1.
Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
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The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the North Western, the railroad operated more than 5,000 miles of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the company was sold to its employees, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway. The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the United States as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others. By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total back to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad further helped reduce the railroad to a core with several regional feeders. The company was purchased by Union Pacific Railroad in April 1995, the Chicago and North Western Railway was chartered on June 7,1859. It had purchased the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul, on February 15,1865, it officially merged with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which had been chartered on January 16,1836. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad was added to the network in 1867, the North Western had owned a majority of the stock of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway since 1882. On January 1,1957 it leased the company, and merged it into the North Western in 1972. The Omaha Roads main line ran from an interchange with the North Western at Elroy, Wisconsin, to the Twin Cities, down to Sioux City, Iowa, the North Western picked up several important short railroads during its later years. It finalized acquisition of the Litchfield and Madison Railway on January 1,1958, the Litchfield and Madison railroad was a 44-mile bridge road from East St. Louis to Litchfield, Illinois. On July 30,1968, the North Western acquired two former interurbans — the 36-mile Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway, and the 110-mile Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railway. The DM&CI gave access to the Firestone plant in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 1,1960, the North Western acquired the rail properties of the 1, 500-mile Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. In spite of its name, it ran only from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Peoria and this acquisition provided traffic and modern rolling stock, and eliminated competition. On July 1,1968 the 1,500 mi Chicago Great Western Railway was merged into the North Western and this railroad went from Chicago to Oelwein, Iowa. From there lines went to the Twin Cities, Omaha, Nebraska, a connection from Hayfield, Minnesota, to Clarion, Iowa, provided a Twin Cities to Omaha main line
2.
North Freedom, Wisconsin
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North Freedom is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Baraboo River. The population was 701 at the 2010 census, North Freedom was named from the American ideal of freedom. North Freedom is located at 43°27′39″N 89°51′57″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.87 square miles, of which,0.81 square miles of it is land and 0.06 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 701 people,271 households, the population density was 865.4 inhabitants per square mile. There were 293 housing units at a density of 361.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 97. 1% White,0. 1% African American,0. 3% Native American,0. 4% Asian,0. 9% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 6% of the population. 24. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.03. The median age in the village was 35.9 years. 29. 7% of residents were under the age of 18,4. 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24,31. 2% were from 25 to 44,24. 4% were from 45 to 64, and 9. 7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 53. 2% male and 46. 8% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 649 people,238 households, and 164 families residing in the village. The population density was 745.9 people per square mile, there were 252 housing units at an average density of 289.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 98. 31% White,0. 77% Native American, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 08% of the population. 25. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.28. In the village, the population was out with 30. 7% under the age of 18,7. 1% from 18 to 24,31. 4% from 25 to 44,18. 5% from 45 to 64. The median age was 33 years, for every 100 females there were 102.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.1 males, the median income for a household in the village was $37,273, and the median income for a family was $41,818. Males had an income of $32,500 versus $20,000 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,354, about 5. 4% of families and 11. 3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8. 5% of those under age 18 and 10. 1% of those age 65 or over
3.
Sauk County, Wisconsin
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Sauk County is a county in Wisconsin. It is named after a village of the Sauk people. As of the 2010 census, the population was 61,976 and its county seat and largest city is Baraboo. The county was created in 1840 from Wisconsin Territory and organized in 1844, Sauk County comprises the Baraboo, WI Micropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison-Janesville-Beloit, WI Combined Statistical Area. Sauk County was a New England settlement and these people were Yankee settlers, that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s. While most of them came to Wisconsin directly from New England and these were people whose parents had moved from New England to upstate New York in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution. They were part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s, in the case of Wisconsin this migration primarily occurred in the 1830s. Due to the prevalence of New Englanders and New England transplants from upstate New York, the Yankee migration to Wisconsin in the 1830s was a result of several factors, one of which was the overpopulation of New England. The old stock Yankee population had large families, often bearing up to ten children in one household. Most people were expected to have their own piece of land to farm, as a result there was not enough land for every family to have a self-sustaining farm, and Yankee settlers began leaving New England for the Midwestern United States. They were aided in this effort by the construction and completion of the Erie Canal which made traveling to the much easier. Added to this was the end of the Black Hawk War and they brought with them many of their Yankee New England values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools as well as staunch support for abolitionism. They were mostly members of the Congregationalist Church though some were Episcopalian, due to the second Great Awakening some of them had converted to Methodism and some became Baptist before moving to what is now Sauk County. Sauk County, like much of Wisconsin, would be culturally very continuous with early New England culture for most of its early history. In the late 1890s, German immigrants began to settle in Sauk County, generally there was little conflict between them and the Yankee settlers, however when conflict did arise it focused around the issue of prohibition of alcohol. On this issue the Yankees were divided and the Germans almost unanimously were opposed to it, the Yankee community was generally pro-British, however many of the Yankees also did not want America to enter the war themselves. The Germans were sympathetic to Germany and did not want the United States to enter into a war against Germany, in the early 1900s immigrants from Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Poland also arrived in Sauk County. The area around Baraboo was first settled by Abe Wood in 1838, in 1846 it became the county seat of Sauk County after a fierce fight with the nearby village of Reedsburg
4.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
5.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
6.
Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway
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Control of the railway was acquired on May 10,2004, by the Canadian National Railway when it purchased the assets of Great Lakes Transportation. The DM&IR was formed by the merger in 1937 of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway, the following year, the Duluth and Iron Range Rail Road and Interstate Transfer Railway were added. All of these had been leased by the DM&N since 1930, the D&IR was formed in 1874 by Charlemagne Tower to haul iron ore from the Minnesota Iron Co. in Tower, Minnesota, to the new Lake Superior port of Two Harbors, Minnesota. On July 31,1884, the D&IR carried its first ore shipment from the Soudan Mine, in 1887, the D&IR was acquired by Illinois Steel, which itself became part of the new United States Steel Corporation in 1901. After high-grade Mesabi iron ore was discovered near Mountain Iron, Minnesota by the Seven Iron Men, the D&IR was asked to build a line to serve this area. So in 1891, the Merritts incorporated the DM&N, which shipped its first load of ore to Superior. The following year, the Merritts expanded the DM&N by laying track to Duluth, Minnesota, but this expansion left the Merritts on shaky financial ground, and in 1894, John D. Rockefeller gained control of the railway. In 1901, Rockefeller sold the DM&N to USS, from 1901 to 1938, the two railways were owned by USS and operated separately. Total ore hauled by the two railroads peaked in 1929 at 27.8 million tons and dropped to 1.5 million tons in 1932, by July 1938, the two railways merged to form the DM&IR. The two operating divisions, the Missabe and the Iron Range, were based upon the predecessor roads, the first eight of DM&IRs class M 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives were delivered by Baldwin Locomotive Works in spring 1941. As well as the Yellowstones, the DM&IR had heavy 2-8-8-2 articulateds, 2-8-2 Mikados, 2-10-2 Santa Fes, ore movement was nearly 45 million tons in 1942 and the War Production Board allowed the Missabe to order ten more Yellowstones, delivered in 1943. The 2-8-8-4s were slowly retired in the half of the 50s. After World War II, the DM&IR hauled increasing tonnage to the ore docks along Lake Superior and that year the first diesel locomotives, EMD SW9s, arrived on the railway. In 1954, a set of Baldwin DR-4-4-1500 Sharknose diesels arrived from the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern, dieselization continued with the purchase of several EMD SD9 road switchers the following year, while the last revenue steam run occurred in 1961. Passenger service on the Missabe division ended in 1957 and completely ceased system-wide in 1961, as the supply of high-quality iron ore dwindled, mines and pits were closing across Minnesotas iron ranges. The DM&IRs ore docks in Two Harbors closed in 1963 and did not reopen until 1966, the Missabe Road was saved by the passage on November 3,1963, of the Taconite Amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution. The passage of the amendment accelerated the creation of the mining industry in Northern Minnesota. The Eveleth Taconite Company was formed in 1964 and on April 8,1966, the taconite era on the Missabe had begun
7.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Locomotive
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A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. A locomotive has no payload capacity of its own, and its purpose is to move the train along the tracks. In contrast, some trains have self-propelled payload-carrying vehicles and these are not normally considered locomotives, and may be referred to as multiple units, motor coaches or railcars. The use of these vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front, however, push-pull operation has become common, where the train may have a locomotive at the front, at the rear, or at each end. Prior to locomotives, the force for railroads had been generated by various lower-technology methods such as human power, horse power. The first successful locomotives were built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, in 1804 his unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Although the locomotive hauled a train of 10 long tons of iron and 70 passengers in five wagons over nine miles, the locomotive only ran three trips before it was abandoned. Trevithick built a series of locomotives after the Penydarren experiment, including one which ran at a colliery in Tyneside in northern England, the first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murrays rack locomotive, Salamanca, built for the narrow gauge Middleton Railway in 1812. This was followed in 1813 by the Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814 George Stephenson, inspired by the locomotives of Trevithick. He built the Blücher, one of the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotives, Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of steam locomotives. His designs improved on the work of the pioneers, in 1825 he built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north east England, which became the first public steam railway. In 1829 he built The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials and this success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the United Kingdom, the United States and much of Europe. The first inter city passenger railway, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, there are a few basic reasons to isolate locomotive train power, as compared to self-propelled vehicles. Maximum utilization of power cars Separate locomotives facilitate movement of costly motive power assets as needed, flexibility Large locomotives can substitute for small locomotives when more power is required, for example, where grades are steeper. As needed, a locomotive can be used for freight duties. Obsolescence cycles Separating motive power from payload-hauling cars enables replacement without affecting the other, to illustrate, locomotives might become obsolete when their associated cars did not, and vice versa
10.
Chicago and North Western 1385
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Chicago & North Western 1385 is a standard gauge 4-6-0, Ten Wheeler type, steam railway locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company for the Chicago & North Western Railway in March 1907. It was one of 325 similar locomotives purchased by the railroad from 1901 to 1908, C&NW owned more R-1s than any other steam locomotive class. When new, it was large, modern power, and required strengthening and enlarging turntables, engine houses, #1385 was retired in 1956 and purchased by the Historical Society of Milwaukee in 1961 for $2600. The society purchased a line in North Freedom, Wisconsin, from the C&NW in 1963, moved #1385 there. The locomotive was in service for most of the 1980s and 1990s, doing excursions over large parts of the C&NW system and that work is not yet complete. #1385 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as Steam Locomotive #1385
11.
Boxcar
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A boxcar is a North American railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, boxcars have side doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large items. Similar covered freight cars outside North America are covered wagons and, depending on the region, are called goods van, louvre van. Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight, originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as forklifts have been used to load and empty them faster. Their generalized design is still slower to load and unload than specialized designs of car, the other cause for this decline is the dramatic shift of waterborne cargo transport to container shipping. Even loose loads such as coal, grain and ore can be carried in a boxcar with boards over the door openings. Later grain transport would use metal reinforced cardboard which was nailed over the door and this was more common in earlier days, it was susceptible to losing much loading during the journey, and damaged the boxcar. It was also impossible to load and unload. Grain can also be transported in boxcars designed specifically for purpose, specialized equipment. However grain is transported in covered hopper cars. Livestock can be transported in a boxcar, but there is insufficient ventilation in warm weather, specially-built stock cars or converted boxcars are preferable. Insulated boxcars are used for types of perishable loads that do not require the precise temperature control provided by a refrigerator car. Circuses used boxcars to transport their workers, supplies, and animals to get from town to town, box cars were used for bulk commodities such as coal, particularly in the Midwestern United States in the early 20th century. This use was widespread that several companies developed competing box-car loaders to automate coal loading. By 1905,350 to 400 such machines were in use, historically automobiles were carried in boxcars, but during the 1960s specially built autoracks took over, these carried more cars in the same space and were easier to load and unload. The automotive parts business, however, has always been a big user of the boxcar, special boxcars carry newsprint paper and other damage-sensitive cargo. While not holding the dominant position in the world of rail borne freight that they had before World War II, the most common boxcars are 50-6 to 60-9 in length, 9-4 to 9-6 wide, and 10-10 to 11 high. A hi-roof boxcar is 13 in height, corresponding exterior dimensions would be 55-5 to 67-11 in length, and 10-6 to 10-8 in width
12.
Stock car (rail)
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In railroad terminology, a stock car, cattle car or cattle wagon is a type of rolling stock used for carrying livestock to market. Specialized types of cars have been built to haul live fish and shellfish and circus animals such as camels. Until the 1880s, when the Mather Stock Car Company and others introduced more humane stock cars, improved technology and faster shipping times have greatly reduced losses. Rail cars have used to transport livestock since the 1830s. The first shipments in the United States were made via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in general purpose, thereafter, and until 1860, the majority of shipments were made in conventional boxcars that had been fitted with open-structured iron-barred doors for ventilation. Some railroads constructed combination cars that could be utilized for carrying both live animals as well as conventional freight loads, driving cattle across the plains led to tremendous weight loss, and a number of animals were typically lost along the way. The suffering of animals in transit as a result of hunger, thirst, increased train speeds reduced overall transit times, though not enough to offset the deleterious conditions the animals were forced to endure. Some of the railroad companies attempted to alleviate the problems by adding passenger cars to the trains that hauled early stock cars. The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company followed this practice as early as 1839, and these early passenger accommodations were the predecessors of the later drovers caboose designs that were used until the mid-20th century. Railroad operating rules for livestock and handlers that rode the trains were limited, as the handlers were private contractors or employees of the shippers. A1948 rulebook for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, for example, wishes of attendants regarding care of livestock should be ascertained and assistance rendered in caring for such shipments. In absence of instructions, hog shipments should be watered as necessary. Particular attention must be given to stock unaccompanied by attendants, most railroads resisted the call for as long as possible from shippers for improvements to cars specifically designed to carry livestock. The railroads generally preferred to use standard boxcars because that type of car proved more versatile in the number of different types of loads it could carry. When the railroads and cattle industry failed to act quickly enough to correct these perceived deficiencies, claims were made that the meat of neglected animals was unfit for human consumption. In 1869, Illinois passed the first laws to limit the time on board. However, double-deck stock cars had been experimented with as early as the 1830s on the Liverpool, other states such as Ohio and Massachusetts soon followed with similar legislation, though effective federal laws were not enacted until the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The first patented stock car designs that actually saw use on American railroads were created by Zadok Street, streets designs were first used in 1870 on shipments between Chicago and New York City
13.
Rock Springs, Wisconsin
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Rock Springs is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Baraboo River. The population was 362 at the 2010 census, at the time of its founding, Rock Springs was known as Ableman, after Stephen Van Rensselaer Ableman, who settled there in 1851. The railroad has been an influence on the villages growth. Rock Springs is located at 43°28′40″N 89°55′1″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.35 square miles, of which,1.32 square miles of it is land and 0.03 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 362 people,137 households, the population density was 274.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 150 housing units at a density of 113.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 96. 4% White,1. 1% Native American, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 8% of the population. 16. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 2.96. The median age in the village was 37.2 years. 26. 5% of residents were under the age of 18,7. 7% were between the ages of 18 and 24,27. 4% were from 25 to 44,26. 8% were from 45 to 64, and 11. 6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49. 2% male and 50. 8% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 425 people,156 households, and 117 families residing in the village. The population density was 315.9 people per square mile, there were 167 housing units at an average density of 124.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 99. 29% White,0. 24% African American and 0. 47% Native American, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 18% of the population. 20. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.14. In the village, the population was out with 26. 1% under the age of 18,9. 2% from 18 to 24,30. 8% from 25 to 44,20. 5% from 45 to 64. The median age was 36 years, for every 100 females there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males, the median income for a household in the village was $41,500, and the median income for a family was $51,071. Males had an income of $31,932 versus $21,125 for females
14.
Marvin Hughitt
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Marvin Hughitt was an American railroad tycoon from New York. Interested in telegraphy at an age, Hughitt quickly mastered the trade and moved to Chicago. He came to the attention of the St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad and this began a long career in rail, culminating in the presidency of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. He also served as president of two of its lines, the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis. Marvin Hughitt was born in Genoa, New York, on August 9,1837 and he was raised on the family farm and attended mostly public schools with some schooling in a seminary. Hughitt was interested in the telegraph when it was invented and moved to Auburn and he picked up the trade quickly and was considered a local expert within a year. When he was seventeen, Hughitt moved to Chicago, Illinois and he had heard that the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company was seeking telegraphers, and in 1854 he was hired. He rose through the ranks of the company and was superintendent of the office under former Supreme Court of Illinois justice John D. Caton. Representatives of the St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad, one of the railways in Chicago, took notice. With the onset of the Civil War, the southern division became an critical transportation corridor. Hughitt was responsible for overseeing the massive quantities of troops and supplies from St. Louis, Missouri to Cairo and he then was tasked with moving the troops to Virginia during another thirty-six-hour shift. The incident brought Hughitt instant notoriety, and the company reassigned him to Chicago to become Assistant Superintendent of the railroad, in 1864, he was named General Superintendent under John M. Douglas. When Douglas retired, Hughitt left the company to become Superintendent of the Pullman Car Company and his stay with the company was brief until he resigned to become Assistant General Manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. On February 1,1872, Hughitt was named General Superintendent of the Chicago and he also closely worked with James Henry Howe, the manager of the line, who was generally unfamiliar with railroads. When Howe resigned, and following a short term by Henry H. Porter, four years later, the board of directors elected him Second Vice President. In 1882, he was named president of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, two years later he accepted the presidency of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, another feeder line. When Albert Keep was elected president of the board of directors upon its creation in 1887, Hughitt was named a director of the Southern Pacific Railway Company in 1904. He led the CNW until his retirement in 1910 and he remained chairman of the board of directors until 1925
15.
Exploration diamond drilling
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Exploration diamond drilling is used in the mining industry to probe the contents of known ore deposits and potential sites. By withdrawing a small core of rock from the orebody, geologists can analyse the core by chemical assay and conduct petrologic. Rodolphe Leschot is often cited as being the inventor of the first core bit, early diamond drilling opened up many new areas for mineral mining, and was related to a boom in mineral exploration in remote locations. Before the invention of the diamond drill, most mineral prospecting was limited to finding outcrops at the surface. In the late 1970s, General Electric pioneered the technology of polycrystalline diamond compacts as a replacement for natural diamonds in drill bits, Exploration diamond drilling differs from other geological drilling in that a solid core is extracted from depth, for examination on the surface. The key technology of the drill is the actual diamond bit itself. It is composed of industrial diamonds set into a metallic matrix. As shown in the figure, the diamonds are scattered throughout the matrix, the bit is mounted onto a drill stem, which is connected to a rotary drill. Water is injected into the pipe, so as to wash out the rock cuttings produced by the bit. An actual diamond bit is an affair, usually designed for a specific rock type. The drill uses a diamond encrusted drill bit to drill through the rock, the drill produces a core which is photographed and split longitudinally. Half of the core is assayed while the other half is permanently stored for future use. Although a larger diameter core is the most preferred it is the most expensive, the most common diameter sizes of core are NQ and CHD76. Early exploration companies tended to choose drilling contractors who typically charge per meter rates and/or day rate depending on difficulty of project, merely advancing the drill by rotary action causes a core to be extracted inside the barrel as shown. However, at a depth of perhaps 300 m, there must be a way to retrieve the core, constantly withdrawing the entire heavy drill pipe is impractical, so methods were developed to pull up the core inside the barrel. Unfortunately, many require a undisturbed core in fractured rock. The photo shows the extraction of a core, using a triple-tube wire-line system and this is very important when exploring fault zones such as the San Andreas Fault. There are five major wire line tube sizes typically used, larger tubes produced larger diameter rock cores and require more drill power to drive them
16.
Milwaukee
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Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The county seat of Milwaukee County, it is on Lake Michigans western shore, Milwaukees estimated population in 2015 was 600,155. Milwaukee is the cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with an estimated population of 2,046,692 as of 2015. Ranked by estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee is the 31st largest city in the United States, the first Europeans to pass through the area were French Catholic missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, large numbers of German immigrants helped increase the citys population during the 1840s, with Poles and other immigrants arriving in the following decades. Known for its traditions, Milwaukee is currently experiencing its largest construction boom since the 1960s. In addition, many new skyscrapers, condos, lofts and apartments have been built in neighborhoods on and near the lakefront, the word Milwaukee may come from the Potawatomi language minwaking, or Ojibwe language ominowakiing, Gathering place. The first recorded inhabitants of the Milwaukee area are the Menominee, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, many of these people had lived around Green Bay before migrating to the Milwaukee area around the time of European contact. In the second half of the 18th century, the Indians at Milwaukee played a role in all the wars on the American continent. During the French and Indian War, a group of Ojibwas, in the American Revolutionary War, the Indians around Milwaukee were some of the few Indians who remained loyal to the American cause throughout the Revolution. After American independence, the Indians fought the United States in the Northwest Indian War as part of the Council of Three Fires, during the War of 1812, Indians held a council in Milwaukee in June 1812, which resulted in their decision to attack Chicago. This resulted in the Battle of Fort Dearborn on August 15,1812, the War of 1812 did not end well for the Indians, and after the Black Hawk War in 1832, the Indians in Milwaukee signed their final treaty with the United States in Chicago in 1833. This paved the way for American settlement, Europeans had arrived in the Milwaukee area prior to the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. French missionaries and traders first passed through the area in the late 17th and 18th centuries, alexis Laframboise, in 1785, coming from Michilimackinac settled a trading post, therefore, he is the first European descent resident of the Milwaukee region. Early explorers called the Milwaukee River and surrounding lands various names, Melleorki, Milwacky, Mahn-a-waukie, Milwarck, for many years, printed records gave the name as Milwaukie. One story of Milwaukees name says, ne day during the thirties of the last century a newspaper calmly changed the name to Milwaukee, the spelling Milwaukie lives on in Milwaukie, Oregon, named after the Wisconsin city in 1847, before the current spelling was universally accepted. Milwaukee has three founding fathers, Solomon Juneau, Byron Kilbourn, and George H. Walker, Solomon Juneau was the first of the three to come to the area, in 1818. He was not the first European settler but founded a town called Juneaus Side, or Juneautown, in competition with Juneau, Byron Kilbourn established Kilbourntown west of the Milwaukee River and made sure the streets running toward the river did not join with those on the east side
17.
Heritage railway
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A heritage railway is a railway kept to carry living history rail traffic in order to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Often heritage railways are old railway lines preserved in a state which depicts a certain period, or periods, Heritage railway lines contain historic rail infrastructure that has been substituted or made obsolete in modern railway transit systems. Historical installations, such as hand operated points, water cranes, due to the lack of modern technology, or to a desire for historical accuracy, railway operations can be handled with traditional practices, such as the use of physical tokens. Use of heritage infrastructure and operations often calls for assigning roles based on historical occupations to the railway staff, station masters and signalmen, sometimes wearing period-appropriate attire, can be seen on some heritage railways. Most heritage railways carry heritage rolling stock, but modern rail vehicles can be used to showcase railway scenes with historical line infrastructure, still other heritage railways offer a viable public transit option and can therefore sustain operations with a sufficient amount of revenue from regular riders or government subsidies. Childrens railways are extracurricular educational institutions, where children and teenagers learn railway professions, often they are fully functional, passenger-carrying narrow gauge rail lines. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was developed in Soviet times. Many sites were called pioneer railways, after the communist youth organisation, the first childrens railway was opened Moscow in 1932, and at the breakup of the USSR,52 childrens railways existed in the country. Even though the fall of communist governments has led to closures of these railways, many preserved childrens railways are still functioning in post-Soviet states, many childrens railways were built on parklands in urban areas. Unlike many industrial areas, typically served by a gauge railway. Child volunteers and socialist fiscal policy enabled stagnant existence for many of these railways, the old childrens railways, which still carry traffic, have often retained their original infrastructure and rolling stock, including vintage steam locomotives. Some have also acquired heritage vehicles from other railways, creating passages for trains up steep hills and through mountain regions offers many obstacles which call for special technical solutions. Special steep grade railway -technologies and extensive tunneling may be employed, the use of narrow gauge allows tighter curves in the track and offers a smaller structure gauge and tunnel size. Pit railways have been an important part of operating an underground mine all over the world, small rail vehicles offer effective transportation of ore and waste rock, as well as workers, through narrow tunnels. Sometimes the trains were the mode of transport in the passages between the work sites and the mine entrance. Often the loading gauge of the railway dictated the cross-section of the passages to be dug, and the tunnel, on many mining sites, pit railways have been abandoned due to mine closure or adoption of new kinds of transportation equipment. Nowadays some show mines exhibit a vintage pit railway and offer a chance to experience a mantrip into the mine, Millennium Underground Railway or M1, built from 1894 to 1896, is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro system and the second oldest underground railway in the world. In the 1980s and 1990s, M1 underwent major reconstruction, the original appearance of the old stations has been preserved
18.
Conductor (rail)
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A conductor or guard is a train crew member responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve actual operation of the train. The conductor title is most common in North American railway operations, in Commonwealth English, a conductor is only responsible for selling tickets. The conductor often stays in the center of the train where they can best view the platform, Conductor is also a crew member in some bus, trolleybus or tram operations. All crew members work under the conductor, the conductor, engineer, and additional engine crew members share responsibility for safe and efficient train operation and adherence to railway rules and procedures. On some railroads, union contracts specify that conductors must progress to engineer, onboard service crew members on passenger trains normally remain on duty for the entire run, including assigned meal and sleep breaks. Since nearly the beginning of railroading in North America, the conductor on freight trains rode aboard a caboose, along with the flagman and the rear brakeman. Advances in technology and pressure to reduce operating costs made cabooses redundant and this relocated the conductor from the rear of the train to the locomotive at the head of the train. In most cases, these same conditions gradually eliminated members of the crew under the conductor—head and rear brakemen, flagmen. Most freight trains on most railroads today have a crew of two, one conductor and one engineer, railroad companies continue to press for reduced operating and labor costs and this threatens to eliminate conductors. Railroads rationalize that since the engineer is already qualified as a conductor, in fact, on most railroads, engineers begin as brakemen/assistant conductors, then become conductors, and finally engineers. Some railroads already implement such a strategy, notably the Montana Rail Link, and operate with an engineer, therefore, eliminating the conductor position would require that the railroads and unions negotiate a new agreement. If the railroads were successful, conductors already trained and certified as engineers would be able to work as engineers and those that have not yet progressed to engineer would have to be trained as engineers as positions became available. Others would have to accept other positions or possibly lose their jobs, the primary union for engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers does not support this movement, claiming that requiring its members to operate trains alone would be unsafe. The conductors union, the United Transportation Union, also opposes this initiative, by the late 1990s, remote control locomotives were increasingly popular on North American railroads for switching duties in rail yards. This system allows the conductor to control the locomotive via a wireless remote unit. Some Class I Rail Yards utilize RCO packs for their conductors, while others do not, depending on the size, Class I Railroads train conductors on the use of RCO packs with classroom and hands-on instruction, culminating with on-the-job training and certification as a RCO operator. Currently, Class I railroads such as Norfolk Southern require RCO qualified conductors to work from job boards that perform RCO operations exclusively and this ensures the extra training and pay these conductors receive will provide the company with maximum value for the investment. Before operation began, the FRA required FrontRunner to employ a second crewmember on each train to assist with evacuation, disabled access
19.
Train ticket
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A train ticket is a ticket issued by a railway operator that enables the bearer to travel on the operators network or a partners network. Tickets can authorize the bearer to travel a set itinerary at a time, a set itinerary at any time. The last two categories are often called passes, the former is often sold as a block of trips for commuters. In some countries, like Italy, and some railways in Germany. Instead passengers are expected to validate tickets in a stamping machine before entering the train. There may or may not be a conductor later on double-checking that correct tickets are actually held, some train tickets are available with an option to add bus travel at either end of the train ticketed journey, as part of a wider transport network. For instance, the PLUSBUS scheme in the United Kingdom offers bus travel on a ticket for an additional fee. In Germany, most long distance train tickets include a city ticket valid on the transit system of origin. This is automatically included at no charge in all tickets purchased by Bahn Card holders and is indicated on the ticket. Some systems have two-part tickets that permit the passenger to retain a ticket stub. Seat checks are changed frequently to ensure that passengers cannot retain, increasingly, electronic tickets are being used as replacements for paper tickets. Amtrak, as of June 30,2012 offers electronic tickets on all train routes which have QR codes to identify the tickets validity, similar systems are used by Eurostar, Chiltern Railways Goeuro and Virgin Trains in the UK. In India, an SMS sent by the Indian Railways, along with a proof of identity is considered equivalent to a ticket. Reservation against Cancellation Edmondson railway ticket Rail pass Gordon Fairchild, Local Tickets of Global Lands
20.
History of rail transport
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Including systems with man or horse power, and tracks or guides made of stone or wood, the history of rail transport dates back as far as the ancient Greeks. Wagonways were relatively common in Europe from about 1500 through 1800, mechanised rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which use of the steam locomotive, were critical to the Industrial Revolution. They have remained the form of long distance land transportation for many bulk materials such as coal, ore, grains, stone and sand. Reduction in friction was one of the reasons for the success of railroads compared to wagons. This was demonstrated on an iron plate-covered wooden tramway in 1805 at Croydon in England, “A good horse on an ordinary turnpike road can draw two thousand pounds, or one ton. A party of gentlemen were invited to look upon the experiment, twelve wagons were loaded with stones, till each wagon weighed three tons, and the wagons were fastened together. A horse was then attached, which drew the wagons with ease, six miles in two hours, having stopped four times, in order to show he had the power of starting, as well as drawing his great load. ”Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD, the first horse-drawn wagonways also appeared in ancient Greece, with others to be found on Malta and various parts of the Roman Empire, using cut-stone tracks. They fell into disuse as the Roman Empire collapsed, in 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope, the line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is possibly the oldest wagonway still to operate. Wagonways are thought to have developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, such an operation was illustrated in 1556 by Georgius Agricola. This used Hund carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks, such a transport system was used by German miners at Caldbeck, Cumbria, England, perhaps from the 1560s. An alternative explanation derives it from the Magyar hintó - a carriage, there are possible references to their use in central Europe in the 15th century. The first true railway is now suggested to have been a railway made at Broseley in Shropshire. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the river Severn to be loaded onto barges, though the first documentary record of this is later, its construction probably preceded the Wollaton Wagonway, completed in 1604, hitherto regarded as the earliest British installation. This ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham, another early wagonway is noted onwards. Huntingdon Beaumont, who was concerned with mining at Strelley, also laid down broad wooden rails near Newcastle upon Tyne, by the 18th century, such wagonways and tramways existed in a number of areas
21.
First class travel
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First class is the most luxurious travel class of seats and service on a train, passenger ship, airplane, bus, or other system of transport. It is usually more expensive than business class and economy class, the first-class section of a fixed-wing jet airliner is typically toward the front of the aircraft. Many airlines have removed first class altogether from their international flights, First class passengers are usually allowed into lounges at airports while they wait for their flights. Australia has internal rail operations in each of its states, excluding Tasmania, normally run by the State Government, in each state, first class travel differs. NSW TrainLink First-class travel on TrainLink comes in two forms, on Xplorer and XPT trains, first-class seating is offered which include an increased legroom and seating recline over economy-class seating. On some XPT trains, first-class sleeping compartments can also be found, on day services these accommodate three people per compartment, and by night they carry two people with bunk-style accommodation. Queensland Rail Queensland Rail offer first-class travel on many of their Traveltrain services, Queensland Rail Traveltrain first class carriages provided private cabins in either roomette or twinette cabins. V/Line First-class accommodation on V/Line is a 2x2 seating arrangement, with extra legroom and recline, great Southern Rail This railway privately operates the tourist-oriented The Overland, Indian Pacific, and The Ghan services. Via Rail offers various kinds of first class depending on length of travel, shorter trips have a first class section, called Via 1, with hot meals served at the seat and a full bar service. Economy passengers must purchase food if desired from a rolling cart, longer trips have various kinds of sleeper compartments including some with showers, washrooms and pull-out beds. The various private and state-owned railways in Germany featured first-class, second-class and third-class amenities from the start, beginning in Prussia in 1852, extremely austere fourth-class coaches were introduced. After nationalization and consolidation, the class was abandoned in 1928 in order to generate more revenue by forcing passengers to pay the higher prices for third-class tickets. As those of most of the rest of Europe, the railways of East as well as West Germany moved to a system in 1956. To this end, the first class was abandoned and the second and third classes redesignated as the new first. Except for some regional and commuter services, which are second-class only. The difference in amenities between the first and second class varies between train operators, services and lines and it generally translated to more legroom, tables and/or three-abreast instead of four-abreast seating for first-class passengers. With some, primary local, services operated both by DB and other companies, there is no difference in seating between classes, with exception to the presence of armrests and tables in first class. The rationale for providing first-class spaces on these services is mainly due to the higher price
22.
Dinner train
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A dinner train is a relatively new type of tourist train service whose main purpose is to allow people to eat dinner while experiencing a relatively short, leisurely round trip train ride. This contrasts with conventional trains, whose main purpose is to transport passengers to some destination as quickly as possible. Dinner trains have become popular in recent years, particularly in the United States and this is in part a result of a nostalgia for passenger trains and in part because it provides a very different experience from driving and from eating at ordinary restaurants. The first dinner train in the United States was the Supper Chief that ran on the Sierra Railroad in California in the 1970s, Dinner train service was renewed in 1999 with the Sierra Railroad Dinner Train. There are over 80 dinner trains currently operating in North America, most such trains operate either seasonally or a few days a week, but some operate daily. Almost all dinner trains run on lightly used lines or tourist lines. Almost all dinner train trips are characterized by 2-4 hour trips that return to where they started since the emphasis is the experience, some feature the use of steam locomotives for at least some of their runs. Dinner trains can be fun not only for the passengers who ride them but also for the train crews and they can also provide jobs and be a profitable business. Moreover, they can generate substantial benefits for local economies, including boosting tourism, there was also the Michigan Star Clipper Dinner Train which was a dinner train that operated for 24 years out of Walled Lake, Michigan, with trips heading from West Bloomfield to Wixom. Some so-called dinner trains do not actually serve aboard the train. Rather, the food is served in a building or outdoors after the train has reached its destination and this is particularly true for narrow gauge railways, on which it would be impractical to prepare and serve formal meals. Examples include the 2 ft 6 in gauge Puffing Billy Railway near Melbourne, Australia, orford Express, a tourist passenger train from Sherbrooke, Quebec to Magog. Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, one of heritage trams that serves the same purpose as dinner trains DinnerTrains. com Kansas Belle dinner train
23.
Steam locomotive
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A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its pulling power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning combustible material—usually coal, wood, the steam moves reciprocating pistons which are mechanically connected to the locomotives main wheels. Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons pulled behind, the first steam locomotive, made by Richard Trevithick, first operated on 21 February 1804, three years after the road locomotive he made in 1801. The first practical steam locomotive was built in 1812-13 by John Blenkinsop, Steam locomotives were first developed in Great Britain during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. From the early 1900s they were superseded by electric and diesel locomotives, with full conversions to electric. The majority of locomotives were retired from regular service by the 1980s, though several continue to run on tourist. The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along railway tracks, in 1784, William Murdoch, a Scottish inventor, built a small-scale prototype of a steam road locomotive. An early working model of a rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the US during 1794. His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks, the model still exists at the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus. The authenticity and date of this locomotive is disputed by some experts, accompanied by Andrew Vivian, it ran with mixed success. The design incorporated a number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine, Trevithick visited the Newcastle area in 1804 and had a ready audience of colliery owners and engineers. The visit was so successful that the railways in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation. Trevithick continued his own steam propulsion experiments through another trio of locomotives, Four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive Salamanca by Matthew Murray for the edge railed rack and pinion Middleton Railway debuted in 1812. Another well known early locomotive was Puffing Billy built 1813–14 by engineer William Hedley and it was intended to work on the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne. This locomotive is the oldest preserved, and is on display in the Science Museum. George Stephenson built Locomotion No.1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north-east England, in 1829, his son Robert built in Newcastle The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials. This success led to the company emerging as the pre-eminent builder of locomotives used on railways in the UK, US. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened a year later making exclusive use of power for passenger
24.
Diesel locomotive
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A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotive have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combustion engine-powered locomotives and railmotors used gasoline as their fuel, soon after Dr. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression ignition engine in 1892, it was considered for railway propulsion. Progress was slow, however, as several problems had to be overcome, power transmission was a primary concern. As opposed to steam and electric engines, internal combustion engines work efficiently only within a range of turning frequencies. In light vehicles, this could be overcome by a clutch, in heavy railway vehicles, mechanical transmission never worked well or wore out too soon. Experience with early gasoline powered locomotives and railcars was valuable for the development of diesel traction, one step towards diesel-electric transmission was the petrol-electric vehicle, such as the Acsev Weitzer railmotor, which could operate from batteries and electric overhead wires too. Steady improvements in diesel design gradually reduced its size and improved its power-to-weight ratio to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Once the concept of drive was accepted, the pace of development quickened. In 1930, Armstrong Whitworth of the United Kingdom delivered two 1,200 hp locomotives using engines of Sulzer design to Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway of Argentina, currently, almost all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric, although the diesel-hydraulic type was widely used between the 1950s and 1970s. The Soviet diesel locomotive TEP80-0002 lays claim to the speed record for a diesel railed vehicle. In 1894, a 20 h. p. two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks, in 1896 an oil-engined railway locomotive was built for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, England, in 1896, using an engine designed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart. It was not, strictly, a diesel because it used a hot bulb engine, following the expiration of Dr. Rudolf Diesels patent in 1912, his engine design was successfully applied to marine propulsion and stationary applications. However, the massiveness and poor power-to-weight ratio of early engines made them unsuitable for propelling land-based vehicles. Therefore, the potential as a railroad prime mover was not initially recognized. This changed as development reduced the size and weight of the engine, the worlds first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur-Romanshorn Railroad in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam, Sulzer had been manufacturing Diesel engines since 1898. During further test runs in 1913 several problems were found, after the First World War broke out in 1914, all further trials were stopped
25.
June 2008 Midwest floods
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The June 2008 Midwestern United States floods were flooding events which affected portions of the Midwest United States. After months of heavy precipitation, a number of rivers overflowed their banks for weeks at a time. States affected by the flooding included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the American Red Cross assisted the victims of flooding and tornadoes across seven states and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation. Flooding continued as long as two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids being hardest hit, the upper Mississippi Valley experienced flooding in Missouri and Illinois as the regions estuaries drained the floodwater into the river. The flood left thirteen dead and damage region-wide was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars, on June 11, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich deemed Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Jasper and Lawrence counties as disaster areas. Levee breaks on June 10 flooded portions of Lawrence County near Lawrenceville, inundating a campsite, on the early morning of June 14, the town of Oquawka, Illinois was evacuated, due to a levee breach along the swollen Iowa River. The city council believed this would affect the waters in the already flooding Mississippi River. The same day two levees broke near the town of Keithsburg, Illinois, flooding the entire town, on the morning of June 15, a levee along the Mississippi River in the town of Gulfport failed, flooding most of the town. Two more levees were breached by flood waters in western Illinois on June 18, the breaches flooded farmland near Meyer and forced an evacuation of the town. More than $7.2 million in disaster assistance grants and loans were approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Small Business Administration for Illinois residents who suffered damages and losses, starting on June 4,2008, rain soaked parts of south-central Indiana, leading to initial floods in and around Bloomington. Additional rain on June 7 brought the worst of the flooding to portions of south-central. The highest recorded rainfall was in the town of Edinburgh, which saw 10.94 inches of rain in seven hours, paragon had 10 inches of rain in just a few hours, leaving 90% of the town underwater. Some parts of the state had flood levels exceeding records set in 1913, on June 9, President George W. Bush declared 29 counties in central Indiana a major disaster area, enabling the region to receive federal aid and Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance. Many low-lying areas of central and northern Indiana were evacuated because of the rise of the waters. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels declared a state of emergency in 23 counties and called in the United States Coast Guard to assist in evacuations, the Coast Guard responded by sending two helicopters to the state along with boats and personnel. The Indiana National Guard was called out to assist in evacuation and direct traffic, some areas of southern Indianapolis, where the White River was several feet past flood stage, were evacuated. This included a hospital with one hundred patients and doctors, the Coast Guard continued to rescue trapped citizens on June 8
26.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
