Does anyone make models of Briti***urbine locomotives?
And where is a good place to get information about these? (Time to expanding my turbine knowledge database.) For some reason, I have trouble finding anything when I try a search engine, no matter what I do.
I take it no one else is a fan of these things…
Why start 2 forums about the same topic? I have no idea if any company makes a model of this, I checked in my copy of The Great Book of Trains, the only Briti***urbine listed was the Turbomotive built in 1935 it was a regular 4-6-2 Pacific with the left piston replaced with a multi stage Metropolitan-Vickers turbine of about 2,000 HP. It drove the leading axle through a three-stage gear train totally enclosed in an oil bath. This gave it a reduction ratio of 34:1, meaning that at 70mph the turbine would turn at 10,000rpm. It turned out to be more efficient than a standard loco, but it did not catch on and was rebuilt in 1951 to a normal pacific and named the Princess Anne, after running for 300,000 miles. This may not have been the kind of turbine you were thinking of as it was a stem turbine unlike the one in you picture or those built by the UP.
James[C):-)]
The Great Western Railway ordered 2 gas turbine locomotives from Brown-Boveri {in Switzerland} in 1946. The Locomotives did not enter service until 1950 so were strictly British Railway locomotives. I think one ran on heavy fuel oil and the other on diesel oil to compair the two types of fuel. Also the prototype Advanced Passenger Train was a gas turbine as they give very good power to weight ratio’s.
There is a book called THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY GAS TURBINES by Kevin Robertson ISBN 0 86299549 3
Hope this is of some help.