1.
Central of Georgia Railway
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The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road. This railroad was constructed to join the Macon and Western Railroad at Macon, Georgia and this created a rail link from Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River, to seaports on the Atlantic Ocean. It took from 1837 to 1843 to build the railroad from Savannah to the bank of the Ocmulgee River at Macon. During the Savannah Campaign of the American Civil War, conducted during November and December 1864, Federal troops tore up the rails, the famous passenger train the Nancy Hanks ran from Atlanta to Savannah, via Macon. Another notable train was the Man o War, a Columbus - Atlanta route, both of these trains were named after prize-winning racehorses. In 1907 railroad magnate and financier E. H. Harriman gained a controlling interest in the railway, and in 1909 sold his interest to the Illinois Central Railroad, which he also controlled. In 1932, during the Great Depression, the CofG went into receivership, at the end of 1956 the CofG operated 1,764 miles of road and 2,646 miles of track, that year it reported 3208 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 73 million passenger-miles. Those totals do not include the 144-mile S&A, the 10-mile L&W, the Central became a Southern Railway subsidiary on June 17,1963. In 1971 the Southern formed the Central of Georgia Railroad to merge the Central of Georgia Railway, the Savannah and Atlanta Railway, today the Central of Georgia exists only as a paper railroad within the Norfolk Southern Railway group. 42 miles of the CofGs former mainline are currently leased by the Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway from the State of Georgia, a number of former properties of Central of Georgia are preserved as historic sites. It was the fourth of twenty units that NS painted in the colors of their predecessors, roundhouse Railroad Museum Leesburg Depot, in southwest Georgia Central of Georgia Historical Society Extensive history at RailGA
2.
EMD GP7
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The EMD GP7 is a four-axle road switcher diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October,1949 and May 1954. Power was provided by an EMD 567B 16-cylinder engine which generated 1,500 horsepower, the GP7 was offered both with and without control cabs, and those built without control cabs were called a GP7B. Five GP7Bs were built between March and April 1953, the GP7 was the first EMD road locomotive to use a hood unit design instead of a car-body design. This proved to be more efficient than the car body design as the unit cost less to build, was cheaper and easier to maintain. Of the 2,734 GP7s built,2,620 were for American railroads,112 were built for Canadian railroads and this was the first model in EMDs GP series of locomotives. Concurrently, EMD offered a six-axle SD locomotive, the SD7, unfortunately, in heavy service, the GP7’s frame would bow and sag over time. This defect was corrected in later models, the GP7 proved very popular, and EMD was barely able to meet demand, even after opening a second assembly plant at Cleveland, Ohio. Later, locomotives in EMDs GP-series came to be nicknamed ‘Geeps’, many GP7s can still be found in service today, although most Class 1 roads stopped using these locomotives by the early 1980s. The GP7, GP9 and GP18 locomotives share a similar car-body that evolved over time, most GP7s had three sets of ventilation grills under the cab, and two pair of grills at the end of the long hood. However, some late GP7s were built with car-bodies that were identical to early GP9s, early GP7s had a solid skirt above the fuel tank, while late GP7s and early GP9s had access holes in the skirt. Many railroads later removed most of the skirt to improve access, Locomotives could be built with the engineer’s control stand installed for either the long hood, or the short hood designated as the front. Two control stands for either direction running was also an option, the GP7 was also available with or without dynamic brakes, and a steam generator installed in the short hood was also an option. In the latter case the 1,600 US gallons fuel tank was divided, with half for diesel fuel, and half for boiler water. There are five GP7s on A J Kristopans EMD Serial number page that reused previous serial numbers, B&O6405, CRI&P1308, L&N501 and 502 and these rebuilt units were rebuilt as new on new frames. Another rebuild by GMD is that CN4824 was rebuilt as a GP7 with parts from an F3A in October 1958, a few production GP7s and four of the GP7Bs were built with 567BC or 567C engines starting in March 1953 through May 1954. These are noted on the roster above, many railroads rebuilt their GP7s with low short hoods, some railroads went further in their rebuilding than others. Missouri Pacific Railroad upgraded their GP7s with 567BC engines and replaced the standard EMD 2-stack exhaust with a 4-stack “liberated” exhaust, illinois Central Railroad rebuilt most of its GP7s with 567BC engine blocks, liberated exhausts, paper air-intake filters, 26-L brakes. All but the first locomotive rebuilt had their front hood reduced in height for improved crew visibility, the IC designated these rebuilt locomotives GP8
3.
Duluth, Georgia
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Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, as of the 2010 census, Duluth had a population of 26,600, and the U. S. Census Bureau estimated the population to be 29,193 as of 2015. Duluth is located north of Interstate 85 and it is home to Gwinnett Place Mall, the Gwinnett Civic and Cultural Center, Infinite Energy Arena, Hudgens Center for the Arts, and the Red Clay Theater. It is also home to Gwinnett Medical Center–Duluth, an 81-bed hospital constructed in 2006, as well as GMCs Glancy Campus, the agricultural manufacturer AGCO is based in Duluth. Forbes ranked Duluth 26th in Americas Best Places to Move in 2009, when Duluth was established in the early 19th century, it was primarily forest land occupied by tribespeople. When Gwinnett County was established in 1818, white settlement of the area accelerated, cotton merchant Evan Howell constructed a road connecting his cotton gin at the Chattahoochee River with Old Peachtree Road, creating Howells Cross Roads. The settlement later known as Howells Crossing. Howell was the grandfather of Atlanta Mayor Evan P. Howell and his descendants continue to live in the area, but only Howell Ferry Road in Duluth bears the name. Howells Crossing was renamed Duluth in 1871 after Congress funded a north-south railroad line into the community and it was named after the city of Duluth, Minnesota. The Midwestern city had gotten its own railroad connection not long before, which had prompted Rep. J. Proctor Knott, according to contemporary reports, Evan P. Howell himself jokingly suggested the name change in a speech about the arrival of railroad service in the Georgia town. The railroad encouraged the growth of Duluths economy, a schoolhouse was built in 1871 on the site of what is now Coleman Middle School. The first Methodist church was organized in 1871, and the first Baptist congregation formed in 1886, both churches continue today at new locations along State Route 120. The Bank of Duluth was charted in 1904, followed by the Farmers, in 1922, Duluth elected Georgias first female mayor, Alice Harrell Strickland. She donated 1-acre of land for a community forest and began efforts to land for public recreation. Duluth grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, along with the rest of Gwinnett County, Georgia Governor George Busbee became a resident of Duluth in 1983 after leaving office, moving to the Sweet Bottom Plantation subdivision developed by Scott Hudgens. A major revitalization of the Duluth downtown area was undertaken in the early 21st century, development along Sugarloaf Parkway has continued with construction of the Gwinnett Arena near the Gwinnett Convention Center. In much of the 20th century, when Gwinnett County was still rural, Duluth was known in the area as being one of the few small towns with its own hospital, consequently, many older residents of the area who call other towns home were actually born in Duluth. Joan Glancy was replaced with Gwinnett Medical Center - Duluth in 2006, the city made national headlines twice in 2005
4.
Track gauge
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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
5.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
6.
5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways
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Railways with a railway track gauge of 5 ft/1,524 mm were first constructed in the United Kingdom and the United States. This gauge is commonly called Russian gauge because this gauge was later chosen as the common track gauge for the Russian Empire. The gauge was redefined by Russian Railways to be 1520 mm, the primary region where Russian gauge is used is the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Finland, with about 225,000 km of track. Russian gauge is the second most common gauge in the world, in 1748, the Wylam waggonway was built to a 5 ft gauge for the shipment of coal from Wylam to Lemington down the River Tyne. In 1839, the Eastern Counties Railway was constructed, and in 1840, in 1844, both lines were converted to 1,435 mm standard gauge. In 1903, the East Hill Cliff Railway, a funicular, was opened. In 1827, Horatio Allen, the engineer of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, prescribed the usage of 5 ft gauge. The presence of several distinct gauges was a disadvantage to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. In 1886, when around 11,500 miles of 5 ft gauge track existed in the United States, while of almost no practical importance the railway did demonstrate that this gauge was viable. The second railway in the Russian Empire was the Warsaw–Vienna railway which was built to 1,435 mm, for the building of Russias first major railway, the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway, engineer Pavel Melnikov hired as consultant George Washington Whistler, a prominent American railway engineer. Melnikov, of the Construction Commission overseeing the railway, recommended 6 ft following the example of the first railway and his study of US Railways. Following a report sent by Whistler the head of the Main Administration of Transport and Buildings recommended 5 ft and it was approved for the railway by Tsar Nicholas I on February 14,1843. The next lines built were also approved with this gauge but it was not until March 1860 that a Government decree stated all major railways in Russia would be 5 ft gauge. It is widely and incorrectly believed that Imperial Russia chose a gauge broader than standard gauge for military reasons, in 1841 a Russian army engineer wrote a paper stating that such a danger did not exist since railways could be made dysfunctional by retreating forces. Finally for the Moscow - Saint Petersburg Railway, which became the benchmark, despite this the difference in gauge did play a role in hindering invading armies, especially in World War II, it was just not selected with that in mind. The 5-foot gauge became the standard in the whole Russian Empire and that includes the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasian and Central Asian republics, Finland, and in the once Soviet-influenced Mongolia. This formed a break of gauge between Changchun and Kuancheng, until the rest of the former Chinese Eastern Railway was converted to standard gauge, unlike in South Manchuria, the Soviet Unions reconquest of southern Sakhalin from Japan did not result in regauging of the railway system. Southern Sakhalin has continued with the original Japanese 1,067 mm gauge simultaneously with the Russian gauge railway, constructed in the northern part of the island in 1930-1932
7.
Track gauge conversion
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In rail transport, gauge conversion is the process of converting a railway from one rail gauge to another, through the alteration of the railway tracks. An alternative to gauge conversion is dual gauge track, or gauge conversion of the vehicles themselves. Rails may be too light for the loads imposed by broader-gauge railcars, in some cases, gauge-convertible sleepers are installed before the conversion of the track itself. The sleepers must be enough to take the wider of the two gauges, and must be able to accommodate the fittings for both the existing and the new gauges. In cases where the difference between the two gauges is small, such as 1,000 mm and 1,067 mm track, or 1,435 mm and 1,524 mm track, in those cases, gauntlet track is required. Timber sleepers are always gauge convertible, provided that they are long enough, if the new gauge is wider than the old, a shorter sleeper than would normally be used can be tolerated, provided it still allows for secure fastening of the wider track. Concrete sleepers cannot be converted as an afterthought, but must have the future fittings cast in place when manufactured, steel sleepers should have the extra fitting incorporated when manufactured, though it is theoretically possible to drill or weld new fittings to the sleeper after installation. A special gauge-convertible sleeper, with a chair for the Pandrol clip. In June 2008, the South Australian government announced that by 2012 the Adelaide metropolitan network would be converted from 1,600 mm broad gauge to standard gauge, consequently, broad-gauge timber sleepers are progressively being replaced with gauge-convertible concrete sleepers on the metropolitan rail network. As of 2016, however, gauge conversion had not commenced, narrow-gauge railways often have a significantly smaller structure gauge, and therefore the rolling stock used has a smaller loading gauge in both height and width. Conversion to a track gauge will often require enlargement of the structure gauge on bridges, under road overpasses. Embankments and cuts could need widening as well, the minimum curve radius of narrow-gauge railways is often less than on tracks with a wider gauge, so route deviations might be required to allow the radius of curves to be increased. Track centres at stations with multiple tracks may also have to be increased, in this instance, the loading gauge of the broad gauge and standard gauge lines are essentially the same. Where vehicles cross a change of gauge, they must either be equipped for a change of bogie or have adjustable gauge axles. For example passenger trains crossing between the 1,435 mm system in France and the 1,668 mm in Spain pass through an installation which adjusts their variable gauge axles. This temporary alteration to allow through working is generally referred to as gauge change, in the event, few have been so converted, but one such is Victorian Railways R class R766. Because boilers and fireboxes are in the way locomotives can be converted only to a wider gauge, about 1860, the Bristol and Exeter Railway converted five 1,435 mm gauge locomotives to 7 ft gauge, and later converted them back again. In the 19th century, in the US, some broad 1,524 mm gauge locomotives were designed for conversion to 1,435 mm gauge
8.
Reporting mark
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A reporting mark is an alphabetic code of one to four letters used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain railroad networks. In North America the mark, which consists of an code of one to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment. The Association of American Railroads assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U. S, surface Transportation Board, Transport Canada, and Mexican Government. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name, as it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code, the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. In another example, the mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX because the state transportation agency owns the equipment used in these services. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation, which is a railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR, the standard ISO6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When the owner of a mark is taken over by another company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway in the 1990s, some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If the acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas, CMO originally belonged to a predecessor of the CNW, which passed it on to them, from which the UP inherited it. Some of these still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on the first letter of the reporting mark, railinc, a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Railinc offers a free online look-up of reporting marks and other industry reference files through the Railincs Freight Rail 411 website, a railway vehicle must be registered in a national vehicle register using a 12-digit number derived from the old UIC system of vehicle numbering. The number contains the country in the third and fourth digit. The VKM must not contain special signs or digits, the VKM is preceded by the code for the country, where the vehicle is registered and a hyphen. Some examples, When a vehicle is sold it does not normally be transferred to another register, the Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD, the UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number
9.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
