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| London Transport (uk.transport.london) Discussion of all forms of transport in London. |
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#1
July 29th 06, 05:52 PM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its
way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? B2003 |
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#2
July 29th 06, 07:14 PM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
"Boltar" wrote:
As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? Because metre gauge was "not invented here". |
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#3
July 29th 06, 08:45 PM
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DLR track gauge
On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:14:30 +0100, Tony Polson
wrote: "Boltar" wrote: As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? Because metre gauge was "not invented here". ... and would also make it difficult for any kind of mixed running on or off the DLR which might occur in the future. -- _______ +---------------------------------------------------+ |\\ //| | Charles Ellson: | | \\ // | +---------------------------------------------------+ | | | // \\ | Alba gu brath |//___\\| |
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#4
July 29th 06, 09:36 PM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
"Charles Ellson" wrote in message ... On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:14:30 +0100, Tony Polson wrote: "Boltar" wrote: As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? Because metre gauge was "not invented here". .. and would also make it difficult for any kind of mixed running on or off the DLR which might occur in the future. The Blackwall Railway, whose viaduct is used by the DLR, was originally constructed with a 5 foot gauge. It had to narrow this to standard when it wanted to connect with other railways. Peter |
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#5
July 29th 06, 09:40 PM
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DLR track gauge
"Boltar" wrote in message oups.com... As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? B2003 Sharp curves have been on standard gauge for years - trams in British systems were mostly of standard gauge, and they went around very sharp curves as they turned from one street to another. The new light rail systems are also of standard gauge. Have you noticed that most narrow gauge rolling stock is narrow, whereas DLR is quite wide. If you have wide stock on narrow gauge tracks, there is a potential problem with stability. If there is squealing on curves, this could be addressed by flange lubricators. I took quite a few trips on DLR a couple of months back, and I didn't notice that occurring. Regards David Bennetts Australia |
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#6
July 29th 06, 10:32 PM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
Charles Ellson wrote: On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:14:30 +0100, Tony Polson wrote: "Boltar" wrote: As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? Because metre gauge was "not invented here". .. and would also make it difficult for any kind of mixed running on or off the DLR which might occur in the future. And in the steady progression towards heavy rail, where they keep having to sell off the previous more flimsy vehicles, they are more likely to find buyers for standard guage stuff? |
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#7
July 29th 06, 11:14 PM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:40:29 +1000, "David Bennetts"
wrote: "Boltar" wrote in message roups.com... As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? B2003 Sharp curves have been on standard gauge for years - trams in British systems were mostly of standard gauge, and they went around very sharp curves as they turned from one street to another. The new light rail systems are also of standard gauge. Have you noticed that most narrow gauge rolling stock is narrow, whereas DLR is quite wide. If you have wide stock on narrow gauge tracks, there is a potential problem with stability. Like with 25NCs ? It depends how low you go in terms of gauge and what you do with the centre of gravity. snip -- _______ +---------------------------------------------------+ |\\ //| | Charles Ellson: | | \\ // | +---------------------------------------------------+ | | | // \\ | Alba gu brath |//___\\| |
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#8
July 29th 06, 11:36 PM
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DLR track gauge
Charles Ellson wrote: Like with 25NCs ? It does look rather odd to see something that size on such a narrow track gauge. How common is modern narrow gauge light rail equipment elsewhere in the World? I would have thought that there would be more people building standard guage equipment, which might actually make it cheaper. |
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#9
July 29th 06, 11:56 PM
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DLR track gauge
On 29 Jul 2006 15:32:45 -0700, "MIG"
wrote: Charles Ellson wrote: On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:14:30 +0100, Tony Polson wrote: "Boltar" wrote: As I was sitting on the DLR the other day with the train squeeling its way round yet another sharp curve, it suddenly struck me - why did they use standard gauge track? Surely a narrow gauge would be far better suited to the tight curves on the line? Its not as if they'd have had any trouble procuring equipment for narrow gauge since plenty of light rail narrow gauge systems operate in europe. And the DLR is completely self contained with no physical links to any other railway so thats not a concern. Anyone know why they didn't use say metre gauge? Because metre gauge was "not invented here". .. and would also make it difficult for any kind of mixed running on or off the DLR which might occur in the future. And in the steady progression towards heavy rail, where they keep having to sell off the previous more flimsy vehicles, they are more likely to find buyers for standard guage stuff? Or going in the other direction, the DLR stuff possibly doesn't need much modification to tram standard for venturing out onto any local tramways that might be built (oink, oink, flap, flap) which would probably also be standard gauge. -- _______ +---------------------------------------------------+ |\\ //| | Charles Ellson: | | \\ // | +---------------------------------------------------+ | | | // \\ | Alba gu brath |//___\\| |
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#10
July 30th 06, 12:17 AM
posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
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DLR track gauge
On 29 Jul 2006 16:36:00 -0700, "Stephen Furley"
wrote: Charles Ellson wrote: Like with 25NCs ? It does look rather odd to see something that size on such a narrow track gauge. How common is modern narrow gauge light rail equipment elsewhere in the World? I would have thought that there would be more people building standard guage equipment, which might actually make it cheaper. OTMH you've got various bits of metre-gauge around Europe (a lot in Switzerland ?) which does in general seem to scale down the size of the bodywork while in Africa 3' 6" gauge seems to be "normal-sized" bodies running a bit closer to the ground. In both cases the trackwork is generally going to be cheaper while in the latter case the main difference is the bogies on the rolling stock which won't necessarily cost more while the locomotives in the past possibly had less "off the shelf" nature than now so the difference between standard and the larger narrow-gauges also might not have been significant or even extra. -- _______ +---------------------------------------------------+ |\\ //| | Charles Ellson: | | \\ // | +---------------------------------------------------+ | | | // \\ | Alba gu brath |//___\\| |
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