1.
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
2.
Rapid transit track gauge
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Rapid transit track gauge is often 1,435 mm standard gauge, but also 1,000 mm,1,067 mm,1,524 mm, and 1,676 mm, among others. Standard gauge railways and rapid transit systems are dominant in Europe, North America, West Asia, North Africa, some of the largest and oldest subway systems in the world use standard gauge in agreement with the country wide dominant usage for track gauge, e. g. The following list contains rapid transit systems that are either non-standard gauge, or are standard gauge, for references for the figures, see each systems page. List of track gauges List of tram track gauges
3.
Bosnian-gauge railways
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Bosnian gauge is a railway track gauge of 760 mm. It was used extensively in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as a form of narrow gauge. The name is used for lines of the same gauge outside Bosnia. Similar track gauges are the 2 ft 6 in and 750 mm gauge and it was completed in 1879, using the 760 mm temporary tracks and rolling stock used during the construction of the recently finished Temesvár-Orsova line. The Brod - Zenica - Sarajevo Bosna Bahn provided the basis for the narrow gauge railway network which was established in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In barely two decades a national 760 mm network was built, by the 1890s this stretched through Mostar to the Dalmatian border at Metkovic, and to Gruž, a suburb of Dubrovnik, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. This narrow gauge main line carried much heavier traffic than many of the standard gauge main lines across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was the success of the Bosnian narrow gauge net which gave impetus after the turn of the century to the building of 760 mm gauge lines across all other territories of the Monarchy. The technical solutions pioneered there were used later on all the narrow railways of Austria-Hungary. List of town tramway systems in Croatia List of track gauges Sarajevo Tramway History of Bosnian railways
4.
Swedish three foot gauge railways
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Swedish three-foot gauge railways are railways with the gauge 891 mm, or 3 Swedish feet in the old Swedish measurement system. Railways with this gauge have only existed in Sweden and this was the most common narrow gauge in Sweden. Sweden once had some fairly extensive networks, but most narrow gauge railways are now closed. Some were converted to standard gauge and some remain as heritage railways, the only commercial Swedish three foot gauge railway still in use is the suburban railway Roslagsbanan in north-eastern Stockholm. The Nordmark-Klarälvens Järnväg was a 175 km network issued from different lines built from 1873 and it was electrified in 1920, with 15 AEG-locomotives. A new class of 5 locomotives went in 1961, the network was dismantled in 1990. 70 km between Hultsfred and Västervik as well as the sections between Virserum-Hjortöström and Åseda-Hultanäs are served by tourist trains in the summer, including 4 km of dual gauge track. The Vadstena - Fågelsta narrow gauge railway was part of a network in Östergötland
5.
900 mm gauge railways
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900 mm narrow gauge railways are generally found in Europe. This gauge is used for light urban rail networks, industrial and agricultural railways. In Sweden there has been a network of railways with 891 mm gauge. This is so close to 900 mm that they are more or less compatible, and some sales of rolling stock between the gauges have taken place
6.
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
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Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in/1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, there are approximately 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway,1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon,1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica. 1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway,1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways, Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 also saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan,1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were converted to the narrower gauge. Also in 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge, after conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal also converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in broad gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, after 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1065 mm instead of 1067 mm, the gauge is sometimes referred to as CAP gauge, after C. A. The gauge name Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand, in Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is also used, in Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, which directly translates as narrow gauge. It is defined in metric units, Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges Norwegian gauge controversy South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 36 Narrow Gauge
7.
4 ft 6 in gauge railway
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The 4 ft 6 in track gauge, also called the Scotch gauge, was adopted by early 19th century railways mainly in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. It differed from the gauge of 4 ft 8 in that was used on some lines in England. In the early 1840s standard gauge lines began to be constructed in Scotland, the gauge was outlawed in Great Britain by law in 1846. From 1903, tram lines of Tokyo adopted this gauge, a small number of early to mid-19th century passenger railways were built to 4 ft 6 in Scotch gauge including, Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway. Authorised on 20 July 1806 and opened on 6 November 1810, authorised on 17 May 1824 and opened on 1 October 1826. Incorporated on 19 May 1826 and opened on 8 August 1828, authorised on 26 May 1826 and opened in part on 4 July 1831. Incorporated on 26 May 1826 and ceremonially opened on 27 September 1831 for both passengers and goods, the engineers were Thomas Grainger and John Miller from Edinburgh. Incorporated on 21 June 1829 and partially opened on 21 March 1834, the engineers were Thomas Grainger and John Miller from Edinburgh. Incorporated on 3 July 1835 and opened on 31 August 1840, authorised on 21 July 1835 and opened on 3 April 1837 for both passengers and goods. Interestingly Robert Stephenson and Company built a Scotch gauge locomotive, the St. Rollox, for the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway, all the lines were later relaid in standard gauge. In addition to the lines, there were three railways, authorised between 1822 and 1835, that were built in the Dundee area, to a gauge of 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in. They were, The Dundee and Newtyle Railway, the Newtyle and Coupar Angus Railway. Grainger and Miller built another two lines in the same area to a gauge of 5 ft 6 in. Thomas Grainger is said to have chosen this gauge, since he regarded 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge as being too narrow and they were, The Dundee and Arbroath Railway. Incorporated on 19 May 1836 and opened in part in October 1838, incorporated on 19 May 1836 and opened in part on 24 November 1838. A few remnants of old lines remain, but are non functional with the exception of one example of the St Michaels Mount Tramway at St Michaels Mount in Cornwall and it is a partial underground railway that used to bring luggage up to the castle. It occasionally operates, but only for reasons and is not open to the general public. It is therefore believed to be Britains last functionally operational Scotch gauge railway, after the end of Scotch gauge in Britain, the gauge was revived in Japan
8.
Broad-gauge railway
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Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the 1,435 mm standard gauge. In Britain the Great Western Railway, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, pioneered broad gauge in 1838 with a gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings, as it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until the locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft exactly but this was increased by 1⁄4 in to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. It became apparent that standardization on a gauge throughout a rail transport system was advantageous. Rolling stock did not need to match the gauge exactly, a difference of a few millimetres could be coped with, the value of interoperability was initially not obvious to the industry. The standardization movement was gradual, over time the value of a proprietary gauge diminished, being replaced by the idea of charging money for equipment used on other railway lines. Ireland, using the criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864, Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have a gauge of 5 ft 3 in, but Luas, the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft gauge inherited from Imperial Russia, in 1839 the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, in 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive and three carriages in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht and these replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39. Portugal and the Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese, in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, a gauge of 5 ft 6 in is widespread. This is also used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system of the San Francisco Bay Area. In Toronto, Canada the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861, years after the establishment of gauge in Britain. In 1861, the province was supplying subsidies only to broad gauge railways. The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On the 5 ft 3 in and 5 ft 6 in gauges, the extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, in the event, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any broad-gauge locomotive
9.
5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways
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Railways with a railway track gauge of 5 ft/1,524 mm were first constructed in the United Kingdom and the United States. This gauge is commonly called Russian gauge because this gauge was later chosen as the common track gauge for the Russian Empire. The gauge was redefined by Russian Railways to be 1520 mm, the primary region where Russian gauge is used is the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Finland, with about 225,000 km of track. Russian gauge is the second most common gauge in the world, in 1748, the Wylam waggonway was built to a 5 ft gauge for the shipment of coal from Wylam to Lemington down the River Tyne. In 1839, the Eastern Counties Railway was constructed, and in 1840, in 1844, both lines were converted to 1,435 mm standard gauge. In 1903, the East Hill Cliff Railway, a funicular, was opened. In 1827, Horatio Allen, the engineer of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, prescribed the usage of 5 ft gauge. The presence of several distinct gauges was a disadvantage to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. In 1886, when around 11,500 miles of 5 ft gauge track existed in the United States, while of almost no practical importance the railway did demonstrate that this gauge was viable. The second railway in the Russian Empire was the Warsaw–Vienna railway which was built to 1,435 mm, for the building of Russias first major railway, the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway, engineer Pavel Melnikov hired as consultant George Washington Whistler, a prominent American railway engineer. Melnikov, of the Construction Commission overseeing the railway, recommended 6 ft following the example of the first railway and his study of US Railways. Following a report sent by Whistler the head of the Main Administration of Transport and Buildings recommended 5 ft and it was approved for the railway by Tsar Nicholas I on February 14,1843. The next lines built were also approved with this gauge but it was not until March 1860 that a Government decree stated all major railways in Russia would be 5 ft gauge. It is widely and incorrectly believed that Imperial Russia chose a gauge broader than standard gauge for military reasons, in 1841 a Russian army engineer wrote a paper stating that such a danger did not exist since railways could be made dysfunctional by retreating forces. Finally for the Moscow - Saint Petersburg Railway, which became the benchmark, despite this the difference in gauge did play a role in hindering invading armies, especially in World War II, it was just not selected with that in mind. The 5-foot gauge became the standard in the whole Russian Empire and that includes the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasian and Central Asian republics, Finland, and in the once Soviet-influenced Mongolia. This formed a break of gauge between Changchun and Kuancheng, until the rest of the former Chinese Eastern Railway was converted to standard gauge, unlike in South Manchuria, the Soviet Unions reconquest of southern Sakhalin from Japan did not result in regauging of the railway system. Southern Sakhalin has continued with the original Japanese 1,067 mm gauge simultaneously with the Russian gauge railway, constructed in the northern part of the island in 1930-1932
10.
5 ft 3 in gauge railways
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Railways with track gauge of 5 ft 3 in are broad gauge railways, currently in use in Australia, Brazil and Ireland. 600 BCE The Diolkos across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved paved trackway – was constructed with a gauge of 5 ft 3 in. 1840 The Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway was constructed to 5 ft 3 in gauge,1843 The Board of Trade of the United Kingdom recommended the use of 5 ft 3 in in Ireland, after investigating a dispute caused by diverse gauges in Ireland. 1846 The Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 made this gauge mandatory throughout all of Ireland,1847 The Swiss Northern Railway was opened, converted to standard gauge in 1854. 1854 The first Australian 5 ft 3 in line was opened,1858 The first Brazilian 5 ft 3 in railway was opened, the Companhia de Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II. 1863 The Canterbury Provincial Railways in New Zealand was built in 5 ft 3 in until gauge conversion to 3 ft 6 in in 1876 In Ireland this gauge is known as Irish gauge, in Australia this gauge is known as Victorian Broad Gauge. In Brazil this gauge is known as Bitola larga. The Pennsylvania trolley gauges of 5 ft 2 1⁄2 in and 5 ft 2 1⁄4 in are similar to Irish gauge, there is also 5 ft 2 in gauge, which is similar as well. One of the advantages of the broader 1,600 mm Irish gauge. In practice, Ireland does not have any heavily-loaded or steeply-graded lines that would require especially powerful locomotives. The most powerful locomotives on systems of this gauge were. By comparison a non-articulated standard gauge locomotive in the country was
11.
5 ft 6 in gauge railway
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5 ft 6 in/1,676 mm gauge is a broad track gauge commonly used in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Chile, but is also used on BART, in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States. It is historically known as Broad gauge in South Asia or Provincial gauge and it is the widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. See 5 ft 6 in gauge in Scotland This gauge was first used in Scotland for two short, isolated lines, the Dundee and Arbroath Railway and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway. However, soon there were disagreements with Lord Dalhousie favoring a 6 ft gauge and Mr. Simms, the consulting engineer favoring five feet and six inches gauge. The debate was settled in favor of the five and half feet gauge, called the broad gauge in 1850s. In the late 20th century, India adopted Project Unigauge, Gauge conversion towards Indian gauge is underway, replacing several narrow gauges and metre gauges. Pakistan uses primarily broad gauge, but also has a mix of metre gauge, the Bangladesh Railways uses a mix of broad gauge and metre gauge. The broad gauge network is located to the west of the Jamuna River. The Jamuna Bridge is a mixed use bridge that contains a gauge connection across the river linking both networks. Sri Lanka previously had a mix of broad gauge and other narrow gauges, however, all services currently operate on broad gauge as the other lines have either been closed or converted. In the 1850s it was first used in Canada, and was used in other British colonies. It was known as the Provincial gauge in Canada, the earliest railways in Canada, including the 1836 Champlain and St. Lawrence,1839 Albion Colliery tramway and 1847 Montreal and Lachine Railway were all built to standard gauge. The Grand Trunk Railway which operated in several Canadian provinces and American states used it, the Grand Trunk Railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, but corporate headquarters were in London, England. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad which operated in Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, there is a longstanding rumour that the Provincial gauge was selected specifically to create a break-of-gauge with US railways, the War of 1812 still being a fresh memory. However, there is supporting evidence for this, and this story appears to be traced to a single claim from the late 1800s. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system is the operating railroad in the United State to use Indian gauge. The original engineers for the system had background in aerospace and intended to make a system for other municipalities to emulate. The use of Indian gauge rails was one of many design elements included in its design
12.
Track gauge in the United States
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Originally, various gauges were used in the United States. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used standard gauge, as a general rule, southern railroads were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft, while northern railroads that were not standard-gauge tended to be narrow-gauge. Notable exceptions were the 6 ft railroads that predominated in the first part of the 19th Century in New York State, problems began as soon as lines began to meet and in much of the north-eastern United States, standard gauge was adopted. Non-standard gauges remain in use for municipal and regional mass transit systems not requiring interchange of equipment. The New York and Erie Railroad was originally 6 ft gauge,6 ft gauge was also cited for improved stability, and the New York and Erie eventually had rolling stock with 11 feet wide loading gauge. Major cities including Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany all were connected by six foot gauged railroads extending from Elmira and Binghamton on the New York and these lines included the Avon, Genesee & Mt. Other 6 ft gauge lines included the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York, the Walkill Valley railroad, the Portland Company was formed to build locomotives of this gauge for use on the local rail system. The New England railways were similarly standard-gauged in the 1870s, in the 1960s, the gauge was selected for use in the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, serving the San Francisco Bay Area, it is the only place in America where this gauge is in use. The rapid transit segment of the system covers 104 miles of track in revenue service. 5 ft 2 1⁄4 in and 5 ft 2 1⁄2 in are commonly known as Pennsylvania trolley gauge because it was used by railroad lines in the state of Pennsylvania. This configuration allowed for rolling stock that could more efficiently accommodate cotton bales. In the U. S. this gauge was changed to 4 ft 9 in in 1886, most of the original track in Ohio was built in 4 ft 10 in gauge, the Ohio Gauge. The Washington Metro system in the D. C. metropolitan area was built to 4 ft 8 1⁄4 in narrow gauge. 3 ft gauge railways became the dominant narrow gauge throughout the United States from the Boston, Revere Beach, the gauge was also used by the Oahu Railway and Land Company of Hawaii and the White Pass and Yukon Route of Alaska. Heritage railroads operate portions of the formerly extensive Colorado system as the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Cumbres, the Angels Flight and Court Flight funicular railways of Los Angeles used 2 ft 6 in. This became a popular gauge for railways in California, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon. Several Maine railroads used 2 ft gauge following demonstration on the Billerica, several railroads in Maine used it, including the Sandy River & Rangly Lakes, the Waterville Wisscassett & Farmington, the Kennebec Central, the Monson, and the Saco Biddford & Harrison. When these railroads ceased operation in the 1940s, their equipment was transferred to the Edaville Railroad, the gauge was also used by the Mount Gretna Narrow Gauge Railway, and by some mining railways of the Rocky Mountains
13.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering, though Brunels projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. Brunel set the standard for a railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, one controversial feature was the wide gauge, a broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, instead of what was later to be known as standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. Brunel astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered iron-hulled ships and he designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering, the Great Western, the Great Britain, and the Great Eastern. In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200. Brunels name is an amalgamation of his parents names and he inherited the family name of his father, and his middle name is his mothers surname. Brunels first name, Isambard, comes from his fathers middle name, Isambard is a Norman name of Germanic origin, meaning iron-bright. A cognate name is the German surname Eisenbarth, which can still be found today among Bavarians and German-Americans and he had two older sisters, Sophia and Emma, and the whole family moved to London in 1808 for his fathers work. Brunel had a childhood, despite the familys constant money worries. His father taught him drawing and observational techniques from the age of four, during this time he also learned fluent French and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings and identify any faults in their structure, when Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrells boarding school in Hove, where he learned the classics. When Brunel was 15, his father Marc, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000, was sent to a debtors prison. After three months went by with no prospect of release, Marc let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of Russia. In August 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, Brunel subsequently studied under the prominent master clockmaker and horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunels potential in letters to his father. In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England, Brunels father, Marc, was the chief engineer, and the project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company. The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often more than waterlogged sediment. The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior miners, and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death and he was seriously injured, and spent six months recuperating
14.
Break of gauge
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With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transhipped. A break-of-gauge adds delays, cost, and inconvenience, narrow gauges tend to be associated with smaller loading gauges and sharper curves, which tend to reduce initial capital costs. This offsets the costs of any affected by the break-of-gauge. Historically narrow gauge railways were built on marginal lines, mostly through hilly and mountainous terrain to cut costs. Associated disadvantages were not recognized as much as rail lines were operated independent of potentially connecting lines regardless of gauge as competing companies built. Only the building of union stations or the nationalization of railroads changed this, an advantage is that invading armies may be severely hampered. Another advantage might be if the different gauges have different loading gauges. Similarly, if the larger and smaller gauges use different couplers or brakes, for passenger trains the inconvenience is less, especially at major stations where many passengers change trains or end their journeys anyway. Therefore, some railways have been built with gauges otherwise not used in the concerned countries. For example, the railways in Japan and Spain use 1,435 mm while their respective mainline railroad systems use 1,067 mm and 1,668 mm. For night trains, which are common in places like Russia. For these, often the bogies are replaced, even if it takes more time than having passengers change trains. If local government has influence over the construction of railways, some may see it as desirable for trains to stop in rather than pass through their town. Transhipping freight from cars of one gauge to cars of another is very labour- and time-intensive, if the capacity of the freight cars on both systems does not match, additional inefficiencies can arise. If the frequency is low, trains might need to wait a time for its counterpart to arrive before transshipping. This is avoided by storing the goods, but that is also an inconvenience, technical solutions to avoid transhipping include variable gauge axles, replacing the bogies of cars, and using transporter cars that can carry a car of a different gauge. Talgo and CAF have developed dual-gauge axles which permit through running between broad gauge and standard gauge, in Japan the Gauge Change Train, built on Talgo patents, runs on standard and narrow 1,067 mm gauge
15.
Dual gauge
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A dual-gauge railway is a line of track that provides for trains of two separate track gauges. A mixed-gauge railway provides for more than two gauges, but is also a term sometimes used to denote dual-gauge. A dual-gauge track configuration usually consists of three rails, two rails, one for each gauge, plus a common rail--although at times, commonality is not possible. In an ordinary three-rail dual-gauge configuration, the two adjacent outer rails give provide each of the gauges, while the outer rail is common to trains of both gauges operating over it. This configuration is not to be confused with the electric current traction rail or a check or guard rail, in railways, the most important specification is that of rail gauge, the distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of the travel rails. A problem arises when different gauges outside of this tolerance meet one another, in allowing railway tracks of different gauges to share the same alignment, costs can be reduced, and infrastructure shared, e. g. platforms, bridges and tunnels etc. Dual gauge can replace two separate tracks by sharing one common running rail and one of the two outer rails which determine the gauge. However, there are complications and costs involved that may offset the savings. One issue is that points are more complex, and therefore more expensive, arrangements are necessary to ensure trains of both gauges can be safely signalled, track circuits and mechanical interlocking where provided must be operated through the common rail. Also, the rail will have an increased wear and tear over the other separate gauge rails. The following pairs of gauges can be dual-gauged without problem, standard gauge and 1,676 mm,3 ft and 3 ft 6 in, and 5 ft and 6 ft. Standard gauge and 1,600 mm can also be dual-gauged, albeit with lighter, narrow-footed rails and this last combination is of particular historical interest, as it was of strategic significance during World War II. If three-rail dual gauge is impossible, four-rail gauntlet track dual-gauge has to be used, the complications and difficulties outlined illustrate the benefits of standardised railway gauges, where possible. Alternatively the rails may be too light for the loads imposed by broader-gauge railcars, such potential problems can rule out dual-gauge as a feasible option, unless heavier rails are installed. Dual-gauge lines in Java were regauged from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in to 3 ft 6 in during the Japanese administration in 1942-1943, regauging occurred only on the relatively short Brumbung-Kedungjati-Gundih main line and the Kedungjati-Ambarawa branch line, as the rest of the line was already dual-gauge. In Los Angeles the 3 ft 6 in Los Angeles Railway, the Colorado and Southern Railway had both standard and narrow gauge trackage, and had dual-gauge track between Denver, Colorado and Golden, until 1941. Similarly, a section of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroads Alamosa-Durango Line from Alamosa, the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company formerly had considerable dual-gauge trackage in its Mount Union, Pennsylvania yard. Alaska and British Columbia are proposing dual gauge,1,435 mm standard gauge and 914 mm, track so that a narrow gauge tourist train and standard gauge ore trains can share the right of way
16.
Track gauge conversion
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In rail transport, gauge conversion is the process of converting a railway from one rail gauge to another, through the alteration of the railway tracks. An alternative to gauge conversion is dual gauge track, or gauge conversion of the vehicles themselves. Rails may be too light for the loads imposed by broader-gauge railcars, in some cases, gauge-convertible sleepers are installed before the conversion of the track itself. The sleepers must be enough to take the wider of the two gauges, and must be able to accommodate the fittings for both the existing and the new gauges. In cases where the difference between the two gauges is small, such as 1,000 mm and 1,067 mm track, or 1,435 mm and 1,524 mm track, in those cases, gauntlet track is required. Timber sleepers are always gauge convertible, provided that they are long enough, if the new gauge is wider than the old, a shorter sleeper than would normally be used can be tolerated, provided it still allows for secure fastening of the wider track. Concrete sleepers cannot be converted as an afterthought, but must have the future fittings cast in place when manufactured, steel sleepers should have the extra fitting incorporated when manufactured, though it is theoretically possible to drill or weld new fittings to the sleeper after installation. A special gauge-convertible sleeper, with a chair for the Pandrol clip. In June 2008, the South Australian government announced that by 2012 the Adelaide metropolitan network would be converted from 1,600 mm broad gauge to standard gauge, consequently, broad-gauge timber sleepers are progressively being replaced with gauge-convertible concrete sleepers on the metropolitan rail network. As of 2016, however, gauge conversion had not commenced, narrow-gauge railways often have a significantly smaller structure gauge, and therefore the rolling stock used has a smaller loading gauge in both height and width. Conversion to a track gauge will often require enlargement of the structure gauge on bridges, under road overpasses. Embankments and cuts could need widening as well, the minimum curve radius of narrow-gauge railways is often less than on tracks with a wider gauge, so route deviations might be required to allow the radius of curves to be increased. Track centres at stations with multiple tracks may also have to be increased, in this instance, the loading gauge of the broad gauge and standard gauge lines are essentially the same. Where vehicles cross a change of gauge, they must either be equipped for a change of bogie or have adjustable gauge axles. For example passenger trains crossing between the 1,435 mm system in France and the 1,668 mm in Spain pass through an installation which adjusts their variable gauge axles. This temporary alteration to allow through working is generally referred to as gauge change, in the event, few have been so converted, but one such is Victorian Railways R class R766. Because boilers and fireboxes are in the way locomotives can be converted only to a wider gauge, about 1860, the Bristol and Exeter Railway converted five 1,435 mm gauge locomotives to 7 ft gauge, and later converted them back again. In the 19th century, in the US, some broad 1,524 mm gauge locomotives were designed for conversion to 1,435 mm gauge
17.
Bogie exchange
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Bogie exchange is a system for operating railway wagons on two or more gauges to overcome difference in the track gauge. To perform a bogie exchange, a car is converted from one gauge to another by removing the bogies or trucks and it is generally limited to wagons and carriages, though diesel locomotives can be exchanged if enough time is available. Bogie wagons can have their gauge changed by lifting them off one set of bogies, the pin that centres the bogies and the hoses and fittings for the brakes must be compatible. A generous supply of bogies of each gauge is needed to accommodate the ebb, the bogies and wagons also need to have standardized hooks, etc. where they may be efficiently lifted. The two wheel sets on four-wheel wagons can be changed as if the wagon has been designed accordingly. Steam engines can be designed for more than one gauge, by having and this was done in the 1930s and beyond in Victoria for possible gauge conversion, though no engines were ever converted in this manner other than one heritage engine. Some 1,000 mm metre gauge Garratt locomotives of East Africa were designed for conversion to 3 ft 6 in gauge. The re-gauging was performed by simply reversing the wheel centres so that the spokes dished outwards, in the southern United States, some steam locomotives built by Baldwin were designed for easy conversion from 5 ft to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge. Diesel locomotives have bogies like wagons and carriages, only with more cables for the traction motors, in Australia, some classes of diesel locomotives are regularly gauge-converted to suit traffic requirements on the 1,435 mm,1,600 mm, and 1,067 mm networks. The simplest way to carry out bogie exchange is to lift the wagons off the bogies and this may require the wagons in a train to be uncoupled, and continuous brakes disconnected. As the bogies are swung out of the way, they sway, another way of carrying out bogie exchange is to lower the bogies onto a trolley in a pit, after which the trolleys are rolled out of the way and others return. This keeps the train couplings and continuous brakes connected, in addition, the bogies never need leave a solid surface, so they can be wheeled in and out more quickly. This method was used at Dry Creek railway station, Adelaide, between 1961 and 1995, Australia had five bogie exchange centres, which opened and closed as gauge conversion work proceeded. The gauges served were 1,435 mm and 1,600 mm, all the wagons involved had wagon codes ending in X, such as VLX. The centres were, Dynon, Melbourne, Victoria Wodonga near Albury on state border and this was done by one shift of 18 men, compared with the 100 men required if the same amount of freight were transferred wagon to wagon. Brest, Belarus – between 1,520 mm and 1,435 mm at the border to Poland Bogie exchange was used between 2 ft 6 in and 1,000 mm gauge on the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia Railway. Between 1,435 mm standard gauge and the 3 ft 6 in of the former Newfoundland Railway at Port aux Basques A bogie exchange station exists at the Chinese border to Mongolia, both the Moscow-Beijing passenger train and freight trains get their bogies exchanged. Mongolia has Russian gauge 1,520 mm, China has 1,435 mm. Also, a bogie exchange station exists in the Port of Turku with a short stretch of 1,435 mm gauge railway
18.
Variable gauge
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A variable gauge system allows railway vehicles in a train to travel across a break of gauge caused by two railway networks with differing track gauges. For through-operation, a train must be equipped with special trucks holding variable gauge wheelsets containing a variable gauge axle, the gauge is altered by driving the train through a gauge changer or gauge changing facility. As the train passes through the changer, the wheels are unlocked, moved closer together, or further apart. Installed variable gauge systems exist within the network of Spain. A system for changing gauge, without need for stopping is widespread for passenger traffic in Spain, used in services run on a mix of dedicated high-speed lines, similar systems for freight traffic are still rather incipient, as the higher axle weight increases the technological challenge. Variable gauge axles help solve the problem of a break-of-gauge without having to resort to dual gauge tracks or transshipment, systems allow the adjustment between two gauges. No designs supporting more than two gauges are used, there are several variable gauge axle systems, Talgo-RD. The Talgo system has been in service in Portbou and Irun, on the Spanish-French border. CAF-BRAVA The BRAVA system was designed in 1968 by the Vevey Company. The system was called the Vevey axle. The design was obtained and improved by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles. Being developed in 2002 for use between Europe and Russia, Japan Railways RTRI to be used on motorised axles. PKP SUW2000 system produced by ZNTK Poznań for Polish State Railways, the Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway, Switzerland in preparation by Prose of Winterthur 1,435 mm /1,000 mm. The variable gauge systems are not themselves all compatible, only the SUW2000 and Rafil Type V systems are interoperable. In 2009, at Roda de Barà near Tarragona, a Unichanger capable of four different VGA systems was under development. VGA is particularly important with international railway traffic because gauge changes tend to more often at international borders. The maximum speed of the equipped with the different technologies vary. Only CAF and Talgo produce high-speed VGA, allowing speeds up to 250 km/h, a gauge changer is a device which forces the gauge adjustment in the wheels
19.
Track gauge in North America
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The vast majority of North American railroads are standard gauge. The first railroads in Canada in the 1830s were built to 1,435 mm, after a Royal Commission, in 1851 the broad gauge, called the Provincial Gauge or Indian gauge, was adopted by the Province of Canada government as the standard gauge. However, in the 1870s, most Canadian railroads were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange with U. S. railroads, the last broad gauge line closed in 1911. The Toronto subway uses an overgauge of 4 ft 10 7⁄8 in, the 3 ft railroad system of Guatemala no longer operates, see Rail transport in Guatemala. See Rail transport in Mexico The Panama Railroad was originally 5 ft as in much of the Southern United States and this gauge was converted to 1,435 mm when the line was rebuilt in 2000. Nowadays only the ship handling trains along the Panama Canal, called mules, in 1886, the southern railroads agreed to coordinate changing gauge on all their tracks. Over a period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad lines in the South, moved them 3 in east. The new gauge was close enough that standard gauge equipment could run on it without problem, by June 1886, all major railroads in North America were using approximately the same gauge. The final conversion to standard gauge took place gradually as track was maintained. Now, the only rail systems in the United States are some city transit systems
20.
Track gauge in South America
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In South America, Argentina and Chile use 1,676 mm track gauge, as well as 1,000 mm or metre gauge. Brazil uses 1,600 mm and 1,000 mm, exceptions are the Estrada de Ferro do Amapá north of the Amazon River, which has 1,435 mm gauge, and the new Line 5 of São Paulo Metro, which also uses standard gauge. Argentina, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru use standard gauge, in the past a few lines in Northern Chile also had standard gauge, as the only international railway between Arica and Tacna, slightly more than 60 km, uses standard gauge. The El Cerrejón Coal Railway in Colombia is also 1,435 mm, there are and were also some lines using different narrow gauges, see the narrow gauge section in this list. Rail gauge in Europe Rail gauge in North America
21.
Rail gauge in Australia
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Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent for over 150 years. As of 2014, there is 11,801 kilometres of railways,17,381 kilometres of standard gauge railways and 3,221 kilometres of broad gauge railways. In the 19th century, each of the Colonies of Australia adopted their own gauges, however, with Federation in 1901 and the removal of trade barriers, the short sightedness of three gauges became apparent. It would be 94 years before all state capitals were joined by one standard gauge. The most common railway gauges in Australia are narrow, standard, the narrower 610 mm or 2 ft gauge is found on shorter lines, particularly sugarcane tramways in Queensland. Likewise the Richmond Valley and South Maitland Railway lines in the Hunter Valley also used standard gauge, the Whyalla Steelworks was built as a narrow line, being converted to standard gauge when the Commonwealth Railways Whyalla line opened. As a result, the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 was passed which prescribed the use of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in in England, Scotland, in 1846, Australian newspapers discussed the break of gauge problem in the United Kingdom, especially for defence. In 1847, South Australia adopted the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge as law, the recommendation was adopted by the then three colonies. Grey notes in his letter that South Australia has already adopted this gauge, at this stage Victoria and Queensland were still part of New South Wales. The overland telegraph communication with London was yet to be built, at that time the private Sydney Railway Company had begun planning its railway line to Parramatta. The chief engineer of the company was Irish-born Francis Webb Sheilds and this decision was endorsed by the NSW Governor, and Colonial Secretary Earl Grey in London agreed in 1851. However, Sheilds and his three subordinates resigned in December 1850 when the company cut their salaries for financial reasons, after the interim appointment of Henry Mais, in July 1852 the company selected a new Scottish engineer, James Wallace, who preferred the English standard gauge. The Government was persuaded to make the back to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and in January 1853 they advised the company that the Act requiring 5 ft 3 in would be repealed. In February 1853 the other colonies were sent a memorandum advising them of the pending change, in Victoria the memorandum was distributed to three railway companies and their responses were sought, with two replying and only one showing a distinct preference for 5 ft 3 in. In reply at the end of March, the companies were told the colonial Victorian government preferred 5 ft 3 in and the order was subsequently placed. In July 1853, the Government of Victoria advised New South Wales that it would use the broader gauge, concerns over the gauge difference began to be raised almost immediately. The 3 ft 6 in narrow gauge was introduced to Australia in 1865, the gauge was chosen on the supposition that it would be constructed more cheaply, faster and on tighter curves than the wider gauges. This was the first narrow gauge line in the world
22.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
23.
Mining
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Mining is extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposits. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner, ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. Mining is required to obtain any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water. Mining of stones and metal has been a human activity since pre-historic times, Mining operations usually create a negative environmental impact, both during the mining activity and after the mine has closed. Hence, most of the nations have passed regulations to decrease the impact. Work safety has long been a concern as well, and modern practices have significantly improved safety in mines, levels of metals recycling are generally low. Unless future end-of-life recycling rates are stepped up, some rare metals may become unavailable for use in a variety of consumer products, due to the low recycling rates, some landfills now contain higher concentrations of metal than mines themselves. Since the beginning of civilization, people have used stone, ceramics and, later and these were used to make early tools and weapons, for example, high quality flint found in northern France, southern England and Poland was used to create flint tools. Flint mines have been found in areas where seams of the stone were followed underground by shafts. The mines at Grimes Graves and Krzemionki are especially famous, other hard rocks mined or collected for axes included the greenstone of the Langdale axe industry based in the English Lake District. The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Lion Cave in Swaziland, at this site Paleolithic humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre. Mines of an age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons. Ancient Egyptians mined malachite at Maadi, at first, Egyptians used the bright green malachite stones for ornamentations and pottery. Later, between 2613 and 2494 BC, large building projects required expeditions abroad to the area of Wadi Maghareh in order to secure minerals and other resources not available in Egypt itself. Quarries for turquoise and copper were found at Wadi Hammamat, Tura, Aswan and various other Nubian sites on the Sinai Peninsula. Mining in Egypt occurred in the earliest dynasties, the gold mines of Nubia were among the largest and most extensive of any in Ancient Egypt. These mines are described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus, who mentions fire-setting as one used to break down the hard rock holding the gold. One of the complexes is shown in one of the earliest known maps, the miners crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust
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Loading gauge
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A loading gauge defines the maximum height and width for railway vehicles and their loads to ensure safe passage through bridges, tunnels and other structures. Classification systems vary between different countries and gauges may vary across a network, even if the track gauge remains constant, containerisation and a trend towards larger shipping containers has led rail companies to increase structure gauges to compete effectively with road haulage. Compliance with a loading gauge can be checked with a car which in the past were simple wooden frames or physical feelers mounted on rolling stock. The difference between the two is called the clearance, the terms dynamic envelope or kinematic envelope – which include factors such as suspension travel, overhang on curves and lateral motion on the track – are sometimes used in place of loading gauge. The height of platforms is also a consideration when considering the loading gauge of passenger trains, where the two are not directly compatible, steps may be required which will increase loading times. Where long carriages are used on a platform, gaps will occur between the platform and the carriage door, causing additional risk. Problems increase where trains of several different loading gauges and train floor heights use the same platform, the size of load that can be carried on a railway of a particular gauge is also influenced by the design of the rolling stock. Low-deck rolling stock can sometimes be used to carry taller 9 ft 6 in shipping containers on lower gauge lines although their low-deck rolling stock cannot then carry as many containers. Larger out-of-gauge loads can also sometimes be conveyed by taking one or more of the measures, operate at low speed. Cross over from a track with inadequate clearance to another track with greater clearance, prevent operation of other trains on adjacent tracks. Use refuge loops to allow trains to operate on other tracks, use of Schnabel cars that manipulate the load up and down or left and right to clear obstacles. Use gauntlet track to shift the train to side or center, for locomotives that are too heavy, ensure that fuel tanks are nearly empty. Turn off power in overhead wiring or in third rail, rapid Transit railways generally have a very small loading gauge. This reduces the cost of tunnel construction and these systems only use their own rolling stock. The loading gauge on the lines of Great Britain, most of which were built before 1900, is generally smaller than in other countries. In mainland Europe, the slightly larger Berne gauge was agreed to in 1913, as a result, British trains have noticeably and considerably smaller loading gauges and smaller interiors, despite the track being standard gauge along with much of the world. This results in increased costs for purchasing trains as they must be designed for the British network. The International Union of Railways has developed a series of loading gauges named A, B, B+
25.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
26.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
27.
Costa Rica
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It has a population of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José. Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by people before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, following a brief civil war, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. Costa Rica is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index, placing 69th in the world as of 2015 and its rapidly developing economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. Costa Rica is known for its environmental policies, being the only country to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. Costa Rica officially plans to become a country by 2021. In 2012, it became the first country in the Americas to ban recreational hunting, historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. The oldest evidence of occupation in Costa Rica is associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots, for the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the livelihood in the territory is still unknown. The earliest use of pottery appears around 2,000 to 3,000 BCE, shards of pots, cylindrical vases, platters, gourds and other forms of vases decorated with grooves, prints, and some modelled after animals have been found. The impact of indigenous peoples on modern Costa Rican culture has been small compared to other nations. Costa Rica was described as the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America by a Spanish governor in 1719, for all these reasons, Costa Rica was, by and large, unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. Costa Rica became a democracy with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class. It was not long before Spanish settlers turned to the hills, where they found rich volcanic soil, like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain
28.
Queensland
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Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
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Western Australia
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Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Southern Ocean to the south, the state has about 2.6 million inhabitants, around 11% of the national total. 92% of the lives in the south-west corner of the state. The first European visitor to Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, the first European settlement of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, york was the first inland settlement in Western Australia. Situated 97 kilometres east of Perth, it was settled on 16 September 1831, Western Australia achieved responsible government in 1890, and federated with the other British colonies in Australia in 1901. Today its economy relies on mining, agriculture and tourism. The state produces 46% of Australias exports, Western Australia is the second-largest iron ore producer in the world. The International Hydrographic Organization designates the body of water south of the continent as part of the Indian Ocean, the total length of the states eastern border is 1,862 km. There are 20,781 km of coastline, including 7,892 km of island coastline, the total land area occupied by the state is 2.5 million km2. Most of the state is a low plateau with an elevation of about 400 metres, very low relief. This descends relatively sharply to the plains, in some cases forming a sharp escarpment. The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile, even soils derived from granitic bedrock contain an order of magnitude less available phosphorus and only half as much nitrogen as soils in comparable climates in other continents. Soils derived from extensive sandplains or ironstone are even less fertile, nearly devoid of soluble phosphate and also deficient in zinc, copper, molybdenum, the infertility of most of the soils has required heavy application by farmers of chemical fertilisers, particularly superphosphate, insecticides and herbicides. These have resulted in damage to invertebrate and bacterial populations, the grazing and use of hoofed mammals and, later, heavy machinery through the years have resulted in compaction of soils and great damage to the fragile soils. Large-scale land clearing for agriculture has damaged habitats for native flora, large areas of the states wheatbelt region have problems with dryland salinity and the loss of fresh water. The southwest coastal area has a Mediterranean climate and it was originally heavily forested, including large stands of karri, one of the tallest trees in the world. This agricultural region is one of the nine most bio-diverse terrestrial habitats, thanks to the offshore Leeuwin Current, the area is one of the top six regions for marine biodiversity and contains the most southerly coral reefs in the world
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Tasmania
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Tasmania is an island state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, the state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 519,100, just over forty percent of which resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, Tasmanias area is 68,401 km2, of which the main island covers 64,519 km2. Though an island state, due to an error the state shares a land border with Victoria at its northernmost terrestrial point, Boundary Islet. The Bishop and Clerk Islets, about 37 km south of Macquarie Island, are the southernmost terrestrial point of the state of Tasmania, the island is believed to have been occupied by Aboriginals for 40,000 years before British colonisation. It is thought Tasmanian Aboriginals were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 10,000 years ago when the sea rose to form Bass Strait. The conflict, which peaked between 1825 and 1831 and led to more than three years of law, cost the lives of almost 1100 Aboriginals and settlers. The near-destruction of Tasmanias Aboriginal population has been described by historians as an act of genocide by the British. The island was part of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1854 the present Constitution of Tasmania was passed and the year the state received permission to change its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia, the state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemens Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the name was later shortened to Van Diemens Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856, Tasmania was sometimes referred to as Dervon, as mentioned in the Jerilderie Letter written by the notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is Tassie, Tasmania is also colloquially shortened to Tas, especially when used in business names and website addresses. TAS is also the Australia Post abbreviation for the state, the reconstructed Palawa kani language name for Tasmania is Lutriwita. The island was adjoined to the mainland of Australia until the end of the last glacial period about 10,000 years ago, much of the island is composed of Jurassic dolerite intrusions through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the worlds largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains, the central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerite. Mount Wellington above Hobart is an example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes
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Malaysia
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Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government, with a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia, located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, the first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a role in politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while allowing freedom of religion for non-Muslims, the government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the prime minister, since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with its GDP growing at an average of 6. 5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked third largest in Southeast Asia, the name Malaysia is a combination of the word Malay and the Latin-Greek suffix -sia/-σία. The word melayu in Malay may derive from the Tamil words malai and ur meaning mountain and city, land, malayadvipa was the word used by ancient Indian traders when referring to the Malay Peninsula. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word melayu or mlayu may have used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to steadily accelerate or run. This term was applied to describe the current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra
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Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
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Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
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De re metallica
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De re metallica is a book cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published a year posthumously in 1556 due to a delay in preparing woodcuts for the text. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola, the book remained the authoritative text on mining for 180 years after its publication. It was also an important chemistry text for the period and is significant in the history of chemistry, mining was typically left to professionals, craftsmen and experts who were not eager to share their knowledge. Much experiential knowledge had been accumulated over the course of time and this knowledge was consecutively handed down orally within a small group of technicians and mining overseers. In the Middle Ages these people held the leading role as the master builders of the great cathedrals. It was a small, cosmopolitan elite within which existing knowledge was passed on and further developed, only a few writers from that time wrote anything about mining itself. Partly, that was because this knowledge was very difficult to access, most writers also found it simply not worth the effort to write about it. Only in the Renaissance did this begin to change. With the improved transport and the invention of the printing press knowledge spread much more easily, in 1500, the first printed book dedicated to mining engineering, called the “Nutzlich Bergbuchleyn” by Ulrich Rulein von Calw, was published. The most important works in this genre were, however, the twelve books De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola, Agricola had spent nine years in the Bohemian town of Joachimsthal, now in the Czech Republic. After Joachimsthal, he spent the rest of his life in Chemnitz, both Joachimsthal and Chemnitz are in the Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains. The book was influential, and for more than a century after it was published. The German mining technology it portrayed was acknowledged as the most advanced at the time, the book was reprinted in a number of Latin editions, as well as in German and Italian translations. Publication in Latin meant that it could be read by any educated European of the time, the numerous woodcuts and detailed descriptions of machinery made it a practical reference for those wishing to replicate the latest in mining technology. In 1912, the first English translation of De Re Metallica was privately published in London by subscription, the translators were Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer, and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, a geologist and Latinist. The translation is not only for its clarity of language, but for the extensive footnotes. The most important translation—outside English—was the one published by the Deutsches Museum in Munich The book consists of a preface and twelve chapters, labelled books I to XII and it also has numerous woodcuts that provide annotated diagrams illustrating equipment and processes described in the text. Agricola addresses the book to prominent German aristocrats, the most important of whom were Maurice, Elector of Saxony and his brother Augustus and he then describes the works of ancient and contemporary writers on mining and metallurgy, the chief ancient source being Pliny the Elder
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Waldenburg railway
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The Waldenburg railway is a narrow-gauge light rail system in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. The 13. 1-kilometre long single-track line runs from Liestal, the capital of the canton, to Waldenburg, with stops in Bubendorf, Hölstein, Niederdorf and it connects to SBB train services in Liestal railway station. The line is operated by the Waldenburgerbahn AG, and is, with the exception of a few industrial and funicular lines and it was opened on 1 November 1880 and was operated by steam-hauled trains until 1953, when electric operation began. A concession was granted by the canton of Basel-Landschaft on 18 June 1871 for the construction of a gauge railway from Liestal to Waldenburg. In 1873 the concession was altered to give the Swiss Central Railway the commission to build the railway, for financial reasons in 1876 the Swiss Central Railway requested a deadline extension. On 25 November 1879 the Waldenburgerbahn was founded as a separate company, after only eight months construction, the railway opened on 30 October 1880. Seats were provided in second- and third-class carriages, in 1881 the railway served eight stations with four journeys in each direction. The fastest journey over the whole 13 km line took 56 minutes, the outbreak of World War I stopped plans for the extension of the line, and a 1912 proposal to electrify the line and regauge it to 1,000 mm gauge. On 26 October 1953 electric operation of the railway began, using 1500 V DC, new rolling stock was acquired for this. The current rolling stock, consisting of seven railcars and 10 control cars was acquired between 1986 and 1993, replacing the 1953 stock, in late 2015, the government of Basel-Landschaft canton approved a plan to convert the line from 750 mm gauge to standard gauge in 2023. The line is built to 750 mm gauge, and is electrified at 1500 V DC, for most of its route, the line takes the form of a single-track roadside electric tramway. There are 11 intermediate stops, and six passing loops, the journey over the whole line takes around 24 minutes. The line forms part of the Tarifverbund Nordwestschweiz common fare network, and is numbered 19 in that networks publicity, the line runs a half-hourly service throughout the day, with additional trains during peak hours. From spring to autumn tourist trains are operated, hauled by the only operating steam locomotive on the line. Rail transport in Switzerland History of rail transport in Switzerland Baselland Transport Media related to Waldenburgerbahn at Wikimedia Commons Official website
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Liestal
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Liestal is the capital of Liestal District and the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland,17 km south of Basel. Liestal is an town with a cobbled-street Old Town. The official language of Liestal is German, but the spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. The name Liestal was first mentioned in 1225, and the settlement dates at least from Roman times, the development of the town is due to its strategic location on the road between the first bridge over the Rhine at Basel and the St. Gotthard Pass. Citizens of Liestal participated in the Burgundian Wars in 1476 and 1477 against Charles the Bold, in 1501, the mayor swore allegiance to the Swiss Confederation, and this caused repeated conflict with neighboring Rheinfelden, which belonged to the Habsburgs. In the 17th century, Liestal rebelled against Basel as part of the Farmers Rebellion and was occupied by troops from that city, three leaders of the rebellion were beheaded in Basel. In 1789, the town enthusiastically hailed the French call for freedom and it celebrated Napoleon, when he traveled through town in 1797. After his fall, the subjection to Basel was re-established. The French July Revolution of 1830 also caused upheaval in Liestal, a provisional government was established, and the town was chosen as the capital of a new canton on March 17,1832. Liestal has an area, as of 2009, of 18.19 square kilometers, of this area,2.99 km2 or 16. 4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 10.68 km2 or 58. 7% is forested. Of the rest of the land,4.35 km2 or 23. 9% is settled,0.1 km2 or 0. 5% is either rivers or lakes and 0.03 km2 or 0. 2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2. 6% of the area while housing and buildings made up 12. 1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other developed areas made up 1. 6% of the area while parks. Out of the land,57. 1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1. 6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land,6. 7% is used for growing crops and 8. 0% is pastures, of the water in the municipality,0. 2% is in lakes and 0. 3% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is the capital of the canton of Basel-Country, the old town is situated on a rocky outcrop between the Ergolz and Orisbach rivers and between Basel and the Jura Mountains. The town is fan-shaped, consisting of a main street. In the 18th Century small suburbs developed around the lower and the city gates
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