Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotive have been developed, differing in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combusition locomotives and railcars used gasoline as their fuel. Dr. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression ignition engine in 1898, steady improvements in the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratio to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited torque range, while low power gasoline engines can be coupled to a mechanical transmission, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmission; the first successful diesel engines used diesel–electric transmissions, by 1925 a small number of diesel locomotives of 600 hp were in service in the United States. In 1930, Armstrong Whitworth of the United Kingdom delivered two 1,200 hp locomotives using Sulzer-designed engines to Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway of Argentina.
In 1933, diesel-electric technology developed by Maybach was used propel the DRG Class SVT 877, a high speed intercity two-car set, went into series production with other streamlined car sets in Germany starting in 1935. In the USA, diesel-electric propulsion was brought to high speed mainline passenger service in late 1934 through the research and development efforts of General Motors from 1930–34 and advances in lightweight carbody design by the Budd Company; the economic recovery from the Second World War saw the widespread adoption of diesel locomotives in many countries. They offered greater flexibility and performance than steam locomotives, as well as lower operating and maintenance costs. Diesel–hydraulic transmissions were introduced in the 1950s, but from the 1970s onwards diesel–electric transmission has dominated; the earliest recorded example of the use of an internal combustion engine in a railway locomotive is the prototype designed by William Dent Priestman, examined by Sir William Thomson in 1888 who described it as a " mounted upon a truck, worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes.".
In 1894, a 20 hp two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers. In 1896 an oil-engined railway locomotive was built for the Royal Arsenal, England, in 1896, using an engine designed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart, it was not a diesel because it used a hot bulb engine but it was the precursor of the diesel. Following the expiration of Dr. Rudolf Diesel's patent in 1912, his engine design was applied to marine propulsion and stationary applications. However, the massiveness and poor power-to-weight ratio of these early engines made them unsuitable for propelling land-based vehicles. Therefore, the engine's potential as a railroad prime mover was not recognized; this changed as development reduced the weight of the engine. In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing Diesel engines since 1898; the Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel locomotive from the company in 1909, after test runs between Winterthur and Romanshorn the diesel–mechanical locomotive was delivered in Berlin in September 1912.
The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railroad in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. During further test runs in 1913 several problems were found. After the First World War broke out in 1914, all further trials were stopped; the locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h. Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through the mid-1920s. Adolphus Busch purchased the American manufacturing rights for the diesel engine in 1898 but never applied this new form of power to transportation, he founded the Busch-Sulzer company in 1911. Only limited success was achieved in the early twentieth century with internal combustion engined railcars, due, in part, to difficulties with mechanical drive systems. General Electric entered the railcar market in the early twentieth century, as Thomas Edison possessed a patent on the electric locomotive, his design being a type of electrically propelled railcar.
GE built its first electric locomotive prototype in 1895. However, high electrification costs caused GE to turn its attention to internal combustion power to provide electricity for electric railcars. Problems related to co-coordinating the prime mover and electric motor were encountered due to limitations of the Ward Leonard current control system, chosen. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp, a GE electrical engineer and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system. Lemp's design used a single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, was the prototype for all internal combustion–electric drive control systems. In 1917–18, GE produced three experimental diesel–electric locomotives using Lemp's control design, the first known to be built in the United States. Following this development, the 1923 Kaufman Act banned steam locomotives from New York City because of severe pollution problems; the response to this law was to electrify high-traffic rail lines.
However, electrification was u
Shildon
Shildon is a town in County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976, it is situated 2 miles south east of Bishop Auckland, 11 miles north of Darlington, 13 miles from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 30 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Shildon is part of the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency, represented since 2005 by Helen Goodman MP for the Labour Party; the name Shildon comes from the Old English word sceld, This translates as'shelf shaped hill' or'shield/refuge'. Another possibility is the Old English word syclfe meaning'shelf' and the suffix duri meaning'hill'; this refers to the town's location on a limestone escarpment. The earliest inhabitants of the area were most present from the Mesolithic period some 6,000 years ago. Although no evidence of settlement has been found in Shildon itself a small flint tool discovered in the nearby Brusselton area may be from this period. Roman expansion reached County Durham in the first century AD. Possible evidence of Roman infrastructure has been uncovered in the area such as Hagg's Lane which passes through Brusselton Wood.
Hagg's Lane formed part of the Roman road known as Dere Street. The first recorded reference to Shildon came during the Anglo-Saxon period in 821 AD when lands were granted to the church. At the dawn of the 19th century Shildon was a few houses on a cross road; the Industrial Revolution and the coming of the railways saw. In 1801 the population was recorded at being 100 people, their occupations were noted as being in coal mining and the growing textiles industry. In 1818 notice was given in the London Gazette'...that application is intended to be made to Parliament in the next session, for an Act for making and maintaining a'rail-way or tram-road from the River Tees, at or near Stockton, in the county of Durham', with Shildon listed as one of the towns on the planned route. John Dixon, assistant to George Stephenson recalled the town. ‘I have known Shildon for fifty years when there was not a house of any sort at New Shildon, much less a Mechanics Institute. When I surveyed the lines of the projected railway in 1821, the site of this New Shildon Works was a wet, swampy field – a place to find a snipe, or a flock of peewits.
Dan Adamson’s was the nearest house. A part of Old Shildon existed, but ‘Chapel Row’, a row of miner’s houses, was unbuilt or unthought of.’ The volume of coal being produced by coal mining outstripped the capacity of the traditional method of transporting coal, on horse-drawn wagon ways. Steam power was introduced through the use of static steam engines; these were, in turn. Coal would be pulled by static engines over Brusselton Incline into Shildon where the wagons would be attached to a locomotive; the population grew with this industrial expansion, the population rising from 115 in 1821, to 2,631 in 1841 up to 11,759 by the end of the century. Records show in 1851 the town had 26 uninhabited. Two years the value of property in the town was assessed at £11,269 and 10 shillings. Demand led to a passenger service beginning from the town on 27 September 1825; the first train, Locomotion No.1 began its journey outside the Mason's Arms public house. There is an argument. In the early stages of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, tickets were sold at the bar.
Between 1833 and 1841 the company hired a room in the pub for use as a booking office. The railway ran from its northern terminus at Shildon along 27 miles of track to its terminus at Stockton. Recruited to the railway by George Stephenson in 1824, Timothy Hackworth went on to become superintendent in 1825, he was charged with building locomotives for the company. Timothy Hackworth moved into Hackworth House with his family in 1831. There he supervised the construction of. In 1833 Hackworth renegotiated his contract with the Stockton and Darlington Railway to take over the works himself; this became the Soho Locomotive Building Company. Hackworth was in a partnership with Nicholas Downing in Shildon however the partnership was formally dissolved on 25 March 1837; the oldest part still surviving is the Soho Shed. The grade II listed building was built in 1826 as a warehouse for an iron merchant; the North Eastern Railway were the occupant from 1863 before becoming a paint shop for trains in the 1870s.
In the 20th century it was used as a boxing gym and rehearsal space for the Shildon Works Silver Band. The shed still has the remnants of a 19th-century heating system; the engine shed along with Hackworth House was refurbished in 1975. Near the Soho Shed, 110 metres to the east, are the grade. Constructed circa 1846/47 or circa 1856 depending on source; the system was used for the refuelling of locomotive tenders. Coal wagons would be hauled to the top of the coal drops where their bottom would open and the coal would fall down a chute into the engine waiting below. In this area stand the Black Boy Stables and out buildings; the grade II listed stables were built in the early 19th century at the point where the branch lines met from the Black Boy Colliery and Surtees Railway. Restored in the 1970s the stables were damaged by fire in 1985. However, a 2016 report disputes their being stables, it states that while they are "clearly not stables", it believes one was a plate layer's cabin. The use of the other "adjacent structures is still in some doubt".
Furthermore, the area has the Goods Shed and Parcel Office. It handled local freight distribution in Shildon from 1857; the Parcels Office looked after the move
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town at the mouth of the River Tyne, about 3.7 miles downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne. In County Durham, the town has a population of 75,337, the third largest in Tyneside after Newcastle and Gateshead, it is part of the metropolitan borough of South Tyneside which includes the towns of Jarrow and Hebburn. South Shields is represented in Parliament by Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck; the demonym of a person from South Shields is either a Sand dancer. The first evidence of a settlement within what is now the town of South Shields dates from pre-historic times. Stone Age arrow heads and an Iron Age round house have been discovered on the site of Arbeia Roman Fort; the Roman garrison built a fort here around AD 160 and expanded it around AD 208 to help supply their soldiers along Hadrian's Wall as they campaigned north beyond the Antonine Wall. Divisions living at the fort included Tigris bargemen, infantry from Iberia and Gaul, Syrian archers and spearmen; the fort was abandoned as the Roman Empire declined in the 4th century AD.
Many ruins still exist today and some structures have been rebuilt as part of a modern museum and popular tourist attraction. There is evidence, it is believed. Furthermore, Bede records Oswin giving a parcel of land to St Hilda for the foundation of a monastery here in c.647. In the 9th century, Scandinavian peoples made Viking raids on monasteries and settlements all along the coast, conquered the Anglian Kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia, who hailed from Angelnen in Denmark, it is said in local folklore that a Viking ship was wrecked at Herd Sands in South Shields in its attempts to disembark at a cove nearby. Other Viking ships were uncovered in nearby Jarrow; the current town was developed as a fishing port. The name South Shields developed from the'Schele' or'Shield', a small dwelling used by fishermen. Another industry, introduced, was that of salt-panning expanded upon in the 15th century, polluting the air and surrounding land. In 1864, a Tyne Commissioners dredger brought up a nine-pounder breech-loading cannon.
At the outbreak of the war in 1642, the North and Ireland supported the King. In 1644 Parliament's Scottish Covenanter allies, in a lengthy battle, seized the town and its Royalist fortification, the fortification was close to the site of the original Roman fort, they seized the town of Newburn. These raids were done to aid their ongoing siege of the fortified Newcastle upon Tyne, in a bid to control the River Tyne, the North, the Shields siege helped cause their battalions to maneuver south to York. In the 19th century, coal mining, alkaline production and glass making led to a boom in the town; the population increased from 12,000 in 1801 to 75,000 by the 1860s, bolstered by economic migration from Ireland and other parts of England. These industries played a fundamental part in creating wealth both regionally and nationally. In 1832, with the Great Reform Act, South Shields and Gateshead were each given their own Member of Parliament and became boroughs, resulting in taxes being paid to the Government instead of the Bishops of Durham.
However, the rapid growth in population brought on by the expansion of industry made sanitation a problem, as evident by Cholera outbreaks and the building of the now-listed Cleadon Water Tower to combat the problem. In the 1850s'The Tyne Improvement Commission' began to develop the river, dredging it to make it deeper and building the large, impressive North and South Piers to help prevent silt build up within the channel. Shipbuilding a monopoly of the Freemen of Newcastle, became another prominent industry in the town, with John Readhead & Sons Shipyard the largest. During World War I, German Zeppelin airships bombed South Shields in 1916. During World War II, the German Luftwaffe attacked the town and caused massive damage to industries which supported the war effort, killing many innocent residents. A bomb shelter in the market place of South Shields, where the deceased were commemorated in a cobblestone of the British flag. Controversially removed and the bodies interred elsewhere. Throughout the late 20th century, the coal and shipbuilding industries were closed during the Thatcher political era, due to competitive pressures from more cost effective sources of energy and more efficient shipbuilding elsewhere in Eastern Europe and in South East Asia.
In the 21st century, the local economy includes port-related, ship repair and offshore industries, retail, the public sector and the ever-increasing role of tourism. This is illustrated by the new multi-million haven centre, dunes centre and seaside improvements in the coastal area and a new multimillion-pound library known as'The Word.' South Shields is situated in a peninsula setting, 247 miles north-northwest of London, where the River Tyne mee
Coke (fuel)
Coke is a grey and porous fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air — a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used in iron ore smelting, but as a fuel in stoves and forges when air pollution is a concern; the unqualified term "coke" refers to the product derived from low-ash and low-sulfur bituminous coal by a process called coking. A similar product called pet coke, is obtained from crude oil in oil refineries. Coke may be formed by geologic processes. Historical sources dating to the 4th century describe the production of coke in ancient China; the Chinese first used coke for heating and cooking no than the ninth century. By the first decades of the eleventh century, Chinese ironworkers in the Yellow River valley began to fuel their furnaces with coke, solving their fuel problem in that tree-sparse region. In 1589, a patent was granted to Thomas Proctor and William Peterson for making iron and steel and melting lead with "earth-coal, sea-coal and peat".
The patent contains a distinct allusion to the preparation of coal by "cooking". In 1590, a patent was granted to the Dean of York to "purify pit-coal and free it from its offensive smell". In 1620, a patent was granted to a company composed of William St. John and other knights, mentioning the use of coke in smelting ores and manufacturing metals. In 1627, a patent was granted to Sir John Hacket and Octavius de Strada for a method of rendering sea-coal and pit-coal as useful as charcoal for burning in houses, without offense by smell or smoke. In 1603, Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood; this process was not employed until 1642. It was considered an improvement in quality, brought about an "alteration which all England admired"—the coke process allowed for a lighter roast of the malt, leading to the creation of what by the end of the 17th century was called pale ale. In 1709, Abraham Darby I established a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron.
Coke's superior crushing strength allowed blast furnaces to become larger. The ensuing availability of inexpensive iron was one of the factors leading to the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, iron-making used large quantities of charcoal, produced by burning wood; as the coppicing of forests became unable to meet the demand, the substitution of coke for charcoal became common in Great Britain, coke was manufactured by burning coal in heaps on the ground so that only the outer layer burned, leaving the interior of the pile in a carbonized state. In the late 18th century, brick beehive ovens were developed, which allowed more control over the burning process. In 1768, John Wilkinson built a more practical oven for converting coal into coke. Wilkinson improved the process by building the coal heaps around a low central chimney built of loose bricks and with openings for the combustion gases to enter, resulting in a higher yield of better coke. With greater skill in the firing and quenching of the heaps, yields were increased from about 33% to 65% by the middle of the 19th century.
The Scottish iron industry expanded in the second quarter of the 19th century, through the adoption of the hot-blast process in its coalfields. In 1802, a battery of beehives was set up near Sheffield, to coke the Silkstone seam for use in crucible steel melting. By 1870, there were 14,000 beehive ovens in operation on the West Durham coalfields, capable of producing 4,000,000 long tons of coke; as a measure of the extent of the expansion of coke making, it has been estimated that the requirements of the iron industry were about 1,000,000 long tons a year in the early 1850s, whereas by 1880 the figure had risen to 7,000,000 long tons, of which about 5,000,000 long tons were produced in Durham county, 1,000,000 long tons in the South Wales coalfield, 1,000,000 long tons in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. In the first years of steam railway locomotives, coke was the normal fuel; this resulted from an early piece of environmental legislation. This was not technically possible to achieve until the firebox arch came into use, but burning coke, with its low smoke emissions, was considered to meet the requirement.
This rule was dropped, cheaper coal became the normal fuel, as railways gained acceptance among the public. In the US, the first use of coke in an iron furnace occurred around 1817 at Isaac Meason's Plumsock puddling furnace and rolling mill in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In the late 19th century, the coalfields of western Pennsylvania provided a rich source of raw material for coking. In 1885, the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Company constructed the world's longest string of coke ovens in Walston, with 475 ovens over a length of 2 km, their output reached 22,000 tons per month. The Minersville Coke Ovens in Huntingdon County, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Between 1870 and 1905, the number of beehive ovens in the US skyrocketed from about 200 to 31,000, which produced nearly 18,000,000 tons of coke in the Pittsburgh area alone. One observer boasted that if loaded into a train, “the year's production would make up a train so long that the engine in front of it would go to
Germany
Germany the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north and the Czech Republic to the east and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to the west. Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,386 square kilometres, has a temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a decentralized country, its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport. Germany's largest urban area is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Essen; the country's other major cities are Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Bremen and Nuremberg. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity.
A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815; the German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights. In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic; the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, the annexation of Austria, World War II, the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, Austria was re-established as an independent country and two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American and French occupation zones, East Germany, formed from the Soviet occupation zone.
Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990. Today, the sovereign state of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor, it is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods; as a developed country with a high standard of living, it upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection, a tuition-free university education. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993, it is part of the Schengen Area and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, the OECD. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential and successful artists, musicians, film people, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
Germany has a large number of World Heritage sites and is among the top tourism destinations in the world. The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine; the German term Deutschland diutisciu land is derived from deutsch, descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz "popular", derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- "people", from which the word Teutons originates; the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen between 1994 and 1998 where eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins of 1.82 to 2.25 m length were unearthed. The Neander Valley was the location where the first non-modern human fossil was discovered.
The Neanderthal 1 fossils are known to be 40,000 years old. Evidence of modern humans dated, has been found in caves in the Swabian Jura near Ulm; the finds included 42,000-year-old bird bone and mammoth ivory flutes which are the oldest musical instruments found, the 40,000-year-old Ice Age Lion Man, the oldest uncontested figurative art discovered, the 35,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest uncontested human figurative art discovered. The Nebra sky disk is a bronze artefact created during the European Bronze Age attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, it is part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and north Germany, they expanded south and west from the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well
Locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is rather referred to as multiple units, motor coaches, railcars or power cars. 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; the word locomotive originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus "place", the Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in 1814 to distinguish between self-propelled and stationary steam engines. Prior to locomotives, the motive force for railways had been generated by various lower-technology methods such as human power, horse power, gravity or stationary engines that drove cable systems. Few such systems are still in existence today. Locomotives may generate their power from fuel, or they may take power from an outside source of electricity.
It is common to classify locomotives by their source of energy. The common ones include: A steam locomotive is a locomotive whose primary power source is a steam engine; the most common form of steam locomotive contains a boiler to generate the steam used by the engine. The water in the boiler is heated by burning combustible material – coal, wood, or oil – to produce steam; the steam moves reciprocating pistons which are connected to the locomotive's main wheels, known as the "drivers". Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons called "tenders" pulled behind; the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in 1802. It was constructed for the Coalbrookdale ironworks in Shropshire in the United Kingdom though no record of it working there has survived. On 21 February 1804, the first recorded steam-hauled railway journey took place as another of Trevithick's locomotives hauled a train from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales.
Accompanied by Andrew Vivian, it ran with mixed success. The design incorporated a number of important innovations including the use of high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine and increased its efficiency. In 1812, Matthew Murray's twin-cylinder rack locomotive Salamanca first ran on the edge-railed rack-and-pinion Middleton Railway. Another well-known early locomotive was Puffing Billy, built 1813–14 by engineer William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne; this locomotive is the oldest preserved, is on static display in the Science Museum, London. George Stephenson built Locomotion No. 1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the north-east of England, the first public steam railway in the world. In 1829, his son Robert built The Rocket in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Rocket was entered into, won, the Rainhill Trials; this success led to the company emerging as the pre-eminent early builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the UK, US and much of Europe.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, built by Stephenson, opened a year making exclusive use of steam power for passenger and goods trains. The steam locomotive remained by far the most common type of locomotive until after World War II. Steam locomotives are less efficient than modern diesel and electric locomotives, a larger workforce is required to operate and service them. British Rail figures showed that the cost of crewing and fuelling a steam locomotive was about two and a half times larger than the cost of supporting an equivalent diesel locomotive, the daily mileage they could run was lower. Between about 1950 and 1970, the majority of steam locomotives were retired from commercial service and replaced with electric and diesel-electric locomotives. While North America transitioned from steam during the 1950s, continental Europe by the 1970s, in other parts of the world, the transition happened later. Steam was a familiar technology that used widely-available fuels and in low-wage economies did not suffer as wide a cost disparity.
It continued to be used in many countries until the end of the 20th century. By the end of the 20th century the only steam power remaining in regular use around the world was on heritage railways. Internal combustion locomotives use an internal combustion engine, connected to the driving wheels by a transmission, they keep the engine running at a near-constant speed whether the locomotive is stationary or moving. Kerosene locomotives use kerosene as the fuel, they were the world's first oil locomotives, preceding diesel and other oil locomotives by some years. The first known kerosene locomotive was a draisine built by Daimler in 1887. A kerosene locomotive was built in 1894 by the Priestman Brothers of Kingston upon Hull for use on Hull docks; this locomotive was built using a 12 hp double-acting marine type engine, running at 300 rpm, mounted on a 4-wheel wagon chassis. It was only able to haul one loaded wagon at a time, due to its low power output, was not a great success; the first successful kerosene locomotive was "Lachesis" built by Richard Hornsby & Sons Ltd. and delivered to Woolwich Arsenal railway in 1896.
The company built a series of kerosene locomotives between 1896 and 1903, for use by the British military. Petrol locomotives use petrol as their fuel. Most petrol locomotives built were petrol-mechanical, using a mechanical transmission to deliver the power output of the engine t
Swiss Federal Railways
Swiss Federal Railways is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is referred to by the initials of its German and Italian names, either as SBB CFF FFS, or used separately; the Romansh version of its name, Viafiers federalas svizras, is not used. The company is headquartered in Bern, it used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corporation whose shares are held by the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss cantons. SBB was ranked first among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for its intensity of use, quality of service and strong safety rating. While European rail operators such as French SNCF and Spanish Renfe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail, SBB has invested in the reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network. In addition to passenger rail, SBB operates cargo and freight rail service and has large real estate holdings in Switzerland that provide business revenue to the company.
Swiss Federal Railways is divided into eight groups. The divisions develop the relevant operational business; these divisions are: Passenger traffic Cargo Infrastructure Real estateThe groups serves however the purpose of managing and controlling the company and supporting the operational business of the divisions with service and support function. These groups are: Finance HR IT Communications Corporate Development Safety & Quality Legal and Compliance Supply Chain ManagementThe corporation is led in an entrepreneurial manner. A performance agreement between Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Confederation defines the requirements and is updated every four years. At the same time the compensation rates per train and track-kilometre are defined. Subsidiary SBB GmbH is responsible for passenger traffic in Germany, it operates the Seehas services. Further subsidiaries are Cisalpino AG and TiLo; the Swiss Federal Railways hold significant shares of the Zentralbahn and Lyria SAS. To maintain heritage, the Stiftung Historisches Erbe der SBB was founded in 2002.
This foundation takes care of the historic rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern and photographic archives, the SBB poster collection. All figures from 2016: Length of railway network: 3132 km in standard gauge and 98 km metre gauge Percentage electrified routes: 100% Employees: 33,119 Passengers carried per day: 1.25 million Passenger-kilometer per inhabitant and year: 2,257 kilometres Stations open to passengers: 795 Customer Punctuality: 88.8% of all passengers reached their destination - measured from departure station including any necessary changes - with less than 3 minutes of delay Customer-weighted connection punctuality: 96.7% Freight per year: 53.5 million tons Stations with freight traffic: 193 Railway tunnels: 313 Railway Tunnels total length: 386.1 kilometres Longest Tunnel: 57.1 kilometres world record Railway Bridges: 6004 Railway bridges total length: 104.6 kilometres Electric multiple units: 522 Power Cars: 121 Mainline locomotives: 677 Shunting locomotives: 226 Shunting tractors: 257 Passenger coaches: 2292 Freight wagons: 5937 Hydroelectric plants: 7 Electricity produced and procured: 3.463 GWh Electricity used for railway operations: 2.458 GWh Proportion of traction current from renewable sources: 91.9%The Swiss Federal Railways rail network is electrified.
The metre gauge Brünigbahn was SBB's only non-standard gauge line, until it was out-sourced and merged with the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn to form the Zentralbahn, in which SBB holds shares. In the 19th century, all Swiss railways were owned by private ventures; the economic and political interests of these companies led to lines being built in parallel and some companies went bankrupt in the resulting competition. On 20 February 1898 the Swiss people agreed in a referendum to the creation of a state-owned railway company; that year, the Federal Assembly approved the purchase of Schweizerische Centralbahn to operate trains on behalf of the federal government. The first train running on the account of the Swiss Confederation ran during the night of New Year's Eve 1900/New Year's Day 1901 from Zurich via Bern to Geneva, received a ceremonial welcome upon arriving in Bern. SBB's management board was first formed in mid-1901, added Schweizerische Nordostbahn to the system on 1 January 1902; this date is now observed as the "official" birthday of SBB.
The following railway companies were nationalised: Aargauische Südbahn Bötzbergbahn Schweizerische Nordostbahn Schweizerische Centralbahn Toggenburgerbahn Vereinigte Schweizerbahnen Tösstalbahn including the Wald-Rüti Railway Wohlen-Bremgarten Railway Jura-Simplon-Bahn including the Brünigbahn Other companies were included and the rail network was extended. It is still growing today. On 1 January 1999 the Swiss Federal Railway has been excluded from the Federal Administration and became a state-owned limited company regulated by public law. First class compartments were discontinued on 3 June 1956, second and third class accommodation was reclassified as first and second class, respectively. In 1982 SBB introduced th
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