1.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
2.
Colorado Central Railroad
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The Colorado Central Railroad was a U. S. railroad company that operated in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming in the late 19th century. It was founded in the Colorado Territory in the wake of the Colorado Gold Rush to ship gold from the mountains and it expanded from its Golden–Denver line to form a crucial link connecting Colorado with the transcontinental railroad and the national rail network. The history of the railroad throughout the 1870s was driven at times by a struggle between local interests, led by W. A. H. Loveland, and outside investors of the Union Pacific Railroad led at times by Jay Gould, the early struggle of the company to build its lines was a major part of the early competition between Denver and Golden for supremacy as the principal metropolis of Colorado. The company built the first rail lines up connecting historic Colorado mining communities such as Black Hawk, Central City, through a series of reorganizations and acquisitions, it eventually became part of the Colorado and Southern Railway. Although its historic 3 ft narrow gauge lines were dismantled by the mid 20th century. Loveland and his partners desired to build a 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge railroad up Clear Creek Canyon to Central City and other mining centers, during the three years before construction on the line began the company underwent several reorganizations. On January 20,1866, the name of the railroad was changed to the Colorado Central & Pacific Railroad, the following year, in June 1867, the company was reorganized, Union Pacific investors were in control, but provided no funds for construction. That year, the seat of government for Colorado was relocated from Golden to Denver. On January 1,1868, construction at last began on the first line connecting Denver, on January 14, the company changed its name to Colorado Central Railroad. Construction of the first line was slow, by the end of the year, only the small portion between Denver and Golden had been graded. The formation of the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company set off a struggle over the next two years between the two companies to complete their lines connecting to Union Pacific. The Denver Pacific line was complete in June 1870 and the first train arrived in Denver from Cheyenne, two months later, the Kansas Pacific completed its line to Denver, linking up with the Denver Pacific, and cementing the central role of Denver in Colorado. As a consequence, the Colorado Central turned its attention towards linking up with the Denver Pacific, in May 1871 local interests regained control of the railroad from Union Pacific investors. By the following September,150 men were at work in the mountains west of Golden to extend the line to the mining communities, in the spring of 1872 the company acquired critical right-of-way along Clear Creek to extend its line. West of Golden, the line built as 3 ft narrow gauge, in late August, the company took delivery of its first two locomotives, the General Sherman, No. 2, followed a week later by General Sheridan, No.1, on September 1, the track was completed 13.3 miles to Forks Creek. By mid-December, the line had been extended 7.7 miles further to Black Hawk, by February 24,1873, a second line from Forks Creek had been extended 3.3 miles to Floyd Hill
3.
Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
4.
Golden, Colorado
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Golden is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Golden lies along Clear Creek at the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush on 16 June 1859, the mining camp was originally named Golden City in honor of Thomas L. Golden. Golden City served as the capital of the provisional Territory of Jefferson from 1860 to 1861, in 1867, the territorial capital was moved about 12 miles east to Denver City. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 18,867 in 2010, the Colorado School of Mines, offering programs in engineering and science, is located in Golden. It is the birthplace of the Jolly Rancher, a candy bought out by the Hershey Foods Corporation, Buffalo Bill Cody is buried nearby on Lookout Mountain. Golden City was established on 16 June 1859 along Clear Creek west of Denver, important businessmen and prospectors such as William A. H. Loveland and George West were among the first to settle in Golden. By the end of 1860, Golden City had been elected the seat of Jefferson County and was capital of the provisional Jefferson Territory. Golden City was temporarily removed from the status of capital as a result of an act passed on 5 November 1861 by the territorial government. Colorado City, a town to the south of Denver became the new temporary territorial capital. This status was revoked, however, as on 4 August 1862. It was the period between 1862 and the early 1870s that a fierce railroad competition developed between Denver, ten miles to the east, and Golden. By the mid-1860s, Golden held only a status as territorial capital rather than serve as the legitimate source of territorial power. Loveland founded the Colorado Central Railroad on 9 February 1865 to do just this, with Golden beginning talk of creating a railroad, prominent Denver residents raced to do the same. If we defeat those bonds, all hope of a railroad for the two years is gone… Gentlemen of Denver, what will you do. The fate of city is in your own hands. ”The residents of Denver voted for the bonds. By 1869, the race to Cheyenne was becoming less and less of a race. Golden, having then sidetracked into servicing various close-by mountain communities, continued to fall behind the set by the Denver railroad. However, The Colorado Central Railroad connected directly with Cheyenne seven years later, in 1877, but by that point, during the 1870s, it became home to three institutions of higher education, the Colorado University Schools, of which the Colorado School of Mines remains today
5.
Michigan
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Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year
6.
Midland Railway
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The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. It had a network of lines managed from its headquarters in Derby. It became the third-largest railway undertaking in the British Isles, the Midland Railway Consolidation Act was passed in 1844 authorising the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. These met at the Tri-Junct station at Derby, where the MR established its locomotive and later its carriage, leading it were George Hudson from the North Midland, dynamic but unscrupulous, and John Ellis from the Midland Counties, a careful businessman of impeccable integrity. James Allport from the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway found a place elsewhere in Hudsons empire with the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, though he later returned. Almost immediately it took over the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway and the Erewash Valley Line in 1845, passengers from Sheffield continued to use Rotherham Masborough until a direct route was completed in 1870. Meanwhile, it extended its influence in the Leicestershire coalfields, by buying the Leicester and Swannington Railway in 1846, after the merger, London trains were carried on the shorter Midland Counties route. The former Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was left with the traffic to Birmingham and Bristol, the line south was the Birmingham and Bristol Railway, which reached Curzon Street via Camp Hill. These two lines had been formed by the merger of the standard gauge Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and they met at Gloucester via a short loop of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway. In the event all that was necessary was for the later LNWR to share Birmingham New Street with the Midland when it was opened in 1854, the MR controlled all the traffic to the North East and Scotland from London. The LNWR was progressing slowly through the Lake District, and there was pressure for a line from London to York. Permission had been gained for the Northern and Eastern Railway to run through Peterborough and Lincoln, two obvious extensions of the Midland Counties line were from Nottingham to Lincoln and from Leicester to Peterborough. They were approved while the bill for the line was still before Parliament, forming the present day Lincoln Branch. The Leeds and Bradford Railway had been approved in 1844, by 1850 it was losing money but a number of railways offered to buy it. In spite of the objections of Hudson, for the MR and others, the London and York Railway led by Edmund Denison persisted, after Hudsons departure, the MR was in financial difficulties. Opposition to the Great Northern bill had cost a fortune, a deal of maintenance was overdue. Added to this, the Great Northern was taking much of the traffic from the North East, in 1851 the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway completed its line from Grantham as far as Colwick, from where a branch led to the MR Nottingham station. The Great Northern Railway by then passed through Grantham and both railway companies paid court to the fledgling line, meanwhile, Nottingham had woken up to its branch line status and was keen to expand
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