The Sparks Effect

While in the UK we consider electric trains to be a relatively modern development, the first electrically powered rail vehicle moved under its own power in Britain as early as 1842 – just 13 years after the legendary Rainhill Trials. Scottish scientist and inventor Robert Davison tested a rudimentary locomotive powered by electro-magnetism on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway in September 1842. This was 37 years before Werner von Siemens presented what is generally regarded as the world’s first electric train. However, Siemens’ little exhibition train of 1879 was indeed the first to employ electric motors powered by an external source – in this case 150V DC – and was therefore the direct forerunner of the electric trains we see today.

Over the next few years, Siemens went on to build the world’s first electric tramway in Berlin (1881), the first electric trolleybus, mine locomotives and the first underground railway in mainland Europe – in Budapest.

In 1890, Britain’s first underground electric railway, the 3.2-mile City & South London Railway was the world’s first electric ‘deep tube’ line. Trains were