Nothing to do with me

Fun fact about the Eurostar and third rail (before the completion of HS1): Trains coming from England often forgot to pull up the collector shoe for third rail pick-up, and this damaged track equipment on the French side. The French eventually solved this by installing a concrete block that would simply break off the collector shoe if it were still down. There is much to be said for simple solutions to engineering problems.

An electric system having potential? Did jago really sneak that one in? Yes he did

I started on the North Clyde. Had a quite intensive electrification module on my Guards course. When I transferred to Reading, I pointed out that I knew nothing of 3rd rail. My conversion course consisted of the words 'don't step on it'.

Jago, you conducted yourself very well on this video. I had no resistance to watching it at Ohm.

Also an interesting story on the early Eurostar trains that ran from the tunnel into Waterloo in the early days. When the train exited the tunnel there was a lineside sign to tell the driver to lower the pantograph as he was now in a third rail area. Unfortunately, there were a few instances when the driver forgot and then reported the incident to the control room. The lineside engineers knew which bridge to collect the bits of pantograph from.

Third rail is very vulnerable to snow, it increases earth leakage which is why the practical limit, today, is 750V. It's also vulnerable to ice.

I can’t resist a good video about electricity. It’s good to keep current with what’s happening.

Jago, I eat my lunch at my desk at the office and everyday your videos are chosen to accompany my lunch, thank you for posting these great videos,

This reminds me of an interesting story about a station called Manhattan Transfer in Harrison, NJ. You may know Manhattan Transfer as a vocal group, but basically the group got the name from a novel, and the novel was in turn named after the station. Until 1910, none of the railroads that crossed NJ to reach New York City crossed the Hudson River. Instead, passengers rode to terminals on the Hudson Waterfront, where they boarded ferries. In 1910, the Penn RR opened a tunnel extension under the Hudson to NY Penn Station. The PRR built the Manhattan Transfer station that year so trains bound for New York Penn paused there so that their steam locomotives could be replaced by electric locomotives that could run through the tunnel under the river, and for people to change trains like another Penn train to Exchange Place or the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) In 1913 the PRR's board voted to electrify its main line in the Philadelphia area using an 11 kV overhead catenary system due to the length of time it took for steam trains in Philly to change directions. Tracks at Manhattan Transfer were originally electrified with 650 V third rail, which was used by PRR electric trains to Penn Station and Exchange Place, and by H&M trains (PATH today is still powered by third rail). In 1928 the PRR and the Newark government agreed to build a new Newark Penn Station to replace three stations around Newark with Newark Penn Station. In June 1937, the H&M moved to Newark Penn Station, and Manhattan Transfer and Park Place closed. The third rail on the NJ side of the Hudson tunnels was finally removed in 1940.

Interesting! Converting the 3rd rail network to overhead (catenery) power would also face the problem of low bridges at numerous locations. It's a pity that the former Southern Railway's pre-war plan to electrify their entire network was never fully completed - to this day there are still about 6 routes that remain diesel-operated.

They should electrify the motorways with overhead catenary, then make cars have pantographs to draw their power. Add on couplings so lots of cars can run in multiple and I reckon the motorway would be really useful. Better still, if we had a dedicated vehicle at the front with one highly trained driver the rest of the drivers could relax. To do that we could have one car with a buffet in it. We shall call it "the buffet car". I reckon this system would catch on.

One of the oddities of the third rail system in the South is that it wasn't really suitable for large goods yards or goods lines, where staff had to couple and uncouple wagons manually. Steam locomotives or diesel shunters were used, but later on overhead wires were added (after 1940), such as at Hither Green and at Ashford(Chart Leacon) in Kent, where interestingly, they used a unique tram-style 750v DC overhead wire that could be used by the class 70 and later class 71 electric locomotives, designed for 650/750v third rail use but with an added pantograph.

As my regular readers will know(you'd think this was my channel) I've been a bus driver for many years.Whilst the Docklands light railway was being built the trains didn't run in the evening and were supplemented with buses numbered in,appropriately enough, the "D" series amd operated by Kentish bus now part of Arriva. I used to pick up this chap who had lived in the East end all his life and since these buses didn't do much business in the evenings we used to chat.So I would ask him about the changes he had seen and I also asked him what he thought of the DLR and he said "well it's alright for running up and down Brighton beach I suppose ", A direct reference to Volkes Electric Railway !!

Just like Thameslink, two lines in the US that switches from third rail to overhead wires are the Metro-North's New Haven Line and the MBTA's Blue Line. The MBTA Blue Line in Boston is more unique in its operations because it's a subway line that does this! The Blue Line's predecessor was first a streetcar line before it was converted to a subway line in the 1920s. The Blue Line switches from third rail to catenary or vice versa at Airport station. When it was extended in the 1950s using the former Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad right of way, the northern section of the Blue Line became catenary to reduce the risk of winter ice buildup due to proximity to the ocean. The Blue Line also stands out in that its East Boston Tunnel was the first underwater rail tunnel in North America when the tunnel opened in 1904. For the New Haven Line: As part of the construction of the iconic Grand Central Terminal in the early 1900s, all of New York Central's lines that ran into the terminal were electrified as NYC banned steam locomotives. Third rail was installed on the Hudson and Harlem Divisions, while the New Haven Division received overhead wires on the segments that were not shared with the Harlem and Hudson Division. So what are now the MNR's Hudson and Harlem Lines are electrified (mostly; the northern portions are not electrified) using third rail. The LIRR is mostly electrified with third rail, and that's thanks to the Penn RR, who also added catenary to the portion of the Northeast Corridor between NYC and DC. LIRR was once owned by the Penn RR and they used third rail for the tunnels to Penn Station, but later opted to use catenary for the NEC.

Some of the earliest electrification was in the North West. The Liverpool Overhead Railway opened in 1893 with electric operation. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Liverpool to Southport line used electric trains from 1904 on a 4th rail system. Now part of todays Merseyrail Electrics network, it operates using 3rd rail just like the SR. Manchester to Bury, also L&Y, was electrified to 1200 volts dc in 1916 using a side contact 3rd rail system. It is now part of the Manchester Metro tram system.

Don’t forget the old Bury line with its unique 1200v DC side contact third rail!

Another element to consider when looking at the two systems is train speed - because the contact between shoe and rail is more difficult to maintain compared to between pantograph and catenary, maximum speeds on 3rd rail systems are much lower (the world record for 3rd rail is only about 175kph, set by a Class 442 Wessex Electric unit), therefore are well suited for slower-speed commuter systems, where their cost advantages come into play.

One system that deserves a shout out is the Mersey Railway, today part of Merseyrail. Opened in 1886, it made history in 1903 by being the first railway in the world to be converted to electric traction. The reason for the electrification was due to the tunnel under the river Mersey. Approached on each side by a punishingly steep 1 in 27 gradient, for context, the Licky Incline between Bromsgrove and Barnt Green is 1 in 37 3/4, and the steam and smoke from the initial steam locomotives played their part the ferry (across the Mersey) being more popular at the time. When the route was electrified and stations at (Birkenhead) Hamilton Square and (Liverpool) James Street were cleaned up, passenger numbers unsurprisingly increased dramatically. Today, the system Merseyrail uses (for the most part), is a 750v dc third rail, similar to the more extensive system on the Sputhern Region. Incidentally, in the 1980's, Class 508 units, displaced from their original services on the South Western Suburban services, were shortened* and sent north to work in Merseyside and are now (at the time of comment) seeing out their retirement before final withdrawal. As every Jago, you've been the Ferry to my River Mersey. *: if you know where to look, surpluss trailer cars from Class 508's were incorporated into the incoming Class 455/7 units, which explains the lower roof on these compared to the rest of the 455 fleet

The reason for the fourth rail on the tube is that the supply is DC and the return current would pass through the cast iron / steel lining resulting in electrolytic corrosion. So another rail is provided and the voltage split except on the Lioness line where the centre rail is 0V.

Also overhead wires, at a higher voltage, suffer less power loss; so are more efficient with the electricity.

Another electrifying episode. I'm amped for the next one Yet again the Underground was an impedance to the adoption of a single standard it seems.

0:45 Electricity had potential. Excellent pun, intentional or otherwise 🙂

I used to commute into Euston daily on the Watford DC line, which uses third-rail electrification. The trains also had a pantograph (aka "pan") for use on lines with overhead electrification. One day, the driver of my evening train, which I guess had come in via the WCML, forgot to lower the pan before leaving Euston. Shortly afterwards, there was an almighty bang as it struck a bridge. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes after he wrote the report!

i think you should do a series on the electrification of the long distance rail lines and the cock ups that have occurred, especially from Paddington to the west. what was going to cost £750 million ended up costing over £5 billion and they did not even get to where they were supposed to and ended it short

Would have liked to hear about Liverpool's overhead railway and mersey railway, electrified in 1893 and 1903, respectively - 6 years prior to London's first suburban rail electrification.

The North London Line was once fully third rail then British Rail converted it mostly to OLE for freight.

Thank you Jago.. when Watford was connected to Clapham and beyond it was a joy. The South Coast with Central London. Sham it took overhead to third rail to do this. Thank you again.

In Chicago, one line (the "Skokie Swift" ) of metro trains extends out to the suburbs with level grade crossings. For this part, dual power trains which switched from third rail to overhead pantograph collection were used. Around 2003, it was decided to dismantle the catenary and convert to all third rail, despite the danger to it being accessible to people on the ground. So a rare type of conversion.

Another well explained video Jago. I keep learning from you and the way it is presented just speaks to me! Also, I might add, something similar happened here in germany in the 1920s and 1930s, but on a way smaller scale. The U-Bahn-systems in Berlin and Hamburg, starting before WW1, had used (and still do) a third rail. So, when they started to built S-Bahn-systems in both cities, they used the third rail, despite the fact that the mainlines were about to adopt the overhead wire (which they did). Otherwise, Germany today is in a strong relationship with the overhead wires. Even newer U-Bahn-systems like in Munich or Frankfurt are using overhead wires and modern S-Bahn-systems are basicly regular mainline trains with special rolling stock and dedicated sections in the core (like the Liz line in London, but starting the 1970s). Making these third rail systems kind of an oddity.

Merseyrail is also 3rd rail . But theres a ban on new installs unless its between two existing 3rd rails. So new extension to Headbolt lane from Kirkby had to be done by battery traction..... its not working very well.

The sparks effect, Yerkes, this town aint big enough for the two of us.

Might be worth mentioning a few additional reasons why the post- war sr went with the third rail . 1) the LBSCs elevated electric lines used Siemens technology and they, being German, had been out of favour since 1914. 2) the SECR had been planning it's own electrification based on a tube type 4 rail system and 3) LSWR / SECR engineering staff dominated the higher echelons of SR management. Add that to the cost of the overhead system and the straightened circumstances of the early SR and the technologically better LBSC system was always going to lose to the cheaper and simpler 3rd rail The LBSC were right in the long term tho....

If some wayward pedestrian should inadvertently step on a third rail providing power to electric locomotives, would it be "Goodnight Irene?"

Stepping on “The Third Rail.” A mistake that is only made once! ⚡️💥 Remember the old electrician’s saying: It’s the Volts that jolts but the mills (milliamperes mA) that kills. The current from the third rail exceeds over 1000 Amps.

Interestingly, as mentioned in the video, there were overhead wires on the Brighton line, which were converted to 3rd rail by the Southern Railway to ensure standardisation across the Southern network

A nice concise history, thank you. A friend who was a third rail fan used to amuse me by comparing 25kv overhead locomotives to “moving substations.” NB, could you have solved your flickering shot by taking it as a still frame?

That F-- *rewinds* Oh, FLICKER. Yes, it is a bit.

Another joule, Jago! Electrification promoters of the day likely got a charge out of the potential revenue it could generate. Resistence among others seemed myopic despite the number of terminals in London. Cheerio

Nice to see the South Western Railway class 707s that still haven't been replaced with the newer class 701s, even thought the 710s have been moved on and the 701s are 4 years late!! The other trouble with overhead wires is the time taken to re-wire after an accident (or dodgy pantographs) pull them down. If a shoe pushes a third rail off the insulators (and that did happen to a train I was on near Balham some years ago). a track gang can quickly put it back after the power has been isolated. They had arrived and started work before we were evacuated from the train, a class 319!

Another fascinating and informative video from Jago!

I often wondered.

Very good explanation of the reasons for different electrification methods. I believe the underground lines used the 3rd and 4th rail system to avoid possible electrolytic corrosion of the tunnel metalwork by earth return currents. I remember reading that an increase in earth currents could be detected a long way from the Southern's third-rail network when the Eurostars were using third-rail pick-up, due to their higher power demands, although their power was much reduced compared with that available when using 25kV overhead pick-up.

Great video! Just one correction: third rail is more expensive than overhead, not cheaper. This is because the low voltage constraint means more frequent substations, and they are more expensive per unit because they have rectifiers and very large high current circuit breakers.

You are the pantograph to my overhead wire.

One thing often overlooked is the amount of time taken to make the 3rd rail safe when the railway is given up in a possession so engineering works can be done. Each electrical section of 3rd rail (They are about 2 miles long) first has to be turned off by the electrical control room, then if the electrical section spills out the end or side of the possession hook switches have to be opened to isolate these little bits. Then short circuit straps have to be applied to ensure if the electrical section is accidentally re-energised the circuit breakers will pop out before anyone is fried. So it typically takes an hour after a possession is taken before it is safe to work. "Normal short circuiting devices" are being installed at 3rd rail sub stations, these have reduced the number of short circuit straps needed when setting up a possession, but it is still a time consuming and expensive process. However the 3rd rail is cheap to install, robust and a lot more reliable than overhead electrics, so as a railway worker and Kent commuter i'm really glad it was installed. Money well spent. (Jonathan a Siemens employee, we do really good electrification equipment and installation, shameless plug!)

My father worked on the railways and said that sometimes walking back from the depot after a night shift and between two tracks, especially after rain, and he was carrying his raincoat over his arm, if the raincoat flicked the live rail it gave him enough of a wakeup call to watch his step..

An excellent video and a very good explanation as to why the Southern ended up with 3rd rail, looking in that cab shot at 01:49 and that tap changer on the right hand side looks very impressive though I hope they shielded that in service ;) A special shout out to it being Mather & Platt which was located not too far away from me (though sadly long-gone by the time I was around). The expansion of 3rd rail is still an issue today, there have been numerous plans for the Merseyrail network to adopt the line from Kirkby to Wigan Wallgate but these have constantly fallen through as it would require electrifying several miles of track with 3rd rail which is now no longer allowed (generally speaking). Their solution was a new station "Headbolt Lane" which offers absolutely nothing new for anyone as they still have to change trains like they did at Kirkby, the only difference is that Merseyrail need to use new battery units to run from Kirkby to the new station a mile down the line - literally a new battery EMU which only uses its battery about 4 times a day for a mile at a time...

The London Underground uses ( more expensive ? ) FOUR rails to keep the running tracks totally isolated from the traction electricity ... this is to prevent SERIOUS electrolytic corrosion of the tunnel rings .... simple ! ........ DAVE™🛑

Every system has it pro and contra. But I do like the 3-rail concept because it blends so well in the landscape. And in particular in Kent that's a huge "pro": imagine that beautiful landscape full of catenary portals.....

Thank you for the interesting background on the Waterloo & City line. When I worked for Railtrack Southern (1995-2001) the W&C line was always considered part of the mainline railway and my residential (commuting) and work passes covered this line as well whereas a separate LUL/TFL pass was needed for the rest of the underground.

It still blows my mind that there are trains for getting around certain metropolitan areas because they are just that vast, like in Greater London, Paris, and Rome whilst having trains for going to other cities and trams for going around the city centre because the city centre itself is that vast. Where I live, the city is small enough that, to get around the city centre, you can just walk, and you use the tram network to get around the whole city, and the trains are only for going to other cities, we only have 2 levels of transport rather than 3 levels. I never been to parts of London outside the city centre when I visited so when I flew to Rome, and then Paris and got a train to the city centre that floored me because where I live you get tram from the airport if you want to get into the city including the city centre and you only take the train if you are coming from elsewhere. In Malta, you use the bus for the whole country because it is that small, yet in Paris, Rome and Greater London you have to use the train just to leave the city centre and go to another part of the city, there are some cities that are bigger than some countries, which I find shocking. In Malta I could probably get between the 2 furthest points of the country in a 45 minute drive...

Hi Jago. Electrifying!

When electrifying the lines into Edinburgh through the Mound and Haymarket tunnels, limited clearance necessitated the use of solid overhead conductors, rather than flexible cables which might be pushed up into the tunnel roof. As a consequence, steam engines are no longer allowed to operate through those tunnels; steam hauled railtours have to go around the old Edinburgh South Suburban line. One imagines much of the Southern Region would face similar clearance issues.

Merseyrail is entirely a third rail enclosed system, there is talk of extending the operations to Wigan, Wrexham and Warrington, but Network rail are reluctant to allow them to install more third rail along the tracks. So far the trial battery powered services to Headbolt Lane (not on the third rail) have been... mixed

My late father had a jolt from a third rail one windy stormy night crossing over Blackfriars bridge from the signalbox, they used the leftermost line to cross the bridge which was next to the disused bridge. Well he caught the hem of his trouser leg on the rail and it threw him over to the disused one and for the second time in his life he was hanging on for dear life over the rampaging waters of the Thames below him (the first time was when he thought to use the disused bridge instead of walking trackside and a floor beam disappeared right under him) and he had to pull himself to a metal section to gain safety. People see it as a lowish number at 750v but the amperage behind it was extremely high hence why you had to do the ministry of silly walks over the live rails esp in wet weather as they would arc to you fatally, he only got a belt from his wet trousers and was lucky.

Thanks Jago ! I'd never really given much thought as to 3rd rail vs overhead, except the tube.

This was an interesting topic. Thank you for uploading. In the US, the rail lines in and out of New York City are both third-rail and overhead. When electric power was introduced, New York City banned steam power from within the city due to the pollution. The New York Central went with third-rail into its yards and the famous Grand Central Terminal. The New Haven Railroad (New York, New Haven, and Hartford) opted for overhead into Pennsylvania Station via the famous Hells Gate Bridge. At the same time, the Long Island Railroad chose third rail power and ran initially into Penn Station and now more recently into Grand Central Terminal. Since the New Haven served both Penn Station and Grand Central, they developed dual-mode electrics with wires up to Woodlawn Junction where the New Haven joined the New York Central Harlem division which ran third-rail up north to Brewster or a bit more than that now. In the 1950s, the New Haven developed the FL9, a dual-mode diesel electric-third rail full electric locomotive. While a bit sketchy initially, these proved to be reliable workhorses and this same technology is used today by commuter railroads worldwide. The New York Central had some interesting box cab electric switchers it used to shunt trains around the underground Grand Central Terminal. The locomotives were third rail powered but had pantographs fixed in the upright position to power the locomotives over crossovers and switches.

Funny to see the Class 76. It's six-axle sister class, the Class 77, was smaller, with just seven locos. But contrary to the single Class 76 that was preserved, three of the Class 77 were preserved: one in the Netherlands, and two in Britain - the one in Manchester in its Dutch livery.

Thanks for that Jago - Every day is a School day with Jago!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂🚂🚂🚂

Dear Jago, great vid! The third and fourth rail lead the way. In catenary pulling and pushing power it’s indeed a bliss of travel. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to hear on the clearance issue for tube trains and even over land transport. Especially where some British rail companies in the past have chosen to use the minimum overhead clearance to cut costs on bridge, tunnel and other infrastructure construction. As always I’m feeding your third, fourth and overhead electric potential. Cheerio

London underground four rail systems improves readability, because if there is a ground fault (eg drinks can between running and power rail). One rail will go to earth potential and the other will move away from earth, so the voltage between the two power rails will be unchanged, allowing the trains to continue running. The fault can be fixed overnight during the maintenance window

So there's me sitting on platform A at St Pancras watching the Thameslink trains coming and going with their pantographs raised, but not touching anything overhead, and wondering exactly the question why they had both systems. Then that very evening you've posted an article which explains it all fully. Thanks Jago, perfect timing.

This assertion that Britain was slow on the uptake of electrification is not strictly accurate. From the end of steam British railways went over almost entirely to electric traction. It's just that most of those electric engines had a bloody great diesel generator on board...

Another reason for 3rd rail was was weight of train . With low voltage DC you could run the train using only series , parralel and resisters , no tranformers on board that is . Weight saving in the old days before solid state . Overhead was mostly originally brought in to run higher voltages AC to be transformed onboard .

For all its limitations, the world's first electrified main line was London to Brighton using 3rd rail.

6:15 - That must be one of the last Red Star signs in the country! It looks like it's pre-NSE, although I suppose it's possible they removed the NSE branding but kept the Red Star sign. Can individual signs rather than buildings be listed?

Some systems take the current from above ( like in the UK ), some from underneath (like the Berlin S-Bahn) which makes protection of people and snow/ice simple… The overhead wires can be replaced with a overhead rail in tunnels too…

Interesting but some points to add about Southern: government won't stump up the money to convert to overhead power lines; too many NIMBYs against "unsightly wires & gantries" ; every frosty night trains have to be run dispensing de-icing fluid to try & prevent the 3rd rail from freezing ( in the past this has been thousands of litres of vegetable oil).

I love these videos in particular for some reason. The perfect video one might watch when eating for example.

This is a bit weird. I was thinking about just this last night, but more in terms of why the 4th rail was necessary as a -ve instead of using the rails as a -ve. I believe it has to do with earth leakage but other systems got around this. This all started with a solar charger I got in a charity shop that can generate about 18v on a sunny day and some videos by BigClive about power regulation, distribution and a tremendous regret at not having paid enough attention at college.

The now Lioness Line, has always been third rail from Euston to Watford Junction since the death of steam trains, especially since it shared the line with the Bakerloo from Queens Park to Watford Junction, although this was ended in 1979/80, now going only to Harrow and Wealdstone. The mainline in the area, has been diesel and overhead lines since the end of steam. The local main steam depot at Willesden is now a Freightliner depot. The lines from Liverpool Street were electrified in the 1950s and currently the Paddington main lines are being electrified, with overhead lines.

There's been talk about converting the Norths Downs Line to electric. If they do, I imagine that might get third rail as it's completely within the third rail area and shares tracks with other trains for quite a bit of the route. That would be one of those rare exceptions.

6:03 - speak of loop lines - having a look at loop lines around London (past and present), and routes from one London terminus to another would I think be a great video!

"And by the 1930s it was clear that electricity was the future, not just for commuter rail but for railways in general" Meanwhile nearly *100 years* later...

I used to live on the Waterloo to Southampton and Bournemouth line. That was electrified with third rail in the 1960s. But still needed diesel for the Basingstoke to Reading branch, etc. Given how late that was, it is a shame they didn't go for overhead. And don't neglect the Class 73 electro-diesel locomotives. They were unusual also because they were required to be narrower than standard to permit operation in some of the sub-sized tunnels (e.g.in Kent). A truly specialised loco.

New York has a triple power system! In order,the Long Island,over-running third rail. Next,the Metro-North[ex-NYC],under running third rail,and finally the Metro-North- New Haven lines,a combination of under- running third rail,and now,25,000 volt AC overhead! Those voltages were inherited from the New Haven,as that company was pioneering the AC network,that everyone takes for granted! The genius of Tesla,and the indomitable will of Westinghouse made that system possible,and Amtrak fulfilled the dream of the New Haven,and finished the electrification to Boston! A very long and complicated history,as all three lines,contributed to the ultimate outcomes! Thank you,for the forum,Jago,as your insights are always welcome! Thank you 😇 😊!

Hi Tom, after reviewing your video, the City & South London Railway King William Street (near Bank) to Stockwell was the first tube railway, followed by, in 1900 by the Central London Railway (Central line) between Shepherds Bush and Bank was the second tube railway.

The NER had a pretty significant third rail commuter system north of the Tyne. But they also used overhead. The E1 loco you very briefly displayed is actually both third rail and overhead. It used overhead the river Tyne quayside but third rail up to and on to the commuter lines. The overhead was because it was considered somewhat dangerous to have live rails in a shouting yard.

I suppose one of the other reasons that 3rd rail was easier to install in the first place is that you have less lineside furniture, which means that it's easier to justify retaining mechanical signalling -- overhead line projects almost always involve re-signalling to ensure visibility.

new-build 3rd rail is such a pain the Mersey-Rail extensions are using battery trains, rather than electrifying the new bits.

I think that outside of London and the wider south east and a tiny bit of the south west as Weymouth is hardly the south east the only other place in England to have third rail is the Merseyrail system.The Manchester to Bury line had some kind of rail pick up too but obviously that's replaced by a tram now.

I can name a few sections of new third rail. These are the new London Bridge and Reading station developments, the Bermondsey dive under and the new Merseyrail extension, the connections to HS1 (but not HS1 itself) plus those tracks that were renewed. Like with new level crossings, are there any regulations related to the installation of new third rail infrastructure since almost all new electrification projects are 25 kv AC OLE?

Good to see some Doncaster footage

That particular EMU train design in your thumbnail....I remember travelling on them in the 1990s to Richmond or Kew Bridge (for visits to the botanic garden). They were used by South West Trains to serve the SW London suburbs, and they look slightly different, design-wise, to those serving the S/SE London suburbs (Network South East).

I was just about to write: I was just looking at a map of eletrification in the UK and was puzzled about 3rd rail in the south east vs overhead electrification everywhere else, and was wondering my my train from Brighton to Cambridge made it all the way; it must be able to utilise both technologies, and it seems my suspicion is correct. And then the volks railway comes on the screen haha. I love the volks railway, a fun ride, although I haven't been on it in ages.

Here in NYC, they use the third rail. In Connecticut and New Jersey they use the overhead wires. I could be wrong but it probably has to do with clearance issues.

Very informative as usual, have a great weekend.

Don't know if this is mentioned but the first electric suburban railway was the 1904 Tyneside electrics which ran on the North Tyneside Loop which is now run by the Tyne And Wear Metro using overheads

9:08 the southern to watford also has this problem

As someone who works in rail not in the southern region, the prospect of working around live 3rd rail is terrifying. Very easy for it to be game over when carrying long metal objects (tools, survey gear etc) around which most rail workers do. Also efficiency wise the 750V DC system loses almost 30% of the inputted energy to heat and other losses. Compared with about 2% loss on the 25KV AC wires. Very much Edison v Tesla in modern day.

I suspect that the Brighton Line will be the first line south of London to have overhead electrification put in place, as it makes sense to follow Thameslink south of London. The West London Line will be a close second, as there are trains from East Croydon to Watford Junction that go on the West London Line. But given that there are vast parts of Great Britain without any sort of electrification and that we need to get rail freight electrified, I suspect that a sensible way to do things would be to have a government that commits to a rolling program of railway electrification, where railway engineers and timetable experts look at individual railway lines on a case-by-case basis and we do things in the order that gives us the best carbon savings, as soon as possible, and do infill projects (or projects that make sure freight can get in and out of freight yards) when that is needed. Probably the other thing that might get electrification in the South East of England done, when other parts of England, Scotland and Wales have not been done yet would be the need to get freight trains from Europe off of the High Speed 1 route, so we can get maximum capacity for both high speed trains and freight through the Eurotunnel. Again, I can imagine this being a route that goes via one of our cross-London connections: * I don't think I've ever seen freight on the East London Line. And it is somewhat busy what with having trains to Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace and East Croydon. But maybe they would send through trains at night. * I think the Thameslink route was originally considered to be a freight route through London. I believe it got shut down from lack of freight, but now with trains having to use computers to boost capacity, it would make no sense to route freight via that line, except at night. * This leaves the West London Line. There has been many a time, I've waited an hour for a Watford Junction train or watched lots of District Line trains pass West Brompton while waiting for an Overground train. And I've seen more freight trains go up the West London Line than I can count. So I can imagine a plan where an alternative overhead electrification route from the Eurotunnel, and overhead electrification brought south from North Pole Junction to Clapham Junction (so that train power switching happens there) would be rolled into a single project. I hope that we get a new government that sees the need to actually invest in railways (rather than have more governments that try to get private businesses to buy things and recover the money from passengers) as the current approach is causing far too much delay. We really do need to get this stuff done. And we need to have a permanent end to the nonsense, where a city up north puts in a plan to upgrade transit and Parliament wastes five years trying to shave 5% off the cost of the project and the entire plan has to be redone multiple times and ends up not being cheaper anyway. I don't know how long it is going to take before enough British voters realise that we need to electrify most of the railways in England and Wales and a lot of the railways in Scotland. (And I don't know how long it is going to take before enough British voters realise that hydrogen trains are stupid and that we should stay focused on overhead electrification and not waste money on hydrogen.) But once the masses get onboard with the idea that "overhead electrification is good" (and that "level boarding is good") and all candidates to be MPs start getting asked "When are we getting overhead rail electrification in our area?" all the parties will have to magically stop cock-blocking railway investment.

1:14 You can remove that sort of flicker quite easily in editing software. Layer a second copy of the video clip over the first. Offset the timing by one frame. And set the compositing blend mode to "brighten".

Hi Jago, just a couple of points, if you'll excuse the Pun. Grouping came about as a less expensive means of Nationalising. The War had worn the railways out and the proposal to nationalise it by the Government because it would cost too much to buy out the shareholders. It was trading on Government costs from 1914 which was never adjusted. ( Ring a Bell? ) Because Nationalisation was what happened in 1948 to the Groups after Word war 2 for exactly the same reasons. By that time the thermal efficiency of Steam Locomotives had in fact risen considerably. I worked on the early Eurostar and it needed to be compatible with three systems. UK third rail, then SNCF and from Lille it would be on Belgian system. This caused delays in introduction. Once St P opened it could drop the third rail requirement but I don't know if the Overhead system here is compatible with SNCF. The last point is of course that both Steam and Electric used the same base of coal as we had no oil of our own. Steam was cheaper to produce.

One benefit of 3rd rail over overhead wire is that it is less obtrusive. Bridges do not have to be raised. But with the traditional open rail design there are dangers from electrocution, foliage and snow. This is overcome by arranging the top surface and sides of the rail to be covered by a plastic cover and arranging the pick-up shoe to connect from underneath. This gives safer operation and allows a higher traction voltage. Today several metros across the world use this design.

*Heres a question for the experts.. So i get the fast Hitachi trains from Reading into Paddington most days. Q. Why is it, sometimes the Hitachi 125 trains (sorry dont know the name), sometimes sit in Paddington with the Diesel engines running. And yet the Pantograph is up and touching the overhead cables. In sure there is a technical reason.

They should run a third rail up the Midland Mainline! The MML has too many low bridges to run an overhead line, but it runs through a populated corridor with no shortage of potential power injection sites. And there is plenty of stock that could be cascaded. If third rail is good enough for Southampton, it should be good enough for Sheffield!

I wish the United States would keep its smaller historical/heritage railroads. It would be nice to whiz around on a narrow-gauge or shortline railroad train and feel like you were in the times of yesteryear!

I'm sure I read somewhere that there are restrictions on 3rd rail electric systems these days. They can extend an existing system, but not equip a new one, like the Chiltern Line. The DLR has a third rail but it's hidden underneath plastic to get round this

Not just Thameslink Class 700 that are dual voltage and swap voltage at Farringdon & City Thameslink. But Great Northern Class 717 are dual voltage and swap power at Drayton Park and Southern Class 377/2 and Class 377/7. That also dual voltage and use the West London Line when operating the East Croydon-Watford Junction service via Kensington Olympia. And Southeastern Class 395 Javelin also change voltage at Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International as they use HS1 from St. Pancras International.