The Trains That Changed The World | Power: Railways | Spark

power brute power belching from a smokestack or roaring from a diesel the power to cross continents move armies destroy distance artists writers poets everyone seems to have found the greatest fascination and the greatest romance in the powerful engines they have watched cross bridges climb mountains and drive through the heart of cities the romance of trains the story of rail travel is the story of huge loads extravagant luxury and astonishing speed for century after century the power to move ourselves our goods our crops our armies was generated by our own muscles or the animals we could harness and then came steam in this episode of power we explore the greatest steam engines that crossed continents and tell the story of how the rails bridges and tunnels on which they ran changed the world this is the story of rail power the steam locomotive wherever it ran stopped enthusiasts and small boys in their tracks in its heyday and still exerts a very special appeal perhaps more than any other machine the steam locomotive says power the bayer garrett 6029 a workhorse loco from the 1950s was manufactured in manchester england for heavy goods service number 6029 pulled its loads around eastern australia for the new south wales government and fully restored is the largest working steam loco in the southern hemisphere the bayer garrett is 265 tons fully loaded fully loaded includes 40 tonnes of water now this locomotive burns through 430 litres of water a minute so to go anywhere of a reasonable distance it needs a lot of water also needs a lot of coal it goes through 37 kilos of coal a minute at full power in fact goes so quickly through the couple that a fireman couldn't shovel it fast enough the draft is so strong in the fire that it would suck the shovel out of the fireman's hand and so it has an automatic stoker to draw the coal through from under the tender to pulverize it on the way through and then jets of steam are used by the firemen to fire around a firebox the grates which are the size of nearly four grand pianos and so everything's on a massive scale and you get up in that cab and it's almost intimidating how big this machine is in service for 20 years the 6029 incorporated the most modern technology of its time hauling export coal to the ports or concentrate from the mines and goods from all over the state it certainly has its own sort of personality with its noise it's so noisy that the drivers have to have loudspeakers placed in the cab they had to put megaphones in going through tunnels they had to have leather jackets and hoods over their heads to protect them from the heat it was really out in the fringe it's sort of like you know being an astronaut in our times you are really riding a big machine [Music] the power to move mountains or populations is no longer supplied by steam modern trains look faster much sleeker but the bayer garrett remains a formidable expression of power the first trains to be hauled along rails did not even have the benefit of steam horse-drawn and man-powered trucks took advantage of the lower friction of pulling loads along rails steam brought power to the railways when pioneers like watt and treptic made steam engines practical what was going to be the most effective way to move people by rail should it be horsepower should it be steam power should it be this should it be that should it be dragged by ropes chains whatever but steam with robert stevenson's extraordinary technological advances with the creation of locomotives like the rocket won the day the history of steam power stretches back 2 000 years 2 000 years of development but the principle of steam power has remained constant a steam engine uses heat to produce a gas that powers mechanical work [Music] the gas is steam which is produced by applying heat to the working fluid typically water heat can be produced by burning any fuel in steam locomotives typically coal and sometimes wood the water separated from the combustion is heated in a boiler where at high pressure it expands through pistons to power the mechanical work then men like stevenson and trains like the rocket transformed life and with bridges tunnels stations and permanent way transformed the landscape the rocket was one of the locomotives that he built of a series that won the round hill speed trials which then led to the first public passenger rolling in 1830. that led to a revolution by 1835 germany had opened a railway america was opening up 1837 russia on it wins the railway age and the railway revolution changed the world the rocket seems to us today to have been a rather ambitious name its maximum speed was 45 kilometers an hour at the time such propulsion seemed beyond reckless but people survived the journey and the age of rail was born trains were first made to carry freight to compete with the canals the first lines brought power to horse-drawn railways or tramways that had been hauling tin or coal or iron out of mines but with the industrial revolution and the migration to and growth of the cities came a mobile population and the beginning of the story of famous trains romantic names like the flying scotsman uh the flying scotsman's probably one of the most iconic steam trains ever built 1923 the early 20s we're seeing uh the golden age of railways and particularly steam traction and you have one of england's great designers engineers nigel gresley coming up with a design that sets a new benchmark for steam passenger locomotives the route was operating by the 1860s but the name was not attached until 1923 630 kilometers linking the scottish capital edinburgh to london the flying scotsman is a name that had been carried by some of the most powerful steam locomotives and is carried today by their modern successes the classic flying scotsman the first loco to carry the name is the lner london and north eastern railway class a3 built in 1923 the first steam locomotive to officially reach 100 miles an hour 160 kilometers per hour with a coal capacity of nine long tons the a3 could complete the journey without refueling and was retired from regular service in 1963 having clocked up more than two million miles three million two hundred and twenty thousand kilometers romantically but certainly from an engineering point of view the flying scotsman remains an icon a symbol of progress the most famous of them all the flying scotsman the epitome of all that a massive steam engine should be noble powerful fast a champion bearing a torch for an age that will never come again [Music] but it's another lner locomotive the a4 class a 462 bogey arrangement that followed the a3 into service in 1938 that best captures the power and romance of sting particularly an engine named mallard [Music] wind tunnel tested and aerodynamically designed the mallard was intended to haul high-speed trains and still holds the world record for a steam locomotive 200.4 kilometers per hour which was perhaps the limit for steam the mallard had a three cylinder engine and repeated problems with the middle cylinder overheating to alert the driver to this problem a stink bomb was fitted to the middle cylinder which popped on overheating alerting the driver through the offensive smell of hot aniseed oil and the bomb went off shortly after mallard broke the record [Music] neither as fast nor as streamlined as mallard but significantly more powerful and with an appearance that totally justifies its name is this north american steam locomotive this is big boy the 4000 class 4884 articulated union pacific monster of the 1940s the only locomotives to feature the 4884 arrangement which gave stability negotiating curves the big boy in america just makes the ground shake when you think about the zenith of rail technology because of the size of the thing and nothing has beaten the big boy in size or scale big boy was designed to haul freight over the wasatch mountains between wyoming and utah to get the job done big boy where the a3 flying scotsman had a coal load of nine long tons had a fuel capacity of 25 long tons and a water capacity of 95 000 liters firing up a four-cylinder engine that could haul massive loads at up to 130 kilometers per hour firing up boilers was a common characteristic of steam locomotives but not all coal is the same big boy's operator union pacific owned the mines that supplied the coal that fired the boilers but it was low-grade bituminous coal more needed to be burned for the same effect so big boy was fitted with extra large grates the sight sound and smell of the steam locomotive was fundamental to building the 20th century but as the century wore on its days were counting down cheaper less labor-intensive and more efficient the diesel and diesel electric power plant was taking over [Music] and so in the 1940s you saw advances all over the world in the implementation of diesel engines into locomotive traction signaling the end of the steam era probably a lot quicker than many people would have expected because the steam power was such an important part of everyday life at the time however diesel technology and the advances allowed for great savings in the labor that it took to fire up a steam locomotive and operate a steam locomotive and in speeds and traction effort and inefficiencies that could be achieved in running trains but in some parts of the world steam still has a place the earliest of the power plants that we have looked at it was built in england in 1855 this is living history this is the fairy queen [Music] producing 97 kilowatts of power and a maximum top speed of 40 kilometers per hour from her two-cylinder engine the fairy queen was in service hauling troop trains during the uprising of 1857 which to indians is the first war of independence and is known in british history as the mutiny by comparison with the mighty mallard and big boy fairy queen carries two long tons of coal and three thousand liters of water the fairy queen continued in regular service into the 20th century was withdrawn rediscovered restored and now hauls a luxury train regularly between new delhi and the rajasthani city of awa these then are some of the locomotives that powered the spread of the railways we look next at how those rail networks spreading across different parts of the world powered global change [Music] in russia that spread of railways was vital to stitching together the furthest breaches of the largest land empire in the world in europe the spread of railways through the victorian era required some sort of planning the timetable was invented and with the timetable for the first time came the need for clocks in different towns and cities to be synchronized but it was the speed with which railways allowed young countries to develop not just their industrial strength but their sense of common identity that most powered the growth of australia of canada and of the united states over a quarter of a million kilometers the track length of the u.s rail network is the longest in the world perhaps most astonishingly that comprehensive crisscrossing of the country had been achieved before the end of the 19th century the last spike ceremony joining the continent from sea to shining sea by rail was driven in 1869 five days later the continental express departed new york and four days later ended a journey that with frequent changes of horse had previously taken months it arrived in san francisco in the great age of steam american coal and wood-fired locomotives with their pointed cow catchers or pilots so familiar from so many western movies opened up the states and many made and many lost large fortunes building railroads the famous locomotive the general is an outstandingly restored example of the type built in 1855 and finding fame during the american civil war as the engine stolen by union spies endeavoring to the confederate rail network the general hauled passengers and freight for the western and atlantic railroad before the war and continued in service into the 1890s the general and the similarly specified william crooks remind us today of the pioneering age of american railroads in its golden age travel around america by rail inspired a folk culture and countless popular songs romanticizing about the chattanooga choo choo the atchison topeka and the santa fe pullman trains and the a train so people like george pullman who developed new ways for people to travel in comfort and style for goodness sake the orient express and uh pullman's amazing series of parlor cars that he built at huge expense which changed the way we travel and became synonymous with what you would consider to be oh i'd love to fly to london business class well that's what people were saying 150 years ago oh i'd love to travel by pullman with the spread of the motor car the development of highways and the affordability of flying the railways in america suffered days of the railways are over nope she's all over mate done and dusted trains are finished particularly in america where the oil companies rule sway and uh trains are on the nose they're out of fashion and the great name trains of of america were wound down and cease to exist but by adapting to new markets and new technologies they have powered back across the united states border canadian railway engineers had the same ambition to link their country coast to coast they faced particular challenges from the landscape and the climate historian george stanley wrote in the canadians without railways there would be and could be no canada a fact recognized by the authors of canada's constitution act of 1867 a condition of which was the building of the intercolonial railway but the proposed line hundred kilometers longer than the first u.s transcontinental represented an enormous expenditure for a nation of only three and a half million people construction began in 1881 and the last spike was driven on the 7th of november 1885. the first passenger train left montreal in june 1886 arriving in british columbia on the 4th of july completion of the railway was one of the great engineering feats of the day the canadian pacific railroad had a profound effect on the settlement of the west and new cities from winnipeg to vancouver were heavily dependent on the railway some of the engineering feats that had to be overcome crossing mountains and traversing kicking horse paths were extraordinary though it is not the canadian pacific but another route in north america a remote and isolated railway that best expresses the engineering power that has driven railways into almost every part of the planet the white pass and yukon is a route that doesn't link to any other railway it runs between skagway in alaska and the yukon built in 1889 to service the klondike gold rush the line is testament to the power of railways to transform country and of men to create railways the old timer at the station gives the passengers a send-off on their 110 mile trip the first 20 miles carries the train three thousand feet into white pass where so many fell and died trying to conquer the mountains and cross over into the gold country considered an impossible task tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives literally blasted the white pass and yukon through coastal mountains in only 26 months creating a spectacular engineering achievement that climbs more than 900 meters in just 32 miles and features steep grades of up to 3.9 degrees two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles [Music] there were very few such obstacles facing those joining the two coasts of another continent [Music] as its name explains australia's transcontinental railway joins the indian and the pacific oceans the indian pacific in australia 80 of our freight is moved by rail and nothing is more efficient than a steel wheel on an iron road the great interior of the island continent of australia is arid has poor soil and is sparsely populated the coastal margins on the pacific coast in the east and the indian ocean coast on the west house the great majority of the australian population for many decades travel between these two developing centres of population was almost exclusively by sea and then they built the railroad [Music] distance and remoteness rather than challenging physical obstacles were the main problems that the builders faced and it was power that asked one of the most difficult questions how is a train journey that will take several days to be maintained fueled serviced as it crosses an empty landscape a landscape so featureless that it crosses a plane called nullarbor from the latin for no trees and so flat that it has the longest dead straight track in the world 478 kilometers when the lines advancing from the east and west were joined in 1917 the answer to the supply requirement was the construction of a number of railway halts less than settlements small maintenance depots where tiny isolated communities would exist to maintain the tracks and stockpile the water and fuel that the indian pacific needed to complete its journey the train runs now linking sydney and perth and is very popular with tourists and those wanting to see the big country but almost all of the halts are deserted now as the diesel locomotives cross the continent almost but not quite all in most countries as railways have spread engineers have faced challenges progress reports on the tunnel under mont blanc it's a two-way task here are italians tunneling from their side and a pretty dirty job it looks they started about three years ago and have not yet gone two miles into the mountain [Music] not everywhere is like the nullarbor plane to allow the locomotives to power across the landscape bridges and tunnels of often extraordinary ambition have added to the story of rail of course wherever tracks were laid one fundamental principle had to be understood how to keep the train on the rails whether steam or some other power source the question as trains get heavier and faster is what keeps them on the rails train wheels are restricted horizontally by the flange on the inside of the wheel which bears on the track keeping the wheel from moving towards the outside of the track but this flange is not enough to keep a train on the rails train wheels aren't perfect cylinders they're beveled to make them wider on the inside the wheels are connected by a fixed axle meaning that the wheels on both sides of the train always turn at the same speed this can present problems when turning because one wheel has to cover more distance than the other most vehicles solve this problem by decoupling the wheels but unlike conventional automobiles trains do not have a differential so how do locomotives stay on a bending rail what keeps them on track is the conical nature of the wheels with the outer portion narrower than the inner the conical edges help in translating angular velocity into different linear velocities a train that can be as long as three kilometers hammering along at speeds of up to 110 kilometers an hour creates quite significant problems one is drag because drag literally drags down fuel economy so aerodynamics is important to the operation of freight trains so certain ways that you can look at improving drag on intermodal freight trains is to look at how you stack them so you often see very large gaps in the stacking of these wagons and the loading of them so if you can optimize that then it's quite possible to reduce the actual drag and therefore the energy used when you're transporting goods [Music] freight trains frequently traveling long distances across exposed landscapes are often exposed to high crosswinds those side forces can cause a interaction between the track and the wheel and that can lead to increased friction which then feeds into fuel economy so it increases the actual frictional load and that can be very significant if it's not detected in heavy winds it is also not uncommon for containers to be blown off of trains which can result in damage to the track as well as damage to the goods one of the challenges in loading a freight train is that quite often you've got containers of different shape and sizes and you've also got wagons that carry those containers and they're often of different shapes and sizes and you've got to put them all together a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle and come up with a finished product and sometimes that even involves stacking the containers on top of each other so that the train can be double stacked by optimizing the layout of the train and spacing fuel efficiency savings can be as high as 10 percent the hawkesbury river bridge north of sydney australia the hawkesbury river flows through broken bay to the sea for many decades passengers traveling north left their trains on one side of the hawkesbury cross the river by paddle steamer and connected with a train waiting on the further shore an inconvenience replicated in many places around the world and the reason why so many of the great engineering feats from the 19th century onwards are railway bridges the bridge across the hawkesbury is an example the present bridge the second was built to replace the first which had been built by the union bridge company of new york in 1886 the second bridge was completed in 1946 its three spans standing on piers sunk 56 meters into the riverbed a total length of 890 metres significant but dwarfed by other bridges around the world [Music] the longest structure that carries trains is the great belt link in denmark a combination of bridges and tunnel linking islands across a length greater than six and a half kilometers the great belt link joins islands the channel tunnel joins countries there are bridges and tunnels in many parts of the world that cross borders but the channel tunnel is unique [Music] it fulfills a dream that goes back well over a century of allowing traffic to move between the british isles and the continent of europe the engineering feat involved is prodigious it has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel it is the third longest railway tunnel and the longest international tunnel [Music] the pursuit of speed and comfort has transformed rail travel in many parts of the world seemingly destined to obsolescence by road and air travel railways have rebounded strongly with very fast services and eurostar is an example of such a service taking passengers from the middle of one capital city to the heart of another with speed comfort and convenience competes more favorably with other options the eurostar formerly the british rail class 373 or french tgv tmst trans-manchester super train or cross-channel super train run up to 300 kilometers per hour with a top recorded of 334.7 drawing power via pantograph from electric overhead lines and delivering power through sets of powered axles in each car each set generating 12 megawatts of traction power and having the lowest power to weight ratio in the tgv family of trains each eurostar has a number of special safety features to minimize issues that may arise during the traverse of the tunnel the braking system for example is capable through a combination of disc brakes and rheostatic braking a form of dynamic braking in which the electrical energy produced by the motors is dissipated as heat by a bank of on-board resistors bringing the entire train traveling at 300 kilometers per hour to a standstill in 65 seconds when trains power out of tunnels there are places in the world where they encounter conditions that could stop them on the tracks which is why much ingenuity has been applied to the problem of extreme weather [Music] china has built a high-speed railway network which accounts for more than 60 of the world's total some of it reaches into exposed and inhospitable landscapes in xinjiang a region with an arid climate the railway passes through four major high wind areas using a high-speed train based on japan shinkansen that can operate in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees celsius and at altitudes as high as 3 600 meters [Music] some of the high speed lines operate in very high wind zones where cross winds can prevent trains from operating because of the danger trains in such regions monitor the winds and sometimes we'll stop in sheltered zones and resume operating when the winds die down [Music] but designers are reluctant to allow wind power to interfere with the power of the train part of what we're looking at is the design of the train or the forces that the train is going to experience associated with its geometry so how the geometry interacts with the the crosswind flow but also important is you know whether there's a requirement for some sort of fence along next to the trains to mitigate the winds whether the the embankment that the train might sit on how that should be designed to reduce the load and the risk of the train blowing over in different countries less harsh but still potentially crippling winter conditions are counted by point heaters to prevent points from being frozen and by landslide snow fences which in countries like japan and canada prevent drifts from falling across the track where snow does block the permanent way other solutions must be found the rotary snowplow a canadian invention the rotary plow made its first appearance in 1869 since then it has been throwing snow off tracks with great efficiency the rotary plow improved on the wedge plow the first mechanized device for clearing tracks when the wedge found the going too tough the snow too deep the rotary could push away through the rotary snowplow is pushed by one or conditions requiring it two locomotives a motor inside the plow body originally a steam engine later diesel or electric engines rotates the circular assembly the snow dislodged by the spinning blades is forced back behind the cutting face and out through a channel behind the disc then thrown through an output chute the chute is adjustable an operator behind the blade assembly being able to direct the output left or right and also control the speed of the blade expensive to maintain snowplows have now been largely superseded with flexible blade plows pushed by powerful locomotives capable of dealing with all but the most extreme winter conditions the power to haul the train the equipment to keep the track clear the engineering to join countries and continents is all about one thing the power to travel a foreign correspondent once complained that flying was not travel it is he said affecting a positional transfer but every time we board a train we go on a journey steam is at its most romantic in some of the famous trains that steam locomotives have pulled through exotic landscapes such as the toy train a legendary 78 kilometer narrow gauge railway between new jalpaigiri and darjeeling 2 000 meters above it in the himalayas lower himalayas in the distance are being revealed leading up to the the township of darjeeling itself which unfolds is classic british architecture in parts and the sweeping views of the of the mountains it really is one of the great train journeys of the world between 1879 and 81 the british built the line that is now a unesco world heritage site escape to the hill stations when the heat of the summer was at its worst and the suitability of the area for tea growing made construction a viable proposition the steam locomotives in use some updated with oil firing are b-class design and date back to the late 19th century diesel engines are also in use but it is the b-class locomotive known as the saddle tank loco that most perfectly captures the romance of the bygone age it hits the part of town where the railway is in the main street on the main road to darjeeling and so the train is rattling along with two guys sitting on the front of the locomotive with red flags telling people to get out of the way and there's all sorts of negotiating of the train with traffic and passengers and pedestrians in a way that only india can canoe [Music] where other locomotives we have considered carried many long tons of coal the engine of the toy train weighed only 14 long tons but they were far from fragile and two tusca and victor are still shuttling up and down the mountain [Music] the unesco listed kalka shimla railway line ran up to the british hill station north of delhi [Music] because it was the seat of government during the entire hot daily summer shimla was very important to the british and so was the little train interestingly the railway is very very popular today it's one of those sort of honeymoon destinations so the train is often full of honeymooners and young lovers the scenery is astounding and the uh and the engineering and the different climate zones of the railway travels through as it rises all the way up to more than two thousand metres but engineering the line was not without its challenges more than 400 bridges all stone lined wonderful multiple arched aqueducts and more than 90 tunnels stand today [Music] a testament to extraordinary engineering skills getting up and down mountains has posed an engineering problem in many parts of the world where friction traction and gravity have not always worked together because it's still long still trains are much more limited to the angles that they can climb up and down and that's just because steel and steel has got a much lower friction than rubber on a road [Music] various systems have been invented for keeping the train on the tracks including the sophisticated rack and pinion system on swiss railways [Music] the rack the central toothed rail with an appearance similar to that of teeth on a gear wheel is engaged on steep inclines typically 7 to 10 degrees by lowering the train's pinion a gear wheel lowered from the locomotive when the gradient requires it with rack and pinion mesh it prevents the train from slipping on the rails there are a number of different designs for both rack and pinion but the principle is constant teeth engaging from opinion on the locomotive onto the fixed rack rail the ratcheting systems are just a way of overcoming the metal on metal so you've got a set of cogs and the cogs are what provides you the forward momentum rather than the metal sliding or metal [Music] there are rack and pinion railways around the world in addition to the many operating in switzerland three times a week a train pulls out of the main station of chongqing southwest china on one of the longest journeys in the world eleven thousand one hundred and seventy nine kilometers through five countries to dewisberg in the west of germany the trains which are two kilometers long reached germany in just 13 days reviving ancient trade routes with modern efficiency [Music] most of the cargo on the trains with up to 50 40-foot containers comprises laptop computers of which chong cheng is the world's largest producer with 25 of global output this is the new silk road named after the route in the 2nd century bc that took chinese goods to the middle east and europe if ever the journey is opened up to passenger traffic it will surely be one of the great travel experiences [Music] around the world there is strong competition in the growing market for train travel experiences the luxury train that bisects australia north to south offers insight into both a dramatic landscape and a unique culture [Music] the afghan express as it was originally called the gan was named to honor a particular group who played a major part in opening up the interior of australia the interior of australia was dependent upon camel trains these camel trains using camels imported from afghanistan mainly were driven by and led by people from afghanistan so when the train became a reality it was named again in honor of the afghan camel drivers who had been the means the only means of transport for a lot of the inland areas of australia the gan links the southern city of adelaide to the tropical northern city of darwin a journey of almost three thousand kilometers through the red centre of australia and the iconic central australian city of alice springs the alice was originally the northern terminus of the route which was initiated in 1929 the line was not extended to darwin until 2004. diesel-powered the gann pulls 30 carriages at a quite leisurely pace the track now madelaide to darwin is almost 3 000 kilometers clearly though if it takes 54 hours they're not traveling at huge speeds the train averages 85 kilometers per hour and takes 54 hours to complete the journey and it weighs 1400 tons passengers get to enjoy the view the food and the odd stop along the way a train travels through mauritania in western africa fringing the western sahara it has some similarity to the crossing an arid sparsely populated landscape but the contrasts are great like the silk road trains from chongqing the train in mauritania carries chiefly freight it carries iron ore [Music] and with between 200 and 210 cars of 84 tons of ore each they are among the longest and heaviest trains in the world as mineral resources of the region are further developed more and possibly bigger trains are going to travel the 704 kilometer line hauling the cargo takes three and often four locomotives capable of operating in the region's searing heat so trains might often need six engines just so that they can get the train and the rest of the carriages up to the speed required and also more importantly to make sure that they can stop more often than not probably be the stopping requirements of the train that drive the number of carriages just because once the train is moving it's got a certain amount of inertia you need to be able to put enough power into the braking system such that you can stop the train and overcome the inertia the sd70acs engine is used as it is in similar parts of the world including the arabian peninsula [Music] the american company emd electromotive diesel manufactures the equipment with a diesel electric power plant producing 3 400 kilowatts variants operate the longest ore trains between the iron ore ranges of western australia and the port facilities where the record was set by a train that stretched well over seven kilometers had a gross weight of almost one hundred thousand and was pulled by eight locomotives now that is power you

Channel: Spark

Views: 265,969

Rating: 4.8383961 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary

Id: lXSk-8EO_dA

Length: 49min 31sec (2971 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/abzurdleezane]

I found this to be an interesting discussion of extreme Locomotive capabilities often from a historical context but also emphasizing novel adaptions and accompanying limitations.

I fussed an unseemly amount of time over what flair to use. Suggestions welcome.