British Rail 18000

British Rail 18000

British Rail 18000 at Didcot Railway Centre on 6 August 2011

Type and origin Power type Gas turbine-electric Builder Brown, Boveri & Cie and Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works Order number GWR Lot 372 Serial number BBC: 4559 SLM: 3977 Build date 1949 Total produced 1

Specifications Configuration: ​  • UIC (A1A)'(A1A)' Driver dia. 4 ft 0 1⁄4 in (1,226 mm) Trailing dia. 3 ft 2 in (965 mm) Loco weight 115.18 long tons (117.03 t; 129.00 short tons) Prime mover Brown Bovery Engine type Gas turbine Generator DC Traction motors Four DC Transmission Gas turbine electric Train heating Steam generator

Performance figures Maximum speed 90 mph (145 km/h) Power output 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) Tractive effort 31,500 lbf (140,000 N)

Career Operators British Railways Power class BR: 4 Nicknames Kerosene Castle Disposition Preserved

British Rail 18000 was a prototype mainline gas turbine-electric locomotive built for British Railways in 1949 by Brown, Boveri & Cie. It had, however, been ordered by the Great Western Railway in 1946, but construction was delayed due to World War II. It spent its working life on the Western Region of British Railways, operating express passenger services from Paddington station, London.

The GWR chose a gas-turbine locomotive because, at the time, there was no single-unit diesel locomotive of sufficient power available. The King class steam locomotive could deliver about 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW) at the rail. The LMS diesel locomotives had engines of only 1,600 hp (1,200 kW). After allowing for transmission losses, this would be down to about 1,300 hp (970 kW) at the rail, so two diesels would be needed to match a King.

No. 18000 was of A1A-A1A wheel arrangement and its gas turbine was rated at 2,500 hp (1,900 kW). It had a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour (145 km/h) and weighed 115 long tons (117 t; 129 short tons). It was painted in BR black livery, with a silver stripe around the middle of the body and silver numbers.

The gas turbine was a Brown Boveri industrial machine. It was of a type which would now be called a turboshaft engine but differed from modern turboshaft engines in having only one turbine to drive both the compressor and the output shaft. The emphasis was on fuel economy so it had a heat exchanger (to recover waste heat from the exhaust) and was designed to run on cheap heavy fuel oil (it was also able to burn light oil but this was intended only for startup purposes). This was the same fuel that was used in oil-fired steam locomotives. After leaving the heat exchanger, the pre-heated air entered a large, vertical, combustion chamber where the fuel was injected and burned.