1.
EMD MP15DC
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The EMD MP15DC was a 1,500 hp switcher-type diesel locomotive model produced by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between March 1974 and January 1983. An MP15AC variant, with an AC drive, was also offered, between August 1975 and August 1984246 MP15ACs were built, including 25 for export to Mexico, and four built in Canada. The MP15DC replaced the SW1500 in EMDs catalog, and is very similar to the predecessor model, using the same engine in a similar design of hood. The primary difference is the MP15’s standard Blomberg B trucks, switchers up to the SW1500 had been restricted to AAR type A switcher or Flexicoil lightweight trucks, both with a 96 in wheelbase. In 197360 special order Mexico-only SW1504s were built on a longer frame, allowing EMD’s standard Blomberg B trucks, with a 108 in wheelbase. In EMDs eyes this made the new locomotive a road rather than a pure switcher, since it was capable of transition. The new model MP15DC designation thus meant Multi-Purpose locomotive,1500 hp, originally the locomotive was simply designated the MP15, the arrival of the alternator/rectifier MP15AC in 1975 changed the name. With the success of the MP15, there was a demand for a model with an advanced AC drive system, the MP15AC replaced the MP15DC’s DC generator with an alternator producing AC power which is converted to DC for the traction motors with a silicon rectifier. The MP15AC is 1.5 ft longer than an MP15DC, the alternator-rectifier combination is more reliable than a generator, and this equipment became the standard for new diesel-electric locomotive designs. The MP15AC is easily distinguished from the DC models, instead of the front-mounted radiator intake and belt-driven fan used on all previous EMD switchers, these have intakes on the lower forward nose sides and electric fans. Side intakes allowed the unit to take in air. The MP15 used a 12-cylinder version of the 645E series engine developing 1500 hp at 900 r. p. m, introduced in the SW1500, this was a 2-stroke, 45-degree V type, with a 9-inch bore by 10-inch stroke, giving 645 cubic inches displacement per cylinder. The 645 series, introduced in 1966, was EMD’s standard engine through the 1980s, early railroad buyers were the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, with 25, and the Missouri Pacific, who would buy 62 between 1974 and 1982. The Chicago & Northwestern, Southern Pacific, Louisville & Nashville, later, from 1977 to 1982, Southern bought the largest fleet,160 units under six names. Over 50 more were sold to 37 other customers,36 more units were sold to 8 other customers. The Union Pacific Railroad is perhaps the largest current user of the MP15DC, none were originally owned by the UP, instead, they were acquired by merger or takeover, or bought on the second-hand locomotive market. The vast majority came from the Missouri Pacific Railroad, while locomotives were acquired from the Chicago and North Western Railway. A further 15 were acquired from the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, being surplus to their requirements, the Alaska Railroad had four MP15DCs used as yard switching engines, numbered 1551-1554
2.
British Rail Class 08
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The British Rail Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive. The pioneer locomotive, number 13000, was built in 1952 although it did not enter service until 1953, production continued until 1962,996 locomotives were produced, making it the most numerous of all British locomotive classes. As the standard BR general-purpose diesel shunter, almost any duty requiring shunting would involve a Class 08, the class became a familiar sight at many major stations and freight yards. Since their introduction, though, the nature of traffic in Britain has changed considerably. Freight trains are now mostly fixed rakes of wagons, and passenger trains are mostly multiple units, consequently, a large proportion of the class has been withdrawn from mainline use and stored, scrapped, exported or sold to industrial or heritage railways. As of 2011, around 100 locomotives remain working on industrial sidings, on heritage railways, they have become common, appearing on many of the preserved standard-gauge lines in Britain, with over 60 preserved including the first one built. The Class 08 design was based on the LMS12033 series design, the locomotives were built at the BR Works of Crewe, Darlington, Derby, Doncaster and Horwich between 1952 and 1962. In 1985, three locomotives were reduced in height for use on the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway in south west Wales, the remainder of the class were reclassified as sub-class 08/0. A further two locomotives were converted to 08/9 in 1987, the first locomotive to be withdrawn was D3193 in 1967. 4 other machines were withdrawn before TOPS reclassification in 1973, withdrawals continued in subsequent decades until by the beginning of the 1990s most of the class were no longer in service. At the same time as the withdrawals, many were purchased by heritage railways, when British Rail was privatised and sold in the 1990s, EWS inherited most of the class. More units were disposed of, being sent to EWSs Component Recovery & Distribution Centre in Wigan for stripping of reusable components prior to scrapping, others were stored in case of an increase in traffic. In mid 2008, EWS had over 40 class 08 locomotives in operation, freightliner also had about 5 locomotives in operation, as did locomotive company Wabtec. FirstGroup operated less than 5, additionally, some work at industrial sidings –2 for Foster Yeoman, one for Mendip Rail, one for Corus, one at ICI Wilton,2 for English China Clays, a few other businesses in railway-related business operated single examples. 5 examples of the Class 08 were exported to Liberia, numbers,3047,3092,3094,3098 and 3100, with over 70 examples preserved, they are the second most numerous class of preserved locomotive in the UK. The Class 08 design was based on the LMS12033 series design, the engine is an English Electric 6 cylinder, 4-stroke, 6KT. Traction motors are 2 EE506 motors with double reduction gear drive, the main generator is an EE801. In 2007, a few of locomotives were used on the Manchester Metrolink track relaying project
3.
Great Britain
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Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
4.
Pennsylvania Railroad
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The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the Pennsy, the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies and its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRRs ton-miles. At one time, the PRR was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world, with a larger than that of the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history, in 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years. The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, which was broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway. Amtrak received the electrified segment east of Harrisburg, with the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic. The state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and it soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, and canals was proposed. Because freight and passengers had to change several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey, the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3, 612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and then descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, the line was double track from its inception, and by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of railroads by stock purchases. This line is still an important cross-state corridor, carrying Amtraks Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and he served as PRRs first Chief Engineer and third President. Track connection in Philadelphia was made via the PRRs Connecting Railway, the PRRs Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road opened on July 2,1872, between Baltimore and Washington, D. C. This route required transfer via horse car in Baltimore to the lines heading north from the city. On June 29,1873, the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel through Baltimore was completed, the PRR started the misleadingly named Pennsylvania Air Line service via the Northern Central Railway and Columbia, Pennsylvania
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Train
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A train is a form of rail transport consisting of a series of vehicles that usually runs along a rail track to transport cargo or passengers. Motive power is provided by a locomotive or individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Although historically steam propulsion dominated, the most common forms are diesel and electric locomotives. Other energy sources include horses, engine or water-driven rope or wire winch, gravity, pneumatics, batteries, the word train comes from the Old French trahiner, from the Latin trahere pull, draw. There are various types of trains that are designed for particular purposes, a train may consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit. The first trains were rope-hauled, gravity powered or pulled by horses, from the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomotives. A passenger train is one which includes passenger-carrying vehicles which can often be very long, one notable and growing long-distance train category is high-speed rail. In order to much faster operation over 500 km/h, innovative Maglev technology has been researched for years. In most countries, such as the United Kingdom, the distinction between a tramway and a railway is precise and defined in law, a freight train uses freight cars to transport goods or materials. Freight and passengers may be carried in the train in a mixed consist. Rail cars and machinery used for maintenance and repair of tracks, etc. are termed maintenance of way equipment, similarly, dedicated trains may be used to provide support services to stations along a train line, such as garbage or revenue collection. There are various types of trains that are designed for particular purposes, a train can consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit. Trains can also be hauled by horses, pulled by a cable, special kinds of trains running on corresponding special railways are atmospheric railways, monorails, high-speed railways, maglev, rubber-tired underground, funicular and cog railways. A passenger train may consist of one or several locomotives and coaches, alternatively, a train may consist entirely of passenger carrying coaches, some or all of which are powered as a multiple unit. In many parts of the world, particularly the Far East and Europe, freight trains are composed of wagons or trucks rather than carriages, though some parcel and mail trains are outwardly more like passenger trains. Trains can also be mixed, comprising both passenger accommodation and freight vehicles, special trains are also used for track maintenance, in some places, this is called maintenance of way. A train with a locomotive attached at each end is described as top and tailed, where a second locomotive is attached temporarily to assist a train up steep banks or grades it is referred to as banking in the UK, or helper service in North America. Recently, many loaded trains in the United States have been made up one or more locomotives in the middle or at the rear of the train
8.
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
9.
Shunting (rail)
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Shunting, in railway operations, is the process of sorting items of rolling stock into complete trains, or the reverse. In the United States this activity is known as switching, motive power is normally provided by a locomotive known as a shunter or switcher. Most shunter/switchers are now diesel-powered but steam and even electric locomotives have been used, where locomotives could not be used shunting operations have in the past been effected by horses or capstans. The terms shunter and switcher are applied not only to locomotives and this was particularly so in the past. The Midland Railway company, for example, kept an ambulance wagon permanently stationed at Toton Yard to give treatment to injured shunters, marshalling or classification yard Shunter or switcher Switching and terminal railroad Bostel, Nathalie, and Pierre Dejax. Models and algorithms for container allocation problems on trains in a rapid transshipment shunting yard, shunting yard operations, Theoretical aspects and applications. European Journal of Operational Research 220.1, 1-14
10.
Classification yard
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A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railway yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railway cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill, from there the cars are sent through a series of switches called a ladder onto the classification tracks. Larger yards tend to put the lead on an artificially built hill called a hump to use the force of gravity to propel the cars through the ladder, freight trains that consist of isolated cars must be made into trains and divided according to their destinations. Thus the cars must be shunted several times along their route in contrast to a unit train and this shunting is done partly at the starting and final destinations and partly in classification yards. Flat yards are constructed on ground, or on a gentle slope. Freight cars are pushed by a locomotive and coast to their required location, hump yards are the largest and most effective classification yards, with the largest shunting capacity, often several thousand cars a day. The heart of these yards is the lead track on a small hill over which an engine pushes the cars. As concerns speed regulation, there are two types of hump yards—without or with mechanisation by retarders, in the old non-retarder yards braking was usually done in Europe by railroaders who laid skates onto the tracks. The skate or chock was manually placed on one or both of the rails so that the treadles or rims of the wheel or wheels caused frictional retardation, in the United States this braking was done by riders on the cars. In the modern retarder yards this work is done by mechanized rail brakes called retarders and they are operated either pneumatically or hydraulically. Pneumatic systems are prevalent in the United States, France, Belgium, Russia and China, while hydraulic systems are used in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In the United States, many classification bowls have more than 40 tracks—up to 72—which are often divided into six to ten tracks in each balloon loop. Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, United States, the worlds largest classification yard, is a hump yard, notably, in Europe, Russia and China, all major classification yards are hump yards. Europes largest hump yard is that of Maschen near Hamburg, Germany, the second largest is in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. According to the PRRT&HS PRR Chronology, the first hump yard in the United States was opened May 11,1903 as part of the Altoona Yards at Bells Mills. Other sources report the PRR yard at Youngwood, PA which opened in the 1880s to serve the Connellsville coke fields as the first U. S. hump yard. Gravity yards are operated similarly to hump yards but, in contrast to the latter, thus, only few gravity yards were ever built, sometimes requiring massive earthwork. Most gravity yards were built in Germany and Great Britain, a few also in some other European countries, in the USA, there were only very few old gravity yards, one of the few gravity yards in operation today is CSXs Readville Yard south of Boston, Massachusetts
11.
Branch line
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A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line, david Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are essential to make main lines pay. Many British branch lines were closed as a result of the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, the smallest branch line that is still in operation in the UK is the Stourbridge Town Branch Line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town. Operating on a track, the journey is 0.8 miles long. Examples of spur lines in Singapore include, Changi Extension Line, examples of spur lines in Hong Kong include, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line, South Tseung Kwan O Spur Line, Racecourse Spur Line. In North America, little-used branch lines are sold by large railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own. They were typically built to standards, utilizing lighter rail. In the United States, abandonment of branch lines was a byproduct of deregulation of the rail industry through the Staggers Act. The Princeton Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit in the U. S. state of New Jersey. The line is a branch of the Northeast Corridor Line. Also known as the Dinky Line, at 2.9 mi it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. The run takes 4 minutes,47 seconds, New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. Many were built in the late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming, today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries far from main lines such as mines, logging operations, large dairying factories. In Auckland and Wellington, two lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see the list of New Zealand railway lines
12.
Switching and terminal railroad
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A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard and it generally consists of making up and breaking up trains, storing and classifying cars, serving industries within yard limits, and other related purposes. These movements are made at speed under special yard rules. A terminal facility can include a freight station, train ferry. Its purpose is to connect larger carriers to other modes of transport or other carriers and these companies may be jointly owned by several major carriers, examples include the Belt Railway of Chicago, Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, and Conrail Shared Assets Operations. The Internal Revenue Service provides tax incentives for this type of company and they may also be created when a larger railroad abandons an unprofitable line, and a short-line railroad takes over operations to connect shippers to the larger company
13.
Tractive force
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In railway engineering, the term tractive effort is often used synonymously with tractive force to describe the pulling or pushing capability of a locomotive. The published tractive force value for any vehicle may be theoretical—that is, the term tractive effort is often qualified as starting tractive effort, continuous tractive effort and maximum tractive effort. The product of μ and m is the factor of adhesion, Starting tractive effort, Starting tractive effort is the tractive force that can be generated at a standstill. This figure is important on railways because it determines the maximum weight that a locomotive can set into motion. Maximum tractive effort, Maximum tractive effort is defined as the highest tractive force that can be generated under any condition that is not injurious to the vehicle or machine. In most cases, maximum tractive effort is developed at low speed, due to the relationship between power, velocity and force, described as, P = vF or P/v = F tractive effort inversely varies with speed at any given level of available power. Continuous tractive effort is often shown in graph form at a range of speeds as part of a tractive effort curve, the period of time for which the maximum continuous tractive effort may be safely generated is usually limited by thermal considerations. Such as temperature rise in a traction motor, specifications of locomotives often include tractive effort curves, showing the relationship between tractive effort and velocity. The shape of the graph is shown at right, the line AB shows operation at the maximum tractive effort, the line BC shows continuous tractive effort that is inversely proportional to speed. Tractive effort curves often have graphs of rolling resistance superimposed on them—the intersection of the rolling resistance graph, once in motion, the train will develop additional drag as it accelerates due to aerodynamic forces, which increase with the square of the speed. Drag may also be produced at speed due to truck hunting, if acceleration continues, the train will eventually attain a speed at which the available tractive force of the locomotive will exactly offset the total drag, causing acceleration to cease. This top speed will be increased on a due to gravity assisting the motive power. Tractive effort can be calculated from a locomotives mechanical characteristics, or by actual testing with drawbar strain sensors. Power at rail is a term for the available power for traction, that is. An estimate for the effort of a single cylinder steam locomotive can be obtained from the cylinder pressure, cylinder area, stroke of the piston. The torque developed by the motion of the piston depends on the angle that the driving rod makes with the tangent of the radius on the driving wheel. For a more useful value an average value over the rotation of the wheel is used, the driving force is the torque divided by the wheel radius. Modern locomotives with roller bearings were probably underestimated, european designers used a constant of 0.6 instead of 0.85, so the two cannot be compared without a conversion factor
14.
Torque
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Torque, moment, or moment of force is rotational force. Just as a force is a push or a pull. Loosely speaking, torque is a measure of the force on an object such as a bolt or a flywheel. For example, pushing or pulling the handle of a wrench connected to a nut or bolt produces a torque that loosens or tightens the nut or bolt, the symbol for torque is typically τ, the lowercase Greek letter tau. When it is called moment of force, it is denoted by M. The SI unit for torque is the newton metre, for more on the units of torque, see Units. This article follows US physics terminology in its use of the word torque, in the UK and in US mechanical engineering, this is called moment of force, usually shortened to moment. In US physics and UK physics terminology these terms are interchangeable, unlike in US mechanical engineering, Torque is defined mathematically as the rate of change of angular momentum of an object. The definition of states that one or both of the angular velocity or the moment of inertia of an object are changing. Moment is the term used for the tendency of one or more applied forces to rotate an object about an axis. For example, a force applied to a shaft causing acceleration, such as a drill bit accelerating from rest. By contrast, a force on a beam produces a moment, but since the angular momentum of the beam is not changing. Similarly with any force couple on an object that has no change to its angular momentum and this article follows the US physics terminology by calling all moments by the term torque, whether or not they cause the angular momentum of an object to change. The concept of torque, also called moment or couple, originated with the studies of Archimedes on levers, the term torque was apparently introduced into English scientific literature by James Thomson, the brother of Lord Kelvin, in 1884. A force applied at an angle to a lever multiplied by its distance from the levers fulcrum is its torque. A force of three newtons applied two metres from the fulcrum, for example, exerts the same torque as a force of one newton applied six metres from the fulcrum. More generally, the torque on a particle can be defined as the product, τ = r × F, where r is the particles position vector relative to the fulcrum. Alternatively, τ = r F ⊥, where F⊥ is the amount of force directed perpendicularly to the position of the particle, any force directed parallel to the particles position vector does not produce a torque
15.
Driving wheel
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On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotives pistons. On diesel and electric locomotives, the wheels may be directly driven by the traction motors. Coupling rods are not usually used, and it is common for each axle to have its own motor. Jackshaft drive and coupling rods were used in the past but their use is now confined to shunting locomotives, on an articulated locomotive or a duplex locomotive, driving wheels are grouped into sets which are linked together within the set
16.
Tugboat
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A tug is a boat or ship that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going, some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines, many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors. Seagoing tugs fall into four categories, The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows its payload on a hawser. The notch tug which can be secured in a notch at the stern of a specially designed barge and this configuration is dangerous to use with a barge which is in ballast or in a head- or following sea. Therefore, notch tugs are usually built with a towing winch and these units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keeping designs for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are considered to be ships rather than tugboats. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than required of tugboats. Articulated tug and barge units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges, the tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection. ATBs generally utilize Intercon and Bludworth connecting systems, aTBs are generally staffed as a large tugboat, with between seven and nine crew members. The typical American ATB operating on the east coast customarily displays navigational lights of a towing vessel pushing ahead, compared to seagoing tugboats, harbour tugboats are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for a lower draught. In smaller harbours these are also termed lunch bucket boats, because they are only manned when needed and only at a minimum. The number of tugboats in a harbour varies with the harbour infrastructure, things to take into consideration includes ships with/without bow thrusters and forces like wind, current and waves and types of ship. River tugs are also referred to as towboats or pushboats and their hull designs would make open ocean operation dangerous. River tugs usually do not have any significant hawser or winch and their hulls feature a flat front or bow to line up with the rectangular stern of the barge, often with large pushing knees. Tugboat engines typically produce 500 to 2,500 kW, for safety, tugboats engines often feature two of each critical part for redundancy. A tugboats power is stated by its engines horsepower and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s-2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60-65 tons of bollard pull, Tugboats are highly maneuverable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase maneuverability and increase safety
17.
Coupling rod
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A coupling rod or side rod connects the driving wheels of a locomotive. Steam locomotives in particular usually have them, but some diesel and electric locomotives, especially older ones and shunters, the coupling rods transfer the power to all driving wheels. Locomotion No 1 was the first locomotive to employ coupling rods rather than chains, in the 1930s reliable roller bearing coupling rods were developed. In general, all vehicles have spring suspension, without springs, irregularities in the track could lift wheels off the rail. Driving wheels are mounted so that they have around 1 inch of vertical motion. When there are only 2 coupled axles, this range of motion places only slight stress on the crank pins, with more axles, however, provision must be made to allow each axle to move vertically independently of the others without bending the rods. This may be done by hinging the side rod at each intermediate crank pin, either using the pin itself as a pin, or adding a hinge joint adjacent to the pin. An alternative is to use a rod that spans multiple axles with a scotch yoke used at each intermediate axle. This approach was common when side rods were used to link a jackshaft to 2 or more driving wheels on electric locomotives. The Swiss Ce 6/8II Crocodile locomotive is a prominent example, the coupling rods off-center attachment to the crank pin of the driving wheel inevitably creates an eccentric movement and vibration when in motion. To compensate for this, the wheels of an inside-frame locomotive always had built-in counterweights to offset the angular momentum of the coupling rods. On outside-frame locomotives, the counterweight could be on the wheel itself, or it could be on the crank outside the frame. Where part of the motion is non-circular, for example, the motion of a piston rod. As a result, a chosen to minimize the total vibration will not minimize the vertical component of the vibration. The vertical component of the vibration that could not be eliminated because of the weight needed to balance the pistons is called hammering and this is destructive to both the locomotive and the roadbed. In some locomotives, this hammering can be so intense that at speed, unfortunately, hammering is inherent to conventional two-cylinder piston-driven steam locomotives and that is one of the several reasons they have been retired from service. Initially, coupling rods were made of steel
18.
SJ U
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They were built by ASEA, Nyqvist och Holm, Motala, ASJ Falun and Thune between 1926 and 1956. NSB gave the class the designation El 10, during the 1920s the Swedish State Railways started a program to electrify parts of their network. This caused a need for electric shunters on the West Main Line, a procurement was attempted from Switzerland, but no order was ever made. With the order of the D Class locomotives, SJ decided to order a shunter built with the same components, the initial order was for three Ua-locomotives were made in 1926 with delivery the following year. The motors were built by ASEA while the components were built by Nydqvist och Holm. The locomotives worked well, but had problems with the sight from the cab in one direction, the Ub series was built by both NOHAB and ASJ Falun. The first delivery was ordered in 1929, and from 1930 to 1950,90 units were delivered, from 1942 some of the units were also built by Motala. The proved highly economic, as they could replace steam locomotives for shunting. In 1933, a single version was delivered, and given the designation Uc. The final batch of 25 units was ordered in 1954 and delivered 1955 and 1956, the Motala-built units had a different configuration with a higher maximum speed and were designated Ud. During the 1980s SJ started a program to upgrade the class, with the improvement being the installation of a new. From 1987 to 1991, Sixty Ub and sixteen Ud were rebuilt and given the designation Ue and Uf, the first rebuilt unit was painted gray, but all later units were instead painted orange after complaints from the employees. During the 1990s, the need for shunters decreased and the units started to become unreliable, SJ also started selling upgraded units to private operators. The last units were out of service in 2006. LKAB ordered 15 shunters for use at Narvik Port in Norway, of which 13 were delivered in 1931 and 1932 and these were built in Norway by Thune, with the electrical equipment supplied by ASEA, and numbered 22 through 35. Seven units became casualties after Narvik was bombed in 1940, two were scrapped and five were sent to ASEA to be reconstructed, after the repairs in 1942, the remained leased to Swedish operators until 1945, when they returned to Narvik. LKAB had a declining need for shunters due to effectivsation of the unloading of the ore trains in Narvik, by 1984, there was not more need for the units, and the limited shunting was instead done by a few diesel shunters. One of the units is preserved at the city museum, the Norwegian State Railways was also in need of electric shunters, and ordered 13 locomotives from ASJ with delivery from 1949 to 1952
19.
Diesel locomotive
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A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotive have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combustion engine-powered locomotives and railmotors used gasoline as their fuel, soon after Dr. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression ignition engine in 1892, it was considered for railway propulsion. Progress was slow, however, as several problems had to be overcome, power transmission was a primary concern. As opposed to steam and electric engines, internal combustion engines work efficiently only within a range of turning frequencies. In light vehicles, this could be overcome by a clutch, in heavy railway vehicles, mechanical transmission never worked well or wore out too soon. Experience with early gasoline powered locomotives and railcars was valuable for the development of diesel traction, one step towards diesel-electric transmission was the petrol-electric vehicle, such as the Acsev Weitzer railmotor, which could operate from batteries and electric overhead wires too. Steady improvements in diesel design gradually reduced its size and improved its power-to-weight ratio to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Once the concept of drive was accepted, the pace of development quickened. In 1930, Armstrong Whitworth of the United Kingdom delivered two 1,200 hp locomotives using engines of Sulzer design to Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway of Argentina, currently, almost all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric, although the diesel-hydraulic type was widely used between the 1950s and 1970s. The Soviet diesel locomotive TEP80-0002 lays claim to the speed record for a diesel railed vehicle. In 1894, a 20 h. p. two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks, in 1896 an oil-engined railway locomotive was built for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, England, in 1896, using an engine designed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart. It was not, strictly, a diesel because it used a hot bulb engine, following the expiration of Dr. Rudolf Diesels patent in 1912, his engine design was successfully applied to marine propulsion and stationary applications. However, the massiveness and poor power-to-weight ratio of early engines made them unsuitable for propelling land-based vehicles. Therefore, the potential as a railroad prime mover was not initially recognized. This changed as development reduced the size and weight of the engine, the worlds first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur-Romanshorn Railroad in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam, Sulzer had been manufacturing Diesel engines since 1898. During further test runs in 1913 several problems were found, after the First World War broke out in 1914, all further trials were stopped
20.
Hood (car)
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The hood or bonnet is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment for maintenance and repair. In British terminology, hood refers to a cover over the passenger compartment of the car. On passenger cars, a hood may be held down by a concealed latch and it is designed to protect a car from thefts, damage and sudden hood opening on the road. The hood release system is common on the most of vehicles and usually consists of interior hood latch handle, hood release cable, the hood latch handle is usually located below the steering wheel, beside the drivers seat or set into the door frame. When a driver pulls a hood latch handle the hood panel pops up, on race cars or cars with aftermarket hoods the hood may be held down by hood pins. A hood may sometimes contain a hood ornament, hood scoop, power bulge, hoods are typically made out of steel, but aluminum is rapidly gaining popularity with auto companies. Aftermarket manufacturers may construct hoods out of fiberglass, carbon fiber, dry carbon, aftermarket hoods are usually sold unpainted or come primered in flat matte black paint. It means that such hoods require additional painting, to choose a paint that match vehicles original shade and hue, special color code is used. This code is printed in the label that is located under the hood or on the driver side door jamb. Some car owners however prefer to leave their black primed hoods unpainted, carbon fiber custom hoods require no painting, as they already come with protective clear coating. In Japan and Europe, regulations have come into effect in recent years that place a limit on the severity of head injury when struck by a motor vehicle. This is leading to more advanced designs, as evidenced by multicone hood inner panel designs as found on the Mazda RX-8. Other changes are being made to use the hood as an active structure and this may be achieved by mechanical or pyrotechnic devices
21.
Slug (railroad)
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A railroad slug is an accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive. Instead, it is connected to a locomotive, called the mother, which provides the electrical power to operate the traction motors. A slug is used to increase adhesive weight, allowing power to be applied at a lower speed. They are often used in low-speed operations such as switching operations in yards, at low speeds, a diesel-electric locomotive prime mover is capable of producing more electricity than its traction motors can use effectively. Extra power would cause the wheels to slip and possibly overheat the traction motors. A slug increases the number of traction motors available to the locomotive, in addition the load on each traction motor is reduced, which helps prevent overheating from excess current. Slugs typically carry ballast to increase their weight and improve traction, large blocks of concrete are frequently used for this purpose, substituting for the weight of the now-absent prime mover. Slugs can be new or converted from existing locomotives. Conversion has enjoyed popularity as a way to reuse otherwise obsolete locomotives, especially those with worn-out diesels, there are several types of slug, distinguished by intended use. Note that as with diesel locomotives in general, this division is not absolute, a yard slug is designed for switching, and therefore is built to increase visibility in low speed operation. It has a low body and no cab, allowing the engineer or driver in the unit to see past it. Mother-slug sets are used in switching, hump yard switching. Some are radio controlled without an operating engineer present in the cab, a hump slug is designed for even slower operation than a yard slug. They are often 6 axle slugs and are paired with lower powered six axle locomotives. They are designed for the purpose of pushing a long cut of cars over a hump at 2 to 3 miles per hour. Road slugs are intended to serve as part of a locomotive consist for road haulage. They usually retain dynamic brakes, a feature useless at the low speeds encountered in switching service, in operation, they are used to provide extra traction at low speeds. As speed increases they are disconnected from the circuit and function as a control cab if they are in the lead
22.
Cow-calf
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In North American railroading, a cow-calf locomotive is a set of switcher-type diesel locomotives. The set usually is a pair, some 3-unit sets were built, a cow is equipped with a driving cab, a calf is not. The two are coupled together and are connected with MU cables and brake lines so that both units can be operated from a single cab. Cows are analogous to A units and calves to B unit road locomotives, like the early EMD FT locomotives, the Cow-calf sets were typically built as mated pairs, with the Cow and calf sharing a number. However this was not always the case, with time many of the sets being broken up. Most cow-calf sets were built between the 1930s and the 1950s and they were built by several different makers, although General Motors Electro-Motive Division built far more than the others. As originally constructed, the units were typically used in hump yards where they spent much of their life pushing long trains over the hump for classification. There were, however, a few cases where this was not so. However, as with the three unit Cow-calf sets, such was very rare. The cow-calf concept was adopted on Queensland 2 ft gauge sugar cane railways with two locomotives being coupled permanently in multiple-unit mode with the cab of one removed and this was utilised by Isis Mill and by Mackay Sugar. The concept was used in the United Kingdom by British Rail to produce the unique Class 13 locomotives. EMD TR EMD TR1 EMD TR2 EMD TR3 EMD TR4 EMD TR5 EMD TR6 ALCO SSB-9 Baldwin S-8 British Rail Class 13 Russian TGEM10 Slug Twin unit
23.
Swiss Federal Railways
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Swiss Federal Railways is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usually referred to by the initials of its German, French and Italian names, either concatenated as SBB CFF FFS, the Romansh version of its name, Viafiers federalas svizras, is not officially used. The company is headquartered in Bern and 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 or the Swiss cantons. Swiss Federal Railways is divided into three divisions and two groups, Passenger traffic Freight traffic Infrastructure Real estate Core services The 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 rates per train and track-kilometre are defined. Subsidiary SBB GmbH is responsible for traffic in Germany. It operates the Wiesentalbahn and the Seehas services, further subsidiaries are Thurbo, RegionAlps, AlpTransit Gotthard AG, 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 rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern, document and photographic archives. The metre gauge Brünigbahn was SBBs only non-standard gauge line, until it was out-sourced and merged with the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn to form the Zentralbahn, SBB is often known as the worlds most on time type of transportation In the 19th century, all Swiss railways were owned by private ventures. The economic and political interests of companies led to lines being built in parallel. On 20 February 1898 the Swiss people agreed in a referendum to the creation of a railway company. In the meantime, the trains were run by the Swiss Confederation on behalf of the private companies, on 1 January 1999 the Swiss Federal Railway has been excluded from the Federal Administration and became a fully state-owned limited company regulated by public law. First class compartments were discontinued on 3 June 1956, and second and third class accommodation was reclassified as first and second class, in 1982 SBB introduced the Taktfahrplan, with trains for certain destinations leaving every 60 minutes, greatly simplifying the timetable. On December 12,2004 the first phase of Bahn2000, a programme to improve the companys services, was put into effect. The core element was the Zurich-Bern-Basel triangle, where travel times between the cities was reduced to one hour, resulting in good connections from these stations for most trains. Some connections between cities got two trains in each direction per hour or more, and the S-Bahn services were intensified to four or more trains per hour, because of these changes 90% of the timetable was changed, 12% more trains were scheduled and travel times generally improved. It was the greatest timetable change since the introduction of the Taktfahrplan, on 22 June 2005 a short circuit on a long distance power transmission line in central Switzerland led to a chain reaction
24.
Electrification
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Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history and this included the change over from line shaft and belt drive using steam engines and water power to electric motors. The electrification of particular sectors of the economy is called by such as factory electrification, household electrification. Electrification was called the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th Century by the National Academy of Engineering, the earliest commercial uses of electricity were electroplating and the telegraph. In the years of 1831–1832, Michael Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic generators. He also built the first electromagnetic generator, called the Faraday disk and it produced a small DC voltage. Around 1832, Hippolyte Pixii improved the magneto by using a wire wound horseshoe, with the coils of conductor generating more current. André-Marie Ampère suggested a means of converting current from Pixiis magneto to DC using a rocking switch, later segmented commutators were used to produce direct current. William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone developed a telegraph around 1838-40, in 1840 Wheatstone was using a magneto that he developed to power the telegraph. Wheatstone and Cooke made an important improvement in electrical generation by using an electromagnet in place of a permanent magnet. The self-excited magnetic field dynamo did away with the battery to power electromagnets and this type of dynamo was made by several people in 1866. The first practical generator, the Gramme machine was made by Z. T Gramme, crompton improved the generator to allow better air cooling and made other mechanical improvements. Compound winding, which gave more stable voltage with load, improved operating characteristics of generators, the improvements in electrical generation technology increased the efficiency and reliability greatly in the 19th century. The first magnetos only converted a few percent of energy to electricity. By the end of the 19th century the highest efficiencies were over 90%, Sir Humphry Davy invented the carbon arc lamp in 1802 upon discovering that electricity could produce a light arc with carbon electrodes. However, it was not used to any extent until a practical means of generating electricity was developed. Carbon arc lamps were started by making contact between two electrodes, which were then separated to within a narrow gap. Because the carbon burned away, the gap had to be constantly readjusted, several mechanisms were developed to regulate the arc
