Trough (railway)
As a trough (in the US track pan , UK water trough called) is known in the railway an elongated, with feed water filled, attached bath between the rails from the express train - steam locomotives could supplement while driving their water supply.
Components and functionality
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The troughs were placed on free sections of main routes. One or two people were required to maintain the system, which mostly included a pumping station in addition to the troughs.
The tenders of the express train locomotives were equipped with a special scoop trunk that could be lowered from the driver's cab with a mechanical device or with compressed air to below the waterline of the trough and then raised again. The same principle of water absorption is used today by some fire-fighting aircraft.
The train had to be braked to approx. 65 km / h as far as the trough. As soon as the train was over the trough, the locomotive crew lowered the scoop trunk. Due to the speed of the train, the water accumulated on the trunk, was pushed up without a special suction device and flowed over a baffle plate into the water tank. After the water intake was over, the trunk was raised again. Thanks to a special construction of the tender, the Niagaras of New York Central could even draw water from the trough at a speed of almost 130 km / h, although the windows of the first cars had to remain closed.
The increasing efficiency of later steam locomotives meant that a considerably larger water supply was carried along and the scooping device between the rails could be dispensed with.
Causes and development
The distance that a steam locomotive can travel without stopping is primarily limited by the water supply in the tender. If no traffic stop can be used to replenish supplies within this route , an operating stop must be scheduled.
The railway companies in the United Kingdom and the USA , which often compete directly with one another on some routes , used every means to survive in the tough competition through short travel times. On this occasion, the principle of the water trough system was developed by John Ramsbottom and first put into operation in 1860 on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) between Chester and Holyhead. This made non-stop journeys over long distances possible for the first time. From 1870 the "Ramsbottom system" was first used in the USA on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad .
In the 1930s most of the British main lines were fitted with troughs. In the USA, the New York Central Railroad in particular used this form of water supply on the New York - Chicago route , and it was also common on the Pennsylvania Railroad . In France there were water troughs on the routes from Paris to Cherbourg and Le Havre between 1905 and 1963 .
After the Second World War , cross-country runs were increasingly driven with diesel locomotives. With the withdrawal of the steam locomotives from these services, the troughs became superfluous and gradually removed.
Cinematic reception
The catching of water from the trough was documented in several films, in detail in:
- " Night Mail , Documentary (1936) - Maintenance work on the water trough
- " Bestie Mensch ", movie (1938) - Water catching from the driver's cab perspective of a French 231D
- "Elizabethan Express", documentary (1953) - Water catching from the driver's cab perspective of a British LNER-Class A4
