Nuclear powered trains fact or fiction?

[McColm]

Hi Guys,
I'm trying to find out if anyone has successfully built a nuclear powered train.  The closest information states that there has been several studies into using nuclear power instead of fossil fuels as a source to drive a locomotive,  shielding would be solved as the driver/crew could be moved some distance away from the reactor but I don't know how much you would need and how much it would weigh.
There's a few toy trains that have a nuclear reactor power source and these are very long.
I think if any country was going to build one it would be the Russians,  with the USA and Great Britain not that far behind. I mean the British came up with a gas turbine locomotive  GT3. The Union Pacific's in America and the Russian had their own versions.
As a whiffer the train could look futuristic or steampunk. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[kerick]

The lawsuits from the no nukes crowd would tie up the project for years. Plus you could put the crew far from the reactor but what about people who live close to the tracks?

[PR19_Kit]

.......but what about people who live close to the tracks?

That's exactly the problem, not to mention the future and previous passengers as it passed them on the platform.

What would be the advantages over other propulsion though, apart from the fact that one could probably run for a long time without refuelling? It'd weigh LOADS more than a conventional loco, and need everything beefed up to a vast factor to take the extra weight of the shielding.

On gas turbines, the Western Region had two turbine locos long before GT3 was built. They were nos 18000 and 18100, and they can in service for some years starting off in 1949.

[Hobbes]

AFAIK none were ever built. In this article you can see what would be involved:




This is the X-12, a 360-ton loco that developed 7000 hp. 200 tons of that is shielding.

It turns out it's much simpler to electrify the railway and run a nuclear power station to power that.

[PR19_Kit]

An interesting arrangement of the traction trucks, sort of an electric Mallett.

But that would have produced less horsepower than the largest of the UP turbines, the 8500 bhp 'Big Blows'. They too were two unit locoes, maybe even THREE, as the control gear was in the lead unit, the turbine and generator in the second, and the fuel tender was the third!

Would they really have used U-235 as the fuel in an RW application though? By the time such a machine was built plutonium would have been much more available.

[Hobbes]

This appeared in the Eagle comic in 1962:

[Scotaidh]

Back in the early 80s  friend showed me a pulp sci-fiction book titled something like "A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel."  It was one of those "different time-line" things, where the US revolution was firmly quashed by the British.  As a result, all US inventions were non-existant - including aircraft (although I have a problem with that - Bleriot, etc.). 

The story used a nuclear-steam train to move the trains at (for steam trains) high speeds through the tunnel from south England to where-ever in the US (I didn't read the book - I thought it silly).

[For those that want to know, the tunnel was constructed as a series of tubes about a mile long that were sunk in place and connected.  What I thought was silly was the nightmare of keeping all the joints sealed at those kinds of pressures - they'd have been far better off doing a version of the Chunnel, IMHO.  But, as I say, I never read it - I didn't want to spend the money for it, and my friend never loaned his books.]

[Rheged]

This appeared in the Eagle comic in 1962:

Beat me to it!!  You could always rely on the Eagle for cutaway technology!

[Old Wombat]

Back in the early 80s  friend showed me a pulp sci-fiction book titled something like "A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel."  It was one of those "different time-line" things, where the US revolution was firmly quashed by the British.  As a result, all US inventions were non-existant - including aircraft (although I have a problem with that - Bleriot, etc.). 

The story used a nuclear-steam train to move the trains at (for steam trains) high speeds through the tunnel from south England to where-ever in the US (I didn't read the book - I thought it silly).

[For those that want to know, the tunnel was constructed as a series of tubes about a mile long that were sunk in place and connected.  What I thought was silly was the nightmare of keeping all the joints sealed at those kinds of pressures - they'd have been far better off doing a version of the Chunnel, IMHO.  But, as I say, I never read it - I didn't want to spend the money for it, and my friend never loaned his books.]

"A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!" by Harry Harrison

A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (aka Tunnel Through the Deeps) is an alternate history. Harrison began by positing two changes which would've allowed this changed history to exist. In this story, set in an alternate 1973, Washington lost the Battle of Lexington & was executed as a traitor. America remains a British colony dreaming of independence. The other change is that Columbus didn't discover the Americas & the cultures of South America weren't destroyed.
Thus Harrison brings into being a British Empire which has survived into the 20th century still influenced by its Victorian creators. But this ideal is threatened by increasing unemployment & the threat of economic decline. The empire needs something to boost its fortunes. So is born an engineering project to link Britain with its colony: a tunnel beneath the sea. Employment will increase & manufacturing will prosper.
The hero of the story is Captain Augustine Washington, engineer & descendent of the traitor. As well as wishing to see the tunnel's success, he wants to see his homeland achieve independence, or at least the dominion status of Canada & Australia. He's also in love with Iris, daughter of the genius behind the project, Sir Isambard Brassey-Brunel, who despises the upstart colonial engineer.
A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! is a curiously transatlantic book. The hero is an American, seeking independence for his country, but the British here are benign imperialists.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1400134.A_Transatlantic_Tunnel_Hurrah_

[rickshaw]

I read the book, "Tranatlantic Tunnel" many years ago.  It a moderately alright book but not overall memorable.  I thought the tunnel idea was mariginally workable.  They apparently sank it a hundred metres or so, to avoid the weather.   They had stations every few miles where passengers could alight and take a breather from the rigours of travel. 

I don't remember any atomic energy involved but it could have been.   Nuclear reactors are ridiculously simple to build, the problems occur with the shielding and so on.  There are a natural reactor apparently in the Gabon which ran (and I assume is still running) from accumulated Uranium salts which flowed into it from the surrounding swamps. 

[Nick]

I read the book, "Tranatlantic Tunnel" many years ago.  It a moderately alright book but not overall memorable.  I thought the tunnel idea was mariginally workable.  They apparently sank it a hundred metres or so, to avoid the weather.   They had stations every few miles where passengers could alight and take a breather from the rigours of travel. 

I dimly recall a coal powered flying boat and the use of a InterContinental Mail Rocket for delivering the main character in a hurry. I'm pretty sure it was in this book.
Tunnel War by Joe Poyer is a good book too - a 1911 attempt to build the Channel Tunnel.

Supertrain! So bad the opening credits were better than the actual 9 episodes ever made.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUERtAe73NI

Back on topic - Russia has built and uses hospital trains for Siberian villages. Wouldn't an atomic plant be good for such energy intensive runs?
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/russia-train/ch4/

[scooter]

Supertrain! So bad the opening credits were better than the actual 9 episodes ever made.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUERtAe73NI

I swear the exterior sets of the "train" look like they were repurposed from Kirk's airtram in ST: The Motion Picture

But for 70s camp, nothing beats The Big Bus

[zenrat]

Ah, The Big Bus.  One of my favourite movies ever.

[rickshaw]

The model of the super-train.  Must have a hideously large track gauge if they built it 1:1 scale.  This was never shown downunder.  I wonder why?  Our commercial networks were quite willing to swallow what ever garbage Burbank would normally produce. 

[Rheged]

When it comes to ultra wide gauge track, how about the Breitspurbahn    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitspurbahn ? A three metre gauge express railway to join all of Hitler's territories to Berlin.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY1EEzFKlAc   There would be room for a reactor and sufficient shielding in there.