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London Underground battery-electric locomotives, most commonly known as battery locomotives are used for hauling engineers' trains, as they can operate when the electric traction current is switched off. The first two locomotives were built in 1905 for the construction of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, and their success prompted the District Railway to buy two more in 1909, which were the only ones built to the loading gauge of the subsurface lines. Following this, a number of battery vehicles were built by converting redundant motor cars, with the batteries placed in the unused passenger compartment. One exception to this was made by the City and South London Railway, who used a trailer car to hold the batteries, and wired them to a separate locomotive. From 1936, battery locomotives were built as new vehicles, although in most cases, some components, particularly the bogies and motors, were refurbished from withdrawn passenger cars. The batch of 9 vehicles supplied by Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company between 1936 and 1938 set the standard for subsequent builds. Including this batch, 52 machines had been built by 1986, in six batches from four manufacturers, with one built at London Transport's Acton Works. Each new batch included some improvements, but most used electro-pneumatic traction control equipment made by GEC, and so could be operated together. The exception were three from the 1936 batch, which used an experimental Metadyne system, and the final batch of six, built in 1985, which used controllers manufactured by Kiepe. Improvements since manufacture have included the replacement of low-level Ward couplers by buckeye couplers, which has resulted in less damage from shunting accidents, and the fitting of draught excluders and cab heaters for use in winter when the locomotives operate on sections of line above ground. A number of the machines were fitted with Automatic Train Operation (ATO) equipment to enable them to work on the newly opened Victoria line. Subsequently, some have been fitted with Automatic Train Protection (ATP) equipment, compatible with the system used on the Central line, and some with ATP equipment which enables them to work with the replacement Distance-to-Go Radio (DTG-R) system on the upgraded Victoria line. ==Early vehicles== The first two battery locomotives supplied for the London Underground were manufactured by Hurst Nelson and Co Ltd, who were based in Motherwell. They were delivered in August 1905, and were used during the construction of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, where they were numbered 1B and 2B. The vehicles were long, with a tube-gauge cab at both ends. Braking and electrical control equipment was housed in a compartment behind one of the cabs, and the central section was lower, housing the 80 batteries, arranged in two rows of 40 either side of a central divide, which also supported metal covers for the battery compartments. The batteries were supplied by Chloride Electrical Storage Company. Each locomotive weighed 55 tons, and could haul a 60-ton load at . They were not fitted with current collector shoes, as none of the rails were electrified during construction. Once their task was completed, they were moved by road to the Hampstead Railway. Encouraged by the performance of the vehicles, the District Railway purchased two of their own in 1909, which were larger as they were built to subsurface-gauge. The manufacturer was W. R. Renshaw and Co Ltd, who were based in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and the vehicles were fitted with current collector shoes, so that they could draw power from the rails when it was available. During the First World War, they were used as shunting engines at Ealing Common Depot, where power was always available, and so the batteries were removed, and subsequently neglected. New batteries could not be obtained, as batteries of this type were needed for submarines as part of the war effort. The vehicles were numbered 19A and 20A when supplied, but were renumbered as L8 and L9 in 1929, when the batteries were no longer fitted. As electric locomotives, they were upgraded several times, receiving two new types of motors in 1951 and 1955, and new traction control equipment in 1958. They continued to be used to move stores between Acton Works and Ealing Common Depot, until they were superseded by road vehicles in 1969. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「London Underground battery-electric locomotives」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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