Strange Vehicle On The Track
Photo Source: Clipart.com

When we look at the railroads today, we see trains that travel about 80 mph top speed on some commuter lines and bullet trains hitting speeds of 170 mph with future projections of about 250 mph. Fast transportation by train is not a new idea. In the 1840s people in London were also thinking speed, and as a matter of fact they built a short pneumatic railway. Power was supplied by putting the train in a tunnel and using a steam engine to power a large fan The fan sucked out the air from the tube and this propelled the train. It is the same idea that was used in the late 1800s and early 1900 to send messages in a pneumatic tube from the post office to other close buildings. The rail line was only about 1300+ feet long, but it must have provided a thrilling ride. It seems to have only lasted for about a year or so. I guess maybe people must have said why pay to ride this thing, when we can walk the distance for free in a about eight minutes.If the distance would have been greater and the destinations more useful then maybe it would have been a success. The tunnel only went from Sydenham and the Crystal Palace Gardens. It does seem easier and cheaper though to just put the steam engine on the train.

George Medhurst lived from 1759 to 1827 in England and invented three different types of pneumatic propulsion units. He invented the pneumatic dispatch tube which led to his invention of the pneumatic railway. The last invention was a piston that used the pneumatic system and was attached to a train on tracks on the outside. The piston would drag the train along. Atmospheric or pneumatic railways became popular and four of them opened up in the 1840s. You had the Dublin & Kingston in Ireland, The London & Croydon in England, The Paris & St. Germain in Paris and the South Devon in England. The London & Croydon was 7.5 miles long and this was exceeded by the South Devon which became 15 miles long. None of these railways had a long life. The French railway lasted the longest, a mere 13 years and it wasn't fully pneumatic. The return trip was down hill and relied on gravity alone.

In this country a man named Beach would build the first pneumatic subway in midtown. It was built under a clothing store and only ran 312 feet and cost five cents to ride. It took you from Warren Street to Murray Street. It opened in 1870. Headlines in the New York Herald at the time stated "FASHIONABLE RECEPTION HELD IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH". The train carried over 400,000 people in its first year. Boss Tweed, a powerful and infamous politician had not been bribed and he was furious and made sure that construction of new lines wouldn't take place. In 1874 the line was shut down because it was not profitable.

This simple system of propulsion had its problems however. Sometimes booster stations were needed to propel cars in sections where power was weak. In the early days in England, some of the passengers would have to get out and push the train to the next main junction. This is not my idea of ideal transportation. The early materials used to seal the tunnels and fit the train into the tube had a habit of breaking down. It was also said that the grease that was used attracted rats that liked to eat it.

Along with all this research and development of pneumatic railways came the development of engines that ran on compressed air. Many countries used these engines. Think of it, they were non polluting. They didn't work by explosive force but rather by forcing a piston forward in some manner, depending on the design. This is not so strange when you think of it, how many of our modern tools use compressed air, quite a few?

In 1892, New York City was using Robert Hardie's air engines to power locomotives. This engine reused it's heat as fuel. An air compressor station had been built to supply air for the engines, it had a compressor powered by a 1500 hp steam engine. In 1896 the Hoadley Knight compressed air locomotive appeared. It had the first two state engine. It kept air in the engine longer enabling it to absorb more heat which gave even more range.

In 1930 the Germans developed a compressed air locomotive. The compressor ran on a diesel engine, but the compressed air was the force that powered this modern 1200 horse power unit. It also reused the waste heat and converted into fuel. Waste heat reuse increased the range of the engine by 26%.

History has seen many more air and pneumatic trains than I have discussed here. They came close, very close to becoming the standard, but just couldn't compete with the electric motor or the internal combustion engine. Perhaps with today's requirements, it might well be advantageous to reexamine these modes of transportation.