Boltar wrote:
] (Arthur Figgis) wrote in message
...
Why re-invent the wheel, and introduce an incompatible new system at
huge expense? Internationally 25kV 50 Hz is effectively standard
nowadays, the equipment is available off the shelf (and once we shoot
all the Daily Mail readers, sorry, I mean sort out the important
political issues, we might even be able to get standard foreign
trains running through to Britain on it).

They'll only be able to run on the CTRL, they'd be too big for other
lines. I can't understand why we have such a restricted loading gauge
in this country, I mean we had broad gauge on the GWR for heavens sake,
surely the loading gauge of that line if nothing else must have been
built big enough for european trains?

Perhaps the height restriction is less? Also, when the main line through
Ealing and Southall was quadrupled in the 1870's, the new tracks were
standard gauge only. I guess that many changes to layouts since then have
eliminated any capability of running wider trains.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)