Boadicea

The Railways were always keen to adopt any new technology that could give them an edge over competitors and save on running costs. However, so called load lightening technology being developed towards the end of WW1 was initially converted for use on rolling stock. During the rail traction days the weight of the locomotive was an important factor. Lighten the engine and the wheels would just slip on the track when a heavy train was to be hauled. Lighten the train and the engine worked less hard, often negating the need for double heading or increasing train length.

By the time of the “The Grouping” in 1923 a surplus of power generation was available beyond that needed for the Electro Magnetic Field Effect on Mass (EMFEM) for purely a means of weight compensation. This surplus was considered for Beam focusing technology which was already in use on light vehicles. The plan to was to decouple the wheels other than emergency breaking systems and add concrete tapered face blocks between the rails for the focused beam to push upon for either motive or stopping power. This left the steam engine to drive the ever more powerful electrical generators. This system quickly became the standard and my the end of the 1920’s all main routes had been converted.

The London North Eastern Railway company had been conducting experiments with steam turbines which coincided with a leap in power generation and conditioning technology. By this time the power generational potential was so huge that EMFEM was being considered for removing wheeled traction altogether and employing aviation technology in the form of Electro levitation which would bring higher speeds and fuel savings. Of course there was the matter of thousands of miles of standard rail track in the UK. Some of it still pre beam.

To prove the concept the L.N.E.R built a 5 mile test track that consisted of a single reinforced concrete “rail” the base of which was 4ft 8.5” as per the standard track width with fixing/stabilization points that protruded no further than a standard sleeper. The sides were scalloped and instead of the tapered blocks of the rail system the mono rail had tapered hollows for the beam focus.

Shorter shallow radius curve sections were used to build up curves similar to that of conventional curve profiles. So called “jump switches” or “V” points enabled track switching and all this could be laid upon existing track beds as well as along side conventional track.

The LNER laid track along side their main London (Kings Cross) to Edinburgh line which was an immediate success. Rivals LMS began to lay track too but the second world war put an end to further serious transition.

It took some time for the momentum to build up again after world War two in favour of the mono rail but after the Nationalization of 1948 a bold decision to modernize the railways was taken.

LNER had not been idle prior to the nationalization and had converted a Mallard class steam turbine locomotive to take an aero-engine gas turbine. Post war T-coil and beam projection technology was several leaps ahead of what was being achieved in the 1930’s and the new Jet powered loco began a new chapter in railway history.

It was 1952 by the time the now nationalized British Rail began operating Jet Rail services. The first of these services being on the old LNER line from Kings Cross to Edinburgh with engine number 60123 “Boadicea” powered by a rail converted Tesla-Royce Arrow with its output shaft coupled via gearbox to the first stage generator array. She was a veritable traveling power station in her day supplying energy via the power down capacitor array (PDCA) for up to 12 coach amplifier systems. She became the model on which all future Jet rail locos were designed and can be found restored in the National railway museum York.

As a point of interest she was given the name Boadicea because of an enduring legend that states that the body of Boadicea lays beneath platform 10 of Kings Cross station … perhaps the only bit of this story that has any credence.