Russia mulls Brunel's gauge railways

Russia want to resurrect Brunel's broad gauge (2140mm) and to buildrailway lines, initially between Moscow and Kaliningrad via Belarus and Lithuania. Eventually extend to France.

Configurations

Configurations from Russian gauge and anather similar gauge make bonus Brunel gauge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_and_1520_mm_gauge_railways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_gauge

Loading gauges

Loading gauges:

30m long, 4.1m wide and 7m tall for the 1829mm gauge tracks.

33m long, 4.3m wide and 7m tall for the 1945mm gauge tracks.
36m long, 4.7m wide and 7m tall for the 2140mm gauge tracks.
40m long, 5.2m wide and 7m tall for the 2503mm gauge tracks.
50m long, 6m wide and 7m tall for the 3000mm gauge tracks.

 

Minimum platform lengths:

800m long for the 1829mm gauge railways.

1000m long for the 1945mm gauge railways.
600m long for the 2140mm gauge railways in Great Britain.
1067m long for the 2140mm gauge railways in other than Great Britain.
1200m long for the 2503mm gauge railways.
1600m long for the 3000mm gauge railways.

 

Loading gauges for proposed broad gauge railways

Proposed broad gauge railways[edit]

• 30m long, 4.1m wide and 7m tall for the 6 ft (1,829 mm) gauge tracks.
• 33m long, 4.3m wide and 7m tall for the 1,945 mm (6 ft 4 ⁹⁄₁₆ in) gauge tracks.
• 36m long, 4.7m wide and 7m tall for the 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) gauge tracks.
• 40m long, 5.2m wide and 7m tall for the 2,503 mm (8 ft 2 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge tracks.
• 50m long, 6m wide and 7m tall for the 3,000 mm (9 ft 10 ¹⁄₈ in) gauge tracks.

sources

• [3] Patentjp.com (in Japanese)
• [4] Hitler's Breitspurbahn (in German)
• [5] Ausblick in die Zukunft (in German)
• [6] Modellbahnen (in German)

Proposed routes

Proposals of broad gauge corridors

 

Routes:

*Great Western Main Line Broad Gauge corridor: London - Reading - Bristol - Exeter - Plymouth - Penzance

*East Coast Main Line Broad Gauge corridor: London - York - Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Edinburgh - Dundee - Abadeen - Inverness, and Edinburgh - Glasgow

*International Broad Gauge corridor: London - Ipswich - Rotterdam (Netherlands) - Berlin (Germany)

*Paris-Moscow Broad Gauge corridor: Paris (France) - Liege (Belgium) - Aachen (Germany) - Berlin (Germany) - Warsaw (Poland) - Minsk (Belarus) - Moscow (Russia)

*Moscow - Astana Broad Gauge corridor: Moscow (Russia) - Kazan (Russia) - Astana (Kazakhstan)

*Moscow - Vladivostok Broad Gauge corridor: Moscow (Russia) - Vladivostok (Russia) (further north than existing Trans-Siberian Railway)

*Moscow - North America Broad Gauge corridor: Moscow (Russia) - (Bering Strait Tunnel) - Fairbanks (Alaska) - Fort Nelson (Canada) - Edmonton (Canada) - Winnipeg (Canada) - Quebec (Canada) - Montreal (Canada) - Toronto (Canada) - Pittsburgh (USA) - New York (USA), Edmonton (Canada) - Calgary (Canada) - Salt Lake City (USA) - Los Angeles (USA), and Fort Nelson (Canada) - Vancouver (Canada) - Seattle (USA) - Portland (USA) - Los Angeles (USA)

*Scandinavia Broad Gauge corridor: Amsterdam (Netherlands) – Dortmund (Germany) – Bremen (Germany) – Hamburg (Germany) – Gothenburg (Sweden) – Boden (Sweden) – Finland – Nizhny Novgolod (Russia) / (Bering Strait Tunnel)

 

Track gauge: 2140mm (7ft0.25in)

Electrification: 50kV AC overhead lines (50Hz and 60Hz)

Loading gauge: 30m long, 4.7m wide and 6.7m tall (7m tall for freight)

Platform heights: 200mm, 380mm and 550mm above top of the rails

Minimum platform length: 600m (1070m for the east of Rotterdam and the east of Aachen)

Type of ties: concrete

Traction motors: Asynchronous induction motors

Drivetrain: WN drive

 

For Great Western Main Line, current existing Standard Gauge (1435mm = 4ft8.5in) tracks should be moved to adjacant area.

 

 

contacts:

http://www.alstom.com/microsites/transport/products-and-services/main-line/ Alstom (Main Line)

http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation.html Bombardier Transportation (rail transport)

http://www.tmholding.ru/en/ Transmashholding

http://www.uic.org/ UIC (International Union of Railways)

http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article1164 Contact to UIC

http://forum1520.com/ Team 1520 Strategic Partnership

http://www.breitspurbahn.de/2140.html breitspurbahn.de > Brunel gauge

 

http://www.patentjp.com/13/I/I100049/DA10015.html Patentjp.com (in Japanese)

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_gwr.htm Great Western Railway main index

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/index.htm Great Western Railway archive

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/stat_1.htm Great Western Railway station

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/sitemap.htm Great Western Railway sitemap

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/links.htm Great Western Railway sitemap 2

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/index.html Broad Gauge Society

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/about/bgs_about.html BGS about

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/about/bgs_contacts.html BGS contact

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/about/bgs_membership.html BGS membership

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_what_is.html Broad Gauge?

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_today_london.html BG London-Bristol

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_today_west.html BG Bristol-Penzance

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_track_sig.html Broad Gauge Track

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_broad_history.html Broad Gauge History

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_gauge_map.html BGS Gauge Map

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/heritage/bg_remnants.html BG Remnants

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/heritage/bg_high_wycombe.html High Wycombe

 

History

The large number of new railway schemes being authorised, both broad and otherwise, caused an economic depression in the second half of the 1840s, which made it difficult to raise the money needed to build even those lines already under construction.  The South Devon line was not complete to Plymouth until 1849, and the South Wales was only finished in 1856.
In the meantime, Parliament had formed its Gauge Commission.  In 1846 it recommended that the 4ft 8½in gauge be the standard in future, however the broad gauge line authorised in 1845 from Oxford towards Rugby was to be built as mixed gauge so it could carry both broad and narrow trains.
This line to the north reached as far as Wolverhampton in 1854, but within a couple of months the GWR had purchased 4ft 8½in gauge lines that allowed it to run further north, and after that it started to lay more mixed lines to save it the expense of transferring goods where there was a break of gauge.  These reached as far as Paddington by 1861, and the lines from Oxford to Wolverhampton carried only narrow trains from April 1869.
In the south west, the line from Chippenham to Weymouth, authorised in 1845, was completed in 1857.  Two years later the Royal Albert Bridge was completed allowing broad gauge trains to reach Truro, but the line beyond had already opened with just narrow tracks; this was widened to mixed tracks in 1866 to allow through trains from Paddington to Penzance.
However, work soon started on converting other broad gauge lines to 4ft 8½in.  The first was the short Hereford branch in 1869, but in 1872 the route from Swindon through South Wales was converted, and that to Weymouth in 1874.  Mixed gauge extended along the main line as far as Exeter by 1876.
One final broad gauge line was built in the far West; the St. Ives branch opened on 1 June 1877, 39 years after the first broad gauge train had steamed out of Paddington.  By now broad gauge trains only ran from Paddington to Penzance (using the mixed gauge as far as Exeter and beyond Truro, and on various branch lines.  Several of these were converted during the years to 1891, which just left Exeter to Truro and associated branch lines routes.  In a massive final push, these were all narrowed over the hectic weekend of May 21–22, 1892, - and the broad gauge was no more !