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Tim Dunn @MrTimDunn
, 6 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
Abandoned and rediscovered:
Russia’s incredible 1970 jet-powered turbojet train - built to travel over 250km/h - has been found rusting outside a railcar factory englishrussia.com/2014/05/26/aba…
The USSR's turbojet train - the SVL - was an experiment, roiding-up a standard railcar. It never made it to public service. (Imagine trying to turn that thing round...) But it wasn't the first jet-powered train, nor first to be powered by something intended to move aircraft...
The first jet-powered high speed train was in the USA.
This wasn't the Space Race, this was the RailJet race - 4 yrs before the USSR. The New York Central Railroad's M-497 "Black Beetle" of 1966 used ex-bomber plane engines did 183mph. BUT. Think of bridges. And ballast stones...
In 1919, a team in Germany assembled the first known propeller-powered train. It wasn't pressed into doing high speeds - allegedly because of concerns about its somewhat Heath-Robinson construction. The inventor was Otto Steinitz. (3/X)
In 1921, the Russian "Aerowagon" achieved more than 85 km/h. Its engineer, Valerian Abakovsky, and eight others, died in a terrible crash on one of its proving runs. The concept was not progressed...
The most famous of all propeller-powered trains was Germany's 230km/h Schienenzeppelin, of 1930. This experimental machine had 2 BMW aircraft engines and a Bauhaus-style interior. It was dismantled by 1939: it was dangerous at stations, couldn't haul coaches & was tricky to turn.
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Many years ago, Britain had dozens of “camping coaches” all over our railway network. But few still exist. So, today, I’d like to tell you about the history of #CampingCoaches - and this beautiful 1895 converted Travelling Post Office I stayed in last night... (thread)...⬇️
Camping coaches, or camp coaches, were a brilliant idea: The first ten were by the LNER in 1933. The GWR quickly picked up on the idea too - launching great value (car-free) holidays that created extra rail traffic, revenue, goodwill and use of decommissioned rolling stock.
Interiors were often spartan by today’s standards: they were “camping” coaches, after all. But local staff would frequently augment the interiors. There were usually berth beds within compartments, a small kitchen & dining area carved out too. Pullman camping coaches existed too.
Read 18 tweets
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I would like to tell you about an incredible place. Its name is @Bekonscot, the model village & model railway. Created 89 years ago by a very kind man, it rose from his garden and has since given joy to millions. Today is its last open day for 2019, and this is its story...
(1/7)
Bekonscot began in 1927 when Mr Roland Callingham's wife told him that either his increasingly invasive train set must sodding well leave the house, or she would. So Roland & his gardener Tom turned his Buckinghamshire garden into the biggest trainset Britain had ever seen.
(2/7)
Roland enlisted the world's greatest modelmakers, Bassett-Lowke of Northampton, to build his model railway. Well. This was NOT what Mrs Callingham was expecting. Nor did she expect him to turn their swimming pool into "the sea", installing an island and pier.
(3/7)
Read 16 tweets
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I have been asked an interesting question. Why does London’s Moorgate tube station have a mix of “traditional” bar-and-Circle roundels... and weird diamonds? Well... (1/6)
The Metropolitan Railway, or “the Met” opened in 1863. It was the world’s first passenger underground railway, and soon it extended beyond Farringdon, thru Moorgate. Other extensions also pressed on, fast. The core route is broadly the Metropolitan line that we have today. (2/6)
The Metropolitan Railway was a trailblazer. It was an innovator, a user of great tech and engineering ideas.
Steam trains underground? The Met.
Cut’n’cover tunnels under roads? The Met.
Smokeless loco experiments? The Met.
Restaurant cars underground? The Met.
(3/6)
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