Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 2 (May 1, 1939)

A Giant Electric Locomotive

A Giant Electric Locomotive.

From Switzerland comes the news that the Federal Railways have just acquired what is claimed to be the world's most powerful electric locomotive. This is a giant machine developing 12,000 h.p., and of the 2-4-2-4-2 + 2-4-2-4-2 wheel arrangement. Intended for service on the St. Gothard route, the locomotive is of articulated design, and at a speed of 46 m.p.h. the tractive effort is said to be 88,000lb. To secure a high tractive effort at starting, the adhesive weight of all the driving axles is increased to 172 tons, by an apparatus operated by compressed air, and reducing the weight on the central carrying axle. Weighing in working order about 244 tons, the new Swiss giant hauls 600-ton express passenger trains up gradients of 1 in 39 at 40 m.p.h.; and 75-ton freight trains at 31 m.p.h. In the neighbouring country of Italy, completion of the Milan-Bologna and Florence-Rome electrifications has enabled through travel by electric train to be undertaken from one end of the land to the other, a distance of slightly more than 900 miles. There are now about 2,430 miles of electric railway in Italy, and the development of hydro-electrical power resources is going ahead at a rapid rate. The fastest electric service is that between Milan and Bologna (72 m.p.h.). Other noteworthy runs by electric train are those from Milan to Rome (395 miles at an average speed of 66 m.p.h.), and Turin
Tudor architecture at Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.

Tudor architecture at Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.

to Rome (417 miles at an average of 60 m.p.h.) with two and three intermediate stops respectively.