1.
Bungendore
–
Bungendore is a town in the Queanbeyan Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. It is on the Kings Highway near Lake George, the Molonglo River Valley and it has become a major tourist centre in recent years, popular with visitors from Canberra and some of it has heritage protection. It has expanded rapidly in recent years as a suburb of Canberra. Prior to European settlement, the area was occupied by the Ngarigo people, the first Europeans in the vicinity were members of the exploratory party of Dr Charles Throsby in 1820, who, along with Hamilton Hume, also originally explored the Braidwood area. In 1824, explorer Allan Cunningham passed through Bungendore, a year later, the first European settlers arrived. The mail service to Bungendore was introduced in 1837, enhancing the importance of the village, by 1848,30 people populated the seven buildings in the town of Bungendore. When the railway arrived on 4 March 1885, the town began to more quickly. New buildings appeared rapidly, such as churches, the courthouse/police station, the first post office was built in Bungendore in 1840, an Anglican church c 1843, and the Bungendore Inn in 1847. The latter became a Cobb and Co staging post, by 1851, the population was 63. The 1850s saw at least two other hotels established, a flour mill was built in 1861, St Marys Roman Catholic Church and two denominational schools in 1862, the courthouse in 1864 and a public school in 1868. In 1866, local crops grown were recorded as being wheat, oats, barley, tourism is now a major contributor to the economy. The town remained a railhead from 1885 until the line reached Queanbeyan in 1887, partly because of the coming railway, the 1880s proved a boom period for the town and the population increased from 270 in 1881, to 700 by 1885. By then, Queanbeyan was emerging as the town in the area. In 1894, gold was discovered at Bywong, in 1901, Lake George and Bungendore were proposed as sites for the nations capital city. This did not eventuate, as the drawcard of Lake George failed to impress the visiting Commissioners of the time, by 1909 rabbit trapping had become an extremely valuable industry in the area around Bungendore. The town itself had a plant that employed 14 workers. In the year ending 31 July 1909, over 1.5 million rabbits were frozen at Bungendore, in 1992 journalist Ian McPhedran wrote that Bungendores locals and business sector had developed a method of community cooperation superior to most other Australian small towns. Bungendore is quite near a known as Gibraltar Hill
2.
Railroad switch
–
A railroad switch, turnout or points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off. The switch consists of the pair of linked tapering rails, known as points and these points can be moved laterally into one of two positions to direct a train coming from the point blades toward the straight path or the diverging path. A train moving from the end toward the point blades is said to be executing a facing-point movement. Passage through a switch in this direction is known as a trailing-point movement, a switch generally has a straight through track and a diverging route. The handedness of the installation is described by the side that the track leaves. Right-hand switches have a path to the right of the straight track, when coming from the point blades. In many cases, such as yards, many switches can be found in a short section of track. Sometimes a switch merely divides one track into two, at others, it serves as a connection between two or more tracks, allowing a train to switch between them. A straight track is not always present, for example, both tracks may curve, one to the left and one to the right, or both tracks may curve, with differing radii, while still in the same direction. A railroad cars wheels are guided along the tracks by coning of the wheels, only in extreme cases does it rely on the flanges located on the insides of the wheels. When the wheels reach the switch, the wheels are guided along the route determined by which of the two points is connected to the track facing the switch. In the illustration, if the point is connected, the left wheel will be guided along the rail of that point. If the right point is connected, the right wheels flange will be guided along the rail of that point, and the train will continue along the straight track. Only one of the points may be connected to the track at any time. A mechanism is provided to move the points from one position to the other, historically, this would require a lever to be moved by a human operator, and some switches are still controlled this way. However, most are now operated by a remotely controlled electric motor or by pneumatic or hydraulic actuation and this both allows for remote control and for stiffer, strong switches that would be too difficult to move by hand, yet allow for higher speeds. In a trailing-point movement, the flanges on the wheels will force the points to the proper position and this is sometimes known as running through the switch. Some switches are designed to be forced to the position without damage
3.
Australian Rail Track Corporation
–
The Australian Rail Track Corporation is a Government of Australia owned statutory corporation, established in July 1998, that manages most of Australias interstate rail network. The ARTC was incorporated in February 1998, with starting in July 1998 when the lines managed by Australian Nationals Track Australia were transferred to it. These were the lines from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta, Tarcoola to Alice Springs, Port Augusta to Whyalla, Adelaide to Broken Hill and Adelaide to Serviceton, and the Outer Harbor line in Adelaide. In 2000, the Tarcoola to Alice Springs line was leased to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium as part of the project to extend the line to Darwin. In 1999, ARTC signed a deal with VicTrack, the rail manager for the Victorian government. This was later extended for another 10 years, and in May 2008 for another 45 years, included was construction of the five-kilometre Wodonga Rail Bypass which eliminated 11 level crossings in that city. In July 2008 it was announced the standard gauge track from Maroona to Portland would be leased to ARTC for 50 years, the line was handed over in March 2009. In September 2004, the Government of New South Wales-owned Rail Infrastructure Corporation leased its interstate, $186 million to upgrade the Main South line from Macarthur to Albury. The investment will improve signalling, extend the length of crossing loops and it will assist in reducing the transit times for freight trains between Sydney and Melbourne by three hours. $119 million for the North Coast line from Maitland to Border Loop including replacement of the 1920s signalling system between Casino and Border Loop, the investment will assist in reducing the travel time for freight trains between Sydney and Brisbane by up to 3.5 hours. $21 million for the Broken Hill line between Parkes and Broken Hill, including funds to raise height clearances allowing the passage of double-stacked container trains, the then NSW Rail Infrastructure Corporation also contracted operational responsibility of the remainder of its country branch lines to ARTC from September 2004. From January 2012 this was transferred to the John Holland Group, in July 2011, responsibility for the Werris Creek to North Star line was transferred from the Country Rail Infrastructure Authority. In August 2012, the Government of New South Wales owned RailCorp leased its Sydney Metropolitan Freight Network line from Port Botany to Sefton to ARTC for 50 years. In January 2010, the Government of Queensland leased its standard gauge line from Border Loop on the New South Wales border to Acacia Ridge, in February 2014, the Australian Government and Queensland Government agreed to investigate further incorporating Queensland into the national rail network. ARTC does not operate any trains, but provides and maintains the infrastructure for train operators to run on, the tracks controlled by ARTC are located in five states, and were previously run by six separate state railways in an uncoordinated fashion that gave an advantage to road transport. By combining the infrastructure under one corporation it was expected that an integrated and coordinated one-stop-shop would be created. It provides its own reporting numbers to trains that operate on its network, ARTC does not control any of the narrow gauge track in Queensland or South Australia, nor broad gauge track in Victoria. However it does control the Albion to Jacana freight line which has been converted to dual gauge for use as a passing lane
4.
Infrastructure
–
Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function. The word was imported from French, where it means subgrade, the word is a combination of the Latin prefix infra, meaning below, and structure. The military use of the term achieved currency in the United States after the formation of NATO in the 1940s and this crisis discussion contributed to an increase in infrastructure asset management and maintenance planning in the US. Public-policy discussions have been hampered by lack of a definition for infrastructure. A1987 US National Research Council panel adopted the public works infrastructure. The OECD also classifies communications as a part of infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers has not defined the term, though issuing a US Infrastructure Report Card every 2-4 years. Hard infrastructure refers to the physical networks necessary for the functioning of an industrial nation. The term critical infrastructure distinguishes those infrastructure elements that, if damaged or destroyed. Similarly, a booking system might be critical infrastructure for an airline. These elements of infrastructure are the focus of efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters. The term infrastructure may be confused with the following overlapping or related concepts, service connections to municipal service and public utility networks would also be considered land improvements, not infrastructure. The term public works includes government-owned and operated infrastructure as well as buildings, such as schools. Public works generally refers to physical assets needed to deliver public services, public services include both infrastructure and services generally provided by government. Infrastructure may be owned and managed by governments or by private companies, generally, most roads, major ports and airports, water distribution systems and sewage networks are publicly owned, whereas most energy and telecommunications networks are privately owned. Publicly owned infrastructure may be paid for taxes, tolls, or metered user fees. Major investment projects are financed by the issuance of long-term bonds. Government owned and operated infrastructure may be developed and operated in the sector or in public-private partnerships. As of 2008 in the United States for example, public spending on infrastructure has varied between 2. 3% and 3. 6% of GDP since 1950, many financial institutions invest in infrastructure
5.
Track (rail transport)
–
The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a surface for their wheels to roll upon. For clarity it is referred to as railway track or railroad track. Tracks where electric trains or electric trams run are equipped with a system such as an overhead electrical power line or an additional electrified rail. The term permanent way also refers to the track in addition to structures such as fences etc. Most railroads with heavy traffic use continuously welded rails supported by sleepers attached via baseplates that spread the load, a plastic or rubber pad is usually placed between the rail and the tieplate where concrete sleepers are used. The rail is held down to the sleeper with resilient fastenings. For much of the 20th century, rail track used softwood timber sleepers and jointed rails, jointed rails were used at first because contemporary technology did not offer any alternative. The joints also needed to be lubricated, and wear at the mating surfaces needed to be rectified by shimming. For this reason jointed track is not financially appropriate for heavily operated railroads, timber sleepers are of many available timbers, and are often treated with creosote, copper-chrome-arsenic, or other wood preservative. Pre-stressed concrete sleepers are used where timber is scarce and where tonnage or speeds are high. Steel is used in some applications, the track ballast is customarily crushed stone, and the purpose of this is to support the sleepers and allow some adjustment of their position, while allowing free drainage. A disadvantage of traditional track structures is the demand for maintenance, particularly surfacing and lining to restore the desired track geometry. Weakness of the subgrade and drainage deficiencies also lead to maintenance costs. This can be overcome by using ballastless track, in its simplest form this consists of a continuous slab of concrete with the rails supported directly on its upper surface. There are a number of systems, and variations include a continuous reinforced concrete slab. Many permutations of design have been put forward, however, ballastless track has a high initial cost, and in the case of existing railroads the upgrade to such requires closure of the route for a long period. Its whole-life cost can be lower because of the reduction in maintenance, some rubber-tyred metros use ballastless tracks
6.
Permanent way (history)
–
The permanent way is the elements of railway lines, generally the pairs of rails typically laid on the sleepers embedded in ballast, intended to carry the ordinary trains of a railway. The earliest tracks consisted of wooden rails on wooden sleepers. Various developments followed, with cast iron laid on top of the wooden rails. Rails were also fixed to rows of stone blocks, without any cross ties to maintain correct separation. This system also led to problems, as the blocks could individually move, developments in manufacturing technologies has led to changes to the design, manufacture and installation of rails, sleepers and the means of attachments. Cast iron rails,4 feet long, began to be used in the 1790s, the first steel rails were made in 1857 and standard rail lengths increased over time from 30 to 60 feet. Rails were typically specified by units of weight per linear length, Railway sleepers were traditionally made of Creosote-treated hardwoods and this continued through to modern times. Continuous welded rail was introduced into Britain in the mid 1960s, the earliest use of a railway track seems to have been in connection with mining in Germany in the 12th century. Mine passageways were usually wet and muddy, and moving barrows of ore along them was extremely difficult, improvements were made by laying timber planks so that wheeled containers could be dragged along by manpower. By the 16th century, the difficulty of keeping the running straight had been solved by having a pin going into a gap between the planks. Georg Agricola describes box-shaped carts, called dogs, about half as large again as a wheelbarrow, fitted with a blunt vertical pin and wooden rollers running on iron axles. An Elizabethan era example of this has been discovered at Silvergill in Cumbria, England and this, probably a rope-hauled incline plane, had existed long before 1605. This probably preceded the Wollaton Wagonway of 1604, which has hitherto been regarded as the first, in Shropshire, the gauge was usually narrow, to enable the wagons to be taken underground in drift mines. However, by far the greatest number of wagonways were near Newcastle upon Tyne and these took coal from the pithead down to a staithe, where the coal was loaded into river boats called keels. Wear of the rails was a problem. They could be renewed by turning them over, but had to be regularly replaced, sometimes, the rail was made in two parts, so that the top portion could easily be replaced when worn out. The rails were held together by wooden sleepers, covered with ballast to provide a surface for the horse to walk on. Cast iron strips could be laid on top of timber rails, and the use of such materials probably occurred in 1738, but there are claims that this technology went back to 1716
7.
Baulk road
–
Brunel sought an improved design for the railway track needed for the Great Western Railway, authorised by Act of Parliament in 1835 to link London and Bristol. He refused to accept received wisdom without challenge, to achieve this he needed a wider track gauge and he settled on a 7 ft broad gauge but it was soon eased slightly to 7 ft 1⁄4 in. His original intention to have the wheels outside the width of the bodies was abandoned, early locomotive-powered railways had used short cast iron rails carried on stone blocks. A few were trying timber sleepers to support the rails and to maintain the gauge between them and these rails were brittle and broke easily, and they gave a rough ride due to the difficulty of maintaining a smooth line between the blocks or sleepers. Wrought iron rails were being manufactured but they were of poor quality due to the difficulty of cooling them evenly during manufacture, brunel decided to use a continuously supported wrought iron rail, a bridge rail with a smaller rail section that cooled more evenly. This was a section with wide flanges that could be bolted to the timber bearer. The longitudinal baulks, and therefore the rails, were kept to gauge by transoms – transverse timber spacers –, the transom kept the longitudinals from getting too close together, the tie rods stopped them spreading too far apart. In later years the tie rods were replaced by strap bolts and these were bolted to the transoms and passed through a hole drilled through the longitudinal to a nut on the outside. He cut the piles away from the transoms and this solved the problem, the bridge rail for this line weighed 43 lb/yd but this was soon increased, generally to 62 lb/yd. The longitudinal baulks were around 12 in. wide and 5 in, deep or 10 by 7 in, but the sizes varied depending on the timber available and the weight of traffic to be carried. Transoms were around 6 by 9 in and initially spaced at 15 feet intervals, the GWR also used conventional cross-sleepered track, especially on 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge lines. Although its last broad gauge track was replaced by standard gauge in 1892, converting broad gauge baulk road to standard was done by cutting the transoms and slewing the longitudinal and its rail to its new position. Between 1852 and 1892 an ever-increasing length of the Great Western Railway had been laid as mixed gauge that could be used by trains of either gauge. For baulk road this meant laying an additional longitudinal between the two, but this significantly increased the cost and complexity of the track compared to cross-sleepers. Vignoles rail was a section that today would be classed as flat-bottomed rail. In its original form it was only about 4 inches deep and was used on baulk road interchangeably with bridge rail, william Henry Barlow’s Barlow rail was patented in 1849 as a purely metal road. Deep rails with an inverted, curved V section were designed to be directly into the ballast. The rails weighed 93 lb/yd but this was increased to 99 lb/yd
8.
Cant (road/rail)
–
The cant of a railway track or camber of a road is the rate of change in elevation between the two rails or edges. On railways, cant helps a train steer around a curve, keeping the wheel flanges from touching the rails, minimising friction and wear. However, it may be necessary to select a value at design time. Generally the aim is for trains to run without flange contact, allowance has to be made for the different speeds of trains. Slower trains will tend to make contact with the inner rail on curves, while faster trains will tend to ride outwards. Either contact causes wear and tear and may lead to derailment, many high-speed lines do not permit slower freight trains, particularly with heavier axle loads. In some cases, the impact is reduced by the use of flange lubrication, ideally, the track should have sleepers at a closer spacing and a greater depth of ballast to accommodate the increased forces exerted in the curve. At the ends of a curve, the amount of cant cannot change from zero to its maximum immediately and it must change gradually in a track transition curve. The length of the transition depends on the maximum allowable speed—the higher the speed, the greater length is required. For the United States standard maximum unbalanced superelevation of 75 mm, for high-speed railways in Europe, maximum cant is 180 mm. Track unbalanced superelevation in the United States is restricted to 75 mm, though 102 mm is permissible by waiver. The maximum value for European railways varies by country, some of which have curves with over 280 mm of unbalanced superelevation to permit high-speed transportation, the highest values are only for tilting trains, because it would be too uncomfortable for passengers. This follows simply from a balance weight, centrifugal force and normal force. In the approximation it is assumed that the cant is small compared to the gauge of the track. In a formula this becomes v m a x ≈ r g w = g d w with d =1 / r the curvature of the track, in the United States, maximum speed is subject to specific rules. In Australia, ARTC is increasing speed around curves sharper than an 800-metre radius by replacing wooden sleepers with concrete ones so that the cant can be increased, the rails themselves are now usually canted inwards by about 10 to 5 per cent. In 1925 about 15 of 36 major American railways had adopted this practice, in civil engineering, cant is often referred to as cross slope or camber. It helps rainwater drain from the road surface, along straight or gently curved sections, the middle of the road is normally higher than the edges. This is called normal crown and helps shed rainwater off the sides of the road, on more severe bends, the outside edge of the curve is raised, or superelevated, to help vehicles around the curve
9.
Datenail
–
Datenails were tagging devices utilized by railroads to visually identify the age of a railroad tie. Different railroads used different sized nails with either alpha or numerical markings, an example would be a Southern Pacific Railroad nail with the marking 01 stamped on the head of the nail. The 01 would identify the nail as being hammered into a tie in the year 1901. Datenail use has dropped dramatically since the century and the advent of more modern maintenance of way equipment. Ties are no longer marked in this manner in North American practice, the Southern Railway never made use of datenails. Datenails are also found on utility poles, sometimes in conjunction with a showing the height of the pole in feet. The types of nails may have distinguishing characteristics, such as the datenail having raised digits, the pole height will be a multiple of five
10.
Fishplate
–
In rail terminology, a fishplate, splice bar or joint bar is a metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track. The name is derived from fish, a bar with a curved profile used to strengthen a ships mast. The top and bottom edges are tapered inwards so the device wedges itself between the top and bottom of the rail when it is bolted into place. In rail transport modelling, a fishplate is often a small copper or nickel silver plate that slips onto both rails to provide the functions of maintaining alignment and electrical continuity. The device was invented by William Bridges Adams in May 1842, because of his dissatisfaction with the scarf joints and he noted that to form the scarf joint the rail was halved in thickness at its ends, where the stress was greatest. It was first deployed on the Eastern Counties Railway in 1844, Adams and Robert Richardson patented the invention in 1847, but in 1849 James Samuel, the engineer of the ECR developed fishplates that could be bolted to the rails. The moving blades of a set of points can be connected to the rails by looser than normal fishplates. This is called a heeled switch, alternatively, the blade and stock rail can be a one piece heel-less switch, with a flexible thinned section to create the moving heel. Even though fishplates strengthen the weak points represented by rail joints, improvements can still be made, for example, the joints can be welded together using the thermite welding process. In 1967, at Hither Green on the Southern Region of British Railways, welded Rail installation was sped up due to this error, with strict procedures on Concrete and Wooden Sleepers. On 12 July 2013, the last four cars of an SNCF Paris-Limoges train left the track while entering the Brétigny-sur-Orge station, killing seven people and injuring 32. Under the weight of the train travelling at 137 km/h, the fishplate had pivoted around the first of four bolts meant to hold it in place, the most likely cause of the bolts coming loose, says BEA-TT, were stresses caused by cracking in the cast steel crossing. This had caused the head of the bolt to break off and the others to fail, one becoming unscrewed. Rail lengths Tie plate Fish Plate
11.
Ladder track
–
This article is about the types of railway track technologies known as Ladder Track. For a description of the layout also known as ladder track. Ladder track is a type of track in which the track is laid on longitudinal supports with transverse connectors holding the two rails at the correct gauge distance. Modern ladder track can be considered a development of baulk road, Ladder type track has also be used historically on bridges lacking ballast, and in situations requiring good drainage or ease of maintenance such as stations. On the Hull and Selby Railway it was used in part as it was noted to produce smooth running, however the contact between rail and sleeper produced hydraulic pumping in wet conditions, which led to rolling stock becoming dirtied very quickly. The longitudinal track was also cause issue with wheel slip on inclines. No longitudinally laid track remained on the line after 1860, Research into longitudinal sleepers took place in Japan, Russia and France in the mid 20th century. In the late 20th century, interest in ladder type tracks increased due to its potential for lower cost and lower maintenance railways, as well as increased stability benefits over sleepered track. An additional benefit in ballasted ladder track is increased resistance to ballast wash out and other forms of ballast degradation due the addition longitudinal support, the same structural rigidity also adds to buckling resistance. Tubular Modular Track is a type of ladder track manufactured by Tubular Track Ltd. of South Africa first introduced in 1989. The track is modular and precast, rather than being cast in situ, the modular nature and controlled production of the track sections has the advantage of rapid installation and good quality control. The track has used mainly in southern Africa, including a section of the Gautrain line in South Africa. The system has also used in Saudi Arabia. The Railway Technical Research Institute of Japan has developed two types of track, ballasted and a floating un-ballasted type. Forms for axle load of 40 tonnes have been designed, the design can also incorporate ducts within the beams and can be converted to slab track by in-situ concrete pouring. The companys main market is mining applications, railroad tie Trackless train ラダー軌道 Ladder Track System, www. rtri. or
12.
Minimum railway curve radius
–
The minimum railway curve radius is the shortest allowable design radius for railway tracks under a particular set of conditions. It has an important bearing on costs and operating costs and, in combination with superelevation in the case of train tracks. Minimum radius of curve is one parameter in the design of vehicles as well as trams. Monorails and guideways are also subject to minimum radii, the first proper railway was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. Like the trams that had preceded it over a hundred years, among other reasons for the gentle curves were the lack of strength of the track, which might have overturned if the curves were too sharp causing derailments. There was no signalling at this time, so drivers had to be able to see ahead to avoid collisions with previous trains, the gentler the curves, the longer the visibility. The earliest rails were made in lengths of wrought iron. Minimum curve radii for railroads are governed by the speed operated, for handling of long freight trains, a minimum 717-foot radius is preferred. The sharpest curves tend to be on the narrowest of narrow gauge railways, as the need for more powerful locomotives grew, the need for more driving wheels on a longer, fixed wheelbase grew too. But long wheel bases are unfriendly to sharp curves, various types of articulated locomotives were devised to avoid having to operate multiple locomotives with multiple crews. More recent diesel and electric locomotives do not have a wheelbase problem and this is particularly true of the European buffer and chain couplers, where the buffers extend the profile of the railcar body. For a line with maximum speed 60 km/h, buffer-and-chain couplings reduce the radius to around 200 m. A long heavy freight train, especially those with wagons of mixed loading, may struggle on sharp curves, common solutions include, marshalling light and empty wagons at rear of train intermediate locomotives, including remotely controlled ones. Easing curves reduced speeds reduced cant, at the expense of fast passenger trains, equalizing wagon loading better driver training driving controls that display drawgear forces. And c2013 Electronically Controlled Pneumatic brakes, a similar problem occurs with harsh changes in gradients. To counter this, a cant is used, ideally the train should be tilted such that resultant force acts straight down through the bottom of the train, so the wheels, track, train and passengers feel little or no sideways force. Some trains are capable of tilting to enhance this effect for passenger comfort, because freight and passenger trains tend to move at different speeds and weigh dramatically different, a cant cannot be ideal for both types of rail traffic. The relationship between speed and tilt can be calculated mathematically, the values used when building high-speed railways vary, and depend on desired wear and safety levels
13.
Rail fastening system
–
A rail fastening system is a means of fixing rails to railroad ties or sleepers. The terms rail anchors, tie plates, chairs and track fasteners are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system, various types of fastening have been used over the years. The earliest wooden rails were fixed to wooden sleepers by pegs through holes in the rail, by the 18th century cast iron rails had come into use, and also had holes in the rail itself to allow them to be fixed to a support. The first chair for a rail is thought to have introduced in 1797 which attached to the rail on the vertical web via bolts. In North American practice the flanged T rail became the standard, elsewhere T rails were replaced by bull head rails of a rounded I or figure-8 appearance which still required a supporting chair. Eventually the flanged T rail became commonplace on all the worlds railways, a Golden Tie, also known as a Golden Spike or The Last Spike, may be used to symbolize the start or the completion of an endeavor. These are less often silver or another precious material, historically, a ceremonial Golden Spike driven by Leland Stanford connected the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States. The valuable rail fastening spike represented the merge of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10,1869, at Promontory Summit, since, railroad workers have been celebrated in popular culture, including in song and verse. Most recently, a Golden Spike marked the completion of the longest transportation tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, full rail service began on 11 December 2016. Its functional length is 57.09 km and its the worlds deepest traffic tunnel, a rail spike is a large nail with an offset head that is used to secure rails and base plates to railroad ties in the track. Robert Livingston Stevens is credited with the invention of the railroad spike, in 1982, the spike was still the most common rail fastening in North America. Common sizes are from 9 to 10/16 inch square and ~5.5 to 6 inch long, a rail spike is roughly chisel-shaped and with a flat edged point, the spike is driven with the edge perpendicular to the grain, which gives greater resistance to loosening. The main function is to keep the rail in gauge, on smaller scale jobs spikes are still driven into wooden sleepers by hammering them with a spike maul. Though this manual work has largely replaced by hydraulic tools and machines. Splitting of the wood can be limited by pre-boring spike holes or adding steel bands around the wood, for use in the United States three basic standards are described in the ASTM A65 standard, for different carbon steel contents. A screw spike, rail screw or lag bolt is a metal screw used to fix a tie plate or to directly fasten a rail. Screw spikes are screwed into a hole bored in the sleeper, the screw spike was first introduced in 1860 in France and became common in continental Europe. A dog screw is a variant of the screw spike
14.
Rail profile
–
The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron, all modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross section approximate to an I-beam, but asymmetric about a horizontal axis. The head is profiled to resist wear and to give a ride. Unlike some other uses of iron and steel, railway rails are subject to high stresses and are made of very high quality steel. It took many decades to improve the quality of the materials, minor flaws in the steel that may pose no problems in other applications can lead to broken rails and dangerous derailments when used on railway tracks. By and large, the heavier the rails and the rest of the trackwork, the rails represent a substantial fraction of the cost of a railway line. Only a small number of sizes are made by steelworks at one time. Worn, heavy rail from a mainline is often reclaimed and downgraded for re-use on a branchline, the weight of a rail per length is an important factor in determining rails strength and hence axleloads and speeds. Weights are measured in pounds per yard or kilograms per metre, rails in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States are described using imperial units. In Australia, metric units are used as in mainland Europe, commonly, in rail terminology Pound is a contraction of the expression pounds per yard and hence a 132–pound rail means a rail of 132 pounds per yard. Rails are made in a number of different sizes. Some common European rail sizes include, In the countries of former USSR65 kg/m rails and 75 kg/m rails are common, the American Society of Civil Engineers specified rail profiles in 1893 for 5-pound-per-yard increments from 40 to 100 lb/yd. Height of rail equaled width of foot for each ASCE tee-rail weight, ASCE90 lb/yd profile was adequate, but heavier weights were less satisfactory. In 1909, the American Railway Association specified standard profiles for 10 lb/yd increments from 60 to 100 lb/yd, the trend was to increase rail height/foot-width ratio and strengthen the web. Disadvantages of the foot were overcome through use of tie-plates. AREA recommendations reduced the weight of rail head down to 36%. Attention was also focused on improved fillet radii to reduce stress concentration at the web junction with the head, AREA recommended the ARA90 lb/yd profile. Old ASCE rails of lighter weight remained in use, and satisfied the demand for light rail for a few decades
15.
Railroad tie
–
A railroad tie/railway tie/crosstie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright, railroad ties are traditionally made of wood, but pre-stressed concrete is now also widely used, especially in Europe and Asia. Steel ties are common on secondary lines in the UK, plastic composite ties are also employed, as of January 2008, the approximate market share in North America for traditional and wood ties was 91. 5%, the remainder being concrete, steel, azobé and plastic composite. Approximately 3,520 wooden crossties are used per mile of railroad track in the US,2,640 per mile on main lines in the UK. The type of railroad tie used on the predecessors of the first true railway consisted of a pair of stone blocks laid into the ground, one advantage of this method of construction was that it allowed horses to tread the middle path without the risk of tripping. In railway use with heavier locomotives, it was found that it was hard to maintain the correct gauge. The stone blocks were in any case unsuitable on soft ground, such as at Chat Moss, bi-block ties with a tie rod are somewhat similar. Historically wooden rail ties were made by hewing with an axe, a variety of softwood and hardwoods timbers are used as ties, oak, jarrah and karri being popular hardwoods, although increasingly difficult to obtain, especially from sustainable sources. Sometimes non-toxic preservatives are used, such as copper azole or micronized copper, New boron-based wood preserving technology is being employed by major US railroads in a dual treatment process in order to extend the life of wood ties in wet areas. Some timbers are durable enough that they can be used untreated, problems with wooden ties include rot, splitting, insect infestation, plate-cutting, also known as chair shuffle in the UK and spike-pull. For more information on wooden ties the Railway Tie Association maintains a website devoted to wood tie research. Wooden ties can, of course, catch fire, as they age they develop cracks that allow sparks to lodge so that they catch fire more easily, concrete ties are cheaper and easier to obtain than timber and better able to carry higher axle-weights and sustain higher speeds. Their greater weight ensures improved retention of track geometry, especially when installed with continuous-welded rail, concrete ties have a longer service life and require less maintenance than timber due to their greater weight, which helps them remain in the correct position longer. Concrete ties need to be installed on a well-prepared subgrade with a depth on free-draining ballast to perform well. Concrete ties amplify wheel noise, so wooden ties are used in densely populated areas. On the highest categories of line in the UK, pre-stressed concrete ties are the only permitted by Network Rail standards. Steel ties are formed from pressed steel and are trough-shaped in section, the ends of the tie are shaped to form a spade which increases the lateral resistance of the tie. Housings to accommodate the system are welded to the upper surface of the tie
16.
Track ballast
–
Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties and it is used to bear the load from the railroad ties, to facilitate drainage of water, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track structure. This also serves to hold the track in place as the roll by. It is typically made of crushed stone, although ballast has sometimes consisted of other, less suitable materials, the term ballast comes from a nautical term for the stones used to stabilize a ship. The appropriate thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various other factors. Track ballast should never be laid down less than 150 mm thick, an insufficient depth of ballast causes overloading of the underlying soil, and in unfavourable conditions overloading the soil causes the track to sink, usually unevenly. Ballast less than 300 mm thick can lead to vibrations that damage nearby structures, however, increasing the depth beyond 300 mm adds no extra benefit in reducing vibration. In turn, track ballast typically rests on a layer of crushed stones. The sub-ballast layer gives a solid support for the top ballast, sometimes an elastic mat is placed on the layer of sub-ballast and beneath the ballast, thereby significantly reducing vibration. The ballast shoulder always should be at least 150 mm wide, the shape of the ballast is also important. Stones must be cut, with sharp edges, so that they properly interlock and grip the ties in order to fully secure them against movement. In order to let the stones fully settle and interlock, speed limits are often lowered on sections of track for a period of time after new ballast has been laid. If ballast is badly fouled, the clogging will reduce its ability to drain properly, therefore, keeping the ballast clean is essential. Bioremediation can be used to clean ballast and it is not always necessary to replace the ballast if it is fouled, nor must all the ballast be removed if it is to be cleaned. Removing and cleaning the ballast from the shoulder is often sufficient, such machines can clean up to two kilometres of ballast in an hour. In such cases, it is necessary to replace the ballast altogether, the dump and jack method cannot of course be used through tunnels, under overbridges, and where there are platforms. Where the track is laid over a swamp, such as the Hexham swamp in Australia, the ballast continuously sinks, after 150 years of topping up, there appears to be 10 m of sunken ballast under the tracks. Chat Moss in the United Kingdom is similar, regular inspection of the ballast shoulder is important, as noted earlier, the lateral stability of the track depends upon the shoulder
17.
Track transition curve
–
A track transition curve, or spiral easement, is a mathematically calculated curve on a section of highway, or railroad track, where a straight section changes into a curve. It is designed to prevent sudden changes in lateral acceleration, in plan the start of the transition of the horizontal curve is at infinite radius and at the end of the transition it has the same radius as the curve itself, thus forming a very broad spiral. At the same time, in the plane, the outside of the curve is gradually raised until the correct degree of bank is reached. With a road vehicle the driver applies the steering alteration in a gradual manner. The actual equation given in Rankine is that of a cubic curve and this was also known as cubic parabola at that time. In the UK, only from 1845 when legislation and land began to constrain the laying out of rail routes and tighter curves were necessary. The true spiral, where the curvature is exactly linear in arclength, several late-19th century civil engineers seem to have derived the equation for this curve independently. Charles Crandall gives credit to one Ellis Holbrook, in the Railroad Gazette, Dec.3,1880, another early publication was The Railway Transition Spiral by Arthur N. Talbot, originally published in 1890. Some early 20th century authors call the curve Glovers spiral, attributing it to James Glovers 1900 publication, the equivalence of the railroad transition spiral and the clothoid seems to have been first published in 1922 by Arthur Lovat Higgins. Since then, clothoid is the most common given the curve. While railroad track geometry is intrinsically three-dimensional, for practical purposes the vertical and horizontal components of track geometry are usually treated separately, here grade refers to the tangent of the angle of rise of the track. The design pattern for horizontal geometry is typically a sequence of straight line, the degree of banking in railroad track is typically expressed as the difference in elevation of the two rails, commonly quantified and referred to as the superelevation. The simplest and most commonly used form of curve is that in which the superelevation. Cartesian coordinates of points along this spiral are given by the Fresnel integrals, the resulting shape matches a portion of an Euler spiral, which is also commonly referred to as a clothoid, and sometimes Cornu spiral. A transition curve can connect a track segment of constant non-zero curvature to another segment with constant curvature that is zero or non-zero of either sign, successive curves in the same direction are sometimes called progressive curves and successive curves in opposite directions are called reverse curves. The Euler spiral has two advantages, one is that it is easy for surveyors because the coordinates can be looked up in Fresnel integral tables. The other is that it provides the shortest transition subject to a limit on the rate of change of the track superelevation. However, as has been recognized for a time, it has undesirable dynamic characteristics due to the large roll acceleration
18.
Balloon loop
–
A balloon loop, turning loop or reversing loop allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or even stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains such as coal trains, Balloon loops are common on tram or streetcar systems. Balloon loops were first introduced on metro and tram lines, Balloon loops enable higher line capacity and also allow the use of single-ended trams which have several advantages, including lower cost and more seating when doors are on one side only. However, double-ended trams also benefit from the capacity advantage of balloon loops, initially the Sydney system was operated by single-ended steam trams and then, from the 1890s, by double-ended electric trams. The Sydney system was possibly the first major example of a tramway system. European systems were converted to looped operation in the early twentieth century. Looped operation with single-ended trams was also used on many North American streetcar systems, on a balloon loop, the station is on the balloon loop, and the platform may be curved or straight. Penfield - now closed and removed Outer Harbor - now closed and removed Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia, Beech Forrest, Victoria, Australia, single platform station on Victorian narrow gauge railway. These trains discharge and take on passengers at Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall, South Ferry was a two-track subway loop station in New York City, with a sharply curved side platform for each track. After the latter station was damaged in Hurricane Sandy, the station was reopened temporarily to provide service to the ferry terminal until the repairs to the latter station are complete. Bowdoin Station on the MBTA Blue Line in Boston has an island platform inside a balloon loop. The boarding platform is long enough for four cars. World Trade Center station on the PATH subway system linking New York, dungeness, Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, Kent, England, single track, single platform for both boarding and alighting. This evens the wear on the train wheels, central station in Newcastle upon Tyne is on a loop, allowing trains from the South to arrive via the King Edward VII Bridge and return using the High Level Bridge. Peasholm on the North Bay Railway in Scarborough, North Yorkshire has a balloon loop. The loop is used to allow the locomotive to run round the train, the first Wembley Stadium station in London was on a balloon loop, but the present station of that name is not. Barmouth Ferry station on the Fairbourne Railway, blackpool Tramway has a balloon loop at each end of the system and at two intermediate points. Kennington station, also on the Northern line, has a loop to the south of the station to allow terminating southbound trains to reach the northbound platforms to form a return service
19.
Classification yard
–
A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railway yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railway cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill, from there the cars are sent through a series of switches called a ladder onto the classification tracks. Larger yards tend to put the lead on an artificially built hill called a hump to use the force of gravity to propel the cars through the ladder, freight trains that consist of isolated cars must be made into trains and divided according to their destinations. Thus the cars must be shunted several times along their route in contrast to a unit train and this shunting is done partly at the starting and final destinations and partly in classification yards. Flat yards are constructed on ground, or on a gentle slope. Freight cars are pushed by a locomotive and coast to their required location, hump yards are the largest and most effective classification yards, with the largest shunting capacity, often several thousand cars a day. The heart of these yards is the lead track on a small hill over which an engine pushes the cars. As concerns speed regulation, there are two types of hump yards—without or with mechanisation by retarders, in the old non-retarder yards braking was usually done in Europe by railroaders who laid skates onto the tracks. The skate or chock was manually placed on one or both of the rails so that the treadles or rims of the wheel or wheels caused frictional retardation, in the United States this braking was done by riders on the cars. In the modern retarder yards this work is done by mechanized rail brakes called retarders and they are operated either pneumatically or hydraulically. Pneumatic systems are prevalent in the United States, France, Belgium, Russia and China, while hydraulic systems are used in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In the United States, many classification bowls have more than 40 tracks—up to 72—which are often divided into six to ten tracks in each balloon loop. Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, United States, the worlds largest classification yard, is a hump yard, notably, in Europe, Russia and China, all major classification yards are hump yards. Europes largest hump yard is that of Maschen near Hamburg, Germany, the second largest is in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. According to the PRRT&HS PRR Chronology, the first hump yard in the United States was opened May 11,1903 as part of the Altoona Yards at Bells Mills. Other sources report the PRR yard at Youngwood, PA which opened in the 1880s to serve the Connellsville coke fields as the first U. S. hump yard. Gravity yards are operated similarly to hump yards but, in contrast to the latter, thus, only few gravity yards were ever built, sometimes requiring massive earthwork. Most gravity yards were built in Germany and Great Britain, a few also in some other European countries, in the USA, there were only very few old gravity yards, one of the few gravity yards in operation today is CSXs Readville Yard south of Boston, Massachusetts
20.
Coaling tower
–
A coaling tower, coal stage or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops, coaling towers were constructed of wood, steel-reinforced concrete, or steel. The method of lifting the bulk coal into the storage bin varied, the coal usually was dropped from a hopper car into a pit below tracks adjacent to the tower. Some facilities lifted entire railway coal trucks or wagons, sanding pipes were often mounted on coaling towers to allow simultaneous replenishment of a locomotives sand box. As railroads transitioned from the use of locomotives to the use of diesel locomotives in the 1950s the need for coaling towers ended. Many reinforced concrete towers remain in place if they do not interfere with operations due to the high cost of demolition incurred with these massive structures, state, province, or county in which the coaling tower is located. Railroad for which the tower was originally built. Year in which the tower was built. Type of coaling station, tower or stage, chutes, dock, capacity in tons of coal which the coaling tower was built to store. Remarks, whether the tower is adjacent to tracks, name of the railroad yard, similar towers. Motive power depot Roundhouse Train Tower
21.
Junction (rail)
–
A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a connection between the tracks of the two routes, provided by points and signalling. In a simple case where two routes with one or two tracks each meet at a junction, a simple layout of tracks suffices to allow trains to transfer from one route to the other. More complicated junctions are needed to permit trains to travel in direction after joining the new route. In this latter case, the three points of the triangle may be different names, for example using points of the compass as well as the name of the overall place. Rail transport operations refer to stations that lie on or near a railway junction as a junction station, frequently, trains are built up and taken apart at such stations so that the same train can split up and go to multiple destinations. For goods trains, marshalling yards serve a similar purpose, the worlds first railway junction was Newton Junction near Newton-le-Willows, England where, in 1831, two railways merged. The capacity of the limits the capacity of a railway network more than the capacity of individual railway lines. This applies more as the density increases. Measures to improve junctions are often more useful than building new railway lines, the capacity of a railway junction can be increased with improved signalling measures, by building points suitable for higher speeds, or by turning level junctions into flying junctions. With more complicated junctions such construction can rapidly become very expensive, especially if space is restricted by tunnels, rail terminology Interlocking Railway town Double junction
22.
Gauntlet track
–
Gauntlet track or interlaced track is an arrangement in which railway tracks run parallel on a single track bed and are interlaced such that only one pair of rails may be used at a time. Since this requires only slightly more width than a single track, trains run on the discrete pair of rails appropriate to their direction, track gauge or loading gauge. Gauntlet tracks can be used to provide clearance to a fixed obstruction adjacent to a track such as a cutting, bridge. Frog gauntlets are commonly used when a rail lines capacity is increased by the provision of an additional track. They are typically used for short stretches of track where it is cheaper to provide extra rails than to provide switches and this also eliminates the problem of switch failures. In a frog gauntlet, one crosses over a rail on the adjacent track. A frog is used to provide the flangeway for the crossing tracks, the train taking the gauntlet runs over the frog onto the parallel rails, passes through the gauntlet area, and passes over another frog to return to the original line. Since there are no points or other moving parts on a frog gauntlet track, because two trains cannot use the gauntlet at the same time, scheduling and signalling must allow for this restriction. In a point gauntlet track, the rails for the two tracks do not need to cross, so no frog is required. The train taking the gauntlet runs over a set of points onto the parallel rails, passes through the gauntlet area. This arrangement is used at the Roselle Park Station referenced below, at a small number of locations on single track lines in Britain, interlaced loops had been provided where sprung catch points were required because of the steep gradient. The points at either end of the loop were set according to the direction of travel. Trains running uphill were routed via the loop incorporating the sprung catch point, trains running downhill used the opposite loop, bypassing the catch point. Where tracks diverge, a section of track may be provided where the switches require to be located remote from the actual divergence. This arrangement is most commonly used on systems, to move the switches away from a heavily trafficked road. An arrangement similar to gauntlet track is used to allow trains of different gauges to use the same track. In that case, the two interlaced tracks will have different gauges, sometimes sharing one of the rails for a total of three rails, in Sydney, the Como bridge over the Georges River between Oatley and Como was built as single line in the 1880s. The line was duplicated soon after, except for that bridge, the bridge was fitted with gauntlet track, which needs no turnouts, and hence needs no signal box at the far end
23.
Passing loop
–
A passing loop or passing siding is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at a station, where trains or trams travelling in opposite directions can pass each other. Trains/trams going in the direction can also overtake, providing that the signalling arrangement allows it. A passing loop is double ended and connected to the track at both ends, though a dead end siding known as a refuge siding, which is much less convenient. A similar arrangement is used on the track of cable railways and funiculars. Ideally, the loop should be longer than all trains needing to cross at that point, if one train is too long for the loop it must wait for the opposing train to enter the loop before proceeding, taking a few minutes. Ideally, the train should arrive first and leave second. If both trains are too long for the loop, time-consuming see-sawing operations are required for the trains to cross, the main line has straight track, while the loop line has low speed turnouts at either end. If the station has one platform, then it is usually located on the main line. If passenger trains are few in number, and the likelihood of two passenger trains crossing each other low, the platform on the loop line may be omitted. The through road has straight track, while the road has low speed turnouts at either end. A possible advantage of this layout is that trains scheduled to pass straight through the station can do so uninterrupted and this layout is mostly used at local stations where many passenger trains do not stop. Since there is one passenger platform, it is not convenient to cross two passenger trains if both stop. An example is Scone railway station, but the end was later rearranged to resemble a main. A disadvantage of the platform and through arrangement is the speed limits through the turnouts at each end, in the example layout shown, trains take the left-hand track in their direction of running. Low-speed turnouts restrict the speed in one direction, two platform faces are needed, and they can be provided either at a single island platform or two side platforms. Overtaking is not normally possible at this kind of up and down loop as some of the signals are absent. Crossing loops using up and down working are very common in British practice and it is possible to cross trains at stations equipped with only a siding. At Bombo, Australia, the loop had no platform
24.
Track gauge
–
In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
25.
Dual gauge
–
A dual-gauge railway is a line of track that provides for trains of two separate track gauges. A mixed-gauge railway provides for more than two gauges, but is also a term sometimes used to denote dual-gauge. A dual-gauge track configuration usually consists of three rails, two rails, one for each gauge, plus a common rail--although at times, commonality is not possible. In an ordinary three-rail dual-gauge configuration, the two adjacent outer rails give provide each of the gauges, while the outer rail is common to trains of both gauges operating over it. This configuration is not to be confused with the electric current traction rail or a check or guard rail, in railways, the most important specification is that of rail gauge, the distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of the travel rails. A problem arises when different gauges outside of this tolerance meet one another, in allowing railway tracks of different gauges to share the same alignment, costs can be reduced, and infrastructure shared, e. g. platforms, bridges and tunnels etc. Dual gauge can replace two separate tracks by sharing one common running rail and one of the two outer rails which determine the gauge. However, there are complications and costs involved that may offset the savings. One issue is that points are more complex, and therefore more expensive, arrangements are necessary to ensure trains of both gauges can be safely signalled, track circuits and mechanical interlocking where provided must be operated through the common rail. Also, the rail will have an increased wear and tear over the other separate gauge rails. The following pairs of gauges can be dual-gauged without problem, standard gauge and 1,676 mm,3 ft and 3 ft 6 in, and 5 ft and 6 ft. Standard gauge and 1,600 mm can also be dual-gauged, albeit with lighter, narrow-footed rails and this last combination is of particular historical interest, as it was of strategic significance during World War II. If three-rail dual gauge is impossible, four-rail gauntlet track dual-gauge has to be used, the complications and difficulties outlined illustrate the benefits of standardised railway gauges, where possible. Alternatively the rails may be too light for the loads imposed by broader-gauge railcars, such potential problems can rule out dual-gauge as a feasible option, unless heavier rails are installed. Dual-gauge lines in Java were regauged from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in to 3 ft 6 in during the Japanese administration in 1942-1943, regauging occurred only on the relatively short Brumbung-Kedungjati-Gundih main line and the Kedungjati-Ambarawa branch line, as the rest of the line was already dual-gauge. In Los Angeles the 3 ft 6 in Los Angeles Railway, the Colorado and Southern Railway had both standard and narrow gauge trackage, and had dual-gauge track between Denver, Colorado and Golden, until 1941. Similarly, a section of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroads Alamosa-Durango Line from Alamosa, the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company formerly had considerable dual-gauge trackage in its Mount Union, Pennsylvania yard. Alaska and British Columbia are proposing dual gauge,1,435 mm standard gauge and 914 mm, track so that a narrow gauge tourist train and standard gauge ore trains can share the right of way
26.
Tramway track
–
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. Grooved rails are used to provide a protective flangeway in the trackwork in city streets. Like standard rail tracks, tram tracks consist of two steel rails. Tram rails can be placed on surfaces, such as with standard rails on sleepers like railway tracks. Another environmentally friendly or ecologically friendly alternative is to lay tracks into grass turf surfaces, the first tramways were laid in 1832 in New York by John Stephenson, to assist horses pulling buses through dirt roads, especially in wet weather when muddy. By laying rails, a horse could pull a load of 10 tonnes rather than 1 tonne on a dirt road. The evolution of street tramway tracks paralleled the development from horse power to mechanical, in a dirt road, the rails needed a foundation, usually a mass concrete raft. Highway authorities often made tramway companies pave the rest of the road, usually with granite or similar stone blocks, an extra cost. The first tramways had a rail projecting above the surface, or a step set into the road. This system can still be seen in San Francisco in California as well as the system of the Great Orme in Wales and these needed a rather more substantial track formation. In some cities where overhead electric cables were deemed intrusive, underground conduits with electrical conductors were used, examples of this were New York, Washington DC, Paris, London, Brussels and Budapest. The conduit system of power was very expensive to install and maintain. Attempts were made with alternative systems not needing overhead wires, unfortunately these systems all failed due to the problem of reliability and not always turning off after the tram had passed, resulting in the occasional electrocution of horses and dogs. In the last five years a new system of surface contact has been installed in the Bordeaux tramway by Alstom, a grooved rail, groove rail, or girder rail is a special rail with a groove designed for tramway or railway track in pavement or grassed surfaces. This was invented in 1852 by Alphonse Loubat, a French inventor who developed improvements in tram and rail equipment, an alternative to the conventional girder profiled grooved track is the LR55 profile. This is considerably cheaper and easier to install and maintain than conventional girder rail as it requires a smaller footprint foundation, there is also grooved block rail. LR55 Track System Full details LR55 track suppliers and advisers European Girder Guard Rail Sections, wirth Girder Rail Grooved or girder rail MRT Track & Services Co. Inc / Krupp, T and girder rails, scroll down, block rails ThyssenKrupp grooved rail Hilton, George W. Due, John Fitzgerald
27.
Rail yard
–
A rail yard, railway yard or railroad yard is the US term for a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, railroad cars are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive. Cars in a railroad yard may be sorted by categories, including railroad company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type. Railroad yards are built where there is a need to store cars while they are not being loaded or unloaded. Large yards may have a tower to control operations, many railway yards are located at strategic points on a main line. Main line yards are often composed of an Up yard and a Down yard, there are different types of yards, and different parts within a yard, depending on how they are built. They are decoupled and let to accelerate into the classification equipment lower down, a flat yard has no hump, and relies on locomotives for all car movements. A large sub-group of such yards are known as Staging yards, the long haul carrier makes the round trip with a minimal turn around time, and the local switch engine transfers empties to the loading yard when the industries output is ready to be shipped. In the staging yard, the locomotive is most likely operated by industry, since overall throughput speed matters, many have small pneumatic, hydraulic or spring driven braking retarders to adjust and slow speed both before and after yard switch points. Along with car tracking and load tracking to destination technologies such as RFID long trains can be broken down and reconfigured in transfer yards or operations in remarkable time. Transfer yard is a yard where consists are dropped off or picked up as a group by through service such as a Unit Train, but managed locally by local switching service locomotives. Unit tracks may be reserved for Unit trains, which carry a block of all of the same origin and destination. Such consists often stop in a yard for other purposes, inspection. Freight yards may have multiple industries adjacent to them where railroad cars are loaded or unloaded and then stored before they move on to their new destination. Major freight yards in the U. S. Major U. K. goods yards include those in Crewe, Reading and Bescot, near Walsall, coach yards are used for sorting, storing and repairing passenger cars. These yards are located in areas near large stations or terminals. An example of a major U. S. coach yard is Sunnyside Yard in New York City and those that are principally used for storage, such as the West Side Yard in New York, are called layup yards or stabling yards. Major U. K. coach stabling yards include those in Crewe and Longsight, Manchester, which are operated by various regional train companies
28.
Railway electrification system
–
A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams
29.
Third rail
–
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a transit or rapid transit system. Third rail systems are supplied from direct current electricity. The third-rail system of electrification is unrelated to the third used in dual gauge railways. Third-rail systems are a means of providing electric power to trains. On most systems, the rail is placed on the sleeper ends outside the running rails. The conductor rail is supported on ceramic insulators or insulated brackets, the trains have metal contact blocks called shoes which make contact with the conductor rail. The traction current is returned to the station through the running rails. The conductor rail is made of high conductivity steel. The conductor rails have to be interrupted at level crossings, crossovers, tapered rails are provided at the ends of each section, to allow a smooth engagement of the trains contact shoes. Because third rail systems present electric shock hazards close to the ground, a very high current must therefore be used to transfer adequate power, resulting in high resistive losses, and requiring relatively closely spaced feed points. The electrified rail threatens electrocution of anyone wandering or falling onto the tracks. This can be avoided by using platform screen doors, or the risk can be reduced by placing the rail on the side of the track away from the platform. There is also a risk of pedestrians walking onto the tracks at level crossings, the Paris Metro has graphic warning signs pointing out the danger of electrocution from urinating on third rails, precautions which Chicago did not have. The end ramps of conductor rails present a practical limitation on speed due to the impact of the shoe. The world speed record for a rail train is 174 km/h attained on 11 April 1988 by a British Class 442 EMU. In the event of a collision with an object, the beveled end ramps of bottom running systems can facilitate the hazard of having third rail penetrate the interior of a passenger car. This is believed to have contributed to the death of five passengers in the Valhalla train crash of 2015, third rail systems using top contact are prone to accumulations of snow, or ice formed from refrozen snow, and this can interrupt operations
30.
Overhead line
–
An overhead line or overhead wire is used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses, or trains. Overhead line is designed on the principle of one or more overhead wires situated over rail tracks, the feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid. Electric trains that collect their current from overhead lines use a device such as a pantograph and it presses against the underside of the lowest overhead wire, the contact wire. Current collectors are electrically conductive and allow current to flow through to the train or tram, non-electric locomotives may pass along these tracks without affecting the overhead line, although there may be difficulties with overhead clearance. Alternative electrical power transmission schemes for trains include third rail, ground-level power supply, batteries and this article does not cover regenerative braking, where the traction motors act as generators to retard movement and return power to the overhead. To achieve good high-speed current collection, it is necessary to keep the wire geometry within defined limits. This is usually achieved by supporting the wire from a second wire known as the messenger wire or catenary. This wire approximates the path of a wire strung between two points, a catenary curve, thus the use of catenary to describe this wire or sometimes the whole system. This wire is attached to the wire at regular intervals by vertical wires known as droppers or drop wires. It is supported regularly at structures, by a pulley, link, the whole system is then subjected to a mechanical tension. As the contact wire makes contact with the pantograph, the insert on top of the pantograph is worn down. The straight wire between supports will cause the wire to cross over the whole surface of the pantograph as the train travels around the curve, causing uniform wear. On straight track, the wire is zigzagged slightly to the left. The movement of the wire across the head of the pantograph is called the sweep. The zigzagging of the line is not required for trolley poles. Depot areas tend to have only a wire and are known as simple equipment or trolley wire. When overhead line systems were first conceived, good current collection was only at low speeds. Compound equipment - uses a second wire, known as the auxiliary
31.
Railway turntable
–
In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. This is especially true in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weigh against the construction of a turnaround wye. In the case of locomotives, though most can be operated in either direction, they are treated as having front ends. When operated as a unit, the railway company often prefers, or requires. When operated as part of a multiple unit locomotive consist, the locomotives can be arranged so that the consist can be operated front end first no matter which direction the consist is pointed. Turntables were also used to turn observation cars so that their windowed lounge ends faced toward the rear of the train and these early wagonways used a single point-to-point track, and when operators had to move a truck to another wagonway, they did so by hand. The lack of switching technology seriously limited the weight of any loaded wagon combination, the first railway switches were in fact wagon turnplates or sliding rails. Turnplates were initially made of two or four pieces of wood, circular in form, that replicated the track running through them and their diameter matched that of the wagons used on any given wagonway, and they swung around a central pivot. Loaded wagons could be moved onto the turnplate, and rotating the turnplate 90 degrees allowed the loaded wagon to be moved to another piece of wagonway, thus, wagon weight was limited only by the strength of the wood used in the turnplates or sliding rails. When iron and later steel replaced stone and wood, weight capacity rose again, however, the problems with turnplates and sliding rails were twofold. First, they were small, which limited the wagon length that could be turned. Second, their capacity could only be accessed when the wagon was on top of them and still. The railway switch, which both of these problems, was patented by Charles Fox in 1832. As steam locomotives replaced horses as the means of power, they became optimised to run in only one direction, for operational ease. The resulting need to turn heavy locomotives required an upgrade to the existing turnplate technology. Like earlier turnplates, most new turntables consisted of a pit in which a steel bridge rotated. The bridge was supported and balanced by the central pivot, to reduce the total load on the pivot. This was most often achieved by a steel rail running around the floor of the pit that supported the ends of the bridge when a locomotive entered or exited, the turntables had a positive locking mechanism to prevent undesired rotation and to align the bridge rails with the exit track
32.
Siding (rail)
–
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end, sidings often have lighter rails, meant for lower speed or less heavy traffic, and few, if any, signals. Sidings connected at both ends to a line are commonly known as loops, otherwise they are known as single-ended sidings or dead end sidings. Sidings may be used for marshalling, stabling, storing, loading and unloading vehicles, common sidings store stationary rolling stock, especially for loading and unloading. Industrial sidings go to factories, mines, quarries, wharves, warehouses, such sidings can sometimes be found at stations for public use, in American usage these are referred to as team tracks. Sidings may also hold maintenance of way equipment or other equipment, allowing trains to pass, some sidings have very occasional use, having been built, for example, to service an industry, a railway yard or a stub of a disused railway that has since closed. It is not uncommon for a siding to fall into disrepair. A particular form of siding is the siding or passing loop. This is a section of parallel to a through line. Sidings allow trains travelling in opposite directions to pass, and for fast, sidings are very important for operating efficiency on single track lines, and add to the capacity of other lines. A siding may have lighter rail than the main track, the rail used may not be continuous welded rail but rather joined by angle bars. The railway owner may place less emphasis on the quality of the ties and the ballast used on the siding as compared to that on its main track. A siding may not receive or may not require, the degree of scrutiny and maintenance that the more heavily travelled main track may receive. ”Interestingly. This same naming convention for sidings is followed in the American rules for railroad operation, the General Code of Operating Rules Seventh Edition effective April 1,2015 defines a siding as “A track connected to the main track and used for meeting or passing trains. Location of sidings are shown in the timetable. ”The definition is interesting in that it appears to attach a single purpose to a siding, like their Canadian counterparts, there also is no assigned number of main track switch connections in this definition of a siding. The employee time table for these Canadian railroads also uses the single word “Siding” to describe this section of track, a designated siding in the railroad’s employee timetable is shown with a siding capacity which is its usable length as measured in feet. Typically the track centre for a siding or any track adjacent to the track is a standard distance to allow the safe passage of trains including trains that may be handling dimensional shipments. At the two ends of the siding, that distance is compromised as the siding joins the main track, as such the railway will display an appropriate stopping point on both the main track and the siding track to ensure the safe passage of both trains
33.
Track geometry
–
Track geometry is three-dimensional geometry of track layouts and associated measurements used in design, construction and maintenance of railroad tracks. The subject is used in the context of standards, speed limits and other regulations in the areas of track gauge, alignment, elevation, curvature and track surface. Although, the geometry of the tracks is three-dimensional by nature, horizontal layout is the track layout on the horizontal plane. This can be thought of as the view which is a view of a 3-dimensional track from the position above the track. In track geometry, the horizontal layout involves the layout of three main types, tangent track, curved track, and track transition curve which connects between a tangent and a curved track. In Australia, there is a definition for a bend which is a connection between two tangent tracks at almost 180 degrees without an intermediate curve. There is a set of speed limits for the bends separately from normal tangent track, vertical layout is the track layout on the vertical plane. This can be thought of as the view which is the side view of the track to show track elevation. In track geometry, the vertical layout involves concepts such as crosslevel, the reference rail is the base rail that is used as a reference point for the measurement. It can vary in different countries, most countries use one of the rails as the reference rail. For Swiss railroad, the rail for tangent track is the center line between two rails, but it is the outside rail for curved track. Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Each country uses different gauges for different types of trains, however, the 1435 mm gauge was the basis of 60% of the worlds railways. Crosslevel is the measurement of the difference in elevation between the top surface of the two rails at any point of railroad track, the two points are measured at by the right angles to the reference rail. Since the rail can slightly move up and down, the measurement should be done under load and it is said to be zero crosslevel when there is no difference in elevation of both rails. It is said to be reverse crosslevel when the rail of curved track has lower elevation than the inside rail. Otherwise, the crosslevel is expressed in the unit of height, the speed limits are governed by the crosslevel of the track. In tangent track, it is desired to have zero crosslevel, however, the deviation from zero can take place
34.
Track pan
–
A track pan or water trough is a device to enable a steam railway locomotive to replenish its water supply while in motion. It consists of a trough filled with water, lying between the rails. When a steam locomotive passes over the trough, a water scoop can be lowered, steam locomotives consume considerable volumes of water, and the tender or side tanks need to be replenished at intervals. Traditionally the engine water was replenished during station stops, but if it was desired to run long distances without stopping, ramsbottom arranged some experiments and showed that the forward motion of a scoop in a trough of water would force water up a connected pipe and into a tank. To save lowering the line the distance, a short incline is made. The first installation was brought into use on 23 June 1860 at Mochdre, Conwy, on the North Wales main line of the London, the siting of the troughs requires a long enough length of straight and level track. There must be a water supply nearby. In hard water areas, water softening plant may have been considered necessary, a scoop is fitted to the underside of the locomotives tender in such a way that it can be raised or lowered, by a hand operated screw or a power mechanism. The scoop feeds into a pipe that discharges into the water tank. The scoop needs to be lowered at speed at the correct location - shortly after the start of the trough - and raised again when either the tank is full, or at the end of the trough. Lineside indicators are provided to assist engine crews in determining the location, on American railroads, illuminated trackside signals were employed for night-time usage, to indicate the start and approaching end of the track pan. A1934 report said that the LMS had carried out tests recently, ahead of the scoop to pile water in the centre of the trough, thus reducing spillage out of the troughs by about 400 gallons for each use. Venting on the tender needed to be free to allow a rate of release of expelled air from the tank. Tank locomotives were fitted for picking up in either direction. An illustration of the 1862 tender design is in the article on LNWR Lady of the Lake Class, the LNWR quickly installed water troughs at other locations, but other companies were slow to adopt the new apparatus. The Great Western Railway did so from 1895, and subsequently all the railways in Great Britain, with the exception of the lines south of the River Thames. In one incident on the LMS railway in Britain, two streamlined trains with Coronation class locomotives happened to each other at a water trough when one of the trains was taking on water. Vaughan says that the Royal Train when conveying royalty was not permitted to be passed by train in a section where there was a water trough
35.
Water crane
–
A water crane is a device used for delivering a large volume of water into the tank or tender of a steam locomotive. The device is also called a water column in the United States. Generally, water cranes consist of a steel pipe about 8 to 12 inches in diameter with a horizontal. The swinging arm is designed to rest parallel to the rails when not in use. Water cranes may be able to deliver up to ten metres of water per minute. In hilly country, natural streams can be dammed and water fed by gravity to the water crane, in flatter country this arrangement is not always possible, so water may be supplied by a tank next to the crane. Water tanks may vary in volume from 190 kilolitres to greater than 757 kilolitres, in some cases a well may be used to supply the water to the tank. Depending on the quality of the water supply, it may need to be treated chemically to eliminate hardness which induces scale buildup on the inside of the locomotive boiler. The scale which builds up on heat transfer surfaces forms a layer of insulation between the metal and the boiler water and this causes metal to overheat or corrode and eventually fail
36.
Wye (rail)
–
A turning wye is a specific case. Wyes can also be used for turning equipment, and generally cover less area than a balloon loop doing the same job. When and where a wye is built specifically for equipment reversing purposes, in materials and annual taxes, the cost of two junctions is offset by saved capital investment and yearly taxes. Tram or streetcar tracks also use of triangular junctions and sometimes have a short triangle or wye stubs to turn the car at the end of the line. The use of triangular junctions allows flexibility in routing trains from any line to any other line, for this reason they are common across most rail networks. Slower bi-directional trains may enter a wye, letting a faster one pass, where one or more of the lines meeting at the junction are multi-track, the presence of a triangular junction does introduce a number of potential conflicting moves. For this reason, where traffic is heavy, the junction may incorporate flying junctions on some, or all, from time to time it is necessary to turn both individual pieces of railroad equipment or whole trains. Even where equipment is symmetrical, periodic turning may still be necessary in order to even wear, there are several different techniques that can be used to achieve such turning. Rail turntables require the least space, but can only deal with a single piece of equipment at a time. Balloon or turning loops can turn trains of any length – up to the length of the loop – in a single operation. Rail wyes can be constructed on sites where a loop would not be possible, Railroad systems in North America and Australia have tended to have more wyes than railroads elsewhere. North American locomotives and cars are likely to be directional than those found on other continents. In Canada and the United States, the railroad often was built other structures. In Europe, although some use was made of bi-directional tank locomotives and push-pull trains, because of land usage considerations, turntables were normally used to turn such locomotives, and most terminal stations and locomotive depots were so equipped. Over time, most diesel and electric locomotives ordered in Europe have been designed to be fully bi-directional, symmetrical, thus most turntables and, where they existed, rail wyes, have been taken out of use. Similar considerations apply to the use of junctions and reversing wyes on streetcar and tram systems. Many, although by no means all, streetcar and tram systems use single ended vehicles that have doors on one side only, however the vehicles used on such systems tend to have much smaller minimum curvature requirements than heavy rail equipment. This renders the use of a balloon loop more practical in an amount of space
37.
Railway signalling
–
Railway signalling is a system used to direct railway traffic and keep trains clear of each other at all times. Trains move on fixed rails, making them susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the weight and inertia of a train. Most forms of control involve movement authority being passed from those responsible for each section of a rail network to the train crew. The set of rules and the equipment used to accomplish this determine what is known as the method of working. Not all these methods require the use of signals. The earliest rail cars were first hauled by horses or mules, a mounted flagman on a horse preceded some early trains. Hand and arm signals were used to direct the “train drivers”, foggy and poor-visibility conditions gave rise to flags and lanterns. Wayside signalling dates back as far as 1832, and used elevated flags or balls that could be seen from afar, the simplest form of operation, at least in terms of equipment, is to run the system according to a timetable. Every train crew understands and adheres to a fixed schedule, trains may only run on each track section at a scheduled time, during which they have possession and no other train may use the same section. When trains run in opposite directions on a railroad, meeting points are scheduled. Neither train is permitted to move before the other has arrived, in the US the display of two green flags is an indication that another train is following the first and the waiting train must wait for the next train to pass. In addition, the carrying the flags gives eight blasts on the whistle as it approaches. The waiting train must return eight blasts before the flag carrying train may proceed, the timetable system has several disadvantages. First, there is no confirmation that the track ahead is clear. A second problem is the systems inflexibility, trains cannot be added, delayed, or rescheduled without advance notice. A third problem is a corollary of the second, the system is inefficient, to provide flexibility, the timetable must give trains a broad allocation of time to allow for delays, so the line is not in the possession of each train for longer than is otherwise necessary. Nonetheless, this system permits operation on a vast scale, with no requirements for any kind of communication that travels faster than a train, timetable operation was the normal mode of operation in North America in the early days of the railroad
38.
Block post
–
A block post in railway signalling is the signal box at one end of a block section. In Germany block posts are known as Blockstellen and are defined as railway facilities on the line that, as part of a block system. They usually have a signal in each direction and on each running line. They are mainly found where the distance between two stations is greater than average. In the early years of the railway, block posts were local signal boxes manned with block post keepers, today there are only a few of these classic, railway staff-operated block posts. Block posts are described in the German railway regulations, the Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsordnung or EBO, automatic Block Signal Centralised control Block signalling Signalling block systems Token
39.
Buffer stop
–
A buffer stop or bumper, bumping post, or stopblock, is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track. The design of the stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings that the railway uses. The term buffer stop is of British origin, since railways in Great Britain principally use buffer-and-screw couplings between vehicles, several different types of buffer stop have been developed. They differ depending on the type of coupler used and on the intended application and these are particularly important for passenger railway applications, because the anticlimbers prevent telescoping of the railroad cars during a head-on impact. One such accident occurred when a Northern Line train powered past the block at Moorgate station in 1975 on the London Underground system. Largely because of its mass, a train transfers an enormous amount of energy in a collision with a buffer stop. Rigid buffers can only cope with very low-speed impacts. To improve stopping performance, a way of dissipating this energy is needed, following a buffer stop accident at Frankfurt am Main in 1902, the Rawie company developed a large range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. Similar hydraulic buffer stops were developed by Ransomes & Rapier in the UK, when it is desired to slow or stop moving trains, without erecting a solid buffer stop, dowty retarders may be employed. They press upwards against the wheels, and may optionally be turned off as required, raja Trains Depot in Tehran Stopping speed,20 km/h Stopping distance,20 m. Wheel stops are used to slow moving trains from continuing down a level track section. 22 October 1895 – Gare Montparnasse, Paris, France – express train overruns buffer stop,1902 – Frankfurt am Main, Germany – Serious buffer stop collision inspires development of Rawie range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. 27 July 1903 – Glasgow St Enoch –16 killed 27 injured 1948 – diesel train through buffer stops at Los Angeles,15 January 1953 – Union Station, Washington, D. C. – Federal Express #173, pulled by PRR4876, overruns the stop after its brakes fail, the locomotive enters the concourse of the station building before falling through the floor. 1972 – BART train went through buffer stops due to fault in automatic train operation,28 February 1975 – Moorgate Underground rail crash –43 killed,74 injured – buffer stop collision made far worse by small size tube train running into large dimensioned dead-end tunnel beyond. The tunnel could accommodate full-size surface stock thus permitting the smaller train to concertina inside the tunnel,13 April 1978 – Budapest, Hungary – commuter train overruns a buffer stop owing to brake failure and crashes into the station building. 8 November 1986 – Hua Lamphong, Bangkok, Thailand –5 killed,7 injured – buffer stop collision made by a train at a speed of 50 km/h. 8 January 1991 – Cannon Street station rail crash, London –2 killed,11 July 1995 – Largs – Class 318 EMU goes through buffer stops
40.
Catch points
–
Catch points and trap points are types of turnout which act as railway safety devices. Both work by guiding railway carriages and trucks from a route onto a separate. Catch points are used to derail vehicles which are out of control on steep slopes, trap points are used to protect main railway lines from unauthorised vehicles moving onto them from sidings or branch lines. Either of these arrangements may lead the vehicles into a sand drag or safety siding. A derail is another used for the same purposes as catch. Trap points are found at the exit from a siding or where a secondary track joins a main line, a facing turnout is used to prevent any unauthorised movement that may otherwise obstruct the main line. The trap points also prevent any damage that may be done by a vehicle passing over points not set for traffic joining the main line, in the United Kingdom, the use of trap points at siding exits is required by government legislation. An unauthorised movement may be due to a wagon, or may be a train passing a signal at danger. When a signal controlling passage onto a line is set to danger. Interlocking is used to make sure that the signal cannot be set to allow passage onto the line until the trap points have been aligned to ensure this movement can take place. Trap points should preferably be positioned to ensure that any unauthorised vehicle is stopped a safe distance from the main line, however, due to space limitations, it is not always possible to guarantee this. If the lines are track circuited and a wagon or train using the catchpoint could foul an adjacent line, when a train runs off it will break the track circuit and set main line signals to danger. There are several different ways of constructing trap points, A single tongue trap consists of one switch rail. This is usually placed in the rail furthest from the main line, double trap points are a full turnout, leading to two tongues. Usually the tongue nearer the main line is longer than the other, a trap road with stops is a short dead-end siding leading to some method of stopping a vehicle, such as a sand drag or buffer stop. Wide to gauge trap points have switches that work in directions and are therefore either both open or both closed. Vehicles derailed at these points will tend to continue in a direction rather than being thrown to one side. Wide to gauge points are found on sidings situated between running lines
41.
Defect detector
–
A defect detector is a device used on railroads to detect axle and signal problems in passing trains. The detectors are normally integrated into the tracks and often include sensors to detect different kinds of problems that could occur. The use of defect detectors has since spread to other overseas railroads, to detect hotboxes, i. e. overheating bearings, they would look for oil smoke during the day or a red glow at night. As early as the 1940s, automatic defect detectors were installed to improve upon the manual process, the detectors would transmit their data via wired links to remote read-outs in stations, offices or interlocking towers. A stylus-and-cylinder gauge would record a reading for every axle, if a journal were too hot, or if some other defect were detected, early line-side defect detectors were typically housed in concrete bungalows, roughly every 10–20 miles. The crew stationed at the rear of the train would observe this light and, if a defect were indicated, the first computerized detectors used fixed-display boards. These had a numeric display and a number of indicator lights relating to the nature of defects. A number would be displayed in lights on the board after the train had cleared the detector, the number 000 meant there were no defects, any other number warned of a defect at the corresponding axle. If several were detected, small white lights on the top and bottom could also be displayed to inform the crews of multiple problems. Nevertheless, the conductor was still required to go into the bungalow, seaboard Air Line was the first railroad to install talking defect detectors. Beginning in the 1960s, their crews could hear the results of hotbox and dragging-equipment checks spoken over their radios in the engine cab. Over the years, as the use of this technology accelerated, for example, computerized, talking detectors allowed crews to interact with the detector using a touch tone function on their radios to recall the latest defect report. This eliminated any need for crews to walk to the location to confirm the radio reading. Sometimes the locations ambient temperature and train speed are also noted by the mechanical voice, crews can use their touch-tone hand radios to get the detector to repeat error messages. Defect detectors that are equipped with such a voice are often called talking detectors by railfans. To this day some rail lines, mostly passenger routes with a high traffic density, maintain centralized readout. This is due to the large and confusing volume of traffic a talking detector would generate. When an error signal is received a dispatcher or operator will contact the train via radio manually transmitting the error message, today defect detectors are often incorporated in monitoring platforms that are primarily used by railroads to more closely monitor the status of their trains
42.
Derail
–
A derail or derailer is a device used to prevent fouling of a rail track by unauthorized movements of trains or unattended rolling stock. The device works by derailing the equipment as it rolls over or through it, there are four basic forms of derail. The most common form is a piece of steel which fits over the top of the rail. If a car or locomotive attempts to roll over it, the flange is lifted over the rail to the outside. When not in use, the derail folds away, leaving the rail unobstructed and it can be manually or remotely operated, in the former case it will have a lock applied to prevent it from being moved by unauthorized personnel. This type is common on North American railroads, the second type of derail is the split rail type. These are basically a complete or partial railroad switch which directs the errant rolling stock away from the main line and this form is common throughout the UK, where it is called trap points or catch points. The third type of derail is the portable derail, and is used by mechanical forces. This is often used in conjunction with Blue Flag rules and is temporary in nature and they are placed onto one side of the rail with the derail pointed to the outside of the track. Then there is a part of the derail that is able to be tightened down to the rail and then secured with a locking mechanism. If the derail is left unlocked for any reason or does not have a mechanism deployed then the owner of the derail can face substantial fines if found by an FRA inspector. The fourth type of derailer is the powered or motorized derailer and this type of derailer can be controlled remotely from an external control panel or manually. It is commonly installed as a part of Depot Personnel Protection Systems, to ensure safety in maintenance workshops. Derails have failed on occasion, such as the Newark Bay rail accident of 1958, or on April 1,1987, at Burnham, Illinois, due to rusty rails, the car then failed to shunt the track circuit that should have put block signals to stop
43.
Interlocking
–
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are collectively referred to as an interlocking plant. An interlocking is designed so that it is impossible to display a signal to proceed unless the route to be used is proven safe. A minimal interlocking consists of signals, but usually includes additional appliances such as points and derails, some of the fundamental principles of interlocking include, Signals may not be operated to permit conflicting train movements to take place at the same time. Switches and other appliances in the route must be set before a signal may allow train movements to enter that route. Railway interlocking is of British origin, where numerous patents were granted, in June 1856, John Saxby received the first patent for interlocking switches and signals. In 1868, Saxby was awarded a patent for what is today in North America as “preliminary latch locking”. Preliminary latch locking became so successful that by 1873,13,000 mechanical locking levers were employed on the London, at the time, Toucey was General Superintendent and Buchanan was Superintendent of Machinery on the NYC&HRR. Toucey and Buchanan formed the Toucey and Buchanan Interlocking Switch and Signal Company in Harrisburg, the first important installations of their mechanism were on the switches and signals of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company and the New York Elevated Railroad Company in 1877-78. Compared to Saxbys design, Toucey and Buchanans interlocking mechanism was more cumbersome and less sophisticated, Union Switch & Signal bought their company in 1882. The challenge facing the industry was achieving the same level of safety and reliability that was inherent to purely mechanical systems. An experimental hydro-pneumatic interlocking was installed at the Bound Brook, New Jersey junction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, by 1891, there were 18 hydro-pneumatic plants, on six railroads, operating a total of 482 levers. The installations worked, but there were defects in the design. By 1900,54 electro-pneumatic interlocking plants, controlling a total of 1,864 interlocking levers, were in use on 13 North American railroads. This type of system would remain one of two competing systems into the future, although it did have the disadvantage of needing extra single-use equipment. Interlockings using electric motors for moving switches and signals became viable in 1894, another interlocking of this type was installed in Berlin Westend in 1896. By 1913, this system had been installed on 83 railroads in 35 US States and Canadian Provinces. Interlockings can be categorized as mechanical, electrical, or electronic/computer-based, in mechanical interlocking plants, a locking bed is constructed, consisting of steel bars forming a grid
