Article of the Month

Broad Gauge To Extremes

Now I'm not one for moving off on odd tangents, but I must take my hat off to that great GWR pioneer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel - although I am biased in this, due to living within walking distance of the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash and marvelling at it's innovation and design for the 19th century.

Good old IKB gave us many things - the GWR, the Royal Albert Bridge, the Clifton suspension bridge and the Broad Gauge. The first three are remarkable feats for one man - but the broad-gauge was pure genius, it's only failing was appearing in the late 1830's and not becoming the national standard.

Now push the dimensions of reality forwards with a generous helping of science, and the possible outcome would have been a standard gauge of 7 foot as Brunel considered appropriate with today's rolling stock thumping along on it. Now steam trains would have been impressive, but what of the diesels and electrics ! If you can add about 50% to your track gauge as Brunel envisaged, then today's mk 3a TSO's would seat 100 passengers or more, with more comfort and better ride than the current 72 / 80 seat 'Sardine-Special' layout that I can recall from a trip on a HST unit recently. Throw in some six wheel bogies to spread the weight out a bit, and track repairs might well be reduced.

The Broad Gauge HST would, of course, be a much better derivative of the prototype 252 unit but probably with 4000hp power cars - it could even be articulated and gas turbined, a la APT-E and normal service speeds could be expected to reach 185 to 200mph, with a braking system suitably uprated with 4 vented discs flown in-board on each axle.

Now let's move on to freight - now this is the truly chunky use of Broad Gauge. If 50 ton open wagons and 100 ton bogie wagons don't shift the goods, then road-railers would be able to take those 38 ton juggernaut trailers with ease between the wagon side frames with comparative ease. Now if the locomotives are suitably sized up and powered, we are talking of 5000hp Co-Co's or even Do-Do's humping loads in excess of 1000 tons - I can hear those 24 cylinder engines thumping away in my head as I think of what might be !

But what of the draw-backs.

Level crossings would be painfully wide, and all those daft Chaplin movies would have to feature 8ft tall women so that their heads and feet could be tied to the rails on each side !

Bags I have first go at the 7ft gauge APT-E !!!

Return to: Article Archive Index

September 1998