1.
Stock car racing
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Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly and most prominently in the United States and Canada, with Australia and New Zealand also having forms of stock car auto racing. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately 0.25 to 2.66 miles, the worlds largest governing body for stock car racing is the American NASCAR, and its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is the premier top level series of professional stock car racing. Top level races typically range between 200 to 600 miles in length, top level stock cars reach speeds in excess of 200 mph at speedway tracks and on superspeedway tracks such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. Contemporary NASCAR-spec top level cars produce maximum power outputs of 860-900 hp from their naturally aspirated V8 engines, for the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, power output of the competing cars ranged from 750–800 hp. A stock car, in the sense of the term, is an automobile that has not been modified from its original factory configuration. Later the term stock car came to mean any production-based automobile used in racing and this term is used to differentiate such a car from a race car, a special, custom-built car designed only for racing purposes. The actual degree to which the cars conform to standard model specs has changed over the years, are architecturally identical on all vehicles. For example, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series now requires fuel injection, the closest European equivalent to stock car racing is probably touring car racing. In the UK and New Zealand there is a formula called stock cars. In Australia there was a formula that was similar to NASCAR called AUSCAR. The Racecar-Euro Series began in 2009 and was sanctioned by NASCAR as a series in 2012. True stock car racing, which consists of only street vehicles that can be bought by public, is sometimes now called street stock, pure stock, hobby stock, showroom stock. In 1972, SCCA started its first showroom stock racing series, some modern showroom stock racing allows safety modifications done on showroom stock cars. Super stock classes are similar to street stock, but allow for modifications to the engine. Power output is usually in the range of 500–550 horsepower, Tire width is usually limited to 8 in. Some entry level classes are called street stock, and are similar to what is called banger racing in England. Late models are usually the highest class of cars in local racing. Rules for construction of a model car vary from region to region
2.
Rail yard
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A rail yard, railway yard or railroad yard is the US term for a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, railroad cars are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive. Cars in a railroad yard may be sorted by categories, including railroad company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type. Railroad yards are built where there is a need to store cars while they are not being loaded or unloaded. Large yards may have a tower to control operations, many railway yards are located at strategic points on a main line. Main line yards are often composed of an Up yard and a Down yard, there are different types of yards, and different parts within a yard, depending on how they are built. They are decoupled and let to accelerate into the classification equipment lower down, a flat yard has no hump, and relies on locomotives for all car movements. A large sub-group of such yards are known as Staging yards, the long haul carrier makes the round trip with a minimal turn around time, and the local switch engine transfers empties to the loading yard when the industries output is ready to be shipped. In the staging yard, the locomotive is most likely operated by industry, since overall throughput speed matters, many have small pneumatic, hydraulic or spring driven braking retarders to adjust and slow speed both before and after yard switch points. Along with car tracking and load tracking to destination technologies such as RFID long trains can be broken down and reconfigured in transfer yards or operations in remarkable time. Transfer yard is a yard where consists are dropped off or picked up as a group by through service such as a Unit Train, but managed locally by local switching service locomotives. Unit tracks may be reserved for Unit trains, which carry a block of all of the same origin and destination. Such consists often stop in a yard for other purposes, inspection. Freight yards may have multiple industries adjacent to them where railroad cars are loaded or unloaded and then stored before they move on to their new destination. Major freight yards in the U. S. Major U. K. goods yards include those in Crewe, Reading and Bescot, near Walsall, coach yards are used for sorting, storing and repairing passenger cars. These yards are located in areas near large stations or terminals. An example of a major U. S. coach yard is Sunnyside Yard in New York City and those that are principally used for storage, such as the West Side Yard in New York, are called layup yards or stabling yards. Major U. K. coach stabling yards include those in Crewe and Longsight, Manchester, which are operated by various regional train companies
3.
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
4.
Vehicle
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A vehicle is a mobile machine that transports people or cargo. Typical vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles, railed vehicles, Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground, wheeled, tracked, railed or skied. ISO 3833-1977 is the standard, also used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms. Boats were used between 4000 BC-3000 BC in Sumer, ancient Egypt and in the Indian Ocean, there is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000–4000 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, in 200 CE, Ma Jun built a south-pointing chariot, a vehicle with an early form of guidance system. Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages, the earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350. In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, the line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in 1769. In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box and bearings, however and it was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817. 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1, there are over 1 billion bicycles in use worldwide. In 2002 there were an estimated 590 million cars and 205 million motorcycles in service in the world, at least 500 million Chinese Flying Pigeon bicycles have been made, more than an other single model of vehicle. The most-produced model of vehicle is the Honda Super Cub motorcycle. The most-produced car model is the Toyota Corolla, with at least 35 million made by 2010, by far, most vehicles use wheels which employ the principle of rolling to enable displacement with very little rolling friction. It is essential that a vehicle have a source of energy to drive it, energy can be extracted from the surrounding environment, as in the case of a sailboat, a solar-powered car or a streetcar. Energy can also be stored, in any form, provided it can be converted on demand, the most common type of energy source is fuel. Batteries also facilitate the use of motors, which have their own advantages. On the other hand, batteries have low densities, short service life, poor performance at extreme temperatures. Like fuel, batteries store energy and can cause burns
5.
Locomotive
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A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. A locomotive has no payload capacity of its own, and its purpose is to move the train along the tracks. In contrast, some trains have self-propelled payload-carrying vehicles and these are not normally considered locomotives, and may be referred to as multiple units, motor coaches or railcars. The use of these vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front, however, push-pull operation has become common, where the train may have a locomotive at the front, at the rear, or at each end. Prior to locomotives, the force for railroads had been generated by various lower-technology methods such as human power, horse power. The first successful locomotives were built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, in 1804 his unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Although the locomotive hauled a train of 10 long tons of iron and 70 passengers in five wagons over nine miles, the locomotive only ran three trips before it was abandoned. Trevithick built a series of locomotives after the Penydarren experiment, including one which ran at a colliery in Tyneside in northern England, the first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murrays rack locomotive, Salamanca, built for the narrow gauge Middleton Railway in 1812. This was followed in 1813 by the Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814 George Stephenson, inspired by the locomotives of Trevithick. He built the Blücher, one of the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotives, Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of steam locomotives. His designs improved on the work of the pioneers, in 1825 he built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north east England, which became the first public steam railway. In 1829 he built The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials and this success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the United Kingdom, the United States and much of Europe. The first inter city passenger railway, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, there are a few basic reasons to isolate locomotive train power, as compared to self-propelled vehicles. Maximum utilization of power cars Separate locomotives facilitate movement of costly motive power assets as needed, flexibility Large locomotives can substitute for small locomotives when more power is required, for example, where grades are steeper. As needed, a locomotive can be used for freight duties. Obsolescence cycles Separating motive power from payload-hauling cars enables replacement without affecting the other, to illustrate, locomotives might become obsolete when their associated cars did not, and vice versa
6.
Railroad car
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A railroad car or railcar, railway wagon or railway carriage, also called a train car or train wagon, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport system. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units. The term car is used by itself in American English when a rail context is implicit. Indian English sometimes uses bogie in the manner, though the term has other meanings in other variants of English. In American English, railcar is a term for a railway vehicle, in other countries railcar refers specifically to a self-propelled, powered. Tables may be provided between seats facing one another, alternatively, seats facing in the same direction may have access to a fold-down ledge on the back of the seat in front. If the aisle is located between seats, seat rows may face the direction, or be grouped, with twin rows facing each other. In some vehicles intended for services, seats are positioned with their backs to the side walls. This gives a wide accessway and allows room for standing passengers at peak times, if the aisle is at the side, the car is usually divided into small compartments. These usually contain six seats, although sometimes in second class they contain eight, modern cars usually have either air-conditioning or windows that can be opened, or sometimes both. Various types of onboard train toilet facilities may also be provided, other types of passenger car exist, especially for long journeys, such as the dining car, parlor car, disco car, and in rare cases theater and movie theater car. In some cases another type of car is converted to one of these for an event. Observation cars were built for the rear of many trains to allow the passengers to view the scenery. Sleeping cars outfitted with small bedrooms allow passengers to sleep through their night-time trips, long-distance trains often require baggage cars for the passengers luggage. In European practice it used to be common for day coaches to be formed of compartments seating 6 or 8 passengers, in the UK, Corridor coaches fell into disfavor in the 1960s and 1970s partially because open coaches are considered more secure by women traveling alone. Another distinction is between single- and double deck train cars, an example of a double decker is the Amtrak superliner. A trainset is a semi-permanently arranged formation of cars, rather than one created ad hoc out of cars are available. These are only broken up and reshuffled on shed, trains are then built of one or more of these sets coupled together as needed for the capacity of that train
7.
Passenger car (rail)
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A passenger car is a piece of railway rolling stock that is designed to carry passengers. The term passenger car can also be associated with a car, baggage, dining, railway post office. Up until about the end of the 19th century, most passenger cars were constructed of wood, the first passenger trains did not travel very far, but they were able to haul many more passengers for a longer distance than any wagons pulled by horses. As railways were first constructed in England, so too were the first passenger cars, one of the early coach designs was the Stanhope. It featured a roof and small holes in the floor for drainage when it rained, the only problem with this design is that the passengers were expected to stand for their entire trip. The first passenger cars in the United States resembled stagecoaches and they were short, often less than 10 ft long and had two axles. British railways had a start on American railroads, with the first bed-carriage being built there as early as 1838 for use on the London and Birmingham Railway. Britains early sleepers, when made up for sleeping, extended the foot of the bed into a section at the end of the carriage. The cars were too short to allow more than two or three beds to be positioned end to end. Britains Royal Mail commissioned and built the first Travelling Post Office cars in the late 1840s as well. These cars resembled coaches in their short wheelbase and exterior design, when not in use, the hook would swivel down against the side of the car to prevent it from catching obstacles. As locomotive technology progressed in the century, trains grew in length. Passenger cars, particularly in America, grew along with them, first getting longer with the addition of a second truck, early American sleeping cars were not compartmented, but by the end of the 19th century they were. The compartments in the sleepers were accessed from a side hall running the length of the cars. Many American passenger trains, particularly the long ones, included a car at the end of the train called an observation car. Until about the 1930s, these had a platform at the rear. These evolved into the end car, usually with a rounded end which was still called an observation car. The interiors of observation cars varied, many had special chairs and tables
8.
Goods wagon
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Goods wagons or freight wagons are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. At the beginning of the era, the vast majority of goods wagons were four-wheeled vehicles of simple construction. These were almost exclusively small covered wagons, open wagons with side-boards, over the course of time, an increasing number of specialised wagons were developed. Special wagons for specific purposes or wagons with special features were already being introduced around 1850 by private companies, amongst these were tank wagons and numerous refrigerated vans. In countries like Germany, wagon hire firms procured large numbers of these wagons, in the early days of the railway, goods trains still ran at top speeds of only about 20 mph. However, the introduction of through brakes using air pipes from the 1920s enabled higher speeds to be safely achieved, the Deutsche Bahn even has goods wagons cleared for high-speed rail travel at up to 100 mph. In Europe, the first agreements were struck early on between the national state railways and private companies for the mutual use of each other’s goods wagons. Around 1850, the Union of German Railway Administrations drew up regulations for the standardisation of dimensions, the formation of the Prussian State Railway Union in 1881 encouraged the emergence of wagon classes built to standard norms. One further European milestone was the formation of the German State Railway Wagon Association on 1 April 1909. With the participation of all the German state railways, it created a pool of goods wagons. In addition, they all had standardised inscriptions and red-brown livery, in order to standardise future procurements, a total of 11 wagon classes were defined. From 1939, wagons were developed primarily from a point of view and were known as wartime classes. After the war, in East Germany, some pre-war goods wagon classes were given a new lease of life as ‘reconstructed goods wagons’, since the Union of Private Goods Wagon Companies was founded in 1921, the interests of private transport organisations in Germany has been jointly represented. The Union has around 100 members who own 50,000 goods wagons, in 2007, they transported 361,000,000 t of goods. Since 1922, the agreement for the use of goods wagons in international traffic has regulated the exchange of goods wagons in Europe. In addition, international goods wagon fleets were created in 1953 in Western Europe with the Europ-Verband, during the second half of the 20th century, national goods wagon classes in Europe were increasingly replaced by Union internationale des chemins de fer standard wagons. Since 1964, all goods wagons in Germany, for example, have had to be classified using the UIC goods wagon classification system, lowmacs Covered wagons or vans have a fixed roof and are mainly used for the transportation of part-load goods or parcels. Today these are divided into, Ordinary classes Special classes, which are distinguished by their large loading volumes
9.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
10.
Inventory
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Inventory or stock means to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goals to have a purpose of resale. Inventory management is a discipline and primarily about specifying the shape and it is required at different locations within a facility or within many locations of a supply network to precede the regular and planned course of production and stock of materials. In the context of services, inventory refers to all work done prior to sale, balancing these competing requirements leads to optimal inventory levels, which is an ongoing process as the business needs shift and react to the wider environment. Inventory management involves a retailer seeking to acquire and maintain a proper merchandise assortment while ordering, shipping, handling and this would include the monitoring of material moved into and out of stockroom locations and the reconciling of the inventory balances. It also may include ABC analysis, lot tracking, cycle counting support, however, in practice, inventory is to be maintained for consumption during variations in lead time. Lead time itself can be addressed by ordering that many days in advance, seasonal Demand, demands varies periodically, but producers capacity is fixed. This can lead to stock accumulation, consider for example how goods consumed only in holidays can lead to accumulation of large stocks on the anticipation of future consumption, uncertainty - Inventories are maintained as buffers to meet uncertainties in demand, supply and movements of goods. Economies of scale - Ideal condition of one unit at a time at a place where a user needs it, so bulk buying, movement and storing brings in economies of scale, thus inventory. Appreciation in Value - In some situations, some stock gains the value when it is kept for some time to allow it reach the desired standard for consumption. Capital Investment Space Usage Complicated Inventory Control Systems, higher number of inventory items complicates the control, stock Keeping Unit SKUs are clear, internal identification numbers assigned to each of the products and their variants. SKUs can be any combination of letters and numbers chosen, just as long as the system is consistent, stockout means running out of the inventory of an SKU. New old stock is a used in business to refer to merchandise being offered for sale that was manufactured long ago. Such merchandise may not be produced anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only source of a particular item at the present time. Manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers inventory tends to cluster in warehouses, retailers inventory may exist in a warehouse or in a shop or store accessible to customers. Inventories not intended for sale to customers or to clients may be held in any premises an organization uses, stock ties up cash and, if uncontrolled, it will be impossible to know the actual level of stocks and therefore impossible to control them. Work in process, WIP - materials and components that have begun their transformation to finished goods, finished goods - goods ready for sale to customers. Goods for resale - returned goods that are salable, the firms work in process includes those materials from the time of release to the work floor until they become complete and ready for sale to wholesale or retail customers. This may be vats of prepared food, filled cans not yet labeled or sub-assemblies of food components and it may also include finished cans that are not yet packaged into cartons or pallets
Media related to rail vehicles at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of rolling stock at Wiktionary
