No video
Vicki Explores ... Starcross Atmospheric Railway
Рет қаралды 58,573
Күн бұрынIn this video Vicki takes the Exmouth to Starcross ferry in search of Brunel's atmospheric railway.
Find out more about the atmospheric railway here: www.ikbrunel.or...
Find out more about the Exmouth to Starcross ferry here: www.exe-estuar...
Thanks to ‘Vicki Explores’ Patreon supporters;
Aaron Springs, Alan Lumsden, Alastair Baker, Alexander Espéret, Alfie O'Flaherty, Alobear, Amelia Davidson, Amy Banner, Andrea & Elizabeth Clayton Vail, Andrew Gray, Andrew Holloway, Andrew Rodgers, Andrew Watson, Andrew Wilkinson, Andy Francis, Anne Stellingwerf, Arthur, Arwel Parry, Bailey Bogle, Barry Stanton, Ben Barron, Brian Bell, Brian Wright, Bryan Longmuir, Chris Allen, Chris Allison, Chris Hooker, Chris Robertson, Chris Wilkes, Craig Williams, D.A. Patterson, Dan Spence, Dan The Train, Dave Kirwin, Dave Matterface, Dave Treadwell, David, David Carpenter-Lomax, David Collison, David Durant, David Miller, Dr Andy Hill, David Rook, David Smith, David Stacey, David Walsh, Dennis Lassiter, Diana Patterson, Douglas Jacobs, Emma Smith, Erik Petrich, Ethan James Whitford, Every Disused Station, Fiona Mulvey, Fred Gough, Gary Hunt, Geoff Wilson, Graham Lavers, Graham O'Mara, Graham Reed, Gregory Beecroft, Hazel Nicholson, ieee1396, Jack Wingate, James Carroll, James Marshall, James Thomson, Jason Turner, Jenny Campbell, Jeremy Rawlings, Jeremy Samuels, JeremyR22, Jim Steeley, John Crook, John Mason, John R Moore, John Simpson, John Winebarger, Jonathan Isip, Kai Michael Poppe, Karl Black, Karl Florczak, Kelly Taylor, Kenneth Rains, Kevin Gage, Kevin Porter, Lachlan Ellis, Lawrence Chan, Lee Fergusson, Leeky, Leo Starrenburg, Lewis Gill, Lisa Grimm, liv3d, Marc Waters, Mark Cooper, Mark Harper, Mark Kavanagh, Mart McDonald, Martin Clitheroe, Martin Jolly, Matthew, Matthew McKinnon, Matthew Michael, Michael Coates, Michael Doherty, Michael Harris, Michael James, Michael Monn, Michael Schmidt, Michiel Kreuze, Mr Michael Ward, Mr Andy TF, Niall Porter, Partha Mazumdar, Patrick, Patrick Quinn-Graham, Paul Taylor, Peter Sheil, Pierre Blandin, Ray Turro, Raymond Calloway, Robert Brailsford, Robert Brown, Robert Cole, Robert Deering, Sandy Quick, Simon Webb, Sophie Robson, Soren Kristensen, Stephen Lawton, Stuart Harrison, Stuart Summers, Thomas Mann, Thomas Williams, Tom Carlos, Tony Swaine, Trevor Sweatman, Tyler Dickey, Wade A Nelson, Warren Pilkington, Wendy Harper, Wouter Hoek.
About Vicki Explores:
Twitter: / vickiexplores
Instagram: / vickiexplores
BOOKS
The Railway Adventures: www.septemberp...
Great British Railways: 50 Things to See and Do: www.septemberp...
@firefly24601 4 жыл бұрын
[insert humorous statement about Vicki Pipe walking along Victoria Road and talking about pipes all in the same video here]
@Parax77 4 жыл бұрын
what no tube?
@SamSitar 4 жыл бұрын
she made a brilliant trio.
@fl-v8843 4 жыл бұрын
Victorian pipes at that
@briangarrow448 4 жыл бұрын
And I thought an atmospheric railway had well appointed salon cars with leather seats, heavy curtains and Hercule Poiriot.
@flyingbananatree5661 4 жыл бұрын
that's an ambience railway, almost the same XD
@emmajacobs5575 4 жыл бұрын
Nooooo, that’s one with trains that take sick and injured people to hospital ... ;-)
@christopherlewis6938 4 жыл бұрын
Are you thinking of the Orient Express?
@bobcooper6528 4 жыл бұрын
Basically it was just a pipe dream
@allanfoster6965 4 жыл бұрын
Baboom tish!
@allanfoster6965 4 жыл бұрын
Baboom tish!😁
@arilebon 4 жыл бұрын
Your comment set me on a rabbit hole of searching on etymologies on a number of idioms. For 'pipe dream' -- this seems to be a common consensus - en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pipe_dream The one on 'steal my thunder' was among my favorites - www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/steal-ones-thunder.html
@markpieexplores 4 жыл бұрын
I did laugh.
@paulburton9386 4 жыл бұрын
Great video! I love the updated theme tune with "All the castles" in the lyrics!!
@lesremmington-allum6384 4 жыл бұрын
Great video, Vicki. The pumping houses created a vacuum in the pipe, (insert pun, sorry Vicki), ahead of the train, so the effect was for the piston in the tube was sucked along. The problem was, as Vicki explained, the open flaps along the top of the tube, to allow the piston connection to the train, leaked. I believe Mr I.K.B. used leather for these. Today we have far better materials to work with, but the principal was good. Note: This was the broad gauge of 7'. Hope I don't sound like a 'know it all', Vicki, but I'm a big fan of Mr I.k. Brunel. Love your new "Vicki Explores" series. Thanks.
@VickiPipe 4 жыл бұрын
Les Remmington-Allum thanks Les - great have to more details. It’s difficult to understand how it all worked, so great to get up to speed (pun intended).
@cardigan7726 4 жыл бұрын
The piston was pushed along by atmospheric pressure. The clue is in the name!
@stephensaines7100 4 жыл бұрын
@@cardigan7726 Absolutely. I'm astounded so many people have no concept of basic physics. Like 'vacuum brakes' only one atmosphere of pressure is possible to use for 'work', as opposed to a pressurized system, where many multiples of atmospheric pressure can be used to perform work. The strength requirements for the mechanism would also climb with the pressure though.
@lesremmington-allum6384 4 жыл бұрын
@@VickiPipe A very interesting place for another "Explore", is West Wycombe Mausoleum, and the St Lawrence church with it's famous golden ball, plus underneath the hill is the West Wycombe (Hellfire) caves... by Sir Francis Dashwood. A lot of history there, for you. West Wycombe is located on the A40, obviously west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
@erik_griswold 4 жыл бұрын
One could say that the Atmospheric Railway used a Victoria(n) Pipe!
@SamSitar 4 жыл бұрын
yes it did.
@johncassels3475 4 жыл бұрын
Hello Vicki, this was truly lovely. I am pleased you have managed to capture the slightly wacky but thoroughly delightful Vicki we see when you are interacting with Geoff. Much harder to do when solo. Well done indeed! FIVE+ STARS
@ianbrown9108 4 жыл бұрын
Wow that brings back memories!Back in the 80's I stayed in Starcross for two days en route to Paignton.Back then there was a proper little museum in the pumping station and the pub was just called The Railway. They actually had genuine Brunel artefacts including a section of the pipe.The village wasn't as busy then either. Thanks for reminding me of a lovely little holiday 👍
@caw25sha 4 жыл бұрын
We went to the museum when I was a kid, about 1984 I think. I didn't know it had closed and I was wondering why Vicki didn't go in.
@ianbrown9108 4 жыл бұрын
@@caw25sha I think it was either 84 or 85 when I went,I remember the guy who ran it giving a demonstration of dowsing as well.
@GeoffSaint 4 жыл бұрын
My wife and I took my parents to the museum when we lived in Exeter in the late 80s/early 90s. The proprietor used a length of pipe and two vacuum cleaners to demonstrate the principle and would check the barometer every day - the higher the pressure the bigger the person who could ride on the trolly...
@ianbrown9108 4 жыл бұрын
@@GeoffSaint I don't remember the vacuum cleaners but I do remember the barometer.
@paulgracey4697 4 жыл бұрын
The atmospheric railway lives on in a very different, much shorter, and trackless form of transport. I refer to the steam catapults on aircraft carriers equipped with them. You Brits invented it for the advent of jet powered fighters aboard your carriers but we Americans still use it. I suspect Brunel was the inspiration. I should mention however that the pressure you mention was in fact the atmosphere itself. You see the pumping station was not pressurizing the pipe, it was evacuating it ahead of the train. This was necessary because of the sealing system that Brunel had devised. It needed that vacuum for the seals to remain tight until the train reached each one in turn. Yes the train was pushed by normal 14 lbs per square inch pressure from the open end behind the driving cart but those seals along the top slit had to hold back the atmosphere ahead of it. Unfortunately leather was all that Brunel had as an elastic seal material. Rats enjoyed it and ate it ragged. Winter stiffening did it no favors either. So why does it work on aircraft carriers? Steam at much greater pressure and more modern sealing methods help, but the shortness of the trip is the biggest factor. Rockets had been tried, Hydraulic ram rope pulled launchers had worked for propeller driven aircraft on battleships and cruisers and some unusual carrier launches. One famous American carrier launched crossways out the side of the hanger deck a few times before giving that idea up. That one was the U.S.S Hornet that picked up the three Apollo 11 astronauts. As it is now a museum, I had the fortune to notice that the track for that launch ability is still there.
@stevetate 4 жыл бұрын
There are the remains of three pumping houses in the area.. Starcross, Totnes (near to the station), and Torquay.. (behind the Lidl near to the hospital). If you had taken the train to Starcross, you would have seen a small square shaped pond on the riverside of the track, between Exeter and Starcross. This was connected to the atmospheric railway and was a water storage facility, for the pumping house.. This is a very beautiful and scenic area... I can vouch for this because I live a few miles away at Teignmouth!
@bob_._. 4 жыл бұрын
So if you guys really like it there, are you Starcross lovers? Thanks, I'll see myself out.
@engineerjim2018 4 жыл бұрын
Nice video about the Starcross ferry but the facts about how the atmospheric system worked are incorrect. The pumping stations evacuated air causing a vacuum not pumping air into it. Even utilising modern materials to avoid the problems associated with rats eating the leather flap seals the pure olfistics of points etc make it a system bound to fail There are sections at Didcot and also at Brunel uni where you can see in situ track
@a11oge 3 жыл бұрын
For details on these trains, check out "Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Vacuum Powered Railway" on YT
@epetrich 4 жыл бұрын
A Better Beaching Report: Vicki explores the beach and spots a train
@TheUphillracer 4 жыл бұрын
Great video about a little known piece of railway history. Pleased to support you Vicki!
@Stevenspielburger 4 жыл бұрын
"all the castles" in the ending music!
@Farfri 6 ай бұрын
Hello to everyone else coming from the WTYP episode. Lovely to see that some of the pumping stations still exist!
@railwaymanjohn4721 4 жыл бұрын
Sorry to correct you Vicki, but the Atmospheric Railway used a vacuum to suck the train along with atmospheric pressure (14 psi) pushing from behind on a piston that coupled to the driving wagon. Also the tube was a standard diameter, definitely not different diameters depending on whether you were going up or down a hill. The piston was coupled to the driving wagon by a vertical bar that pushed two leather flaps out of the way as the piston travelled down the pipe. The problem with the system was the leather seals that closed the slot along the top of the pipe, as rats ate the leather, causing the vacuum in front of the piston and the atmosphere behind piston to fail.
@wealdenpete 4 жыл бұрын
The London and Croydon Railway used atmospheric traction 1845-46. Similarly short-lived. Another problem was one of points and crossings - very difficult to engineer with this technology. One of the pumping houses from Croydon was relocated and reused for water supply purposes, and can still be seen in Surrey Street, Croydon.
@caw25sha 4 жыл бұрын
I was wondering about the equivalent of points. I assumed they just went backwards and forwards on the same length of track so didn't need them.
@wealdenpete 4 жыл бұрын
@@caw25sha Yes I think so too, but somewhere like the London and Croydon, that simply wasn't going to work as soon as any new lines were built branching off the original. I think the London-Croydon shared the route with an ordinary railway, and in order for one to cross the other at the main junction near where Selhurst depot now stands, a flying junction had to be built, in the form of a viaduct that allowed one form of line to cross the other without interfering with it. There are drawings of this I have seen, and it was a big structure, simply to keep the two lines separate.
@tomkent4656 3 жыл бұрын
The Croydon museum has a piece of the original vacuum tube on display.
@johnnyfrisco5354 3 жыл бұрын
I lived just along from Brunel’s Tower in Starcross from 1960 to 1965... we teenagers used the top floor of his tower as a kind of youth club and band practise venue for several years. Great days, I mean really great days learning Rolling Stones, Beatles, Chuck Berry and other songs of the time. Cheers IK. Nice video.
@neilcrawford8303 4 жыл бұрын
In a way it's a similar principle to modern electric traction. A stationary plant generating power which is then distributed distributed along the railway for a train or locomotive to use for traction. In many cases the primary energy source is still steam. The method of distribution has changed, it's now 3rd rail or overhead wires.
@joermnyc 4 жыл бұрын
Here in New York before we had the subway system, someone tried to make “pneumatic rail” a thing. The car was a tube on wheels with a seal that held against the tunnel walls., Large fans pushed air into the tunnel and the train moved. It was only a demonstration line though, so they had to reverse the fans and suck the train back into the station. Feasibility over a larger system, and loss of funding killed the idea. They actually found the remnants of this when they were digging for the City Hall station on the Broadway side. Too bad they destroyed it after only saving the tunneling shield.
@metropod 4 жыл бұрын
...which someone ended up loosing...
@fidgetspinner343 4 жыл бұрын
What a lovely couple Vicki and Geoff are. 2 good humans
@AverytheCubanAmerican 4 жыл бұрын
I didn’t know about the atmospheric railway until now. Very educational, Vicki
@benketteridge9150 4 жыл бұрын
The Starcross atmospheric railway ran at negative pressure - i.e. a partial vacuum. The trains were sucked along the line. For those curious as to how the train attached to the pipe, there was a slot in the top of the pipe with a flexible leather flap that allowed a piston to be inserted into the pipe. That piston was attached to the underside of the train, and thus the atmosphere in the pipe pulls or pushes (depending upon whether the pipe is at positive or negative pressure relative to the outside atmosphere) the train along. The reason for the failure of the technology at the time was that leather is not a long term solution to the flexible seal problem. It dries out in hot conditions (Devon can get lovely hot summers!), and freezes in cold (Devon winters can equally be very wet and cold). Perhaps a modern materials scientist could suggest a more durable alternative to leather?
@VickiPipe 4 жыл бұрын
Ben Ketteridge Thanks Ben! It’s difficult to understand all the technicalities so good to have more details!
@ItsGeorgeHuh 4 жыл бұрын
I used to work in Starcross. Such a fun commute!
@petermostyneccleston2884 2 ай бұрын
The Atmospheric Railway did work for a very short while. The top of the pipe needs a seal, which was leather. The seal needed constant maintenance, using lard, to preserve it. This caused the problem of rats eating the seal. There is a length of pipe, from the atmospheric railway, in the Didcot Railway Centre.
@wealdenpete 4 жыл бұрын
This could be considered the precursor to the electric railway. Bear with me - the power was supplied remotely, from a steam engine creating a vaccum i.e. a "pressure potential" to "transmit" the power to where it was needed. The engine was the "generator" and the pipe was the "power cable". Now, the potential is electrical (voltage difference rather than air pressure difference), and is also generated remote from where it is needed. I can't think of another form of remote power supply used for railways until electric trains were introduced. The only other form of remote power supply that comes to mind was the hydraulic supply system used in London to provide power centrally for sites with lifts and cranes, but never used for railways, for practical reasons.
@ianbuchanan2461 4 жыл бұрын
wealdenpete Glasgow Underground, opened as a cable operated railway with a steam engine both pulling the cable through the railway and also tensioning it.
@wealdenpete 4 жыл бұрын
@@ianbuchanan2461 Good point.
@Ulleskelf 4 жыл бұрын
I’ve been to Starcross but didn’t know about the atmospheric railway. The village also has a French postbox.
@InfernalMachinePict 4 жыл бұрын
Is that where one deposits French letters?
@davidainsworth 4 жыл бұрын
@@InfernalMachinePict Oui
@yiyodder 4 жыл бұрын
French ! Disgraceful .
@sgthree 4 жыл бұрын
I was born there, is it is a cack-hole!
@greghilton7797 4 жыл бұрын
Vicki does railway history. Yea! More please.
@jonathancook4022 4 жыл бұрын
Vicki Pipe talks about Pipes! :D All the pipes!
@mob5350 4 жыл бұрын
Definitely worth my support on Patreon! Thank you, Vicki! Great visuals and interesting tidbit of history! I can't wait for the next one:)
@peterdarton9603 4 жыл бұрын
Nice watching video, Starcross was the Birth place of my farther who passed away a few years ago. That stretch of line means a lot to me and my family history. My Grandad also worked on that line 60 years ago.
@raymondturro9853 4 жыл бұрын
Thanks, Vicki!
@EntertainmentWorldz 4 жыл бұрын
great video
@Topshaman-pk2rx 4 жыл бұрын
Nice to see you in Exmouth and Starcross. Do come to Topsham and check out the museum and the ferry to the Turf Inn. You can also catch a ferry to Exmouth.
@tomas0flynn 4 жыл бұрын
There’s a section of the original pipe recovered from here on display at the Didcot Railway Centre.
@fl-v8843 4 жыл бұрын
5:02 We could make a mechanically viable atmospheric railway with modern technology. The way the railway works is that inside the pipe is a plug that gets pushed and pulled by the pressure in the pipe. The plug is connected to the train so that as one moves so does the other. The reason that it was hard to maintain pressure is that connecting the plug to the train was a metal truss meaning that the pipe needed a resealable gap running along the whole top. With modern magnets you could link the plug and train without having a hole in the pipe. Whether that's cheaper than a modern electric trains is another matter
@John900C 4 жыл бұрын
You've got it! The reason the Victorians came up with cumbersome systems like this is because electric power distribution had not been worked out. That was always going to be the most effective and economical alternative to prime movers attached to the trains.
@davidholden2658 4 жыл бұрын
There are modern atmospheric railways in use in several places. A company called Aeromovel makes them.
@MidnightVisions 4 жыл бұрын
Atmospheric railways did evolve into the Pneumatic Tube, a system for moving paper messages or small parts, but the problem when its scaled up to move a train, is the amount of energy required to keep the system constantly charged costs more than a self contained train. Scale the system up to be several block or kilometers long, and the costs to operate are excessive.
@davidhull1481 2 ай бұрын
Her train/beach recitation puts me in mind of the Father Ted bit about cows- small/far away.
@romanbaczynski8656 4 жыл бұрын
Excellent film. I had family in Lympstone years ago and spent time in Exmouth when visiting. Never saw the atmospheric railway. Another eye opener from Vicki 👍😉
@davidbagley7301 4 жыл бұрын
I went to the museum in the pumping house in the 1990s. They had a length of 5" gauge track with a length of plastic drain pipe fixed between the rails. The pipe had a sealed slot cut in the top just like Brunel's original except this was rubber and not leather. Visitors would ride on a small coach which was propelled (sucked) along by a vacuum cleaner at one end. When it reached the end, then the vacuum cleaner was turned off and another one at the other end was turned on to go back again. Apart from the noise of the vacuum cleaners, it was a really smooth and quiet ride!
@barrygower6733 4 жыл бұрын
Leather flaps were used as seals along the pipe and these were eaten by rats thereby reducing the air pressure.
@Johnaubreyduncan 4 жыл бұрын
The rats ate the animal fat used to seel the leather.
@stephensaines7100 4 жыл бұрын
And the pipes were evacuated, not pressurized. The term "atmospheric" came from the atmospheric pressure pushing the piston along the pipe into the evacuated section.
@roberthindle5146 4 жыл бұрын
There must have been a lot of self-inflated rats.
@DavidShepheard 4 жыл бұрын
@@roberthindle5146 If those pipes actually worked with a vacuum, I would expect the rats to get sucked inside and suffocate.
@Leonard_Smith 4 жыл бұрын
Loving the nose stud. The content of the video being great goes without saying, so I won't mention it.
@DevonPixie1991 4 жыл бұрын
It sounds cliché but I’m from Exmouth and it looks like you got lucky with the weather
@pmichael73 4 жыл бұрын
Equivalent with modern technology: the Hyperloop - probably just as ineffective because the small numbers of passengers per train being proposed.
@massivley 4 жыл бұрын
Nothing better than watching vicki explores on a Saturday afternoon
@monicalang6966 4 жыл бұрын
what a brilliant presentation. I have embedded it onto The Starcross History Society's blog
@monicalang6966 4 жыл бұрын
and shared with Starcross News Facebook page
@rogerhudson9732 4 жыл бұрын
By Dawlish Warren I remember seeing an old GWR cast iron sign from the 19th Century threatening anyone taking shingle from the railway/beach embankment with "Transportation to the penal Colony' (Australia). Great video.
@Keefa24 4 жыл бұрын
Hey! We have improved a bit over here since that time. Cheers from Brisbane! PS. I loved the video Vicki
@britainonabudget 4 жыл бұрын
So happy to see this as an expanded series on this channel. Love Vicki Explores and I think it's great that it's on the All The Stations channel!
@SleventyFive 4 жыл бұрын
Not only can we build an atmospheric railway today, we have! There's one at the Porto Alegre Airport in Brazil, one at an Indonesian themepark, and a planned 11 mile, two line system in Canoas Brazil which will serve 24 stations. All built by Aeromovel.
@stancrouch9642 4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for exploring Vicki.
@mnmless 4 жыл бұрын
I used this ferry in 2010, it was absolutely amazing! So happy to see my hometown here 💖
@rzholland 4 жыл бұрын
Thank you Viki, what a lovely birthday treat for me - will actually be over in England at Exmouth next May
@paulhill8224 4 жыл бұрын
Great video Vicki Pipe, I really enjoyed the video, keep up the good work.
@henrymcilroy 4 жыл бұрын
I live just down from the Atmo pub and use to catch the train too Teignmouth for college. It’s a beautiful journey down the estuary and along the coast. Always a bit hairy when the storms hit though and waves are splashing over the carriage 😂😂😂
@kdean9537 4 жыл бұрын
Great video Vicki! 👍
@parkandrideme 4 жыл бұрын
Well done Vicki. It was nice to watch that without a certain person butting in
@davidhcobbald3632 4 жыл бұрын
Great video Vicki and welcome back to gorgeous Devon!!
@ivesblackwood756 4 жыл бұрын
Awesome that you're down here in Devon! Exmouth is a lovely beach and a regular day out for all of us in Exeter, and a friend of mine lives in Starcross
@RandomRailways 4 жыл бұрын
It used a partial vacuum to create the propulsion, air pressure on a piston attached to the train pushed it along. There are several sections of the original pipework on display at Didcot Railway Centre: didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/20/broad-gauge-railway
@SGMiner21 4 жыл бұрын
The music says "All the castles" 😍😍 this is gonna be a good series
@DevonPixie1991 4 жыл бұрын
DocWho 2002 powderham castle is near starcross - there is Hope!
@chriswilkes236 4 жыл бұрын
Loved the video, Vicki
@Thursdaym2 4 жыл бұрын
Great to hear someone speak clear and correct English. Well done.
@RichardFelstead1949 4 жыл бұрын
I like the ways you cued the trains to appear just as Vicki finished the dialogue.She must have friends in high places.lol
@warminghurst 4 жыл бұрын
Boats 'Parked"! - Love it Vicki, my expression too.
@johnrhodez6829 3 ай бұрын
Obviously a 'Navy Lark' fan. "Ship parked Sir!"
@garethrawlings9719 4 жыл бұрын
Great video. There is a guy in America trying to get atmospheric railways going again. It uses magnet to get around the whole leaky pipes and rats problem. I think David Jason visited on he's plane train and automobile show. It looked really good running around a vine yard.
@rjmunro 4 жыл бұрын
Great video about it here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gdSZg5aFxLa0cmg.html
@Lulu-jl5zd 4 жыл бұрын
Lovely vlog Vicki... more please :)
@geoffwbaU 4 жыл бұрын
Nice video and it's a lovely area but as some have pointed out, the explanation of how the system worked was incorrect!
@bender7565 2 ай бұрын
Lots of clever folks here but I just liked Vicki talking about trains!
@plaws0 Жыл бұрын
Finally decided to look for vids on Atmospheric Railways - and immediately hit a good one! "Crazy idea that was never going to work?" ehh ... maybe. The vacuum idea was sound and problems with the stationary steam engines that ran the pumps to evacuate the air would have been solved but the fundamental issue was that *the train was outside the pipe*. Because of this, you needed to have a connection between the piston in the pipe and the train (or at least the piston car) and that meant you needed some sort of slot in the pipe. And if you have a slot in the pipe, how do you maintain vacuum? Well, you put a leather flap on it that is opened as the piston car passes and reseals after. I think you can immediately begin to see the problem. Miles and miles of leather flap. So ... yeah. The other big technical problem was points (track switches or turnouts depending where you live). There were apparently some in use on at least one of the 4 railways that were in commercial service (the two in England and one each in Ireland and France) but there don't appear to be any surviving drawings or descriptions of how they worked. The list of things that didn't really work (moving trains in terminals, changing ends, etc) kept getting longer. And then ... The main reason atmospheric railways were promoted was that their promoters said that they could run up steeper grades ("banks") than existing steam locomotives so they would be cheaper to build ... except that in just about every example built, there were already steam locomotives that could, and did, use the same tracks without issue. In fact, when problems arose with the pipe or the valve or the stationary engine houses, contemporary steam locomotives would replace the piston cars. KZfaq is weird about links in comments so I'll just say that Joe Brennan of Columbia U in NYC has a whole series of articles on the Atmospheric Railways on his employer's site entitled "The Atmospheric Road" - that should be enough for google to send you to the right place. Fascinating story even though the idea was doomed. 🙂 Of course, many railways in Britain and on the continent use "stationary engines" with power transmitted to the trains but instead of pumps, it's generators that send electricity to the trains through a wire over the track ...
@almostanengineer 4 жыл бұрын
A rare view of the wall at a Dawlish that will no longer be visible once they’ve finished the resilience works, both a happy and sad time for Dawlish
@Baikur1 2 жыл бұрын
It works now in Brazil - search for Aeromovel. Extremely efficient drive system! It is used INCOGNITO in hybrid cars, TIRs, etc.
@JohnTalbot-k6xi 4 жыл бұрын
Light, Happy and Enchanting (!!) Perfect Adventure this show can be a Big Video Hit Series
@TheNgandrew 4 жыл бұрын
Very enjoyable video. I was expecting you might try to answer your question at the end. I don't have any expertise, but I understand leather was used quite a lot, which rats enjoyed gnawing (thus affecting pressure), so I would have thought there are better materials available now which rats aren't so partial to. Keep up the very good work.
@HenrysAdventures 4 жыл бұрын
Another very interesting video! There used to be a Brunell Museum in the old pump house where they had a miniature atmospheric railway powered by a vacuum cleaner! There's a section of atmospheric railway at Didcot Railway Centre!
@XNA2NW3 4 жыл бұрын
Awesome.
@Peasmouldia 4 жыл бұрын
'Spect I'm not the only person to point out that it's Atmospheric pressure that propels the train. The pipe provides vacuum. The clue is in the name.
@bennyfactor 4 жыл бұрын
If you look at the design of an atmospheric railway abstractly, it can be and indeed is a success with modern technology. Many trains do run based on power generated by a static source at a remote location which is then transmitted to the train. However, instead of pumphouses and air pressure differentials in pipes making and transmitting power, it's electricity generating stations and catenary wires sending power to trains.
@stephendines1936 4 жыл бұрын
Wow what an adventure.
@annother3350 4 жыл бұрын
Great bit of acting at 2:25 !!
@MelodeonTunes 4 жыл бұрын
There is an operational atmospheric railway in Portugal for an airport connection people mover en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Alegre_Metro
@dougf94912 4 жыл бұрын
I believe there was an atmospheric railway closer to (your) home when the Crystal Palace was moved to South London. The line ran from downtown Croydon to the exhibition site. I think the Croydon terminus was in the Katherine Street Gardens.
@PhilipStorry 4 жыл бұрын
Hi Doug! You're right that there was an atmospheric railway terminating in Croydon, but it terminated at West Croydon railway station not the Croydon Central station at Katherine Street Gardens. It was on a the line from Forest Hill (then Dartmouth Arms, after a local pub) through Norwood Junction (then Jolly Sailor, also after a local pub) and finally terminating at West Croydon (then just called Croydon - what no pubs?). The line was also used for normal trains. The pnuematic railway at Crystal Palace was a demonstration track of ~550 yards, with no connection to any other rail networks. It also operated as a tourist attraction, with tickets costing sixpence. It was only open in 1864, and no visible trace of it exists today.
@dougf94912 4 жыл бұрын
@@PhilipStorry thanks for posting. I was born and raised in Croydon but never knew all these details!
@HSMiyamoto 4 жыл бұрын
The biography of Brunel by LTC Rolt explains it well. Vicki should have mentioned that the pipe had a slot in the top and a piston ran inside the pipe that was connected to the train. The pipe was sealed with leather kept supple with oil so that only the tube was always sealed except for where the train was slipping along. It worked ok for a while after installation, especially since the vacuum was relatively slight. However the leather soon became stiff and then it didn't seal the tube. All kinds of attempts were made to keep the system working but the advantages never outweighed the troubles. Once lasting consequence of Brunel's daring is that the GWR line across Devon still has its sawtooth profile; the atmospheric railway was intended to move trains up grades without concern for adhesion. The operational problems of the Atmospheric Railway were not too apparent at the time because British trains were still assembled by horses and boys moving the cars instead of shunting engines. Traffic levels were also much lower than now seen at the great terminals and junctions around the world. However, it should be clear that if the Atmospheric Railway had been successful, the kind of railway operations seen today would be impossible with that technology.
@donsharpe5786 4 жыл бұрын
There is another building which provided pumps for vacuum at Totnes.
@theoasisvlogs5954 4 жыл бұрын
Love these vidoes. Keep it up
@jimwright4163 4 жыл бұрын
Great video 👍
@MikeWillSee 4 жыл бұрын
The atmospheric railway was, as mentioned in the video, ahead of its time. The reason it failed is because rats kept eating the rubber tubing that sealed the tube off, thus breaking the vacuum and therefore not working. With modern technologies, though, the line has been proven to work very well and efficiently, although, instead, it now uses a magnet inside the tube that does not physically connect to the train, therefore there is no need to have a rubber seal and the tube can be unbroken and un-eatable by rats.
@rogergardner6537 4 жыл бұрын
I have to agree with "engineerjim" on the workings of an atmospheric railway, your explanation is confused and plain wrong, five minutes research could have made this a much better clip.
@annother3350 4 жыл бұрын
You havent pointed out how it was wrong Mr big bollocks
@rogergardner6537 4 жыл бұрын
No need to, engineerjim does that admirably.
@markweir2988 4 жыл бұрын
One off my favourite parts off the UK. Been along that stretch off road between starcross and dawlish many times and never knew that story. I don't think it would still work now.
@jgodfrey546 4 жыл бұрын
Great video! I noticed you guys didn't heed Mr De Burgh's advice not to pay the ferryman 'til he got you to the other side, though...☺Nice title pic, btw...
@theothertonydutch 4 жыл бұрын
There's a podcast called "there's your problem" about the atmospheric railway. One of the keywords: Rat viscera.
@krcb197 4 жыл бұрын
I remember going to an atmospheric railway museum as a child, not sure where. However, I do recall that one of the issues was rodents eating the leather flaps used to seal the pipes.
@stephenlittle7534 4 жыл бұрын
Nice to see you down here. Here is where I live Dawlish. I hope you had a great time. As it looked like you did. At the end it's a shame you didn't see the new trains come through o well next time
@DavidBromage 4 жыл бұрын
There is an original section of tube from the Atmospheric Railway preserved at the Didcot Railway Centre.
@fintytin5771 4 жыл бұрын
Great stuff Vicki !!!
@MLampner 4 жыл бұрын
Alfred Eli Beach, perhaps the closest thing the 19th Century US had to the Brunnels also experimented with an air driven train, those his system was more a pneumatic railroad. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit His ran a bit longer but also was constructed in secret in what was already a very densely populated area of New York City. It was lost and forgotten till around 1918 when building the, NY's BMT Broadway line the tunnel, car, and shield used for the construction were all discovered. Little if any of the tunnel remains its thought a small section might lurk under a manhole in lower Manhattan but if urban explorers have found it they keep it to themselves.
@adriananderson4530 4 жыл бұрын
Sheer brilliance performance
@BuzzingRocks 4 жыл бұрын
Cool video. 🙂
@lfewell2161 4 жыл бұрын
There was a small museum at Starcross, it was featured in the VIDEO 125 "hst west" VHS from 1986, I think it was privately run, not sure if it was open to the general public or not. What became of it?
@andrewholloway231 4 жыл бұрын
Oh yes, how apt .... 0:35 Victoria Road :-)
InterviewsOfInterest
Рет қаралды 160 М.