1.
Funicular
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Funiculars of one sort or another have existed for hundreds of years and continue to be used for moving both passengers and goods. Its name derives from the latin, funiculus, diminutive of funis, the basic idea of funicular operation is that two cars are always attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the top of the slope. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one going up and one going down, minimizes the energy needed to lift the car going up, winching is normally done by an electric drive that turns the pulley. Sheave wheels guide the cable to and from the drive mechanism, early funiculars used two parallel straight tracks, four rails, with separate station platforms for each vehicle. The tracks are laid with sufficient space between them for the two cars to pass at the midpoint, the wheels of the cars are usually single-flanged, as on standard railway vehicles. Examples of this type of track layout are the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, layouts that require less width have been developed, with only two or three rails for the most part of the slope and four rails only at the passing section. In layouts using three rails, the rail is shared by both cars. The three-rail layout is wider than the layout, but the passing section is simpler to build. If a rack for braking is used, that rack can be mounted higher in a three-rail layout, some four-rail funiculars have the upper and lower sections interlaced and a single platform at each station. The Hill Train at Legoland, Windsor, is an example of this configuration, until the end of the 1870s, the four-rail parallel-track funicular was the normal configuration. Carl Roman Abt developed the Abt Switch allowing the two-rail layout, in the United States, the first funicular to use a two-rail layout was the Telegraph Hill Railroad in San Francisco, which was in operation from 1884 until 1886. The Mount Lowe Railway in Altadena, California, was the first mountain railway in the United States to use the three-rail layout, three- and two-rail layouts considerably reduced the space required for building a funicular, reducing grading costs on mountain slopes and property costs for urban funiculars. These layouts enabled a funicular boom in the half of the 19th century. The cars can be attached to a cable running through a pulley at the bottom of the incline in case the gravity force acting on the vehicles is too low to operate them on the slope. One of the pulleys must be designed as a wheel to avoid slack in the ropes. In this case, the winching can also be done at the end of the incline. Funiculars used in mines were sometimes unpowered gravity planes, also known as self-acting inclines or brake inclines, the weight of descending loaded wagons was used to pull the empty mine wagons. A few funiculars have been using water tanks under the floor of each car that are filled or emptied until just sufficient imbalance is achieved to allow movement
2.
Llandudno
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Llandudno is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community, which includes Penrhyn Bay, the towns name is derived from its patron saint, Saint Tudno. Llandudno, Queen of the Welsh Resorts, a title first applied as early as 1864, is now the largest seaside resort in Wales, historically a part of Caernarfonshire, Llandudno was formerly in the district of Aberconwy within Gwynedd. The origins in recorded history are with the Manor of Gogarth conveyed by King Edward I to Annan, the manor comprised three townships, Y Gogarth in the south-west, Y Cyngreawdr in the north and Yr Wyddfid in the south-east. Home to several herds of wild Kashmiri goats originally descended from several goats given by Queen Victoria to Lord Mostyn. The summit of the Great Orme stands at 679 feet, the Summit Hotel, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of world middleweight champion boxer Randolph Turpin. A haven for flora and fauna with some species such as peregrine falcons. This great limestone headland has many attractions including the Great Orme Tramway, by 1847 the town had grown to a thousand people, served by the new church of St George, built in 1840. The great majority of the men worked in the mines, with others employed in fishing. In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool and these were enthusiastically pursued by Lord Mostyn. The influence of the Mostyn Estate and its agents over the years was paramount in the development of Llandudno, especially after the appointment of George Felton as surveyor, between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno was developed under Feltons supervision. Felton also undertook architectural design work, including the design and execution of Holy Trinity Church in Mostyn Street, the town is just off the North Wales Coast railway line which was opened as the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1848. It became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1859, Llandudno was specifically built as a mid-Victorian era holiday destination and is served by a branch railway line opened in 1858 from Llandudno Junction with stations at Deganwy and Llandudno. Great Orme Tramway The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated a tramway service between Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907 and extended to Colwyn Bay in 1908. Modern Llandudno takes its name from the ancient parish of Saint Tudno but also encompasses several neighbouring townships and districts including Craig-y-Don, Llanrhos, also nearby is the small town and marina of Deganwy and these last four are in the traditional parish of Llanrhos. The ancient geographical boundaries of the Llandudno area are complex, today, Deganwy and Llandudno Junction are part of the town community of Conwy even though they are across the river and only linked to Conwy by a causeway and bridge. A beach of sand, shingle and rock curves two miles between the headlands of the Great Orme and the Little Orme, for most of the length of Llandudnos North Shore there is a wide curving Victorian promenade. The road, collectively known as The Parade, has a different name for each block and it is on these parades, near the centre of the bay is the Venue Cymru
3.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Single-track railway
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A single-track railway is a railway where trains travelling in both directions share the same track. Single track is found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines. Single track is significantly cheaper to build, but has operational, for example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction. By contrast, a track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction. This hindrance on the capacity of a track may be partly overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days. Long freight trains are a problem if the passing stretches are not long enough, other disadvantages include the propagation of delays, since one delayed train on a single track will also delay any train waiting for it to pass. Also, a single track does not have a track that can allow a reduced capacity service to continue if one track is closed. These consist of stretches of double track, usually long enough to hold one train. The capacity of a line is determined by the number of passing loops. Passing loops may also be used to trains heading in the same direction at different speeds to overtake. Some form of signalling system is required, in traditional British practice, single-track lines were operated using a token system where the train driver had to be in possession of a token in order to enter a stretch of single track. Because there was one unique token issued at any one time for each stretch of single track. This method is used on some minor lines but in the longest single-track lines in Britain this has been superseded by radio communication. This generally worked but was inflexible and inefficient and it was improved with the invention of the telegraph and the ability to issue train orders. Converting a single-track railway to double track is called duplication or doubling, converting double track to track is known as singling. A double-track railway operating only a track is known as single-line working. Building bike trails on rail corridors has occurred in limited examples, also reclaiming a railway corridor to use trains again, that have become bike paths, limits the use of double tracks. The bike path is usually where the track would be
6.
Passing loop
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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
7.
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
8.
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
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Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in/1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, there are approximately 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway,1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon,1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica. 1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway,1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways, Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 also saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan,1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were converted to the narrower gauge. Also in 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge, after conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal also converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in broad gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, after 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1065 mm instead of 1067 mm, the gauge is sometimes referred to as CAP gauge, after C. A. The gauge name Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand, in Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is also used, in Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, which directly translates as narrow gauge. It is defined in metric units, Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges Norwegian gauge controversy South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 36 Narrow Gauge
9.
Gauntlet track
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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
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