1.
Hendon Central tube station
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Hendon Central is a London Underground station in North West London on the A41. The station is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line and it was opened along with Brent Cross tube station on 19 November 1923 as the first stage of an extension of the Golders Green branch of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway. The station served as the terminus of the western fork until 18 August 1924 when the second. Hendon Central, like all stations north from Golders Green, is a surface station, when it was built it stood in lonely glory amid fields, as one writer puts it, south of the old village of Hendon, which has since been swallowed up by Londons suburbs. The fact that the area was largely undeveloped allowed an unusual degree of coordination between the station and the surrounding buildings that were constructed over the next few years. For many years this was a known as Central Circus. Writing in 1932, William Passingham commented the integrated approach taken at Hendon Central as an example of the co-ordination of road-planning with passenger station requirements. London Buses routes 83,113,143,186,324 and 326, note rural landscape beyond station awaiting development. Station building,1929, now incorporated into a commercial building
2.
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
3.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
4.
Metropolitan line
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Coloured magenta on the tube map, the line is 41.4 miles in length and serves 34 stations. Unlike the tube railways, the tunnels are just below the surface, just under 67 million passenger journeys were made on the line in 2011/12. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. The central London lines were electrified by 1907, but electric locomotives were exchanged for steam locomotives on trains heading north of Harrow, after the railway was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 the line was cut back to Aylesbury. Steam trains ran until 1961, when the line was electrified to, the Hammersmith & City line was shown on the tube map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990, when it appeared as a separate line. The current S7 and S8 Stock trains entered service between 2010 and 2012, the track is mostly underground between Aldgate and Finchley Road, save from Barbican and Farringdon as well as the Baker Street platforms. Baker Street is the terminus for some trains not continuing on to Aldgate. The disused Metropolitan line platforms at Willesden Green and Neasden are still in place despite Metropolitan line services having been withdrawn in 1940. The Watford branch is due to be diverted to Watford Junction by 2020, resulting in the closure of Watford station, the extension will link up with the London Overground Watford DC Line and would provide an interchange with the West Coast Main Line. The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933 and it opened on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the worlds first underground railway. In 1871, when plans were presented for a railway in Paris. The modern word metro is a form of the French word. The railway was extended from both ends and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with electric multiple units operating between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street, to remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the railway purchased electric locomotives, exchanged for steam locomotives at Harrow from 1908. In 1910, a silent film recording was made showing large portions of the journey from Baker Street to Aylesbury and Uxbridge. The film survives and is publicly available, unlike other railways in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, thus benefitting from the increase in the value of its land caused by the building of the railway. After World War I it promoted its housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand, to improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in the 1920s
5.
London Underground A60 and A62 Stock
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The stock was built in two batches by Cravens of Sheffield in the early 1960s, and replaced all other trains on the line. At the time of its withdrawal in September 2012, the stock was the oldest on the Underground and it was the only stock to have luggage racks, umbrella hooks and separate power and braking controls, and the last to have no automated announcements. The project was delayed by World War II and lack of funds during the austerity period after the war, in 1946 two experimental trailers similar in exterior appearance to the production trains were built using underframes from T Stock, but they were scrapped when the trials concluded. Graff-Baker died in 1952, before the trains were finally built, the first units,5004 and 5008, entered service to Watford in June 1961. The Amersham/Chesham services began later that year, London Transport later ordered 27 A62 Stock trains, these were introduced between 1961 and 1963 to replace F and P Stocks on the Uxbridge service. By December 1963 the roll-out was complete, the trains were designated as A Stock to mark the electrification of the Metropolitan line to Amersham. For this reason the cars have three sets of doors per car. A distinctive feature was the use of transverse seating only, uncommon on the Underground and this is because it was designed for journeys which might last over an hour. Most of the seating was of the high-capacity transverse 3 +2 arrangement, four tip-up seats were provided at the rear of the driving motor. The stock had luggage racks and umbrella hooks, the only Underground stock to have these features, A60 and A62 stocks were nearly identical in appearance. At 116 in they were the Undergrounds widest trains, the stock was refurbished between 1993 and 1998 by Adtranz in Derby. Car end windows were installed, the seating was reupholstered, at the time of refurbishment the Metropolitan line had a low priority for receiving new trains. Each unit consisted of four cars, two powered driving motors at each end and two non-powered trailers in between, each unit was further divided into two semi-permanently-coupled sets, a driving motor and trailer. For its main services the stock operated in a formation of eight cars between Aldgate and Amersham, Chesham, Uxbridge and Watford. When built it had a top speed of 70 mph, in addition to the Metropolitan line, A Stock was permitted to traverse the following sections, subject to the following restrictions, Cars had a four-digit number. The first digit identified the type of car, the last three digits the set, in further detail, ^ operational DM † Renumbered + Replaced/formed with a renumbered car A60 Stock reached 50 years of service on 12 June 2011. The age of the stock made spare parts harder to obtain, s8 Stock replaced the stock, with the first unit introduced on 31 July 2010. The withdrawal of A Stock commenced on 9 October 2010, in February 2012 the London Transport Museum began offering luggage racks from withdrawn A Stock for sale
6.
Piccadilly line
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The Piccadilly line /ˌpɪkəˈdɪli/ is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fourth busiest line on the Underground network on the basis of the number of passengers transported per year with 210,000,000. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with a number of surface sections and it is named after the road above it between Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly Circus. Some of its stations are shared with the District line and some are shared with the Metropolitan line and it is the second longest line on the system, after the Central line, and has the second most stations, after the District line. The GN&SRs and B&PCRs separate routes were linked with a section between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn. A section of the District Railways scheme for a tube line between South Kensington and Earls Court was also added in order to complete the route. When the GNP&BR was formally opened on 15 December 1906, the line ran from the Great Northern Railways station at Finsbury Park to the District Railways station at Hammersmith. On 30 November 1907, the branch from Holborn to the Strand opened. In 1905, plans were made to extend it the distance south under the River Thames to Waterloo. Although built with twin tunnels, single track shuttle operation became the norm on the branch from 1918 on, on 1 July 1910 the GNP&BR and the other UERL-owned tube railways were merged by private Act of Parliament to become the London Electric Railway Company. On 10 December 1928, a rebuilt Piccadilly Circus station was opened, There had been deputations made to Parliament asking for an early extension of the line either towards Tottenham and Edmonton or towards Wood Green and Palmers Green. The early 1930s was a time of recession, and in order to relieve unemployment, government capital was made available, the chief features of the scheme were an extension northwards from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. However, a Ventilation station, in architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site. There was also opposition from the London and North Eastern Railway to the line. The extension began from Finsbury Park to a point a little south of Arnos Grove, a Parliamentary report of 1919 recommended through running to Richmond and Ealing. By the end of the 1920s the priority had shifted to serving the areas around Hounslow and north, construction of the linking sections started in 1930, and the services opened as follows. To Uxbridge, the District Railway had operated services to Uxbridge since 1910 and this influence can be seen in the bold vertical and horizontal forms, which were combined with the use of traditional materials like brick. Many of these Holden-designed station are listed buildings and this idea was eventually rejected due to the inconvenience to passengers that would have been caused during rebuilding, as well as the costs of the new tunnels
7.
London Underground 1973 Stock
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The London Underground 1973 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the Piccadilly line of the London Underground. It was introduced into service in 1975 with the extension of the line to Hatton Cross in 1975, the trains were built by Metro Cammell between 1974 and 1977, and were refurbished by Bombardier Transportation between 1995 and 2000. In the early 1970s London Transport placed an order of 88 trains to replace the 1959 stock, built between 1972 and 1975 by Metro Cammell in Birmingham, the first unit entered service on 19 July 1975 and the last was introduced by 1977. The trains featured longer cars and larger space than the previous ones. The stock was refurbished by Bombardier Transportation between 1996 and 2001, changes included the removal of transverse seating, strap hangers replaced with grab bars, new floor material, and a full repaint into London Undergrounds corporate livery. The peak Piccadilly line service requires 79 trains in operation, each train is made up of two units of three cars. The trains are maintained in Cockfosters and Northfields depots, like all London Underground trains, the stock operate on a four-rail 630V DC power system. In November 2006, the system was reintroduced with another automated announcer featuring the voice of Julie Berry, the driver can select between two settings, commuter and tourist. Certain stations include announcements warning of the gap between the train and platform, interchanges with other London Underground lines and other rail services are also included in announcements, such as Kings Cross St Pancras which includes St Pancras International. The EVO tube concept design, an articulated train with walk through cars, was introduced early in 2011. The proposal introduces fully automated trains and signalling to increase capacity first on the Piccadilly line in 2025, followed the Central, Waterloo & City, and Bakerloo lines by 2033. The fully automated trains may not have drivers, however the ASLEF and RMT trade unions that represent the drivers strongly oppose this, saying it would be unsafe
8.
Intermodal container
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These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, container van or box, sea or c can. The common heights are 8 feet 6 inches and 9 feet 6 inches – the latter are known as High Cube or Hi-Cube containers, in 2012 there were about 20.5 million intermodal containers in the world of varying types to suit different cargoes. Containers have largely supplanted the traditional break bulk cargo – in 2010 containers accounted for 60% of the seaborne trade. The predominant alternative methods of transport carry bulk cargo – whether gaseous, liquid or solid – e. g. by bulk carrier or tank ship, for air freight, the more light-weight IATA-defined unit load device is used. By the 1830s, railways on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of these. Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a truck, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, early versions of standardized containers were used in Europe before World War II. Construction of these containers had a frame with wooden walls, floor, roof. American containers at this time were not standardized, and these early containers were not yet stackable – neither in the U. S. nor Europe, in November 1932, the first container terminal in the world was opened by the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company in Enola, PA. A system was selected for Western Europe, based on the Netherlands system for goods and waste transportation called Laadkisten. This system used roller containers for transport by rail, truck and ship, in various configurations up to 5,500 kg capacity and this became the first post World War II European railway standard of the International Union of Railways – UIC-590, known as pa-Behälter. It was implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the use of standardized steel shipping containers began during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when commercial shipping operators and the US military started developing such units. In 1948 the U. S. Army Transportation Corps developed the Transporter, a rigid, corrugated steel container, able to carry 9,000 pounds. It was 8 ft 6 in long,6 ft 3 in wide, and 6 ft 10 in high, with doors on one end, was mounted on skids. After proving successful in Korea, the Transporter was developed into the Container Express box system in late 1952, cONEXes could be stacked three high, and protected their contents from the elements. By 1965 the US military used some 100,000 Conex boxes, making this the first worldwide application of intermodal containers. From 1949 onwards, engineer Keith Tantlinger repeatedly contributed to the development of containers, as well as their handling, steel castings on the top corners provided lifting and securing points. In 1955 trucking magnate Malcom McLean bought Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, to form a container shipping enterprise, the first containers were supplied by Brown, where McLean met Keith Tantlinger, and hired him as vice-president of engineering and research. Under the supervision of Tantlinger, a new 35 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft 6 in Sea-Land container was developed, each container had a frame with eight corner castings that could withstand stacking loads
9.
Containerization
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Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers made of weathering steel. The handling system is completely mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes, all containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems. The system, developed after World War II, dramatically reduced the costs of transport, supported the boom in international trade. Containerization did away with the sorting of most shipments and the need for warehousing. It displaced many thousands of workers who formerly handled break bulk cargo. Containerization also reduced congestion in ports, significantly shortened shipping time and reduced losses from damage, before containerization, goods were usually handled manually as break bulk cargo. Typically, goods would be loaded onto a vehicle from the factory, when the vessel arrived, they would be moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo to be lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers. The ship might call at other ports before off-loading a given consignment of cargo. Each port visit would delay the delivery of other cargo, delivered cargo might then have been offloaded into another warehouse before being picked up and delivered to its destination. Multiple handling and delays made transport costly, time consuming and unreliable, containerization has its origins in early coal mining regions in England beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat Starvationer with 10 wooden containers, in 1795, Benjamin Outram opened the Little Eaton Gangway, upon which coal was carried in wagons built at his Butterley Ironwork. The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the gangway took the form of containers, which, loaded coal, could be transshipped from canal barges on the Derby Canal. By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of these. Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, originally used for moving coal on and off barges, loose boxes were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones, the early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. Later in 1919, his system was extended to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 freight trucks, prior to the Second World War, many European countries independently developed container systems. In 1919, Stanisław Rodowicz, an engineer, developed the first draft of the system in Poland. In 1920, he built a prototype of the biaxial wagon, the Polish-Bolshevik War stopped development of the container system in Poland
10.
Clearance car
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A clearance car is a type of railroad car in maintenance of way service. Its purpose is to check the clearances around the tracks and ensure that trains conforming to the standard loading gauge or dynamic envelope will not encounter any obstruction. Additionally, by measuring the actual clearances along a route, the railroad can determine whether outsize loads can be accommodated along that route, and the largest size feasible. Early clearance cars simply consisted of an outline of the loading gauge attached to a railroad car. Later clearance cars functioned by using physical feelers—rods which extended from the car in all directions which would be deflected back by obstructions and these would be connected to instrumentation which displayed the actual clearance at that point. These feelers have an advantage in that they bounce back and do not break if they do hit something, more recently, clearance cars using lasers for measurement have come into service. These are generally HiRail trucks—road vehicles with supplemental rail wheels, the clearance car allowed accurate and speedy measurement of the clearances for a structure. Generally they were owned by larger railroads, other railroads sometimes leased them for short periods. Some were self-propelled, while others were locomotive-hauled, structure gauge Wayobjects MOW equipment page 11 at North East Rails, including several clearance cars. Article on the Pennsylvania Railroad clearance car at the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Societys site, written by a former clearance car crewmember
11.
Laser
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A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The term laser originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, the first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light coherently, spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances, Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with a very narrow spectrum, i. e. they can emit a single color of light. Temporal coherence can be used to produce pulses of light as short as a femtosecond, Lasers are distinguished from other light sources by their coherence. Spatial coherence is typically expressed through the output being a narrow beam, Laser beams can be focused to very tiny spots, achieving a very high irradiance, or they can have very low divergence in order to concentrate their power at a great distance. Temporal coherence implies a polarized wave at a single frequency whose phase is correlated over a great distance along the beam. A beam produced by a thermal or other incoherent light source has an amplitude and phase that vary randomly with respect to time and position. Lasers are characterized according to their wavelength in a vacuum, most single wavelength lasers actually produce radiation in several modes having slightly differing frequencies, often not in a single polarization. Although temporal coherence implies monochromaticity, there are lasers that emit a broad spectrum of light or emit different wavelengths of light simultaneously, there are some lasers that are not single spatial mode and consequently have light beams that diverge more than is required by the diffraction limit. However, all devices are classified as lasers based on their method of producing light. Lasers are employed in applications where light of the spatial or temporal coherence could not be produced using simpler technologies. The word laser started as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, in the early technical literature, especially at Bell Telephone Laboratories, the laser was called an optical maser, this term is now obsolete. A laser that produces light by itself is technically an optical rather than an optical amplifier as suggested by the acronym. It has been noted that the acronym LOSER, for light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation. With the widespread use of the acronym as a common noun, optical amplifiers have come to be referred to as laser amplifiers. The back-formed verb to lase is frequently used in the field, meaning to produce light, especially in reference to the gain medium of a laser. Further use of the laser and maser in an extended sense, not referring to laser technology or devices, can be seen in usages such as astrophysical maser
12.
Engineering tolerance
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In engineering and safety, a physical distance or space, as in a truck, train or boat under a bridge as well as a train in a tunnel. In mechanical engineering the space between a bolt and a nut or a hole, etc, dimensions, properties, or conditions may have some variation without significantly affecting functioning of systems, machines, structures, etc. A variation beyond the tolerance is said to be noncompliant, rejected, a primary concern is to determine how wide the tolerances may be without affecting other factors or the outcome of a process. This can be by the use of principles, engineering knowledge. Experimental investigation is very useful to investigate the effects of tolerances, Design of experiments, formal engineering evaluations, a good set of engineering tolerances in a specification, by itself, does not imply that compliance with those tolerances will be achieved. Actual production of any product involves some inherent variation of input and output, measurement error and statistical uncertainty are also present in all measurements. With a normal distribution, the tails of measured values may extend well beyond plus and minus three standard deviations from the process average, appreciable portions of one tails might extend beyond the specified tolerance. The process capability of systems, materials, and products needs to be compatible with the engineering tolerances. Process controls must be in place and an effective Quality management system, such as Total Quality Management, a process capability index is used to indicate the relationship between tolerances and actual measured production. The choice of tolerances is also affected by the statistical sampling plan. This relates to the question of whether tolerances must be rigid or whether some small percentage of being out-of-tolerance may sometimes be acceptable. The alternative is that the best product has a measurement which is precisely on target, there is an increasing loss which is a function of the deviation or variability from the target value of any design parameter. The greater the deviation from target, the greater is the loss and this is described as the Taguchi loss function or quality loss function, and it is the key principle of an alternative system called inertial tolerancing. Research and development work conducted by M. Pillet and colleagues at the Savoy University has resulted in industry-specific adoption, recently the publishing of the French standard NFX 04-008 has allowed further consideration by the manufacturing community. Dimensional tolerance is related to, but different from fit in mechanical engineering, tolerances are assigned to parts for manufacturing purposes, as boundaries for acceptable build. No machine can hold dimensions precisely to the value, so there must be acceptable degrees of variation. If a part is manufactured, but has dimensions that are out of tolerance, tolerances can be applied to any dimension. The commonly used terms are, Basic size, the diameter of the shaft
13.
Railway platform height
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On a railway, the platform height refers to the height of a railway platform Above Top of Rail. A related term is train floor height which is the height of the floor of the rail vehicle, worldwide, there are a large number of incompatible standards for platform heights and train floor heights. When raised platforms are in use, the width must also be compatible. Differences in platform height can pose a risk for passenger safety, platform ramps, steps, and platform gap fillers together with hazard warnings such as mind the gap are used to reduce risk and enable access. Platform height affects the gauge, and must conform to the structure gauge physical clearance specifications for the system. Tracks which are shared between freight and passenger service must have platforms which do not obstruct either type of railroad car, to reduce station construction costs, many train systems use a low platform, and require passenger cars with internal stairs up to the train floor. Buses, trams, trolleys and railway cars are divided into several typical categories. Trains The majority of systems in Australia use high level platforms with a platform height a small distance below the train floor level. Exception to this include Queensland who have narrow gauge trains and lower platforms, in New South Wales, by 2000, the platform step had been allowed to grow to a maximum of about 300 mm, which was uncomfortably large. For Sydneys 2000 Olympics, new and altered platforms were designed to match the Tangara trains, which are 3,000 mm wide, leaving a gap of about 80 mm. This has become the standard for all subsequent platforms and trains in NSW, the tramway network in Melbourne have some low level platforms and low floor vehicles, but most trams have steps and are boarded from the road. The Gold Coast and Sydney light rail networks have low floor trams and platforms at all stops, chinese platforms are 380 mm,550 mm,760 mm and 1,250 mm. Areas adjacent to broad gauge countries/regions, such as Xinjiang and Inner-Mongolia, platforms on the MTR are 1,250 mm above the rail for the Tung Chung Line and Airport Express, but the height of those on other urban lines is unknown. It seems like all the MTR lines built before the MTR-KCR merger in 2007 have the same specs, platforms on the East Rail Line are 42 in high. Since all the former KCR lines excluding light rail are built to the same specs, iranian platforms are 380 mm,550 mm and 760 mm. Like in China, areas adjacent to broad gauge countries/regions such as the eastern regions such as around Mashhad and Zahedan, north Korean platforms are standardized at 1,250 mm only. In there,1,250 mm is the norm, lower-level platforms are already raised to this height, typical Korail platforms are 550 mm. Older platforms are lower than 500mm, elsewhere, such as Hokkaido and the Tohoku/Hokuriku region of Honshu,920 mm – and even 760 mm platforms are still commonplace
14.
Schnabel car
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A Schnabel car is a specialized type of railroad freight car. It is designed to carry heavy and oversized loads in such a way that the load makes up part of the car, when a Schnabel car is empty, the two lifting arms are connected and the car can usually operate at normal freight train speeds. Some Schnabel cars include hydraulic equipment that will either lift or horizontally shift the load while in transit to clear obstructions along the cars route. As of 2012, there were 31 Schnabel cars operating in Europe,30 in North America,25 in Asia, each half contains nine trucks which are connected by a complex system of span bolsters. Its tare weight is 399.6 short tons and has a limit of 1,017.9 short tons for a maximum gross weight of 1,417.5 short tons. WECX801 has the ability to shift its load 44 inches vertically, the trains speed is limited to 25 mph when WECX801 is empty, but only 15 mph when loaded and requires a crew of six operators in addition to the trains crew. The word Schnabel is from German Tragschnabelwagen, meaning carrying-beak-wagon, because of the tapered shape of the lifting arms. The Schnabel design is covered under US patent #US4041879 A, filed December 1,1975, issued to Charles R. Cockrell, with Combustion Engineering, Schnabel cars – photos and technical information on Schnabel cars used worldwide. Heavy Rail Transport Basics archived version
15.
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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Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
17.
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
18.
High Speed 2
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High Speed 2 is a planned high-speed railway in the United Kingdom linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester. It would be the second high-speed rail line in Britain, after High Speed 1 which connects London to the Channel Tunnel. The line is to be built in a Y configuration, with London on the bottom of the Y, Birmingham at the centre, Leeds at the top right and Manchester at the top left. Work on the first phase is scheduled to begin in 2017, reaching Birmingham by 2026, Crewe on the leg of the Y by 2027. Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, the HS2 project is being developed by High Speed Two Ltd, a company limited by guarantee established by the UK government and has a projected cost of £56 billion. Peak hour capacity leaving Euston will more than triple once HS2 is running, increasing from 11,300 to 34,900, the project is to be built in two phases. Phase 1 is from London to the West Midlands and phase 2 from the West Midlands to Leeds, Phase 2 is split into two sub-phases. Phase 2a is from the West Midlands to Crewe, Phase 2b will extend the project from Crewe to Manchester, and the West Midlands to Leeds. The government’s decision will go through the process for approval. Although Parliament has approved the first two phases of construction, precise details of the plan and route have not been formalised, and are still open to negotiation and change. For example, the spur to Heathrow airport was dropped from the scheme in 2015, as was the HS1 to HS2 link. The sections either side of the Pennines are open to amended design to accommodate HS3 using sections of HS2 track. In 2009 there were reportedly 5,600 km of high-speed line in operation in Europe, High-speed rail arrived in the United Kingdom with the opening in 2003 of the first part of High Speed 1 between London and the Channel Tunnel. Most of the network in Britain consists of lines constructed during the Victorian era. The government report suggested that the line could be extended to reach Scotland, for the HS2 report, a route was investigated to an accuracy of 50 centimetres. In December 2009 HS2 presented its report to the government, the study investigated the possibility of links to Heathrow Airport and connections with Crossrail, the Great Western Main Line, and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, as displayed in the map shown. On 11 March 2010 the HS2 report and supporting studies were published, the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition, on taking office in May 2010, undertook a review of HS2 plans inherited from the previous government. In March 2010 Theresa Villiers had stated The idea that kind of Wormwood Scrubs International station is the best rail solution for Heathrow is just not credible
19.
International Union of Railways
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The UIC or International Union of Railways is an international rail transport industry body. The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns, and there were many border changes after World War I. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the mother country, into this environment the UIC was created on 20 October 1922, with the aim of standardising industry practices. Ticket revenue sharing was undertaken with the UIC Franc currency equivalent. UIC classification and UIC Country Codes allowed precise determination of rolling stock capabilities and ownership, the UICs mission is to promote rail transport at world level and meet the challenges of mobility and sustainable development. They were soon joined by the USSR, the Middle East, today, the UIC has 194 members across 5 continents. Of these there are,73 active members 68 associate members 53 affiliate members On 12 November, in order to provide a common understanding and reduce potential confusion, the UIC has established standard international railway terminology and a trilingual thesaurus of terms. The thesaurus was the result of cooperation with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport and was published in 1995, the UIC has established systems for the classification of locomotives and their axle arrangements, coaches and goods wagons. UIC plays an important role in standardization of parts, data. Therefore, UIC codes are developed since the beginning of UICs work, a new term for these UIC leaflets is used by UIC for better understanding, International Railway Standard. Some UIC codes are, UIC568 The 13-corded standardized connection cable with connector is used to transmit data, UIC 592-2 Large containers for transport on wagons - Technical conditions to be fulfilled by large containers accepted for use in international traffic. Describes the classes and categories of large containers, handling characteristics, identification markings, UIC 592-3 Large containers, swap bodies and transport frames for horizontal transhipment - Standard report on acceptance tests. UIC 592-4 Swap bodies for grab handling and spreader gripping - Technical conditions, Swap bodies are the removable superstructures of road transport vehicles. Their dimensions and some of their fittings are standardised, particularly dimensions, strength parameters and securing devices, of the road vehicle, UIC 596-5 Transport of road vehicles on wagons - Technical organisation - Conveyance of semi-trailers with P coding or N coding on recess wagons. This leaflet sets out regulations and provisions for semi-trailers with normal road transport characteristics for conveyance on fixed-recess carrier wagons, the provisions are valid for semi-trailers, gantry equipment/industrial trucks with grab handles, recess wagon types 1a and 1b in accordance with UIC Leaflet 571-4. UIC 596-6 Conveyance of road vehicles on wagons - Technical organisation - Conditions for coding combined-transport load units, the provisions aim to facilitate LU identification to speed-up international traffic movements. They are applicable to semi-trailers, swap bodies, roller units loaded on wagons, African Union of Railways, similar organisation focused on Africa Association of American Railroads International Union of Public Transport, which covers passenger railways, especially in cities
20.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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European Union Agency for Railways
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The ERA publishes a document summarizing the status of the TSIs. The ERA sets common safety targets, common safety methods and common safety indicators, following Directive 2004/49/EC, the ERA also hosts a number of databases, among which a register of remaining, applicable national rules. The agency was established in 2004, and commenced operations in 2006 as the European Railway Agency and it changed its name in 2016, becoming the European Union Agency for Railways. Rail transport in Europe European Rail Infrastructure Managers European Railway Agency website
22.
TGV
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TGV is Frances intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF, the national rail operator. It was developed in the 1970s by GEC-Alsthom and SNCF, originally designed as turbotrains to be powered by gas turbines, the prototypes evolved into electric trains with the 1973 oil crisis. A TGV test train set the record for the fastest wheeled train, in mid-2011, scheduled TGV trains operated at the highest speeds in conventional train service in the world, regularly reaching 320 km/h on the LGV Est, LGV Rhin-Rhône, and LGV Méditerranée. The commercial success of the first LGV, the LGV Sud-Est, led to an expansion of the network to the south, and new lines in the west, north, and east. Eager to emulate the TGVs success, neighbouring countries Italy, Spain, Several future lines are planned, including extensions within France and to surrounding countries. Cities such as Tours have become part of a TGV commuter belt around Paris, in 2007, SNCF generated profits of €1.1 billion driven largely by higher margins on the TGV network. The idea of the TGV was first proposed in the 1960s, at the time the French government favoured new technology, exploring the production of hovercraft and the Aérotrain air-cushion vehicle. Simultaneously, SNCF began researching high-speed trains on conventional tracks, in 1976, the government agreed to fund the first line. By the mid-1990s, the trains were so popular that SNCF president Louis Gallois declared TGV The train that saved French railways, TGV001 was not a wasted prototype, its gas turbine was only one of its many new technologies for high-speed rail travel. It also tested high-speed brakes, needed to dissipate the large amount of energy of a train at high speed, high-speed aerodynamics. It was articulated, i. e. two adjacent carriages shared a bogie, allowing free yet controlled motion with respect to one another and it reached 318 km/h, which remains the world speed record for a non-electric train. Its interior and exterior were styled by British-born designer Jack Cooper, whose work formed the basis of early TGV designs, changing the TGV to electric traction required a significant design overhaul. The first electric prototype, nicknamed Zébulon, was completed in 1974, testing such as innovative body mounting of motors, pantographs, suspension. Body mounting of motors allowed over 3 tonnes to be eliminated from the power cars, the prototype travelled almost 1,000,000 km during testing. In 1976 the French government funded the TGV project, and construction of the LGV Sud-Est, the line was given the designation LN1, Ligne Nouvelle 1. After two pre-production trainsets had been tested and substantially modified, the first production version was delivered on 25 April 1980, the LGV opened to the public between Paris and Lyon on 27 September 1981. Contrary to its earlier fast services, SNCF intended TGV service for all types of passengers and this commitment to a democratised TGV service was enhanced in the Mitterrand era with the promotional slogan Progress means nothing unless it is shared by all. The TGV was considerably faster than normal trains, cars, or aeroplanes, the trains became widely popular, the public welcoming fast and practical travel
23.
Piggyback (transportation)
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Piggyback transportation refers to the transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else. It is a form of intermodal transportation and combined transport. Piggyback is a corruption of pickaback, which is likely a folk etymology alteration of pick pack, which perhaps is from pick, in rail transport, the practice of carrying trailers or semi-trailers in a train atop a flatcar is referred to as piggybacking. Early drawings of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway c1830 show road coaches being piggybacked on railway flat wagons, the rail service provided for trucks which are carried on trains for part of their journey is referred to as a rolling road, or rolling highway. A related transportation method is the transport of semi-trailers, without road tractors. The loading of semi-trailers in the United States grew from 1% of freight in 1957 to 15% in 1986, in South Australia, rolling stock is transferred to and from the isolated Eyre Peninsular Railway from Whyalla to Port Lincoln on road trailers. A change in the gauge of the bogies is carried out at the same time, small ships of all kinds can be piggybacked on larger ships. Examples include lifeboats, landing craft, and minesweepers on motherships, as well as Midget submarines on larger submarines, in space transportation systems, a smaller satellite that is carried as a secondary payload on a launch is said to be piggybacked on the main launch. The American Space Shuttle was carried on top of specially-modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft when the shuttle landed at places other than Kennedy Space Center, the metal caterpillar treads of a tank wear out quickly when travelling long distances on ordinary roads. It is therefore necessary to provide tank transporters, which have rubber tires, to the battlefield
24.
Channel Tunnel
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At its lowest point, it is 75 m deep below the sea bed, and 115 m below sea level. The speed limit for trains in the tunnel is 160 kilometres per hour, the tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for road vehicles—the largest such transport in the world—and international freight trains. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines, ideas for a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and press pressure over the compromising of national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. An early attempt at building a Channel Tunnel was made in the late 19th century, the eventual successful project, organised by Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994. At £5.5 billion, it was at the time the most expensive project ever proposed. The cost finally came in at £9 billion, well over its predicted budget, since its construction, the tunnel has faced several problems. Both fires and cold weather have temporarily disrupted its operation, illegal immigrants have attempted to use the tunnel to enter the UK, causing a minor diplomatic disagreement over the siting of the refugee camp at Sangatte, which was eventually closed in 2002. Migrants have also died attempting to cross through the tunnel, in 1839, Aimé Thomé de Gamond, a Frenchman, performed the first geological and hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover. In 1865, a deputation led by George Ward Hunt proposed the idea of a tunnel to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, around 1866, William Low and Sir John Hawkshaw promoted ideas, but apart from preliminary geological studies none were implemented. An official Anglo-French protocol was established in 1876 for a railway tunnel. On the English side a 2. 13-metre diameter Beaumont-English boring machine dug a 1, on the French side, a similar machine dug 1,669 m from Sangatte. The project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and these early works were encountered more than a century later during the TML project. The French did not take the idea seriously and nothing came of Lloyd Georges proposal, in 1929 there was another proposal but nothing came of this discussion and the idea was shelved. Proponents estimated construction to be about US$150 million, the engineers had addressed the concerns of both nations military leaders by designing two sumps—one near the coast of each country—that could be flooded at will to block the tunnel. This design feature did not override the concerns of both military leaders, and other concerns about hordes of undesirable tourists who would disrupt English habits of living. Military fears continued during World War II, the estimate caused rumours that Germany had already begun digging. In 1935, a British film from Gaumont Studios, The Tunnel and it referred briefly to its protagonist, a Mr. McAllan, as having completed a British Channel tunnel successfully in 1940, five years into the future of the films release. By 1955, defence arguments had become less relevant due to the dominance of air power, in 1958 the 1881 workings were cleared in preparation for a £100,000 geological survey by the Channel Tunnel Study Group
25.
IC 2000
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The IC2000 is a double-deck train in Switzerland and is run by Swiss Federal Railways as part of its InterCity service. The train set can be composed of up to 10 coaches and provides close to 1,000 seats, according to SBB. In 1997-2004, the consortium, made up of Bombardier Transportation Switzerland and Alstom delivered 341 coaches to SBB, IC2000 was the first double-deck train in use on a nationwide scale. Previously, most, if not all, double-deck trains, belonged to the Zürich S-Bahn network, the IC2000 typically has a dining or a bistro car, and a snacks trolley service on the upper level throughout the train set. Both the first and second class coaches feature luggage racks on both decks, in addition, small suitcases can be stored under the seats. The driving trailer at the beginning or at the end of the train is either a coach with a special play area on the upper level or has a family zone. In either case, there is space on the deck of the driving trailer for pushchairs, bicycles. Trains with family coaches are marked FA in the timetables,75 first class coaches are equipped with power sockets for charging laptops etc. Trains with such business zones are marked BZ in the timetables, on certain routes, passengers are able to use mobile broadband internet access for an additional fee. The business zone coaches can be found behind the locomotive. The usage of the IC2000 is now commonplace in Switzerland. Its cowlike black-and-white design, and red doors, make it instantly recognizable, the train exterior was designed by Pininfarina, to match the style of the Re 460 locomotive used with the trainset. However, after one year quiet zones have been restricted to some first class coaches only, service run by IC2000, St. Media related to SBB IC2000 at Wikimedia Commons Bombardier Transportation AG - IC2000 Double-deck train - bombardier-transportation. ch
26.
Bilevel rail car
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The bilevel car or double-decker train is a type of rail car that has two levels of passenger accommodation, as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity. In some countries such vehicles are referred to as dostos. Bilevel trains are claimed to be energy efficient, and may have a lower operating cost per passenger. A bilevel car may carry about twice as many as a normal car, however, a bilevel train may take longer to exchange passengers at each station, since more people will enter and exit from each car. The increased dwell time makes them most popular on long-distance routes which make fewer stops, Bilevel cars may not be usable in countries or older railway systems with low loading gauges. This includes much of the network in the northeast of the USA. In some countries such as the UK new lines are built to a higher than the structure gauge to allow the use of double-deck trains in future. Double deck carriages date to at least as early as the half of the 19th century. Vidard introduced two-storied carriages on the Chemins de fer de lEst, with a body, windows, and doors. The double-deck design usually includes lowering the floor to below the top level of the wheels, closer to the rails. Such a design will fit under bridges, tunnels and power wires. For cost and safety, this also minimizes car height. For low train station platforms, a two floor design with level entry onto the floor is used. Occasionally a third, very tall two floors over-wheel design is used and this is a traditional single floor car with a second story design with, when using low platform, requires steps up to a traditional floor height and then internal stairs up to the upper floor. There are four important height measurements above the railhead, platform height, traditional floor height, downstairs floor height, platform height determines the level entry height for wheeled objects, such as luggage, strollers, wheelchairs and bicycles. Platform height is ideally standardized across all stations the train serves, traditional rail car floor height matters for end doors connecting to existing single floor rail cars. Downstairs or lowest floor height is determined by the thickness of the beams connecting the span between the wheels and bogies of a rail car. The upstairs floor or highest floor height is above the lowest floor and must fit under bridges, level entry floor height must match the platform height
27.
SNCF TGV Duplex
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The TGV Duplex is a French high-speed train of the TGV family, manufactured by Alstom, and operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It is unique among TGV trains in that it features bi-level carriages, the Duplex inaugurated the third generation of TGV trainsets. It was specially designed to increase capacity on high-speed lines with saturated traffic, with two seating levels and a seating capacity of 508 passengers, the Duplex increases the passenger capacity. While the TGV Duplex started as a component of the TGV fleet. The LGV Sud-Est from Paris to Lyon is the busiest high-speed line in France, after its opening in 1981 it rapidly reached capacity. Several options were available to increase capacity, the separation between trains was reduced to three minutes on some TGV lines, but the increasingly complex signalling systems, and high-performance brakes required, limited this option. Another option is to widen the train but is not practicable due to loading gauge restrictions. Running two trainsets coupled together in multiple-unit configuration provides extra capacity, but required very long station platforms, given length and width restrictions, the remaining option is to adopt a bi-level configuration, with seating on two levels, adding 45% more passenger capacity. TGV Duplex sets are run with a single deck Réseau set or another Duplex set. The Duplex feasibility study was completed in 1987, in 1988, a full-scale mockup was built to gauge customer reactions to the bi-level concept, traditionally associated with commuter and regional rail rather than with high-speed intercity trains. Discussions with GEC-Alsthom began soon after, and in July 1990 the company won the contract to build the TGV-2N, the contract was finalized in early 1991, at which point the official order was made. The first tests of a trainset in were November 1994. Soon after their first run, the first rake of eight trailers was tested at 290 km/h on the Sud-Est line, the trainset was powered by TGV Réseau power cars at the time, as the Duplex power cars were not ready. The first Duplex power car was mated to the trailers on 21 June 1995. Perhaps the most important innovation is the efficiency of the Duplex design, aluminium bodies - the strict requirement of a 17-tonne axle load limit made it imperative to cut down on weight, wherever possible. Extruded aluminum construction made possible a 20% reduction in structure weight, the nose, the first significant departure from Coopers original design, was styled by industrial designer Roger Tallon, as was the rest of the trainset. Crashworthiness - crush zones and rigid passenger compartments protect safety in the event of a collision, the power units frame is designed to take a 500 tonnes of force frontal load, and features structural fuses to absorb impact energy. Active pantograph - the Faiveley CX used on the Duplex has a pneumatically actuated active control system, two small gas cylinders in the wiper armature can tune the stiffness of the pantographs upper stage, to optimize contact at any speed
28.
Network Rail
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Network Rail is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales. Network Rail is an arms length public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a public sector body. Britains railway system was built by companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947. Infrastructure and passenger and freight services were separated at that time, between 1994 and 2002 the infrastructure was owned and operated by Railtrack. The Hatfield train crash on 17 October 2000 was a moment in the collapse of Railtrack. The costs of modernising the West Coast Main Line were also spiralling, the purchase was completed on 3 October 2002. The SRA was abolished in November 2006, the company moved its headquarters to Kings Place,90 York Way, from 40 Melton Street, Euston, in August 2008. In October 2008, Sir Ian McAllister announced that he would not stand for re-election as chairman of Network Rail and he had held the position for six years. He noted that as Network Rail moved to a new phase in its development it was appropriate for a new chairman to lead it there, many track safety initiatives have been introduced in the time Network Rail has been responsible for this area. This ruling came into force in January 2009 for maintenance and property workers and in April 2009 for infrastructure, in 2009, allegations appeared in the media from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association concerning treatment of Network Rail employees. Former chief executive Iain Coucher was also accused of financial impropriety involving unspecified payments to his business partner Victoria Pender during his tenure at Network Rail, an internal investigation held by Network Rail in 2010, vetted by its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. An independent enquiry headed by Anthony White QC in 2011 further examined the claims, critical commentary appeared in the media concerning the knighthood awarded to John Armitt in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to engineering and construction. The reorganisation has been interpreted as a move back towards vertical integration of track, in 2016 Network Rail failed to check whether the Flying Scotsman could fit through tunnels along the Borders Route resulting in the cancellation of a trip just 24 hours before departure. Scottish Transport Minister Derek Mackay branded the affair a debacle, Network Rails attempt to electrify the West Coast Mainline has been dogged by poor planning and cost overruns, the projected cost has ballooned from by £1.2 billion to £2. It however owns a fleet of departmental stock, although it owns over 2,500 railway stations, it manages only 18 of the biggest and busiest of them, all the other stations being managed by one or other of the various train operating companies. Network Rail has a 15-year lease on Square One in Manchester with 800 staff in one of Manchesters largest refurbished office spaces, Network Rail should not be confused with National Rail. National Rail is not an organisation, but merely a brand, used to explain, the majority of Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic, some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network, conversely, a few National Rail services operate over track which is not part of the Network Rail network
29.
British Rail Class 390
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The Class 390 Pendolino is a type of electric high-speed train operated by Virgin Trains in the United Kingdom. They are electric multiple units using Fiat Ferroviarias tilting train Pendolino technology, fifty-three 9-car units were originally built between 2001 and 2004 for operation on the West Coast Main Line, with an additional four trains and also a further 62 cars built between 2009 and 2012. The trains of the batch were the last to be assembled at Alstoms Washwood Heath plant. The remaining trains in the fleet were built in Italy, the fleet is maintained at the Alstom Manchester Train Depot near Piccadilly station. Virgin placed an order with Alstom/Fiat Ferroviaria, Tilting trains were not new on the West Coast Main Line. Twenty years previously, British Rail had developed the revolutionary, but ultimately unsuccessful, Fiat Ferroviaria supplied much of the content of the Class 390 units, including the bodyshell and the bogies, while final assembly was carried out at Washwood Heath. The tilting technology was developed by SIG Switzerland, two electromechanical actuators are used per car to achieve the desired tilting angle on curved stretches of track. The train can tilt to a maximum of eight degrees, at which point one side of the train is 380 mm higher above the track than the other. In contrast to other Fiat Ferroviaria tilting trains which use hydraulic tilting actuators, the new trains were intended to run at 140 mph, but the West Coast Main Line modernisation programme, which was an upgrade to the infrastructure to allow faster line speeds, ran over budget. Although this are well below BRs hopes for APT of 155 mph, the original order was for 53 sets,34 eight-carriage sets and 19 nine-carriage sets. The eight-carriage sets each had an additional carriage added in 2004, to increase capacity,4 eleven-carriage sets and an additional 62 extra carriages were ordered to increase 31 sets to eleven carriages. These were delivered between 2009 and 2012, each 11-car set is identified by having 100 added to its unit number. During use, the Dellner coupling of carriages A and K may be exposed during use and it is not uncommon for the front to be open like this as the main intention is emergencies. Joining a set of nine cars with another would create an 18-car set, therefore, they only travel as the original 9-car or 11-car set. Following criticisms of the pressure- operated automatic gangway doors of the older Mark 3, all seats originally had an on-board entertainment system with a number of pre-recorded music channels. This feature was disabled in March 2010 to make way for new on-board WiFi provided by T-Mobile, each seating row has a dot-matrix LCD display to indicate the reservation status of each seat, removing the need for conventional printed labels inserted manually by train crew. The coaches also incorporate steps which automatically extend to level when the doors are opened. This feature was first seen on the APT-P, which as mentioned above is a distant ancestor of the Pendolino, the windows are fitted with roll-down blinds
30.
Pallet
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A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies. Goods or shipping containers are placed on a pallet secured with strapping, stretch wrap or shrink wrap. While most pallets are wooden, pallets can also be made of plastic, metal, paper, each material has advantages and disadvantages relative to the others. Containerization for transport has spurred the use of pallets because the shipping containers have the smooth, most pallets can easily carry a load of 1,000 kg. Today, over half a billion pallets are made each year, pallets make it easier to move heavy stacks. Loads with pallets under them can be hauled by forklift trucks of different sizes, or even by hand-pumped, movement is easy on a wide, strong, flat floor, concrete is excellent. The greatest investment needed for economical use is in the construction of commercial or industrial buildings. Passage through doors and buildings must be possible, to help this issue, some later pallet standards are designed to pass through standard doorways. Organizations using standard pallets for loading and unloading can have lower costs for handling and storage. The exceptions are establishments that move small items such as jewelry or large items such as cars, but even they can be improved. For instance, the distributors of costume jewelry normally use pallets in their warehouses and car manufacturers use pallets to move components, the lack of a single international standard for pallets causes substantial continuing expense in international trade. A single standard is difficult because of the variety of needs a standard pallet would have to satisfy, passing doorways, fitting in standard containers. For example, organizations already handling large pallets often see no reason to pay the higher handling cost of using smaller pallets that can fit through doors, due to cost and a need to focus on core business, pallet pooling becomes more and more common. Some pallet suppliers supply users with reusable pallets, sometimes with integral tracking devices, a pallet management company can help supply, clean, repair, and reuse pallets. Pallets should be seen as reusable packaging items as a pallet can potentially be used multiple times over the course its lifetime, in the UK, government legislation relating to the Waste Framework Directive requires the reuse of packaging items above recycling and disposal. Wooden pallets typically consist of three or four stringers that support several deckboards, on top of which goods are placed, in a pallet measurement the first number is the stringer length and the second is the deckboard length. Square or nearly square pallets help a load resist tipping, two-way pallets are designed to be lifted by the deckboards. The standard North American pallet, or GMA pallet, has stringers of 48 inches, four-way pallets, or pallets for heavy loads are best lifted by their more rigid stringers
31.
High Speed 1
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High Speed 1, legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, is a 109-kilometre high-speed railway between London and the United Kingdom end of the Channel Tunnel. The line crosses the River Medway, and under the River Thames and it cost £5.8 billion to build and opened on 14 November 2007. Trains reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour on section 1, intermediate stations are at Stratford International in London and Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent. International passenger services are provided by Eurostar, with times of London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord in 2 hours 15 minutes. As of November 2015, Eurostar has used a fleet of 27 Class 373/1 multi-system trains capable of 300 kilometres per hour and 320 kilometres per hour Class 374 trains, domestic high-speed commuter services serving the intermediate stations and beyond began on 13 December 2009. The fleet of 29 Class 395 passenger trains reach speeds of 225 kilometres per hour, DB Cargo UK run freight services on High Speed 1 using adapted Class 92 locomotives, enabling flat wagons carrying continental-size swap body containers to reach London for the first time. The CTRL project saw new bridges and tunnels built, with a combined length nearly as long as the Channel Tunnel itself, in 2002, the CTRL project was awarded the Major Project Award at the British Construction Industry Awards. The line was transferred to government ownership in 2009, with a 30-year concession for its operation being put up for sale in June 2010. The concession was awarded to a consortium of Borealis Infrastructure and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan in November 2010, a high-speed rail line, LGV Nord, has been in operation between the Channel Tunnel and the outskirts of Paris since the Tunnels opening in 1994. This has enabled Eurostar rail services to travel at 300 km/h for this part of their journey, a similar high-speed line in Belgium, from the French border to Brussels, HSL1, opened in 1997. In Britain, Eurostar trains had to run at a maximum of 160 km/h on existing tracks between London Waterloo and the Channel Tunnel and these tracks were shared with local traffic, limiting the number of services that could be run, and jeopardising reliability. The next plan for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link involved a tunnel reaching London from the south-east, and this opened the possibility of reusing the underused St Pancras station as the terminus, with access via the North London Line that crosses the throat of the station. The idea of using the North London line proved illusory, and it was rejected in 1994 by the then Transport Secretary, John MacGregor, as too difficult to construct and environmentally damaging. The idea of using St Pancras station as the core of the new terminus was retained, the original LCR consortium members were National Express Group, Virgin Group, S. G. Warburg & Co, Bechtel and London Electric. While the project was development by British Rail it was managed by Union Railways. On 14 November 2006, LCR adopted High Speed 1 as the name for the completed railway. Official legislation, documentation and line-side signage have continued to refer to CTRL, as the 1987 Channel Tunnel Act made government funding for a Channel tunnel rail link unlawful, construction did not take place as it was not financially viable. Construction was delayed until passage of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 which provided construction powers that ran for the following 10 years, the chief executive of the time Rob Holden stated that it was the largest land acquisition programme since the Second World War
32.
Midland Main Line
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The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Sheffield in the North of England. The line is under the Network Rail description of Route 19, it comprises the lines from Londons St. Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham, Express passenger services on the line are operated by East Midlands Trains. The section between St Pancras and Bedford is electrified and forms the northern half of Thameslink, with a fast service to Brighton, a northern part of the route, between Derby and Chesterfield, also forms part of the Cross Country Route operated by CrossCountry. Tracks from Nottingham to Leeds via Barnsley and Sheffield are shared with Northern, East Midlands Local also operates regional and local services using parts of the line. The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1870s, the earliest section was opened by the Midland Counties Railway between Nottingham and Derby on 4 June 1839. On 5 May 1840 the section of the route from Trent Junction to Leicester was opened, the line at Derby was joined on 1 July 1840 by the North Midland Railway to Leeds Hunslet Lane via Chesterfield, Rotherham Masborough, Swinton and Normanton. On 10 May 1844 the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway, without its own route to London, the Midland Railway relied upon a junction at Rugby with the London and Birmingham Railway line for access to the capital at London Euston. By the 1850s the junction at Rugby had become severely congested, the Midland Railway employed Thomas Brassey to construct a new route from Leicester to Hitchin via Kettering, Wellingborough and Bedford. Giving access to London via the Great Northern Railway from Hitchin, the Crimean War resulted in a shortage of labour and finance, and only £900,000 was available for the construction, approximately £15,000 for each mile. To reduce construction costs the railway followed natural contours, resulting in many curves, seven bridges and one tunnel were required, with 60ft cuttings at Desborough and Sharnbrook. There are also major summits at Kibworth, Desbrough and at Sharnbrook where a 1 in 119 gradient from the south over 3 miles takes the line to 340 feet above sea level. This route opened for traffic on 15 April 1857, goods on 4 May and passengers on 8 May. James Allport arranged a deal with the GN to run into Kings Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year. Through services to London were introduced in February 1858 and this line met with similar capacity problems at Hitchin as the former route via Rugby, so a new line was constructed from Bedford via Luton to St Pancras which opened on 1 October 1868. The construction of the London extension cost £9,000,000, as traffic built up, the Midland opened a new deviation just north of Market Harborough railway station on 26 June 1885 to remove the flat crossing of the Rugby and Stamford Railway. Plans by the Midland Railway to build a line from Derby to Manchester were thwarted in 1863 by the builders of the Buxton Line who sought to monopolise on the West Coast Main Line. In 1870 the Midland Railway opened a new route from Chesterfield to Rotherham which went through Sheffield, the mid-1870s saw the Midland line extended northwards through the Yorkshire Dales and Eden Valley on what is now called the Settle-Carlisle Railway. Express trains to Leeds and Scotland such as the Thames-Clyde Express mainly used the Midlands corollary Erewash Valley Line, expresses to Edinburgh Waverley, such as The Waverley travelled through Corby and Nottingham
33.
City and South London Railway
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The City and South London Railway was the first deep-level underground tube railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. When opened in 1890, the line had six stations and ran for 3.2 miles in a pair of tunnels between the City of London and Stockwell, passing under the River Thames. The diameter of the tunnels restricted the size of the trains, the railway was extended several times north and south, eventually serving 22 stations over a distance of 13.5 miles from Camden Town in north London to Morden in Surrey. Although the C&SLR was well used, low prices and the construction cost of the extensions placed a strain on the companys finances. In 1933, the C&SLR and the rest of the Underground Group was taken into public ownership, today, its tunnels and stations form the Bank Branch of the Northern line from Camden Town to Kennington and the southern leg of the line from Kennington to Morden. In November 1883, notice was given that a bill was to be presented to Parliament for the construction of the City of London & Southwark Subway. The railway was to run from Elephant and Castle, in Southwark, south London, the tracks were to be in twin tunnels 10 ft 2 in in diameter, running for a distance of 1.25 miles. The bill received assent as the City of London and Southwark Subway Act,1884 on 28 July 1884. Section 5 of the Act stated, The works authorised by this Act are as follows, with Newington Butts and terminating at King William Street. The subway shall consist of two tubes for separate up and down traffic and shall be approached by means of staircases, in 1886, a further bill was submitted to Parliament to extend the tunnels south from Elephant and Castle to Kennington and Stockwell. The tunnels on this section were of a larger diameter –10 ft 6 in. Before the railway opened, a further bill received assent, granting permission to continue the line south to Clapham Common, the act was published on 25 July 1890 as the City and South London Railway Act,1890, also effecting a change of the companys name. Like Greatheads earlier Tower Subway, the CL&SS was intended to be operated by cable haulage with an engine pulling the cable through the tunnels at a steady speed. Section 5 of the 1884 Act specified that, The traffic of the subway shall be worked by, the system of the Patent Cable Tramway Corporation Limited or by such means other than steam locomotives as the Board of Trade may from time to time approve. However, the length of tunnel permitted by the supplementary acts challenged the practicality of the cable system. It is reported that this problem with the CL&SS contributed to the bankruptcy of the company in 1888. However, electric traction had been considered all along. So, CL&SS chairman Charles Grey Mott decided to switch to electric traction, other cable-operated systems using the Hallidie patents continued to be designed, such as the Glasgow Subway which opened in 1896
34.
Northern line
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The Northern line is a London Underground line, coloured black on the Tube map. The section between Stockwell and Borough opened in 1890, and is the oldest section of deep-level tube line on the network, for most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. There were about 252,310,000 passenger journeys in 2011/12 on the Northern line, making it the second-busiest line on the Underground. Despite its name, it does not serve the northernmost stations on the network, though it does serve the southernmost station, there are 50 stations on the line, of which 36 have platforms below ground. An extension in the 1920s used a route planned by a fourth company. Abandoned plans from the 1920s to extend the line further southwards, from the 1930s to the 1970s, the tracks of a seventh company were also managed as a branch of the Northern line. The C&SLR, Londons first deep-level tube railway, was built under the supervision of James Henry Greathead and it was the first of the Undergrounds lines to be constructed by boring deep below the surface and the first to be operated by electric traction. The railway opened in November 1890 from Stockwell to a station at King William Street. This was inconveniently placed and unable to cope with the traffic so, in 1900. By 1907 the C&SLR had been extended at both ends to run from Clapham Common to Euston. The CCE&HR was opened in 1907 and ran from Charing Cross via Euston and Camden Town to Golders Green and it was extended south by one stop to Embankment in 1914 to form an interchange with the Bakerloo and District lines. In 1913 the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, owner of the CCE&HR, took over the C&SLR, during the early 1920s, a series of works was carried out to connect the C&SLR and CCE&HR tunnels to enable an integrated service to be operated. The first of new tunnels, between the C&SLRs Euston station and the CCE&HRs station at Camden Town, had originally been planned in 1912 but had been delayed by World War I. The second connection linked the CCE&HRs Embankment and C&SLRs Kennington stations and provided a new station at Waterloo to connect to the main line station there. The smaller-diameter tunnels of the C&SLR were expanded to match the diameter of the CCE&HR. In conjunction with the works to integrate the two lines, two extensions were undertaken, northwards to Edgware in Middlesex and southwards to Morden in Surrey. The Edgware extension used plans dating back to 1901 for the Edgware and it extended the CCE&HR line from its terminus at Golders Green to Edgware in two stages, to Hendon Central in 1923 and to Edgware in 1924. The line crossed open countryside and ran on the surface, apart from a tunnel north of Hendon Central
35.
Central line (London Underground)
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The Central line is a London Underground line that runs through central London, from Ealing and Ruislip in the west to Epping, Essex in the north-east. Coloured red on the map, the line serves 49 stations. It is the longest tube line and it is also one of only two lines on the London Underground network to cross the Greater London boundary, the other being the Metropolitan. One of Londons deep-level tube railways, the trains are smaller than those on British main lines. The line was opened as the Central London Railway in 1900, crossing central London on an east–west axis and it was later extended to the western suburb of Ealing. After the Second World War, the line was expanded considerably into the recently constructed suburbs, taking over steam-hauled outer suburban routes to the borders of London and beyond to the east. This realised plans that had delayed by the war, when construction stopped. The Central line has mostly operated by automatic train operation since a major refurbishment in the 1990s. In terms of passengers, the Central line is the busiest line on the London Underground. In the year 2011/12 over 260 million passenger journeys were made on the Central line, the tunnels were bored with the nominal diameter of 11 feet 8 1⁄4 inches, increased on curves, reduced to 11 feet 6 inches near to stations. The tunnels generally rise approaching a station, to aid braking, the Central London Railway was the first underground railway to have the station platforms illuminated electrically. All the platforms were lit by Crompton automatic electric arc lamps, with the white glazed tiling, all underground Central London Railway platforms were very brightly lit. Earlier tube lines generated DC power at the required to run the trains. The line between Shepherds Bush and Bank was formally opened on 30 June 1900, public services beginning on 30 July, with a uniform fare of 2d the railway became known as the Twopenny Tube. This allowed higher-speed and lighter motors to be used, which reduced the weight of the locomotive as well as the unsprung weight. The railway also tried an alternative approach, it converted four coaches to accommodate motors, two of these experimental motor coaches were used in a 6-coach train, the control gear being operated by the system used on the Waterloo and City Railway. The modified locomotives were an improvement, but the motor coaches of an even lower weight were much better still. The CLR ordered 64 new motor cars designed to use Spragues recently developed traction control system, the CLR was exclusively using the resulting electric multiple units by 1903
36.
Railway electrification system
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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
37.
James Stansfeld
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Sir James Stansfeld GCB PC, was a British politician. He was appointed the first ever President of the Local Government Board in 1871 and he was born at Akeds Road, Halifax, the only son of James Stansfeld, originally a member of a firm of solicitors, Stansfeld & Craven, and subsequently county-court judge in the district. His mother was Emma, daughter of John Ralph, minister of the Northgate-End Unitarian chapel, Halifax, brought up as a nonconformist, Stansfeld was in 1837 sent to University College, London, and graduated B. A. in 1840 and LL. B. in 1844. On 27 July 1844 Stansfeld married Caroline, second daughter of William Henry Ashurst, Stansfeld also sympathised with the Chartist movement, even if Feargus OConnor denounced him. In 1859, Stansfeld was returned to Parliament as Radical member for Halifax and he voted consistently on the Radical side, but his chief energies were devoted to promoting the cause of Italian unity. He was selected by Giuseppe Garibaldi as his adviser when the Italian patriot visited England in 1862, in 1863, he moved in the House of Commons a resolution of sympathy with the Poles, and two months later was made Civil Lord of the Admiralty. Stansfeld was vigorously defended by John Bright and William Edward Forster, nevertheless, he only escaped a vote of censure by ten votes, and accordingly resigned office. In 1865, he was re-elected for Halifax, and in 1866 became Under-Secretary of State for India under Lord Russell and he was sworn of the Privy Council in 1869. The remainder of his life was spent in endeavouring to secure the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. He did not serve in Gladstones 1880 to 1885 administration, but returned to the government in April 1886, however, the government fell in July of the same year. He died at his residence, Castle Hill, Rotherfield, Sussex, on 17 February 1898, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Pollard, Albert Frederick. Dictionary of National Biography,1901 supplement, London, Smith, Elder & Co. Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by James Stansfeld
38.
Victoria line
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The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground route running from Brixton in the south in Zone 2 to Walthamstow Central in the north-east in Zone 3 of London. It is coloured blue on the Tube map. It is one of two lines to run entirely below ground, the other being the Waterloo & City line. The line has always operated using automatic train operation. The main purpose was to relieve congestion in the central area, the necessary Private Bill was introduced into Parliament in 1955. It described a line from Victoria to Walthamstow, there was also a proposal, though not included in the Bill, for a subsequent extension from Victoria to Fulham Broadway station on the District line. Construction began in 1962 on the initial Walthamstow to Victoria section, a test tunnel from Tottenham to Manor House under Seven Sisters Road had been bored in 1959 and was later incorporated into the running tunnels. In August 1967 the government gave approval for the Brixton extension, preparatory work had already started at Bessborough Gardens near Vauxhall Bridge Road in May 1967. In June 1968 a proposal to build a station at Pimlico was approved, the entire Walthamstow-Brixton line was completed in 1972. The name Victoria line dates back to 1955, other suggestions were Walvic line, during the planning stages, it was known as Route C and then was named the Victoria line after Victoria Station by David McKenna, whose suggestion was seconded by Sir John Elliot. It had been intended to build the line beyond Walthamstow Central to Wood Street, proposals were also made to extend the line as far north as South Woodford or Woodford, to provide interchange with the Central line. However, in a decision in 1961 the line was cut back to Walthamstow station. The first section to be opened was between Walthamstow Central and Highbury & Islington, there was no initial opening ceremony, instead the normal timetable started on Sunday 1 September 1968. The first train left Walthamstow Central for Highbury & Islington at about 6,30 am, later that year, the section between Highbury & Islington and Warren Street was opened, again without ceremony, on 1 December 1968. The official opening took place at Victoria station on 7 March 1969. After a short ceremony, she bought a 5d ticket and travelled to Green Park, the 3.5 mile extension from Victoria to Brixton was approved in August 1967. At the time, London Transport mentioned the possibility of extensions to Streatham, Dulwich and Crystal Palace. Princess Alexandra opened the Brixton extension on 23 July 1971, making a journey from Brixton to Vauxhall, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh had previously visited the line during its construction, in July 1968, they visited tunnel workings under Vauxhall Park
39.
Glasgow Subway
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The Glasgow Subway is an underground metro line in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and it is the only heavy rail underground metro system in the United Kingdom outside London, and also the only one in the United Kingdom which operates completely underground. It is also one of the few railways in the world with a track running gauge of 4 ft. Formerly a cable railway, the Subway was later electrified. The line was known as the Glasgow District Subway, but was later renamed Glasgow Subway Railway. It was so called when taken over by the Glasgow Corporation who renamed it the Glasgow Underground in 1936, despite this rebranding, many Glaswegians continued to refer to the network as the Subway. In 2003 the name Subway was officially readopted by its operator, a £40,000 study examining the feasibility of an expansion into the city’s south side is in progress. The system is not the oldest underground railway in Glasgow, that belongs to a 3. Another major section of suburban railway line in Glasgow is the Argyle Line. The route is a loop almost 6.5 miles long, stations use a variety of platform layouts including single island platforms, opposing side platforms and in some stations such as Hillhead one side and one island platform. The subway’s running lines are underground, but the maintenance depot at Broomloan Road is above ground, as was the earlier depot. Prior to modernisation, trains used to be hoisted by crane onto, Modernisation brought the installation of points and a ramp between Govan and Ibrox where trains can exit the tunnel system to terminate for engineering, cleaning or storage. The system is owned and operated by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, formerly Strathclyde Passenger Transport, the Subway has been policed by British Transport Police since 2007. The cable was driven from a plant between West Street and Shields Road stations. There was no additional cable to allow trains to reach the depot, instead, they were transferred to and this also meant that the two tracks could be completely separate, with no points anywhere. When the Subway first opened, single-carriage four axle trains were operated, late in the evening on the opening day, after 11pm, one car laden with 60 passengers was run into by another under the River Clyde. Four people were injured, one being taken to the infirmary and this entailed the closure of the Subway until 19 January 1897. The 20 original wooden bodied carriages were built by the Oldbury Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, of Oldbury, many continued in service until 1977 in an upgraded form. A further 10 were delivered by the manufacturer in 1897
40.
Iron Ore Line
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The Iron Ore Line is a 398-kilometre long railway line between Riksgränsen and Boden in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The line contains two branches, from Kiruna to Svappavaara and from Gällivare to Koskullskulle, the term is often colloquially used to also include the Ofoten Line, from Riksgränsen to Narvik in Norway, and the northernmost part of the Main Line Through Upper Norrland from Boden to Luleå. The railway from Narvik to Luleå is 473 kilometres long, the line is dominated by the 8, 600-tonne ore freight trains operated by LKABs subsidiary Malmtrafik from their mines to the Port of Narvik and the Port of Luleå. In addition, SJ operates passenger trains and CargoNet operates container freight trains, the Iron Ore Line is single track, electrified at 15 kV 16 2⁄3 Hz AC and has a permitted axle load of 30 tonnes. The Swedish part of the line is the northernmost railway in Sweden, the first section of the line, from Gällivare to Luleå, opened in 1888. By 1899, the line was extended to Kiruna, and from 1903, electrification took place between 1915 and 1923. Operations of the ore trains was taken over by Malmtrafik from SJ in 1996, LKAB operates iron ore mines in Kiruna, Svappavaara and Malmberget in Norrbotten County, Sweden. Most of the output is transported by rail to the ice-free Port of Narvik, a minority of the ore is transported to Luleå on the Southern Circuit. Located on the Baltic Sea, ore is shipped to Baltic customers, or delivered to furnaces operated by SSAB in Luleå and Oxelösund. The Ore and Ofoten Lines are 536 kilometres long, including the branch to Svappavaara, with the route from Kiruna to Narvik being 170 kilometres, operations are handled by LKABs subsidiary Malmtrafik i Kiruna in Sweden, and Malmtrafikk in Norway. Daily there operate 11 to 13 trains in direction on the Norther Circuit. The trains hauled by Iore-class locomotives are 68 cars long and weigh 8,600 tonnes, from Riksgränsen on the national border to the Port of Narvik, the trains use only a fifth of the power they regenerate. The regenerated energy is sufficient to power the empty back up to the national border. Although the trains and hopper cars are all owned by LKAB, the line is owned by the Swedish Transport Administration, the Ore and Ofoten Lines are also used by passenger and container trains. Iron ore is transported from Northland Resources mine in Kaunisvaara to Narvik. CargoNet operates two daily trains from Alnabru Terminal in Oslo, Norway, named the Arctic Rail Express. The trains operate via Sweden and take 27 hours, the trains haul mostly food northbound and fish southbound along a distance of 1,950 kilometres. DB Schenker launched a service in January 2011
41.
Kiruna
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Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland. It had 18,148 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality in Norrbotten County, Esrange Space Center was established in Kiruna in the 1960s. Also in Kiruna are the Institute of Space Physics and the Department of Space Science belonging to Luleå University of Technology, archeological findings have shown that the region around Kiruna has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. Centuries before Kiruna was founded in 1900, the presence of iron ore at Kiirunavaara and Luossavaara had been known by the local Sami population, in 1696, Samuel Mört, a bookkeeper of the Kengis works, wrote on the presence of iron in the two hills. Despite the findings of large amounts of ore, no mining was initiated because of the remote location, some ore was extracted in the 19th century. It was extracted in summer and transported in winter, using sleds drawn by reindeer, in 1884, a concession for a railway from Luleå to Narvik was granted to The Northern of Europe Railway Company. The provisional railway between Luleå and Malmberget was finished in 1888 and the first train left Malmberget in March. Around the same time, the English company went bankrupt and had to sell the line to the Swedish state for 8 million Swedish crowns, after a significant rebuild, the railway to Gällivare could be used again and iron ore was extracted at Malmberget by Aktiebolaget Gellivare Malmfält. At the initiative of Robert Schoug, the Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag was founded in 1890, in 1893, Gustaf Broms became CEO of both LKAB and AGM. LKAB pressed for continuing Malmbanan via Luossavaara and Kiirunavaara to the ice-free coast of Norway, the continuation of the railway line to Narvik was controversial, because opponents feared the influence of Russia on an international railway line. The decision to build was finally taken in 1898, the railway came to Kiruna 15 October 1899 and the Swedish and Norwegian sections were joined 15 November 1902. For LKAB, the great expense almost led to bankruptcy in 1901, king Oscar II only opened the railway line 14 July 1903, preferring summer over winter to travel north. On 27 April 1900, Hallmans plan was officially accepted, Gustaf Broms proposed to name the settlements Kiruna, a short and practical name that could also be pronounced by Swedish speaking inhabitants. LKAB appointed Hjalmar Lundbohm, who had finished high school nor his geology studies. Also, provisional buildings served as a church, a school, a hospital, a hotel and a police station. However, official residences were built at a pace. The very first building, B,1, is preserved, in 1899,18 people were registered as living in soon-to-be Kiruna. This increased to 222 in 1900,7,438 in 1910 and 12,884 in 1930, Kiruna became a municipalsamhälle in 1908
