OT: Underground utilities

I heard/read somewhere, that they couldn't get the leather seals to seal well enough, to work for any distance. The long the distance, the higher the leakage.

And the rats loved to eat the seals.

Tim

The story I heard is similar but subtly different. Apparent the leather seals were OK until frosty weather. Some damp got into the leather, and when it froze it made the leather brittle and pieces were broken off when a train went past.

I wonder if a modern version could use magnetic linkage between the train and a piston in a sealed cylinder?

I doubt whether a magnetic coupling would be sufficient to pull a train from stationary to normal transport speed with the piston in a sealed cylinder?

Would have to hope that litter in the form of tin cans etc would not get attracted as well,

A company in Brazil has revisited the atmospheric railway in the form of an airport shuttle that started limited operation in February this year. Their application uses pressure and vacuum.

The 19th Century installations were a hoped for solution to getting trains up gradients as early locomotives were not powerful enough. That was only a short interval till they were and though in the case of he Devon installation the steep gradients proved a nuisance for another 60 years till powerful Diesels came along what the atmospheric could achieve by having trains moved by power produced elsewhere has long been done better by electric.

GH

kV

FFS