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An atmospheric railway is a railway in which air pressure or vacuum is used to drive trains. The best known attempt was that by Brunel in the 19th century on a 52-mile section of the South Devon Railway between Exeter and Plymouth, England. It was also tried on the London & Croydon Railway in 1845, but was soon abolished. The supposed advantage of the atmospheric system was its hillclimbing ability; however Brunel chose to test the system on a relatively flat section. Brunel did however assume that the system would work, because the mainline to Cornwall was designed to contain some very challenging gradients of up to 1 in 38. The atmospheric system proved to be a complete disaster:
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