1.
North Korea
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North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is both the capital as well as its largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok, the country is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were formed, the communist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north, an invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War. The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, and no peace treaty was ever signed. North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections, critics regard it as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. Over time, North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world communist movement, Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution as a creative application of Marxism–Leninism in 1972. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises, most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered from a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 0.24 and 3.5 million people, and the continues to struggle with food production. North Korea follows Songun, or military-first policy and it is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public religion is discouraged. The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo, the name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After the division of the country into North and South Korea, the two sides used different terms to refer to Korea, Chosun or Joseon in North Korea, in 1948, North Korea adopted Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as its new legal name. After the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan, Japan tried to suppress Korean traditions and culture and ran the economy primarily for its own benefit. Korean resistance groups known as Dongnipgun operated along the Sino-Korean border, some of them took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. One of the leaders was the communist Kim Il-sung, who later became the leader of North Korea
2.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
3.
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
4.
Structural engineering
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They can also be involved in the design of machinery, medical equipment, and vehicles where structural integrity affects functioning and safety. Structural engineering theory is based upon applied physical laws and empirical knowledge of the performance of different materials. Structural engineering design utilizes a number of relatively simple structural elements to build complex structural systems, Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural elements and materials to achieve these goals. Structural engineers are responsible for engineering design and analysis, entry-level structural engineers may design the individual structural elements of a structure, for example the beams, columns, and floors of a building. More experienced engineers may be responsible for the design and integrity of an entire system. Structural engineering has existed since humans first started to construct their own structures and it became a more defined and formalized profession with the emergence of the architecture as distinct profession from the engineering during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. Until then, the architect and the engineer were usually one. Only with the development of specialized knowledge of theories that emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The role of a structural engineer today involves a significant understanding of both static and dynamic loading, and the structures that are available to resist them. The complexity of modern structures often requires a great deal of creativity from the engineer in order to ensure the structures support and resist the loads they are subjected to. A structural engineer will typically have a four or five year undergraduate degree, Structural engineers are licensed or accredited by different learned societies and regulatory bodies around the world. The aim of that association is to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of engineering worldwide in the service of the profession. Structural engineering dates back to 2700 B. C. E, when the step pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser was built by Imhotep, the first engineer in history known by name. Pyramids were the most common major structures built by ancient civilizations because the form of a pyramid is inherently stable. The limestone blocks were taken from a quarry near the build site, since the compressive strength of limestone is anywhere from 30 to 250 MPa, the blocks will not fail under compression. Therefore, the strength of the pyramid stems from the material properties of the stones from which it was built rather than the pyramids geometry. Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as masons and carpenters. No theory of structures existed, and understanding of how structures stood up was extremely limited, knowledge was retained by guilds and seldom supplanted by advances
5.
Rolling stock
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The term rolling stock originally referred to any vehicles that move on a railway. It has since expanded to include the vehicles used by businesses on roadways. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for locomotives, railroad cars, coaches, and wagons. Rolling stock is considered to be an asset, or close to it, since the value of the vehicle can be readily estimated. The term contrasts with fixed stock, which is a term for the track, signals, stations, other buildings, electric wires. In Great Britain, types of rolling stock were given code names and these codes were telegraphese, somewhat analogous to the SMS language of today. List of railway vehicles Great Western Railway telegraphic codes Great Western Railway wagons The dictionary definition of rolling stock at Wiktionary
6.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
7.
Kim Il-sung
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Kim Il-sung was the supreme leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea, for 46 years, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and he was also the leader of the Workers Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994. Coming to power after the overthrow of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, a cease-fire in the Korean War was signed on 27 July 1953. Under his leadership, North Korea became a workers state with a publicly owned planned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union, by the 1960s and 1970s, North Korea enjoyed a relatively high standard of living, outperforming the South, which was riddled with political instability and economic crises. Despite this, the country still received massive funds, subsidies, during this period, the DPRK also remained critical of capitalism and the United States, seizing the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968. A cult of personality around Kim Il-sung came to domestic politics. His birthday is a holiday in North Korea and is called the Day of the Sun. Controversy surrounds Kims life before the founding of North Korea, with some sources labeling him an impostor, several sources indicate that the name Kim Il-sung had previously been used by a prominent early leader of the Korean resistance, Kim Kyung-cheon. The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation, however, historian Andrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true. Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior, Zhou Baozhong, historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure. Historians generally accept that, while Kims exploits were exaggerated by the personality cult that was built around him, Kims family is said to have originated from Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. His great-grandfather, Kim Ung-u, settled in Mangyong-dae in 1860, Kim is reported to have been born in the small village of Mangyungbong near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912. Born to Kim Hyŏng-jik and Kang Pan-sŏk, who gave him the name Kim Sŏng-ju, according to Kim, his family was not very poor, but was always a step away from poverty. According to the version, Kim’s family participated in anti-Japanese activities. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, another view seems to be that his family settled in Manchuria, as many Koreans had at the time to escape famine. Nonetheless, Kims parents, especially Kims mother Kang Ban Suk and their exact involvement — whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both — is unclear nevertheless. Still, Japanese repression of opposition was brutal, resulting in the arrest and this repression forced many Korean families to flee Korea and settle in Manchuria
8.
Hunan
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Hunan Province is the 7th most populous Province of China and the 10th most extensive by area. The name Hunan means south of Lake Dongting, a lake in the northeast of the province, vehicle license plates from Hunan are marked Xiang, after the Xiang River, which runs from south to north through Hunan and forms part of the largest drainage system for the province. Hunans primeval forests were first occupied by the ancestors of the modern Miao, Tujia, Dong and it entered the written history of China around 350 BC, when under the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, it became part of the State of Chu. After Qin conquered the Chu heartland in 278 BC, the region came under the control of Qin, the agricultural colonization of the lowlands was carried out in part by the Han state, which managed river dikes to protect farmland from floods. To this day many of the villages in Hunan are named after the Han families who settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime, Ma Chu. Hunan and Hubei became a part of the province of Huguang until the Qing dynasty, Hunan province was created in 1664 from Huguang, renamed to its current name in 1723. Hunan became an important communications center due to its position on the Yangzi River and it was an important centre of scholarly activity and Confucian thought, particularly in the Yuelu Academy in Changsha. It was also on the Imperial Highway constructed between northern and southern China, the land produced grain so abundantly that it fed many parts of China with its surpluses. The population continued to climb until, by the century, Hunan became overcrowded. Some of the uprisings, such as the ten-year Miao Rebellion of 1795–1806, were caused by ethnic tensions, the Taiping Rebellion began in the south in Guangxi Province in 1850. The rebellion spread into Hunan and then further eastward along the Yangzi River valley, ultimately, it was a Hunanese army under Zeng Guofan who marched into Nanjing to put down the uprising in 1864. Hunan was relatively quiet until 1910 when there were uprisings against the crumbling Qing dynasty and it was led by Hunanese native Mao Zedong, and established a short-lived Hunan Soviet in 1927. The Communists maintained an army in the mountains along the Hunan-Jiangxi border until 1934. Under pressure from the Nationalist Kuomintang forces, they began the Long March to bases in Shaanxi Province, after the departure of the Communists, the KMT army fought against the Japanese in the second Sino-Japanese war. They defended the Changsha until it fell in 1944, japan launched Operation Ichigo, a plan to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou. Hunan was relatively unscathed by the war that followed the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. In 1949, the Communists returned once more as the Nationalists retreated southward, as Mao Zedongs home province, Hunan supported the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976
9.
Saint Petersburg Metro
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The Saint Petersburg Metro is the underground railway system in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It has been open since 15 November 1955, due to the citys unique geology, the Saint Petersburg Metro is one of the deepest metro systems in the world and the deepest by the average depth of all the stations. The systems deepest station, Admiralteyskaya, is 86 metres below ground, serving about 2 million passengers daily, it is also the 19th busiest metro system in the world. The question of building a road in Saint Petersburg arose in 1820. The Russian ruler rejected the project and ordered the inventor to sign a pledge not to engage in hare-brained schemes in the future, other, more developed projects subsequently emerged, but they, too, received no recognition. Many arguments were advanced against the construction of an underground road, thus all the projects for the construction of an underground passage in St. Petersburg, and later in Petrograd, remained on paper. By the end of the 19th century, certain interested parties began discussing the possibility of opening the Russian Empires first metropolitan railway system. However, due to the wish of the authorities of the time to take ownership of the metro after its eventual entry into service. The construction work was projected to cost around 190 million rubles, however, in 1903 Emperor Nicholas II rejected the scheme before any work ever started. Petersburg, such schemes would likely have resulted in a metro service. In 1918 Moscow became the capital after the October Revolution of 1917. Ivan Zubkov, an engineer who for his work was later to become a Hero of Socialist Labour was appointed the first director for the metro construction, by April 1941,34 shafts for the initial phase of construction had been finished. During the Second World War construction works were due to severe lack of available funding, manpower. At this time, many of the construction workers were employed in the construction and repair of railheads. Zubkov died in 1944, having never seen the opening of the metro, in 1946 Lenmetroproekt was created, under the leadership of M A Samodurov, to finish the construction of the metro first phase. A new version of the project, devised by specialists. The organisation set up its offices in the building directly above Tekhnologichesky Institut station. On 7 October 1955 the electricity was turned on in the metro, l and on 5 November 1955, ten years after the end of the war, at the beginning of the post-Stalin Khrushchev Thaw, the city finally got an underground transport network
10.
Kiev Metro
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The Kyiv Metro is a metro system that is the mainstay of Kievs public transport. It was the first rapid transit system in Ukraine and the one built in the Soviet Union. It now has three lines with a length of 67.65 kilometers and 52 stations. The system carries 1.439 million passengers daily, accounting for 38% of Kievs public transport load, in 2013, the metro carried 536.2 million passengers. One of the deepest stations in the world, Arsenalna, is found on the system, following the Bolsheviks victory in the Russian Civil War, Kyiv became only a provincial city and no large-scale proposals to improve the city were drawn. Two decades later all this changed when in 1934, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv. On July 9,1936, the Presidium of the Kyiv City Council looked at a project by Papazov, the engineer Papazov received a bonus of 1000 rubles for this project from the City of Kiev. Following the terrible destruction suffered by the city in the war and this time the Metro was in the plan and construction began in August 1949. Eleven years later the first 5.2 kilometers segment from the Vokzalna to Dnipro was opened and those five stations formed the central part of what is today known as the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line, which runs from the west to the east of the city. At the same time it extended to Kyivs westernmost residential areas of Sviatoshyn, Construction of the second line began in the early 1970s and the first three stations were opened in 1976. What became known as the Kurenivsko-Chervonoarmiyska Line continued expanding, in two stages it reached Obolon, then the largest residential district, in northern Kyiv. At the same time continued to the southwest with new stations added in 1981-84. Construction of the third, Syretsko-Pecherska Line began in 1981 for the first three station segment to open in 1989 in central Kyiv, in mid late 1990s construction began on expansion to the older Syrets district in the northwest direction with stations opening in 1996,2000 and 2004. In addition some of the stations were deliberately left unfinished and opened later, Pecherska. On December 15,2010 three new stations were opened in the direction of Teremki, on December 27,2010 new station Vystavkovyi Tsentr was opened near the National Expocentre of Ukraine. Subsequent extension is not announced, but will include two branches with five stations in total, the former comprise 20 stations, of which 17 are of pylon type,3 are of column type. Of the 26 sub-surface stations,13 stations are of pillar-trispan type, in addition,6 stations are located above ground, of which four are surface level, and two are flyover. Most of the stations have large vestibules, some on surface level whilst others are interlinked with subways
11.
Porta Alpina
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Porta Alpina was a proposed railway station to be located in the middle of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, serving the Alpine village of Sedrun in Switzerland. Intended to promote tourism and the economy in the region of Graubünden, the project was put on hold as uneconomical in 2007, the current multifunction station is only used for emergency stops and maintenance. The portal lies 800 metres above the tunnel, Porta Alpina would have been by far the deepest underground train station in the world at 800 metres underground, outclassing by far Arsenalna Metro station at 105.5 metres. It would also have connected the village of Sedrun and the Surselva to a major high-speed line from northern to southern Europe. The current station, along with Faido, is one of the two stations of the tunnel. This access was used for the construction of the tunnel and is now an exit of the tunnel. Construction costs for a fully functional passenger station were estimated at 40-50 million Swiss francs and it was initially projected to be opened in 2016 after the Base Tunnel was scheduled to come into service. Proponents of Porta Alpina viewed it both as a potential tourist attraction in its own right, and as a transport link to assist the economically challenged Graubünden region. This was to have been the fastest public transport link between Zürich and the canton of Graubünden, the project was initially positively received, and the Swiss parliament approved CHF7.5 million of startup funding in 2005. The Swiss Federal Council and the government of the canton of Graubünden announced in September 2007 that the project was put on indefinite hold. A government report stated that the Porta Alpina would have reduced the base tunnels freight capacity and would have been uneconomical to operate, requiring CHF9 million of annual public subsidies
12.
Gotthard Base Tunnel
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The Gotthard Base Tunnel is a railway base tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland. It opened on 1 June 2016, and full service began on 11 December 2016, with a route length of 57.09 km, it is the worlds longest and deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat, low-level route through the Alps. The project consists of two tunnels connecting Erstfeld with Bodio and passing below Sedrun. The base tunnel bypasses most of the Gotthard Railway, a mountain route opened in 1882 across the Saint-Gotthard Massif. It establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains and it is the third tunnel connecting the cantons of Uri and Ticino after the Gotthard Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel. After 64 percent of Swiss voters accepted the AlpTransit project in a 1992 referendum, drilling operations in the eastern tunnel were completed on 15 October 2010 in a breakthrough ceremony broadcast live on Swiss TV, and in the western tunnel on 23 March 2011. The total projected cost of the project was 9.8 billion Swiss francs, since the 13th century, the 2,106 metre-high Gotthard Pass has been an important trade route from northern to southern Europe. Control of its access routes led to the birth of the Swiss Confederacy, the Gotthard Pass is located halfway between Lake Lucerne and Lake Maggiore. It is the shortest link between the navigable Rhine and the Po, in 1882, with the inauguration of the Gotthard Railway Tunnel, the travel time between Altdorf and Biasca was reduced dramatically, from about 30 hours to only a few hours. This time was reduced further with the opening of the Gotthard Road Tunnel in 1980, today both the rail, and the road, routes are among the most important passages through the Alps on the north-south axis. After the opening of the tunnel, in 1980, traffic increased more than tenfold. A second tunnel will be next to the first, as per a national referendum. Construction is to start in 2020 and finish in 2027, similarly to Gruners idea, the GBT cuts through the Gotthard Massif some 600 m below the older tunnel. When the GBT is in service, standard freight trains of up to 3,600 t will be able to pass this natural barrier. Because of ever-increasing international truck traffic, Swiss voters chose a shift in policy in February 1994. A second law, the Alpine Protection Act of 1994, required a shift of as much tonnage as possible from truck transport to train transport. The GBT substantially contributes to the requirements of laws and enables a direct flat route from the ports of the North Sea to those of the Mediterranean Sea. This is viewed as a revolution, especially in the region of Ticino, which is separated from the rest of the country by the Alps
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