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Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2015
- Messages
- 44
Hi, There,
This is my first post here, and I m not a techie...Please bear with me.
I m not in the industry, but, I ve studied it since the 1960s when it was
steam, diesel, and electric. My point being, that the UK largely missed-out
on a mode that was largely developed in the USA from 1890s onwards.
This mode evolved from electric streetcars (trams), into rural electric rail-
ways.....mostly single track lines built very cheaply by local enterprise.
There was little red tape to inhibit progress, and soon large networks of
electric lines were competing with steam railroads. They were called
Interurbans....THOUSANDS of miles were built before 1910. They ran on
street track in towns and sleeper track in the countryside....Sometimes,
they hauled freight too, with steeple cab locos. We, in the UK, had nothing
like this really. Think of the Grimsby & Immingham Line that is a good
comparison. But the USA lines could go much faster, 50MPH was quite
common. Today, we hear a lot about very costly infrastructure on the
railways, yet, in the USA and Canada over a hundred years ago, they were
running shoestring electric railways! Services were typically hourly from
6AM to 11PM or Midnight 7 days a week! Steam railroads often struggled
to provide 3 trains a day, so of course, they resented the Interurbans.
Remember, the interurban had to provide its own power, there was no
"Grid" until the 1920s. Yet, that didn t put off investment.
What I m saying, really, is that surely we can take something from this,
and apply it to marginal areas in the UK, like for instance Lincolnshire and
Somerset, for example?
This is my first post here, and I m not a techie...Please bear with me.
I m not in the industry, but, I ve studied it since the 1960s when it was
steam, diesel, and electric. My point being, that the UK largely missed-out
on a mode that was largely developed in the USA from 1890s onwards.
This mode evolved from electric streetcars (trams), into rural electric rail-
ways.....mostly single track lines built very cheaply by local enterprise.
There was little red tape to inhibit progress, and soon large networks of
electric lines were competing with steam railroads. They were called
Interurbans....THOUSANDS of miles were built before 1910. They ran on
street track in towns and sleeper track in the countryside....Sometimes,
they hauled freight too, with steeple cab locos. We, in the UK, had nothing
like this really. Think of the Grimsby & Immingham Line that is a good
comparison. But the USA lines could go much faster, 50MPH was quite
common. Today, we hear a lot about very costly infrastructure on the
railways, yet, in the USA and Canada over a hundred years ago, they were
running shoestring electric railways! Services were typically hourly from
6AM to 11PM or Midnight 7 days a week! Steam railroads often struggled
to provide 3 trains a day, so of course, they resented the Interurbans.
Remember, the interurban had to provide its own power, there was no
"Grid" until the 1920s. Yet, that didn t put off investment.
What I m saying, really, is that surely we can take something from this,
and apply it to marginal areas in the UK, like for instance Lincolnshire and
Somerset, for example?