Steam Turbines
The Reid-Ramsey Turbine-Electric
As far back as 1910, the advanced Reid-Ramsey Turbine-Electric was the first steam turbine locomotive built in the UK. Built by the North British Locomotive Company (NBL) to a design devised by the company’s Deputy Chairman and Chief Managing Director Sir Hugh Reid, the machine featured a conventional superheated locomotive boiler feeding an impulse turbine running at 3,000rpm. This was coupled to a dynamo producing between 200V and 600V DC to power four 275hp axle-mounted traction motors. In modern terms it was a miniature coal-fired power station on wheels, and considerably ahead of its time.
Theoretically, a steam turbine is much more efficient than a reciprocal steam engine but only when the turbine vents into a near vacuum, and when it is running at high speed. A large condenser positioned at the front of the locomotive created the near-vacuum while the high speeds were handled by an electrical transmission.
