World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Alexander Cassatt
Alexander Johnston Cassatt was the seventh president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, serving from June 9, 1899, to December 28, 1906. The painter Mary Cassatt was his sister. Referred to as A. J. Cassatt, the great accomplishment under his stewardship was the planning and construction of tunnels under the Hudson River to bring PRR's trunk line into New York City, his purchase of a controlling interest in the Long Island Rail Road and the construction of tunnels under the East River created a PRR commuter network on Long Island. Cassatt died before his grand Pennsylvania Station in New York City was completed. Cassatt joined the PRR in 1861 as an engineer and rose through the ranks, he was a vice president in 1877 when the Pittsburgh Railway Riots broke out in 1877, had become Pennsy First Vice-President by 1880. He was disappointed to be passed over for the presidency and resigned from the company in 1882. During his absence he devoted his time to horse raising but still was able to organize a new railroad the New York and Norfolk Railroad, that connected southern markets with the north.
Despite no longer being an executive with PRR, he was elected to the PRR's board of directors and was recalled in 1899 to serve as president. Cassatt more than doubled the PRR's total assets during his term, from US$276 million to US$594 million. Track and equipment investment increased by 146 percent; the route from New York through Philadelphia and Altoona to Pittsburgh was made double-tracked throughout. C. four-tracked—Pennsy's "Broad Way." Many other lines were double-tracked. New freight cutoffs avoided stations. Cassatt initiated the Pennsy's program of electrification which led to the road being the United States' most electrified system. Cassatt was succeeded as Pennsylvania Railroad president by James McCrea. Cassatt was born on December 8, 1839, in Pittsburgh, the eldest of seven children, including the painter Mary Cassatt, born to Robert Simpson Cassat, Katherine Kelso Johnston; the elder Cassatt was a successful land speculator. He was descended from the French Huguenot Jacques Cossart, who came to New Amsterdam in 1662.
Her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, came from a banking family. Katherine Cassatt and well read and it was said that it was Alexander who most resembled his mother in "appearance and temperament."In 1856, he entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to study Civil Engineering where his senior thesis was entitled "Review of Pressure Turbine." After graduating in the summer of 1859, Robert Cassatt took Alexander to see a former neighbor from Lancaster Pennsylvania, James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States. By the fall of 1860, Alexander had secured a position as a surveyor or rodman by the Georgia Railroad. By the time the State of Georgia voted to secede from the Union in January 1861, Cassatt had abandoned his work as surveyor on the Dalton-Knoxville line of the Georgia Railroad and returned to Pennsylvania without seeing any military service during the Civil War. In the Spring of 1861, Cassatt had been hired as part of the Engineer Corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad, again as a rodman where he worked on the Connecting Railway.
It is unknown how Cassatt managed to avoid the Pennsylvania militia draft during the Union mobilization in this period but in 1864, Cassatt was transferred to Renovo, Pennsylvania, as a resident engineer to work on the middle division of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. In 1866, Cassatt became superintendent of motive power and machinery for the Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway reorganized in 1864 as the Warren and Franklin Railroad, growing due to the discovery of oil in the region and coal mining. In 1867, Cassatt was appointed as superintendent of motive power and machinery for the Pennsylvania railroad in Altoona with a salary of $3,000 per year when a trainman made less than $10 a week. Sometime during Cassatt's tenure as superintendent, he married Lois Buchanan, daughter of the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan and Ann Eliza Foster. Lois Buchanan was a niece of James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, through her mother, a niece of songwriter Stephen Foster; the couple had two daughters.
Cassatt was a horse enthusiast and fox hunter who owned Chesterbrook Farm, outside Berwyn, where he bred Thoroughbred racehorses. The 600-acre property is today the site of a subdivision with office buildings and homes using the Chesterbrook Farm name; the original main barn designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness has been maintained and restored. Cassatt raced under the pseudonym, Mr. Kelso, his horses as from the Kelso Stable, he owned the 1886 Preakness Stakes winner, The Bard, the 1889 Belmont Stakes 1889 winner, Eric. As well, he bred the winner of the 1875, 1876, 1878, 1880 Preakness Stakes and Foxford, who won the 1891 Belmont. In addition to flat-racing his Thoroughbreds, in 1895 Cassatt helped found the National Steeplechase Association to organize competitive steeplechase racing, he was responsible for the introduction of the Hackney pony to the United States. In 1878 he brought her to Philadelphia. In 1891, Cassatt and several fellow Hackney enthusiasts founded the American Hackney Horse Society.
The organization and registry continues to this day, with its headquarters now in Lexington, Ken
Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal called the Palais-Cardinal, is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. In 1830 the larger inner courtyard of the palace, the Cour d'Honneur, was enclosed to the north by what was the most famous of Paris's covered arcades, the Galerie d'Orléans. Demolished in the 1930s, its flanking rows of columns still stand between the Cour d'Honneur and the popular Palais-Royal Gardens; the Palais-Royal now serves as the seat of the Ministry of the Constitutional Council. Called the Palais-Cardinal, the palace was the personal residence of Cardinal Richelieu; the architect Jacques Lemercier began his design in 1629. Upon Richelieu's death in 1642 the palace became the property of the King and acquired the new name Palais-Royal. After Louis XIII died the following year, it became the home of the Queen Mother Anne of Austria and her young sons Louis XIV and Philippe, duc d'Anjou, along with her advisor Cardinal Mazarin.
From 1649, the palace was the residence of the exiled Henrietta Maria and Henrietta Anne Stuart and daughter of the deposed King Charles I of England. The two had escaped England in the midst of the English Civil War and were sheltered by Henrietta Maria's nephew, King Louis XIV. Henrietta Anne was married to Louis' younger brother, Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans in the palace chapel on 31 March 1661; the following year the new duchesse d'Orléans gave birth to a daughter, Marie Louise d'Orléans, inside the palace. After their marriage, the palace became the main residence of the House of Orléans; the Duchess created the ornamental gardens of the palace, which were said to be among the most beautiful in Paris. Under the new ducal couple, the Palais-Royal would become the social center of the capital; the court gatherings at the Palais-Royal were famed all around the capital as well as all of France. It was at these parties that the crème de la crème of French society came to be seen. Guests included the main members of the royal family like Anne of Austria.
Philippe's favourites were frequent visitors. The palace was redecorated and new apartments were created for the Duchess's maids and staff. Several of the women who came to be favourites to King Louis XIV were from her household: Louise de La Vallière, who gave birth there to two sons of the king, in 1663 and 1665. After Henrietta Anne died in 1670 the Duke took a second wife, the Princess Palatine, who preferred to live in the Château de Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud thus became the main residence of her eldest son and the heir to the House of Orléans, Philippe Charles d'Orléans known as the duc de Chartres. In 1692, on the occasion of the marriage of the duc de Chartres to Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, the King deeded the Palais-Royal to his brother. For the convenience of the bride, new apartments were built and furnished in the wing facing east on the rue de Richelieu, it was at this time that Philippe commissioned the gallery for his famous Orleans Collection of paintings, accessible to the public.
The architect was Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the cost of this reconstruction was totaled to be 400,000 livres. Hardouin-Mansart's assistant, François d'Orbay, prepared a general site plan, showing the Palais-Royal before these alterations were made; the garden shown on the plan was designed by André Lenôtre. After the dismissal of Madame de Montespan and the arrival of her successor, Madame de Maintenon, who forbade any lavish entertainment at Versailles, the Palais-Royal was again a social highlight; when the Duke of Orléans died in 1701, his son became the head of the House of Orléans. The new Duke and Duchess of Orléans took up residence at the Palais-Royal. Two of their daughters, Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans the Duchess of Modena, Louise Diane d'Orléans the Princess of Conti, were born there. Over a decade or so, sections of the Palais were transformed into shopping arcades that became the centre of 18th-century Parisian social and social life. Inspired by the souks of Arabia, the Galerie de Bois, a series of wooden shops linking the ends of the Palais Royal, was first opened in 1786.
For Parisians, who lived in the virtual absence of pavements, the streets were dirty. Thus, the Palais-Royal began what the architect, Bertrand Lemoine, describes as l’Ère des passages couverts, which transformed European shopping habits between 1786 and 1935. Designed to attract the genteel middle class, the Palais-Royal sold luxury goods at high prices. However, prices were never a deterrent, as these new arcades came to be the place to shop and to be seen. Arcades offered shoppers the promise of an enclosed space away from the chaos that characterised the noisy, dirty streets. Promenading in the arcades became a popular eighteenth century pastime for the emerging middle classes. Within a decade, new arcades were opened at the Palais site, it was transformed into a complex of gardens and entertainment venues situated on the external perimeter of the grounds, under the original colonnades; the area bo
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was so named; the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line, its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles. By 1882 it had become the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, the largest corporation in the world. With 30,000 miles of track, it had longer mileage than any other country in the world, except Britain and France, its budget was second only to the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 consecutive years. In 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years.
The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, itself broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway, including nearly all of the former PRR. Amtrak received the electrified segment of the Main Line east of Harrisburg. With the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic; the state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and thus the Main Line of Public Works was commissioned in 1826. It soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, canals was proposed; the route consisted of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, canals up the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, an inclined plane railroad and tunnel across the Allegheny Mountains, canals down the Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Because freight and passengers had to change cars several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome and a better way was needed.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a private rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey and construct the line, he chose a route that followed the west bank of the Susquehanna River northward to the confluence with the Juniata River, following its banks until the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains were reached at a point that would become Altoona, Pennsylvania. To traverse the mountains, the line climbed a moderate grade for 10 miles until it reached a split of two mountain ravines which were cleverly crossed by building a fill and having the tracks ascend a 220-degree curve known as Horseshoe Curve that limited the grade to less than 2 percent; the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3,612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. At the end of its first year of operation, it paid a dividend, continued the dividend without interruption until 1946.
The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny and Conemaugh rivers to Johnstown. PRR was granted trackage rights over the Philadelphia and Columbia and gained control of the three short lines connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg, instituting an all-rail link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by 1854. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, abandoned most of its canals and inclined planes; the line was double track from its inception, by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of other railroads by stock purchases and 999-year leases. Thomson was the entrepreneur who led the PRR from 1852 until his death in 1874, making it the largest business enterprise in the world and a world-class model for technological and managerial innovation, he served as PRR's first Chief Engineer and third President. Thomson's sober, technical and non-ideological personality had an important influence on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which in the mid-19th century was on the technical cutting edge of rail development, while nonetheless reflecting Thomson's personality in its conservatism and its steady growth while avoiding financial risks.
His Pennsylvania Railroad was in his day the largest railroad in the world, with 6,000 miles of track, was famous for steady financial dividends, high quality construction improving equipment, technological advances, innovation in management techniques for a large complex organization. In 1861 the PRR gained control of the Northern Central Railway, giving it access to Baltimore, Maryland, as well as points along the Susquehanna River via connections at Columbia, Pennsylvania or Harrisburg. On December 1, 1871, the PRR leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, which included the original Camden and Amboy Railroad from Camden, New Jersey to South Amboy, New Jersey, as well as a newer line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Je
Train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility or area where trains stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements; the smallest stations are most referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts". Stations elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems. In British English, traditional usage favours railway station or station though train station, perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing. In British usage, the word station is understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In American English, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. In North America, the term depot is sometimes used as an alternative name for station, along with the compound forms train depot, railway depot, railroad depot, but applicable for goods, the term depot is not used in reference to vehicle maintenance facilities in American English.
The world's first recorded railway station was The Mount on the Oystermouth Railway in Swansea, which began passenger service in 1807, although the trains were horsedrawn rather than by locomotives. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, which survives as a museum, first saw passenger service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on 22 May 1830; the oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, on the locomotive hauled Liverpool to Manchester line. As the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road; the station was the first to incorporate a train shed. The station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal; the first stations had little in the way of amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830.
Manchester's Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses. Early stations were sometimes built with both passenger and goods facilities, though some railway lines were goods-only or passenger-only, if a line was dual-purpose there would be a goods depot apart from the passenger station. Dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, passengers wanting to board the train had to flag the train down in order for it to stop; such stations were known as "flag stops" or "flag stations". Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the grandiose architecture of the time, lending prestige to the city as well as to railway operations. Countries where railways arrived may still have such architecture, as stations imitated 19th-century styles.
Various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles. Stations in Europe tended to follow British designs and were in some countries, like Italy, financed by British railway companies. Stations built more often have a similar feel to airports, with a simple, abstract style. Examples of modern stations include those on newer high-speed rail networks, such as the Shinkansen in Japan, THSR in Taiwan, TGV lines in France and ICE lines in Germany. Stations have staffed ticket sales offices, automated ticket machines, or both, although on some lines tickets are sold on board the trains. Many stations include a convenience store. Larger stations have fast-food or restaurant facilities. In some countries, stations may have a bar or pub. Other station facilities may include: toilets, left-luggage, lost-and-found and arrivals boards, luggage carts, waiting rooms, taxi ranks, bus bays and car parks.
Larger or manned stations tend to have a greater range of facilities including a station security office. These are open for travellers when there is sufficient traffic over a long enough period of time to warrant the cost. In large cities this may mean facilities available around the clock. A basic station might only have platforms, though it may still be distinguished from a halt, a stopping or halting place that may not have platforms. Many stations, either larger or smaller, offer interchange with local transportation. In many African, South American countries, Asian countries, stations are used as a place for public markets and other informal businesses; this is true on tourist routes or stations near tourist destinations. As well as providing services for passengers and loading facilities for goods, stations can sometimes have locomotive and rolling stock depots (usually with facilities for storing and refuelling rolling stock an
Gare de Lyon
The Gare de Lyon Paris-Gare-de-Lyon, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It handles about 90,000,000 passengers every year, making it the third busiest station of France and one of the busiest of Europe, it is the northern terminus of the Paris–Marseille railway. It is named after the city of Lyon, a stop for many long-distance trains departing here, most en route to the south of France; the station is located in the XIIe arrondissement, on the north bank of the river Seine, in the east of Paris. The station is served by high-speed TGV trains to south and eastern France, Germany and Spain; the station hosts regional trains and the RER and the Gare de Lyon metro station. Main line trains depart from 32 platforms in two distinct halls: Hall 1, the older train shed, contains tracks labelled with letters from A to N, while the modern addition of Hall 2 contains tracks which are numbered from 5 to 23. There are a further 4 platforms for the RER underneath the main lines.
The station was built for the World Exposition of 1900. On multiple levels, it is considered a classic example of the architecture of its time. Most notable is the large clock tower atop one corner of the station, similar in style to the clock tower of the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament, home to Big Ben; the station houses the Le Train Bleu restaurant, which has served drinks and meals to travellers and other guests since 1901 in an ornately decorated setting. On 27 June 1988, in the Gare de Lyon train accident, a runaway train crashed into a stationary rush-hour train, killing 56 people and injuring a further 55. From Gare de Lyon train services depart to major French cities such as: Lyon, Nice, Perpignan, Besançon, Grenoble and a number of destinations in the Alps. International services operate to Italy: Turin and Venice, Switzerland: Geneva, Bern, Interlaken and Brig, Germany Freiburg im Breisgau and Spain: Barcelona; the following services call at Gare de Lyon: High speed services Paris - Lyon High speed services Paris - Avignon - Aix-en-Provence - Marseille High speed services Paris - Avignon - Aix-en-Provence - Cannes - Antibes - Nice High speed services Paris - Lyon - Montpellier - Béziers - Narbonne - Perpignan High speed services Paris - Lyon - Montpellier - Béziers - Narbonne - Perpignan - Figueres Vilafant - Girona - Barcelona High speed services Paris - Grenoble High speed services Paris - Bellegarde - Geneva High speed services Paris - Bellegarde - Annemasse - Evian-les-Bains High speed services Paris - Chambéry - Aix-les-Bains - Annecy High speed services Paris - Chambéry - Turin - Milan High speed services Paris - Belfort - Mulhouse - Basel - Zurich High speed services Paris - Dijon - Basel - Bern - Interlaken High speed services Paris - Dijon - Lausanne High speed services Paris - Dijon - Neuchâtel High speed services Paris - Dijon - Besançon - Belfort - Mulhouse - Freiburg im Breisgau High speed services Paris - Dijon - Besançon - Belfort - Mulhouse High speed services Paris - Dijon - Besançon-Viotte High speed services Paris - Dijon - Chalon-sur-Saône High speed services Paris - Lyon - Saint-Étienne High speed services Paris - Valence - Avignon - Miramas High speed services Paris - Chambéry - Albertville - Bourg-Saint-Maurice Night train Paris - Milan - Verona - Padua - Venice Regional services Paris - Montereau - Sens - Laroche-Migennes Regional services Paris - Melun - Moret - Nemours - Montargis Paris RER services A Saint-Germain-en-Laye - Nanterre-Universite - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Boissy-Saint-Leger Paris RER services A Cergy le Haut - Conflans - Sartrouville - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Val-de-Fontenay - Marne-la-Vallee Paris RER services A Poissy - Sartrouville - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Val-de-Fontenay - Marne-la-Vallee Paris RER services D Creil - Orry-la-Ville - Goussainville - Saint Denis - Gare du Nord - Gare de Lyon - Combs-la-Ville - Melun Paris RER services D Goussainville - Saint Denis - Gare du Nord - Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Ris - Corbeil Paris RER services D Châtelet - Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Grigny - Corbeil - Malesherbes Paris RER services D Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Grigny - Corbeil - Melun The station has appeared in the following films: 1972: Travels with My Aunt, directed by George Cukor 2005: The Mystery of the Blue Train, an Hercule Poirot mystery novel by Agatha Christie 2007: Mr. Bean's Holiday, directed by Steve Bendelack 2010: The Tourist, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck List of stations of the Paris RER List of stations of the Paris Métro Gare de Lyon rail accident Gare de Lyon at Transilien, the official website of SNCF Gare de Lyon at "Gares & Connexions", the official website of SNCF Intercity and TGV schedules from SNCF The Mystery of the Blue Train on IMDb
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. 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 generated in large and efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network and distributed to the trains; some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway provides its own distribution lines and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track that takes one of two forms: overhead line, suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems use the running rails as the return conductor but some systems use a separate fourth rail for this purpose. In comparison to the principal alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer better energy efficiency, lower emissions and lower operating costs.
Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, more responsive and reliable than diesels. They have an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas; some electric traction systems provide regenerative braking that turns the train's kinetic energy back into electricity and returns it to the supply system to be used by other trains or the general utility grid. While diesel locomotives burn petroleum, electricity can be generated from diverse sources including renewable energy. Disadvantages of electric traction include high capital costs that may be uneconomic on trafficked routes. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service and requiring greater complexity of locomotive power; the limited clearances available under overhead lines may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Railway electrification has increased in the past decades, as of 2012, electrified tracks account for nearly one third of total tracks globally. Electrification systems are classified by three main parameters: Voltage Current Direct current Alternating current Frequency Contact system Third rail Fourth rail Overhead lines Overhead lines plus linear motor Four rail system Five rail systemSelection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic.
Different systems are used for intercity areas. Six of the most used voltages have been selected for European and international standardisation; some of these are independent of the contact system used, so that, for example, 750 V DC may be used with either third rail or overhead lines. There are many other voltage systems used for railway electrification systems around the world, the list of railway electrification systems covers both standard voltage and non-standard voltage systems; the permissible range of voltages allowed for the standardised voltages is as stated in standards BS EN 50163 and IEC 60850. These take into account the number of trains drawing their distance from the substation. Increasing availability of high-voltage semiconductors may allow the use of higher and more efficient DC voltages that heretofore have only been practical with AC. 1,500 V DC is used in Japan, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, France, New Zealand, the United States. In Slovakia, there are two narrow-gauge lines in the High Tatras.
In the Netherlands it is used on the main system, alongside 25 kV on the HSL-Zuid and Betuwelijn, 3000 V south of Maastricht. In Portugal, it is used in Denmark on the suburban S-train system. In the United Kingdom, 1,500 V DC was used in 1954 for the Woodhead trans-Pennine route; the system was used for suburban electrification in East London and Manchester, now converted to 25 kV AC. It is now only used for the Wear Metro. In India, 1,500 V DC was the first electrification system launched in 1925 in Mumbai area. Between 2012-2016, the electrification was converted to 25 kV 50 Hz AC, the countrywide system. 3 kV DC is used in Belgium, Spain, the northern Czech Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, former Soviet Union countries and the Netherlands. It was used by the Milwaukee Road from Harlowton, Montana to Seattle-Tacoma, across the Continental Divide and including extensive branch and loop lines in Montana, by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the United States, the Kolkata suburban railway in India, before it was converted to 25 kV 50 Hz AC. DC volt
