I’m not arguing whether electrification uses more or less coal that steam locomotives. I’m arguing that it uses more coal than diesel locomotives. So I’m suspecting that it is the great capital expense of electrification which made it less common in the UK. Because the time frame we’re talking about is the Great Depression, WWII, and the post-war era. All of them characterized by little money for those sorts of capital expenditures for that sort of new infrastructure. Cheaper to buy some deltics to pull trains than to string wire over the entire route.
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Ah, ok, indeed.
But that holds also for the continent, where electrification is much more prevalent. There, electrification of main lines started in the 30s, was interrupted by WWII, but then was continued in the 50s. Today, virtually all main lines in central Europe are electrified. Only now, the UK is starting to catch up by electrifying the Great Western railway (London to Bristol and South Wales).
Interestingly, modern-day steam locomotives may be competitive with diesel locomotives, at least under certain circumstances:
http://www.dlm-ag.ch/en/news/162-20-jahre-modern-steam
http://www.dlm-ag.ch/attachments/article/162/IMechE_Modern%20Steam.pdf
http://www.dlm-ag.ch/attachments/article/52/Modern%20Steam%20english.pdf
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Since about 1960, it has been. But before that, the coal lobby was very strong.
Disclaimer: my grandfather was a railway engineer.
To a railman, anything that interrupts the schedules is as bad as can be.
With a short life expectancy - emphysema, lung cancer, bowel cancer, leukaemia, you name it. One of them got my grandfather, the only one of his side of the family not to make it past 80, and he was only occasionally exposed to smoke.
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I can only upvote this once but you are absolutely correct.
Steam locomotive: around 4% best case efficiency taking everything into account.
Coal powered electric generating station: 33% and up.
Even ship engines (which ended up quadruple compound with condensers) were so inefficient that the introduction of the Diesel engine reduced fuel consumption by a factor of 3 to 4. (Also, whatever @lolipop_jones may think about unions, marine Diesel engineers earned a lot more than steam engineers; operating costs were so much lower that wages ceased to be part of the equation.)
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Could one difference between UK and the continent was that European railways were nationalized earlier?
That’s a wise way to look it; I concur. Let me know what you think once you get done.
Haven’t read 11/22/63 yet, it’s on my list…
There’s truth to that, though it doesn’t explain the Annie and Clarabell, the passenger cars and why Thomas only seems to have the sentient cars.
Since there are sentient road cars and normal ones, it asks troublesome questions. Black Magic is afoot.
Good point to consider.
I read the UK railways came under state control during WWI, then were grouped into four large railway companies (the “big four”) each serving a certain region of Britain in 1921, and were finally nationalised into British Rail(ways) in 1948.
In Germany, in the late 19t century a number of federal states each already had their own state railways, which were nationalised in 1920.
In the Netherlands, two large companies were collaborating since 1917 and combined to Nederlandse Spoorwegen in 1938.
In France, SNCF was formed in 1938 as well, uniting seven regional railways, serving areas radiating out from Paris just like the “big four” of Britain from London.
In Switzerland, SBB was formed in 1902, started electrification of main lines around 1900 and was all-electric by 1960. The situation in Switzerland favoured electrification as coal had to be imported (leading to shortages in WWI and II), but there were ample possibilities for hydro power.
In Italy, the Ferrovie dello Stato were formed in 1905 already. I think Italy was quite early with electrification which would support your reasoning.
Still, the main thrust in electrification came in the 50s, 60s and 70s in most countries (I think). At that time, all these railways had been nationalised, but only the UK focused on Dieselisation, and only reluctantly electrified parts of their network.
(Ah, I see there is an overview article on railway nationalisation, unfortunately woefully incomplete.)
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Here’s a whole 'nother field of study by the trying way way too hard brigade:
Especially for THIS series.
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The first Thomas episode involves the men walling up a train (Henry) in a tunnel after he refuses to work.
I believe Henry cries out “For the love of God, Thomas!” And Thomas only replies “Yes, for the love of God!”
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Oh god, I remember that! Freaked me out as a kid.
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