TOWARDS ATOMIC POWER

Any plan for widespread railway electrification today must take a long-term view of sources of power. Schemes have been published for turbo-electric locomotives that would carry their own reactors for steam generation, but the advantages to economic development of electricity widely distributed from central stations are so great that it would be hard to justify the use of individual power units. In future it is more likely that the transmission system will be established for common use by industry and transport, the railways taking their supplies from convenient points like any other large consumer, and using them at the industrial frequency after transformation of voltage. An output of electricity from atomic plants at the end of a decade equivalent to that produced today by a million tons of coal is foreseen. Subsequent expansion would be rapid. The years ahead should be a period of planning by the railway industry so that when atomic power is available the decisions as to where and to what extent it is to be used will have been taken already.

• Corporate Authors:

  Temple Press Limited

  161-166 Fleet Street
  Longon EC4,   England 
• Publication Date: 1954-10-1

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 369
• Serial:
  • RAILWAY GAZETTE
  • Volume: 101

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Electric locomotives; Gas turbine locomotives; Locomotives; Motors; Technology
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Old TRIS Terms: Turbine locomotives
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00039578
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 4 1994 12:00AM