3888 x 2592 px | 32,9 x 21,9 cm | 13 x 8,6 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
24 août 2011
Lieu:
Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot, ENG UK
Informations supplémentaires:
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, & spent its working life on the Western Region of British Railways, operating express passenger services from London Paddington station. At the end of 1960 18000 was withdrawn from operation and was stored at Swindon Works for four years. It then returned to mainland Europe, where for more than ten years it was used, in substantially altered (and no longer gas-turbine-powered) form, for experiments concerning the interaction between steel wheels and steel rails, under the auspices of the International Union of Railways. In 1975 it was moved to Vienna and displayed outside the Mechanical Engineering Testing building. In the early 1990s it was secured for preservation & returned to the UK. It was kept at The Railway Age, Crewe before being moved to Barrow Hill Engine Shed & repainted in green livery. In mid-April 2010 it was delivered to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in order to take part (as a static exhibit) in the celebrations for the 175th birthday of the Great Western Railway from 29 May to 6 June 2010. Latterly, it has moved to the Didcot Railway Centre on 29th July 2011. It is now owned by the Pete Waterman Trust.
