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British Railways Electrification Conference London 1960: Railway Electrification at Industrial Frequency - Proceedings

Document Summary

The report of the proceedings of the BR electrification conference in 1960, set up to discuss and present the findings of work on the emerging 25kV 50Hz a.c. electrification system.

The report consists of a large number of papers presented by railway engineers and suppliers, covering rolling stock, power supply and distribution equipment, overhead line equipment, control and supervision and signalling immunisation. The report contains numerous photographs, electrical schematics, diagrams, graphs and analysis, and shows the state of the art in 1960.

This document was published in 1960 by British Transport Commission.

It was written by British Transport Commission.

The original document format was Bound Volume, and comprised 503 pages.

This document was kindly sourced from Nick Smith and is in our Technical documents collection. It was added to the Archive on 7th March 2007.

Copyright Information

This document is © BRB (Residuary) Ltd.

"Early in October 1960 the British Transport Commission, in association with the British Electrical & Allied Manufacturers' Association and the Locomotive & Allied Manufacturers' Association of Great Britain, staged an Electrification Conference in London. The principal object of this Conference, which was attended by engineers from over 40 railway administrations throughout the world, in addition to the leading experts from British Railways and British industry, was to show the developments which have taken place in 50 c/s a.c. traction on British Railways and the way in which this system has been adapted to meet the peculiar needs of railways in Britain; it also enabled discussions to take place which it is hoped were of mutual advantage to both British and overseas delegates.

In the United Kingdom both the British Transport Commission and the electrical manufacturing industry have great faith in this modern system of electrification. Since the Conference was held, 600 track miles of 50 c/s a.c. electrification have been brought into service over lines handling the most dense commuter traffic in this country, and perhaps in the whole world. Work on the electrification of the Crewe - London lines has been fully approved and is now going ahead. By 1966, through electrified services at industrial frequency should be operating from London to Liverpool and London to Manchester.

The development of 50 c/s a.c. traction in Great Britain has witnessed the introduction of many important original features in equipment. Certain setbacks have been experienced, but these have only affected a very small part of the equipment which has gone into service. Much has been learnt and we now have in Great Britain a testing ground of considerable extent which will facilitate future progress."