Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

“A failed railway technology? The atmospheric railway and its successors.” 

Roger Backhouse, Writer and Librarian

“Railway 200” theme

In this lecture we will look at the atmospheric railway used by Brunel  for the South Devon Railway  in the 1840’s. (previously used in Ireland, London and later in Paris) Atmospheric railways worked by exhausting air from a cylinder between the rails those hauling a piston attached to a carriage along.

The railway world became excited by atmospheric railways, many were proposed as they offered greater reliability than steam locomotives of the day, and didn’t inflict smoke and smuts on the passengers. The then Prime Minister Robert Peel was enthusiastic.

Although considered a failure the four lines built converted to steam locomotive traction for reasons other than the limitations of the atmospheric system.  Railway politics etc played a role. George Hudson was opposed.  Two of the systems lasted 10 years. It was revived in the  late 20th century with a line  in Brazil  (A promotional film survives)  though it appears that has ceased operation. History repeating itself..,

The technology still exists as Lampson tubes often used in hospitals to transport samples etc. It’s also used in supermarkets to carry money from tills to cash offices.  You may remember it used in shops – replaced the older fashioned overhead wire transport to cash offices.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 25 February 2025.

Image: Arriving at Kingstown on the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway in 1844.  (Creative Commons)

2025 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Events list at:

https://railway200.co.uk/

YPS Members free, non members £5.

Members’ report

In the early days of the railway, the use of atmospheric pressure as an alternative to steam power was tried with limited success. The principle of this system was that a cylinder, or piston, enclosed in a long tube, can be made to move by extracting the air from one end of the tube. Atmospheric pressure on the other end pushes the cylinder quite effectively. An early idea about how to use this principle involved putting the carriage inside the tube, but a more realistic idea used a tube running alongside railway tracks, with a slot in the tube allowing a piston attached to the carriage to propel it forward. Of course, a mechanism was required to close the slot apart from the point where the piston was attached, and this proved to be one of the problems.

A number of engineers experimented with these ideas and, following a patent in 1839, engineers Samuel Clegg and the Samuda brothers set up a demonstration of an atmospheric railway at Wormwood Scrubbs. There were many apparent advantages of this system compared with a steam train. The steam engine is noisy, dirty and close to the passengers, whereas the means of propulsion for an atmospheric railway is provided at pumping houses distributed along the track, so the noise and dirt were not a problem. Additionally, since there is no heavy engine attached to the train, it is able to climb steeper slopes, and the fact that the piston was attached to the carriages meant that the wheels could not slip. There were disadvantages – only one train could ride the track at any given time so shunting was not possible. However, the demonstration created some interest and over 40 commercial atmospheric railways were proposed, though only four were actually built in the 19th century.

The first commercial atmospheric railway started running in 1843, after the directors of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway in Ireland determined it would be a suitable means to extend their existing line from Kingstown to Dalkey, which required climbing a steep slope. The railway was built using part of the Dalkey Quarry industrial tramway. Although only one and three quarter miles long, it was reliable and ran until 1854. The London and Croydon Atmospheric Railway was opened in 1846 between Croydon and Forest Hill. It was extended to New Cross Gate early in 1847 but the whole experimental route was discontinued later in 1847 when the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway took over the London and Croydon operations. The Chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain was built by the brothers Pereire to overcome a steep gradient that was too much for steam locomotives.  It was 19 km long, and connected Paris to Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The line opened in 1847, but was converted to locomotive working in 1860.

The longest atmospheric railway, at 20 miles, was the South Devon railway.  Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, had seen the Dalkey line in operation, and thought that this would be a good way to extend the railway from London to Exeter west towards Plymouth. The terrain was difficult with many hills. The coastal route via Dawlish was a partial solution, though it left the track vulnerable to storms. Further west, hills are unavoidable and Brunel thought that atmospheric power would cope better than locomotives. In his enthusiasm for the project, Brunel was less than honest in his cost estimates, suggesting costs of £190,000. However the engineering work proved more difficult than anticipated and the cost came to £434,000. The line was built as far as Newton Abbot. Robert Stephenson was the primary critic of the technology, and correctly analysed that it was best suited to short commuter lines without points.

There proved to be many difficulties with the operation of the railway. The pumping engines were problematical; the leather seals on the tubes needed to be lubricated with tallow, and in the winter of 1847/8 they froze. Storms lashed the coastal section, and the venture had to be abandoned. Nonetheless, in the light of hindsight, this technology was perhaps ahead of its time, and under other circumstances might have had a number of successful applications.

Interestingly, there are two current railway initiatives that use atmospheric engine technology – the Aeromovel in Brazil which is operational, and Elon Musk’s Hyperloop technology. The latter has the complete train in a large tube – it was abandoned by Musk but the concept is now being developed in a number of countries.

Margaret & Rod Leonard