enlarged tunnels allowed the locomotive hauled trains to be replaced by Standard Stock electrical multiple units. 44 locomotives were in use just before the closure and some remained in service until 1925 hauling works trains while the tunnels were being enlarged. Main dimensions of the locomotives are:- Overall length - 14 0 Length over cab - 10 0 Width of cab - 6 3 Wheel base - 6 0 Wheel diameter - 2 3 Overall height from rail level - 8 51/4
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 04:13:10 +0000