1.
Swiss locomotive and railcar classification
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It started out as a uniform system for the classification and naming of all rolling stock, powered and unpowered, but had been replaced and amended by the UIC classification of goods wagons. The Swiss classification system was created by the Swiss federal railways department, in 1902, when the Swiss Federal Railways was founded as a government railway, that new railway also became bound by the system. The Swiss system is less precise than those other systems in the way it deals with axles, because it refers only to numbers, rather than to arrangements, of powered axles. The Swiss system is more a method of classifying locomotive. The classifications for which the Swiss system provides have always been adapted to new requirements. The last modification to the system occurred in 1968, with the publication of the Directory of the Rolling Stock of the Swiss Private Railways by the Swiss Federal Agency for Transport. For carriages and wagons, the system was progressively replaced from 1968 by the UIC international wagon classification system. However, all of Switzerlands powered rolling stock initially retained its Swiss type classification or class designation, the standard gauge private railways of Switzerland soon followed the example of the Swiss Federal Railways, and agreement was reached as to the allocation of number ranges. The narrow gauge railways have largely retained the old system for locomotives, railcars and passenger carriages, here is a description of the classification system as it operated up to 1989, and as it still operates in respect of narrow gauge private railway motive power. There is no provision for combining the codes A, B, C, D, E, G, R and T, the combination of H and G is possible. HG would therefore be a narrow gauge locomotive, with a mix of adhesion, since 1966, in respect of railcars and tractors, he or hm has meant pure rack rail drive, and eh or mh has meant a mix of adhesion and rack rail drive. Steam powered tank locomotives were given an E, and the maximum speed of the locomotive was designated with a lower case letter. Thus, an Ea 3/6 was a locomotive with vmax >80 kilometres per hour. With steam locomotives, separate driving mechanisms were displayed, so, for example, a Mallet locomotive was named G 2x2/2 or G 2/3+2/2, and not G 4/4 or G 4/5. Up until 1920, standard gauge locomotives were given the letter F. The class later designated as Be 5/7 was therefore originally named Fb 5/7, the designation R was originally intended for locomotives with an axle load of under 16 tonnes. These lightweight locomotives exert less stress on the rails when they negotiate curves, with the introduction of the Re 4/4II, the axle load limit was dropped following extensive testing. Several locomotives were given approval for higher cornering speeds, to which their type designation had not yet been adapted
2.
Driving wheel
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On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotives pistons. On diesel and electric locomotives, the wheels may be directly driven by the traction motors. Coupling rods are not usually used, and it is common for each axle to have its own motor. Jackshaft drive and coupling rods were used in the past but their use is now confined to shunting locomotives, on an articulated locomotive or a duplex locomotive, driving wheels are grouped into sets which are linked together within the set
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
Switcher
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They do this in classification yards. Switchers may also make short runs and even be the only motive power on branch lines and switching. The term can also be used to describe the workers operating these engines or engaged in directing shunting operations, the typical switcher is optimised for its job, being relatively low-powered but with a high starting tractive effort for getting heavy cars rolling quickly. Switchers are geared to produce high torque but are restricted to low top speeds and have small diameter driving wheels, switchers are rail analogs to tugboats. US switchers tend to be larger, with bogies to allow them to be used on tight radiuses, European shunters tend to be smaller and more often have fixed axles. They also often maintained coupling rods for longer than other types, although bogie types have long been used where very heavy loads are involved. Switching is hard work, and heavily used switch engines wear out quickly from the abuse of constant hard contacts with cars, nevertheless, some types have been remarkably long-lived. Diesel switchers tend to have a cab and often lower and/or narrower hoods containing the diesel engines. Slugs are often used because they allow even greater effort to be applied. Nearly all slugs used for switching are of the low hood, good visibility in both directions is critical, because a switcher may be running in either direction, turning the locomotive is time-consuming. Some earlier diesel switchers used cow-calf configurations of two powered units in order to provide greater power, the vast majority of modern switchers are diesels, but countries with near-total electrification, like Switzerland, use electric switchers. Prior to the introduction of locomotives, electric shunting locomotives were used to an extent in Great Britain where heavy trains needed to be started on steep gradients. The steeply-graded Quayside Branch in Newcastle upon Tyne was electrified by the North Eastern Railway in 1905,1, is now part of the National Collection and resides at Locomotion in Shildon. A number of the early German locomotives built for use on lines have been preserved. These specialised locomotives were tall steeple-cab types not seen anywhere else, one example built by Greenwood and Batley in Armley, Leeds is preserved at the Middleton Railway, not far from where it was built. Small industrial shunters are sometimes of the battery-electric type, an early battery-electric shunting locomotive is shown here. The Tyne and Wear Metro has three battery electric shunters built by Hunslet, which are used to haul engineering trains when the supply is switched off. Flywheel energy storage was used experimentally by Sentinel
5.
Canadian Pacific Railway
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The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known formerly as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a restructuring in 2001. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 20,000 kilometres of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, the railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885, fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canadas first transcontinental railway, but no longer reaches the Atlantic coast, the CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978, a beaver was chosen as the railways logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company. The company acquired two American lines in 2009, the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago, the trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP and its U. S. headquarters are in Minneapolis. The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task undertaken for a combination of reasons by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. He was helped by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, who was the owner of the North Western Coal and his company went through several name changes during the process of the construction of the railway. British Columbia, a sea voyage away from the East Coast, had insisted upon a land transport link to the East as a condition for joining Confederation. The government however proposed to build a railway linking the Pacific province to the Eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 July 1871, Macdonald saw it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the continent. Moreover, manufacturing interests in Quebec and Ontario wanted access to raw materials, the first obstacle to its construction was political. The logical route went through the American Midwest and the city of Chicago, to ensure this routing, the government offered huge incentives including vast grants of land in the West. Because of this scandal, the Conservative Party was removed from office in 1873, surveying was carried out during the first years of a number of alternative routes in this virgin territory followed by construction of a telegraph along the lines that had been agreed upon. The Thunder Bay section linking Lake Superior to Winnipeg was commenced in 1875, by 1880, around 1,000 kilometres was nearly complete, mainly across the troublesome Canadian Shield terrain, with trains running on only 500 kilometres of track. With Macdonalds return to power on 16 October 1878, an aggressive construction policy was adopted. Macdonald confirmed that Port Moody would be the terminus of the transcontinental railway, in 1879, the federal government floated bonds in London and called for tenders to construct the 206 km section of the railway from Yale, British Columbia, to Savonas Ferry, on Kamloops Lake
6.
Baldwin Locomotive Works
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The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was originally located in Philadelphia, and later moved to nearby Eddystone, although the company was very successful as the largest producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972, having produced over 70,000 locomotives and this company is not to be confused with E M Baldwin of Australia who made small locomotives for such things as sugar cane tramways. The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning, the original engine was in use and powered many departments of the works for well over 60 years, and is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The Camden and Amboy Railroad Company had shortly before imported a locomotive from England and it had not yet been assembled by Isaac Dripps when Baldwin visited the spot. He inspected the detached parts and made notes of the principal dimensions, aided by these figures, he commenced his task. The difficulties attending the execution of this first order were such that they are not easily understood by present-day mechanics. It was under such circumstances that his first locomotive, christened Old Ironsides, was completed and tried on the Philadelphia and it was at once put in active service, and did duty for over 20 years. It was an engine, weighing a little over five tons, the driving wheels were 54 inches in diameter. The wheels were of heavy cast iron hubs, with spokes and rims, and wrought iron tires. It had a 30 inches diameter boiler which took 20 minutes to raise steam, Baldwin struggled to survive the Panic of 1837. Production fell from 40 locomotives in 1837 to just nine in 1840, as part of the survival strategy, Matthias Baldwin took on two partners, George Vail and George Hufty. Although the partnerships proved relatively short-lived, they helped Baldwin pull through the hard times. Zerah Colburn was one of many engineers who had an association with Baldwin Locomotive Works. Colburn was full of praise for the quality of Baldwins work, in the 1850s, railroad building became a national obsession, with many new carriers starting up, particularly in the Midwest and South. While this helped drive up demand for Baldwin products, it increased competition as more companies entered the locomotive production field. Still, Baldwin had trouble keeping pace with orders and in the early 1850s began paying workers piece-rate pay, taking advantage of human nature, this increased incentives and productivity
7.
Finnish Railway Museum
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The Finnish Railway Museum is located in Hyvinkää, Finland. It was founded in 1898 and located in Helsinki, the museum was moved to Hyvinkää in 1974. The museum is on the station and yard site of the Hanko–Hyvinkää railway. In addition to the building, there is a roundhouse and several other preserved buildings. Unique objects are on display, including the only surviving imperial train of the Russian Emperor, the museum also has a live steam backyard railroad track, where train rides are offered to the public during special run days in the summer months
8.
Tank locomotive
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A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. A tank engine may also have a bunker to hold fuel, there are several different types of tank locomotive, distinguished by the position and style of the water tanks and fuel bunkers. The most common type has tanks mounted either side of the boiler and this type originated about 1840 and quickly became popular for industrial tasks, and later for shunting and shorter distance main line duties. Tank locomotives have advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional tender locomotives, the first tank locomotive was the Novelty that ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. It was an example of a Well Tank and these were E. B. Wilson and Company, William Fairbairn & Sons, George England, Kitson Thompson and Hewitson and William Bridges Adams. By the mid-1850s tank locomotives were to be performing a variety of main line and industrial roles. There are a number of types of locomotive, based on the location. These include the side tank, the tank, the pannier tank. A configuration very common in the U. K, the water is contained in rectangular tanks mounted on either side of the locomotive, near to the boiler but not quite touching. The tank sides extend down to the platform, if such is present. The length of side tanks was limited in order to give access to the inside motion. If it was desired to extend them to the front of the locomotive for greater capacity, with larger side tanks it was sometimes necessary to taper the tanks slightly at the front end to improve forward visibility. Side tanks almost all stopped at, or before, the end of the boiler barrel, a few designs did reach to the front of the smokebox and these were termed flatirons. The water tank sits on top of the boiler like a saddle sits atop a horse, usually the tank is curved in cross-section, although in some cases there were straight sides surmounted by a curve, or even an ogee shape. Saddle tanks were a popular arrangement especially for smaller locomotives in industrial use and it gave a greater water supply, but limited the size of the boiler and restricted access to it for cleaning. However, the locomotive has a centre of gravity and hence must operate at lower speeds. The drivers vision may also be restricted, again restricting the safe speed, Water in the tank is slightly pre-heated by the boiler, which reduces the loss of pressure found when cold feedwater is injected into the boiler. However if the water becomes too hot, injectors lose efficiency, for this reason, the tanks often stopped short of the hotter and uninsulated smokebox
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