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running through Stanhope, County Durham train station in North East England, UK. in Portland, Oregon.

Rail transport is the transport of passengers and Product (business) by means of wheeled vehicles specially designed to run along railways or railroads. Rail transport is part of the logistics chain, which facilitates the international trading and economic growth in most countries.

A typical railway/railroad Rail tracks consists of two parallel Rail profile, normally made of steel, secured to cross-beam (structure)s, termed railroad tie (U.K.) or 'ties' (U.S.). The sleepers maintain a constant distance between the two rails; a measurement known as the 'Rail gauge' of the track. To maintain the alignment of the track it is either laid on a bed of track ballast or else secured to a solid concrete foundation. The whole is referred to as permanent way (UK usage) or right-of-way (transportation) (North American usage).

Railway rolling stock, which is fitted with metal wheels, moves with low frictional resistance when compared to road vehicles. On the other hand, locomotives and powered cars normally rely solely for traction on the point of contact of the wheel with the rail, whence they obtain adhesion (that is, the part of the transmitted axle load that makes the wheel "adhere" to the smooth rail). Whilst this is usually sufficient under normal dry rail conditions, adhesion can be reduced or even lost through the presence of unwanted material on the rail surface, such as moisture, grease, ice or dead leaves.

General .

Rail transport is an energy efficiency and capital intensive means of mechanized land transport and is a component of logistics. Rails, which along with various engineered components, are part of the permanent way. They provide very smooth and hard surfaces on which the wheels of the train may roll with a minimum of friction. As an example, a typical modern wagon can hold up to 125 tons of freight on two four-wheel bogie (100 tons in UK). The contact area between each wheel and the rail is tiny, a strip no more than a few millimetres wide, and hence suffers very little friction. Furthermore, the track distributes the weight of the train evenly, allowing significantly greater loads per axle / wheel than in road transport, leading to less wear and tear on the permanent way. This can save energy compared with other forms of transportation, such as road transport which depends on the friction between rubber tires and the road. Trains also have a small frontal area in relation to the load they are carrying, which cuts down on forward air resistance and thus energy usage, although does not necessarily account for the effect of side winds. In all, under the right circumstances, a train needs 50-70% less energy to transport a given tonnage of freight (or given number of passengers), than does road transport.

Due to these various benefits, rail transport is a major form of public transport in many countries. In Asia, for example, many millions use trains as regular transport in India, China, South Korea and Japan. It is also widespread in European countries. By comparison, intercity rail transport in the United States is relatively scarce outside the Northeast Corridor, although a number of major U.S. cities have heavily-used, local rail-based passenger transport systems or light rail or commuter rail operations.

The vehicles traveling on the rails are arranged in a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together, called a train; this can include the locomotive where present. A locomotive (or 'engine') is a powered vehicle used to haul a train of unpowered vehicles; calling a locomotive a "train" is a common popular misnomer. A string of unpowered vehicles without the locomotive is also termed a train; in the U.S.A. individual unpowered vehicles are known as Railroad car (a generic term), and are divided according to the role: for a passenger-carrying vehicle the term coach (rail) (or coach) is used, whilst a freight-carrying vehicle is known as a freight car; in Britain, a freight car would be called a wagon (or a truck). An individual powered passenger vehicle is known as a railcar or a power car; when one or more as these are coupled to one or more unpowered trailer cars as an inseparable unit, this is called a railcar set; several sets coupled together make up a multiple unit. Collectively, rail vehicles of all types are known as rolling stock.

.

History See also Timeline of railway history

The earliest evidence of a railway found thus far was the Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Corinth isthmus in Greece during the 6th century BC. Trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos ran for over 1300 years, until 900 AD. The first horse-drawn wagonways also appeared in ancient Greece, with others to be found on Malta and various parts of the Roman Empire, using cut-stone tracks.

Railways began re-appearing in Europe after a hiatus following the collapse of the Roman Empire from around 1550, usually operating with wooden track. The first railways in Great Britain (also known as wagonways) were constructed in the early 17th century, mainly for transporting coal from mines to canal wharfs where it could be transferred to a boat for onward shipment. The earliest recorded examples of this are the Wollaton Wagonway in Nottinghamshire and the Bourtreehill - Broomlands Wagonway in Irvine, Ayrshire. Other examples can be found in Broseley in Shropshire, where wooden rails and flanged wheels were utilised, as on a modern railway. However, the rails were liable to wear out under the pressure, and had to be replaced. In 1768, the Coalbrookdale Iron Works laid cast iron plates on top of the wooden rails, providing a more durable load-bearing surface. From the late 18th century, iron rails began to appear, with the British civil engineer William Jessop designing smooth iron wagonway, which were to be used in conjunction with flanged iron wheels. Jessop used this innovation on a route between Loughborough and Nanpantan, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London, arguably the world's first horse-drawn public railway.

The first steam locomotive to haul a train of wagons on rails was designed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, and was trialled in 1804 on a plateway at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. Chartres, Professor J.: 'Richard Trevithick' in: Cannon, John (Ed.): Oxford Companion to British History, p. 932 Although the locomotive successfully hauled the train, the rail design was not a success, partly because its weight broke a number of the brittle cast-iron plates. Despite this setback, another area of South Wales pioneered rail operations, when, in 1806, a horse-drawn railway was built between Swansea and Mumbles: the Swansea-Mumbles railway started carrying fare-paying passengers in 1807 – the first in the world to do so.



In 1811, John Blenkinsop designed the first successful and practical railway locomotive. He patented a system of moving coals by a rack railway worked by a steam locomotive (patent no. 3431), and a line was built connecting the Middleton Colliery to Leeds. The locomotive (The Salamanca) was built by Matthew Murray of Fenton, Murray and Wood. The Middleton Railway was the first railway to successfully use steam locomotives on a commercial basis. It was also the first railway in Great Britain to be built under the terms laid out in an Act of Parliament. Blenkinsop's engine had double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick pattern, no flywheel. Due to previous experience of broken rails, the locomotive was made very light and this brought concerns about insufficient adhesion, so instead of driving the wheels directly, the cylinders drove a cogwheel through spur gears, the cogwheel providing traction by engaging with a rack cast into the side of the rail.

The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway was built in 1811 and was officially opened one year later in 1812. The line began life as a 9.5 mile (16 km), double track 4 ft 0 in (1,219 mm) gauge, horse-drawn waggonway. It was built using cast iron plate rails with an inner flange. A George Stephenson built locomotive, his second one from Killingworth colliery, was tried on the main line in 1817, but the weight of the engine broke the cast iron plate rails. It worked better when wooden rails were used; and the locomotive remained in use until 1848.

, an early railway locomotive built in 1814 by George Stephenson.The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in northern England in 1825 to be followed five years later by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, considered to be the world's first "Inter City" line. The rail gauge (the distance between the two rails of the track) was used for the early wagonways, and had been adopted for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The width became known as the international "standard gauge", used by about sixty per cent of the world's railways. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, on the other hand, proved the viability of rail transport when, after organising the Rainhill Trials of 1829, Stephenson's Rocket successfully hauled a load of 13 tons at an average speed of 12 miles per hour. The company took the step of working its trains from its opening entirely by steam traction. Railways then soon spread throughout the United Kingdom and the world, and became the dominant means of land transport for nearly a century, until the invention of aircraft and automobiles, which prompted a gradual decline in railways.

The first railroad in the United States may have been a gravity railroad in Lewiston, New York in 1764. The 1810 Leiper Railroad in Pennsylvania was intended as the first permanent railroad, and the 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts was the first commercial railroad to evolve through continuous operations into a common carrier. The Baltimore and Ohio, opened in 1830, was the first to evolve into a major system. In 1867, the first elevated railroad was built in New York. In 1869, the symbolically important First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in the United States with the driving of a golden spike at Promontory, Utah. The development of the railroad in the United States helped reduce transportation time and cost, which allowed migration towards the west. Railroads increased the accessibility of goods to consumers, thus allowing individuals and capital to flow westward.

Electrification successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888. The intersection shown is at 8th & Broad Streets.

Robert Davidson started to experiment with an electrical railway car in Scotland in 1838. By 1839 he had completed and presented a 16 feet long carriage which weighed a total of six tons, including batteries. It reached a maximum speed of four miles per hour.

Magnus Volk opened his electric railway in Brighton in 1883.

The use of Overhead line equipment conducting electricity, invented by Granville Woods in 1888, amongst several other improvements, led to the development of electrified railways, the first of which in the United States was operated at Coney Island from 1892. Richmond, Virginia had the first successful electrically-powered tram system in the United States. Designed by electric power pioneer Frank J. Sprague, the trolley system opened its first line in January, 1888. Richmond's hills, long a transportation obstacle, were considered an ideal proving ground. The new technology soon replaced horse-powered streetcars.

Diesel and electric trains and locomotives replaced steam in many countries in the decades after World War II. diesel locomotives of the Union Pacific refuelling at Dunsmuir, California. In the USSR the phenomenon of children's railways was developed since the 1930s (the world's first one was opened on July 24, 1935). Fully operated by children, they were extracurricular educational institutions, where teenagers learnt railway professions. A lot of them are functioning in post-Soviet states and Eastern European countries.

Many countries since the 1960s have adopted high-speed railways. On April 3 2007, the France TGV set a new Land speed record for railed vehicles. The train, with a modified engine and wheels, reached 574.8 kilometre per hour (357.2 miles per hour). The record attempt took place on the new LGV Est line between Paris and Strasbourg using a specially equipped TGV Duplex train. The overhead lines had also been modified for the attempt to carry 31,000 volt rather than the line's normal 25,000 V. On 24 August 2005, the Qingzang railway became the highest railway line in the world, when track was laid through the Tanggula Mountain Pass at above sea level in the Tanggula Mountains, Tibet.

Operations A railway can be broken down into two major components. Firstly, there are the items which "move", also referred to as the rolling stock, which include locomotives, passenger carrying vehicles (coaches), freight carrying vehicles (freight car). Secondly are the "fixed" components, usually referred to as the railway's infrastructure, including the permanent way and ancillary buildings that are necessary for a railway to function.

Signalling semaphore-type signal.Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from collision. Being guided by fixed rail tracks, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop within sighting distance of the driver.

Most forms of train control involve movement authority being passed from those responsible for each section of a rail network (e.g., a signalman (rail) or stationmaster) to the train crew. The set of rules and the physical equipment used to accomplish this determine what is known as the method of working (UK), method of operation (US) or safeworking (Aus.). Not all these methods require the use of physical signals and some systems are specific to single track (rail) railways. The signalling process is traditionally carried out in a signal box or interlocking tower, a small building constructed to house the lever frames required for the signalman to operate switches and signal equipment. These were placed at various strategic intervals along the route of a railway, controlling their own sections of track. More recent technological developments have initiated the redundancy of such operational doctrine, with the centralization of signalling operations to regional control rooms. This has been facilitated by the increased use of computers, allowing vast sections of track to be monitored from a single location.

Right of way Railway tracks are laid upon land owned or leased by the railway. Owing to the requirements for large radius turns and modest grades, rails will often be laid in circuitous routes. Public carrier railways are typically granted limited rights of eminent domain (UK:compulsory purchase). In many cases in the 19th century railways were given additional incentives in the form of grants of public land. Route length and grade requirements can be reduced by the use of alternating earthen cut and fill, bridges, and tunnels, all of which can greatly increase the capital expenditures required to develop a right of way, while significantly reducing operating costs and allowing higher speeds on longer radius curves. In densely urbanized areas such as Manhattan, railways are sometimes laid out in tunnels to minimize the effects on existing properties (see condemnation).

Safety and railway disasters Trains can travel at very high speed; however, they are heavy, are unable to deviate from the track and require a great distance to stop. Although rail transport is considered one of the safest forms of travel, there are many possibilities for accidents to take place. These can vary from the minor derailment (jumping the track), a head-on collision with another train coming the opposite way and collision with an automobile at a level crossing. Level crossing collisions are relatively common in the United States where there are several thousand each year killing about 500 people - although the comparable figures in the United Kingdom are 30 and 12 (collisions and casualties, respectively). For information regarding major accidents, see List of rail accidents. The most important safety measures are railway signalling and gates at level/grade crossings. Train whistles warn of the presence of a train, whilst trackside signals maintain the distances between trains. In the United Kingdom, vandalism or negligence is thought responsible for about half of rail accidents. Railway lines are zoned or divided into blocks guarded by combinations of block signals, operating rules, and automatic-control devices so that one train, at most, may be in a block at any time. Compared with road travel, railways remain relatively safe. Annual death rates on roads are over 40,000 in the United States and about 3,000 in the United Kingdom, compared with 1,000 rail-related fatalities in the United States and under 20 in the UK. (These figures do not account for differences in passenger-miles traveled by mode; see e.g. Transportation safety in the United States.)

Trackage

A typical railway/railroad Rail tracks consists of two parallel steel (or in older networks, iron) Rail tracks#Railway rail, generally anchored perpendicular to beam (structure)s, termed railroad tie, of timber, concrete, or steel to maintain a consistent distance apart, or Rail gauge. The rails and perpendicular beams are usually then placed on a foundation made of concrete or compressed soil and gravel in a bed of track ballast to prevent the track from buckling (bending out of its original configuration) as the ground settles over time beneath and under the weight of the vehicles passing above. The vehicles travelling on the rails are arranged in a train; a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together, displaying markers. These vehicles (referred to, in general, as Railroad car) move with much less friction than do vehicles riding on rubber tires on a paved road, and the locomotive that pulls the train tends to use energy far more efficiently as a result.

Trackage, consisting of Railroad tie/ties and rails, may be prefabricated or assembled in place. Rails may be composed of segments welded or bolted, and may be of a length comparable to that of a railcar or two or may be many hundreds of feet long.

The surface of the ballast is sloped around curves to reduce side forces. This reduces the forces tending to displace the track, reduces the tendency to overturn at high speed, and makes for a more comfortable ride for standing cattle and standing or seated passengers in trains. This will be optimal at only one particular speed, however.

Track components Railways are highly complex feats of engineering, with many hours of planning and forethought required for a successful outcome. The first component of a railway is the route, which is planned to provide the least resistance in terms of gradient and engineering works. As such, the trackbed is heavily engineered to provide, where possible, a level surface. As such, Embankment (transportation)s are constructed to support the track, in order to provide a compromise in terms of the route's average elevation. With this in mind, sundry structures such as bridges and viaducts are constructed in an attempt to maintain the railway's elevation, and gradients are kept within manageable constraints. Where such items are not always justified, such as in hilly terrain, where routes may require long detours to avoid such features, a cutting (disambiguation) or tunnel is dug or bored through the obstacle. Once the sundry engineering works are completed, a bed of stone (Track ballast) is laid over the compacted trackbed to ensure drainage around the ties and even distribution of pressure over a wider area, locking the track-work in place. This crushed stone is firmly tamped to prevent further settling and to lock the stones. Minor watercourses are led through pipes (culverts) before the grade is raised

The base of the trackage consists of treated wood or concrete "Railroad tie", also known as "sleepers". These ensure the proper distance between the rails (known as "gauge") and anchor the rail structure to the roadbed through the use of Fishplate. These are attached to the top of the ties in order to provide a secure housing for the rails. After placement of the rail atop the plate, Rail spike are driven through holes in the plate and into the tie where they are held by friction. The top of the spike has a head that clamps the rail. Alternatively, Screw may be used to retain the clamps; this is preferred since screws do not tend to loosen. The spaces between and surrounding the ties are filled with additional Track ballast to stabilize the rail assembly against movement.

Points (Turnouts or Switches) Points (UK) or switches (US), technically known as turnouts, are the means of directing a train onto a diverging section of track, for example, a siding, a branch line, or a parallel running line. Laid similar to normal track, a point typically consists of a Railroad switch#Frog (common crossing) (common crossing), check rails and two switch rails. The switch rails may be moved left or right, under the control of the signalling system, to determine which path the train will follow.

Maintenance Spikes in wooden ties can loosen over time, whilst split and rotten ties may be individually replaced with a concrete substitute. Should the rails settle owing to soil subsidence they may be lifted by specialized machinery and additional ballast tamped down to form a level elevation. Periodically, ballast must be removed and replaced with clean ballast to ensure adequate drainage, especially if wooden ties are used. Culverts and other passages for water must be kept clear lest water is impounded by the trackbed, causing landslips. Where trackbeds are placed along rivers, additional protection is usually placed to prevent erosion during times of high water, whilst Bridges are another important item requiring inspection and maintenance.

See also: Rail tracks#Track maintenance and Maintenance of way

Terminology .

In the United Kingdom and most other Commonwealth of Nations countries, the term railway is used in preference to the United States term, railroad. In Canadian speech, railway and railroad are interchangeable, although in law railway is the usual term. Railroad was used in the United Kingdom concurrently with railway until the 1850s when railway became the established term. Several American companies have railway in their names instead of railroad, the BNSF Railway being the pre-eminent modern example.

In the United Kingdom, the term railway often refers to the whole organization of tracks, trains, Train station, Railway signalling, timetables and the operating companies that collectively make up a coordinated railway system, while Permanent Way or p/way refers to the tracks alone; however this terminology is generally not commonplace outside of the railway industry or those who take a keen interest in it.

Subway (rail), metros, elevated railway, tram, and London Underground are all specialized railways.

Rail transport by country Of 236 countries and dependencies, 143 have rail transport (including several with very little), of which about 90 have passenger services.

Gallery Image:Railroad-Gyula.jpg|Rail connections.Image:Oikorata Kerava - Lahti Mäntsälässä 2005.jpg|Preparations for an electrified railway.Image:08 tory railtrack ubt.jpeg|Concrete ties (sleepers).Image:Geschweisster schienenstoss.jpeg|Rails joined by thermite welding.Image:Schienenauszugsvorrichtung 100 0845.JPG].Image:Eastbound over SCB.jpg|Spectacular bridge in Southern British Columbia.

See also

Footnotes References

Further reading , Styria (state), Austria, near the Slovenian border.





running through Stanhope, County Durham train station in North East England, UK. in Portland, Oregon.

Rail transport is the transport of passengers and Product (business) by means of wheeled vehicles specially designed to run along railways or railroads. Rail transport is part of the logistics chain, which facilitates the international trading and economic growth in most countries.

A typical railway/railroad Rail tracks consists of two parallel Rail profile, normally made of steel, secured to cross-beam (structure)s, termed railroad tie (U.K.) or 'ties' (U.S.). The sleepers maintain a constant distance between the two rails; a measurement known as the 'Rail gauge' of the track. To maintain the alignment of the track it is either laid on a bed of track ballast or else secured to a solid concrete foundation. The whole is referred to as permanent way (UK usage) or right-of-way (transportation) (North American usage).

Railway rolling stock, which is fitted with metal wheels, moves with low frictional resistance when compared to road vehicles. On the other hand, locomotives and powered cars normally rely solely for traction on the point of contact of the wheel with the rail, whence they obtain adhesion (that is, the part of the transmitted axle load that makes the wheel "adhere" to the smooth rail). Whilst this is usually sufficient under normal dry rail conditions, adhesion can be reduced or even lost through the presence of unwanted material on the rail surface, such as moisture, grease, ice or dead leaves.

General .

Rail transport is an energy efficiency and capital intensive means of mechanized land transport and is a component of logistics. Rails, which along with various engineered components, are part of the permanent way. They provide very smooth and hard surfaces on which the wheels of the train may roll with a minimum of friction. As an example, a typical modern wagon can hold up to 125 tons of freight on two four-wheel bogie (100 tons in UK). The contact area between each wheel and the rail is tiny, a strip no more than a few millimetres wide, and hence suffers very little friction. Furthermore, the track distributes the weight of the train evenly, allowing significantly greater loads per axle / wheel than in road transport, leading to less wear and tear on the permanent way. This can save energy compared with other forms of transportation, such as road transport which depends on the friction between rubber tires and the road. Trains also have a small frontal area in relation to the load they are carrying, which cuts down on forward air resistance and thus energy usage, although does not necessarily account for the effect of side winds. In all, under the right circumstances, a train needs 50-70% less energy to transport a given tonnage of freight (or given number of passengers), than does road transport.

Due to these various benefits, rail transport is a major form of public transport in many countries. In Asia, for example, many millions use trains as regular transport in India, China, South Korea and Japan. It is also widespread in European countries. By comparison, intercity rail transport in the United States is relatively scarce outside the Northeast Corridor, although a number of major U.S. cities have heavily-used, local rail-based passenger transport systems or light rail or commuter rail operations.

The vehicles traveling on the rails are arranged in a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together, called a train; this can include the locomotive where present. A locomotive (or 'engine') is a powered vehicle used to haul a train of unpowered vehicles; calling a locomotive a "train" is a common popular misnomer. A string of unpowered vehicles without the locomotive is also termed a train; in the U.S.A. individual unpowered vehicles are known as Railroad car (a generic term), and are divided according to the role: for a passenger-carrying vehicle the term coach (rail) (or coach) is used, whilst a freight-carrying vehicle is known as a freight car; in Britain, a freight car would be called a wagon (or a truck). An individual powered passenger vehicle is known as a railcar or a power car; when one or more as these are coupled to one or more unpowered trailer cars as an inseparable unit, this is called a railcar set; several sets coupled together make up a multiple unit. Collectively, rail vehicles of all types are known as rolling stock.

.

History See also Timeline of railway history

The earliest evidence of a railway found thus far was the Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Corinth isthmus in Greece during the 6th century BC. Trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos ran for over 1300 years, until 900 AD. The first horse-drawn wagonways also appeared in ancient Greece, with others to be found on Malta and various parts of the Roman Empire, using cut-stone tracks.

Railways began re-appearing in Europe after a hiatus following the collapse of the Roman Empire from around 1550, usually operating with wooden track. The first railways in Great Britain (also known as wagonways) were constructed in the early 17th century, mainly for transporting coal from mines to canal wharfs where it could be transferred to a boat for onward shipment. The earliest recorded examples of this are the Wollaton Wagonway in Nottinghamshire and the Bourtreehill - Broomlands Wagonway in Irvine, Ayrshire. Other examples can be found in Broseley in Shropshire, where wooden rails and flanged wheels were utilised, as on a modern railway. However, the rails were liable to wear out under the pressure, and had to be replaced. In 1768, the Coalbrookdale Iron Works laid cast iron plates on top of the wooden rails, providing a more durable load-bearing surface. From the late 18th century, iron rails began to appear, with the British civil engineer William Jessop designing smooth iron wagonway, which were to be used in conjunction with flanged iron wheels. Jessop used this innovation on a route between Loughborough and Nanpantan, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London, arguably the world's first horse-drawn public railway.

The first steam locomotive to haul a train of wagons on rails was designed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, and was trialled in 1804 on a plateway at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. Chartres, Professor J.: 'Richard Trevithick' in: Cannon, John (Ed.): Oxford Companion to British History, p. 932 Although the locomotive successfully hauled the train, the rail design was not a success, partly because its weight broke a number of the brittle cast-iron plates. Despite this setback, another area of South Wales pioneered rail operations, when, in 1806, a horse-drawn railway was built between Swansea and Mumbles: the Swansea-Mumbles railway started carrying fare-paying passengers in 1807 – the first in the world to do so.



In 1811, John Blenkinsop designed the first successful and practical railway locomotive. He patented a system of moving coals by a rack railway worked by a steam locomotive (patent no. 3431), and a line was built connecting the Middleton Colliery to Leeds. The locomotive (The Salamanca) was built by Matthew Murray of Fenton, Murray and Wood. The Middleton Railway was the first railway to successfully use steam locomotives on a commercial basis. It was also the first railway in Great Britain to be built under the terms laid out in an Act of Parliament. Blenkinsop's engine had double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick pattern, no flywheel. Due to previous experience of broken rails, the locomotive was made very light and this brought concerns about insufficient adhesion, so instead of driving the wheels directly, the cylinders drove a cogwheel through spur gears, the cogwheel providing traction by engaging with a rack cast into the side of the rail.

The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway was built in 1811 and was officially opened one year later in 1812. The line began life as a 9.5 mile (16 km), double track 4 ft 0 in (1,219 mm) gauge, horse-drawn waggonway. It was built using cast iron plate rails with an inner flange. A George Stephenson built locomotive, his second one from Killingworth colliery, was tried on the main line in 1817, but the weight of the engine broke the cast iron plate rails. It worked better when wooden rails were used; and the locomotive remained in use until 1848.

, an early railway locomotive built in 1814 by George Stephenson.The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in northern England in 1825 to be followed five years later by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, considered to be the world's first "Inter City" line. The rail gauge (the distance between the two rails of the track) was used for the early wagonways, and had been adopted for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The width became known as the international "standard gauge", used by about sixty per cent of the world's railways. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, on the other hand, proved the viability of rail transport when, after organising the Rainhill Trials of 1829, Stephenson's Rocket successfully hauled a load of 13 tons at an average speed of 12 miles per hour. The company took the step of working its trains from its opening entirely by steam traction. Railways then soon spread throughout the United Kingdom and the world, and became the dominant means of land transport for nearly a century, until the invention of aircraft and automobiles, which prompted a gradual decline in railways.

The first railroad in the United States may have been a gravity railroad in Lewiston, New York in 1764. The 1810 Leiper Railroad in Pennsylvania was intended as the first permanent railroad, and the 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts was the first commercial railroad to evolve through continuous operations into a common carrier. The Baltimore and Ohio, opened in 1830, was the first to evolve into a major system. In 1867, the first elevated railroad was built in New York. In 1869, the symbolically important First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in the United States with the driving of a golden spike at Promontory, Utah. The development of the railroad in the United States helped reduce transportation time and cost, which allowed migration towards the west. Railroads increased the accessibility of goods to consumers, thus allowing individuals and capital to flow westward.

Electrification successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888. The intersection shown is at 8th & Broad Streets.

Robert Davidson started to experiment with an electrical railway car in Scotland in 1838. By 1839 he had completed and presented a 16 feet long carriage which weighed a total of six tons, including batteries. It reached a maximum speed of four miles per hour.

Magnus Volk opened his electric railway in Brighton in 1883.

The use of Overhead line equipment conducting electricity, invented by Granville Woods in 1888, amongst several other improvements, led to the development of electrified railways, the first of which in the United States was operated at Coney Island from 1892. Richmond, Virginia had the first successful electrically-powered tram system in the United States. Designed by electric power pioneer Frank J. Sprague, the trolley system opened its first line in January, 1888. Richmond's hills, long a transportation obstacle, were considered an ideal proving ground. The new technology soon replaced horse-powered streetcars.

Diesel and electric trains and locomotives replaced steam in many countries in the decades after World War II. diesel locomotives of the Union Pacific refuelling at Dunsmuir, California. In the USSR the phenomenon of children's railways was developed since the 1930s (the world's first one was opened on July 24, 1935). Fully operated by children, they were extracurricular educational institutions, where teenagers learnt railway professions. A lot of them are functioning in post-Soviet states and Eastern European countries.

Many countries since the 1960s have adopted high-speed railways. On April 3 2007, the France TGV set a new Land speed record for railed vehicles. The train, with a modified engine and wheels, reached 574.8 kilometre per hour (357.2 miles per hour). The record attempt took place on the new LGV Est line between Paris and Strasbourg using a specially equipped TGV Duplex train. The overhead lines had also been modified for the attempt to carry 31,000 volt rather than the line's normal 25,000 V. On 24 August 2005, the Qingzang railway became the highest railway line in the world, when track was laid through the Tanggula Mountain Pass at above sea level in the Tanggula Mountains, Tibet.

Operations A railway can be broken down into two major components. Firstly, there are the items which "move", also referred to as the rolling stock, which include locomotives, passenger carrying vehicles (coaches), freight carrying vehicles (freight car). Secondly are the "fixed" components, usually referred to as the railway's infrastructure, including the permanent way and ancillary buildings that are necessary for a railway to function.

Signalling semaphore-type signal.Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from collision. Being guided by fixed rail tracks, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop within sighting distance of the driver.

Most forms of train control involve movement authority being passed from those responsible for each section of a rail network (e.g., a signalman (rail) or stationmaster) to the train crew. The set of rules and the physical equipment used to accomplish this determine what is known as the method of working (UK), method of operation (US) or safeworking (Aus.). Not all these methods require the use of physical signals and some systems are specific to single track (rail) railways. The signalling process is traditionally carried out in a signal box or interlocking tower, a small building constructed to house the lever frames required for the signalman to operate switches and signal equipment. These were placed at various strategic intervals along the route of a railway, controlling their own sections of track. More recent technological developments have initiated the redundancy of such operational doctrine, with the centralization of signalling operations to regional control rooms. This has been facilitated by the increased use of computers, allowing vast sections of track to be monitored from a single location.

Right of way Railway tracks are laid upon land owned or leased by the railway. Owing to the requirements for large radius turns and modest grades, rails will often be laid in circuitous routes. Public carrier railways are typically granted limited rights of eminent domain (UK:compulsory purchase). In many cases in the 19th century railways were given additional incentives in the form of grants of public land. Route length and grade requirements can be reduced by the use of alternating earthen cut and fill, bridges, and tunnels, all of which can greatly increase the capital expenditures required to develop a right of way, while significantly reducing operating costs and allowing higher speeds on longer radius curves. In densely urbanized areas such as Manhattan, railways are sometimes laid out in tunnels to minimize the effects on existing properties (see condemnation).

Safety and railway disasters Trains can travel at very high speed; however, they are heavy, are unable to deviate from the track and require a great distance to stop. Although rail transport is considered one of the safest forms of travel, there are many possibilities for accidents to take place. These can vary from the minor derailment (jumping the track), a head-on collision with another train coming the opposite way and collision with an automobile at a level crossing. Level crossing collisions are relatively common in the United States where there are several thousand each year killing about 500 people - although the comparable figures in the United Kingdom are 30 and 12 (collisions and casualties, respectively). For information regarding major accidents, see List of rail accidents. The most important safety measures are railway signalling and gates at level/grade crossings. Train whistles warn of the presence of a train, whilst trackside signals maintain the distances between trains. In the United Kingdom, vandalism or negligence is thought responsible for about half of rail accidents. Railway lines are zoned or divided into blocks guarded by combinations of block signals, operating rules, and automatic-control devices so that one train, at most, may be in a block at any time. Compared with road travel, railways remain relatively safe. Annual death rates on roads are over 40,000 in the United States and about 3,000 in the United Kingdom, compared with 1,000 rail-related fatalities in the United States and under 20 in the UK. (These figures do not account for differences in passenger-miles traveled by mode; see e.g. Transportation safety in the United States.)

Trackage

A typical railway/railroad Rail tracks consists of two parallel steel (or in older networks, iron) Rail tracks#Railway rail, generally anchored perpendicular to beam (structure)s, termed railroad tie, of timber, concrete, or steel to maintain a consistent distance apart, or Rail gauge. The rails and perpendicular beams are usually then placed on a foundation made of concrete or compressed soil and gravel in a bed of track ballast to prevent the track from buckling (bending out of its original configuration) as the ground settles over time beneath and under the weight of the vehicles passing above. The vehicles travelling on the rails are arranged in a train; a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together, displaying markers. These vehicles (referred to, in general, as Railroad car) move with much less friction than do vehicles riding on rubber tires on a paved road, and the locomotive that pulls the train tends to use energy far more efficiently as a result.

Trackage, consisting of Railroad tie/ties and rails, may be prefabricated or assembled in place. Rails may be composed of segments welded or bolted, and may be of a length comparable to that of a railcar or two or may be many hundreds of feet long.

The surface of the ballast is sloped around curves to reduce side forces. This reduces the forces tending to displace the track, reduces the tendency to overturn at high speed, and makes for a more comfortable ride for standing cattle and standing or seated passengers in trains. This will be optimal at only one particular speed, however.

Track components Railways are highly complex feats of engineering, with many hours of planning and forethought required for a successful outcome. The first component of a railway is the route, which is planned to provide the least resistance in terms of gradient and engineering works. As such, the trackbed is heavily engineered to provide, where possible, a level surface. As such, Embankment (transportation)s are constructed to support the track, in order to provide a compromise in terms of the route's average elevation. With this in mind, sundry structures such as bridges and viaducts are constructed in an attempt to maintain the railway's elevation, and gradients are kept within manageable constraints. Where such items are not always justified, such as in hilly terrain, where routes may require long detours to avoid such features, a cutting (disambiguation) or tunnel is dug or bored through the obstacle. Once the sundry engineering works are completed, a bed of stone (Track ballast) is laid over the compacted trackbed to ensure drainage around the ties and even distribution of pressure over a wider area, locking the track-work in place. This crushed stone is firmly tamped to prevent further settling and to lock the stones. Minor watercourses are led through pipes (culverts) before the grade is raised

The base of the trackage consists of treated wood or concrete "Railroad tie", also known as "sleepers". These ensure the proper distance between the rails (known as "gauge") and anchor the rail structure to the roadbed through the use of Fishplate. These are attached to the top of the ties in order to provide a secure housing for the rails. After placement of the rail atop the plate, Rail spike are driven through holes in the plate and into the tie where they are held by friction. The top of the spike has a head that clamps the rail. Alternatively, Screw may be used to retain the clamps; this is preferred since screws do not tend to loosen. The spaces between and surrounding the ties are filled with additional Track ballast to stabilize the rail assembly against movement.

Points (Turnouts or Switches) Points (UK) or switches (US), technically known as turnouts, are the means of directing a train onto a diverging section of track, for example, a siding, a branch line, or a parallel running line. Laid similar to normal track, a point typically consists of a Railroad switch#Frog (common crossing) (common crossing), check rails and two switch rails. The switch rails may be moved left or right, under the control of the signalling system, to determine which path the train will follow.

Maintenance Spikes in wooden ties can loosen over time, whilst split and rotten ties may be individually replaced with a concrete substitute. Should the rails settle owing to soil subsidence they may be lifted by specialized machinery and additional ballast tamped down to form a level elevation. Periodically, ballast must be removed and replaced with clean ballast to ensure adequate drainage, especially if wooden ties are used. Culverts and other passages for water must be kept clear lest water is impounded by the trackbed, causing landslips. Where trackbeds are placed along rivers, additional protection is usually placed to prevent erosion during times of high water, whilst Bridges are another important item requiring inspection and maintenance.

See also: Rail tracks#Track maintenance and Maintenance of way

Terminology .

In the United Kingdom and most other Commonwealth of Nations countries, the term railway is used in preference to the United States term, railroad. In Canadian speech, railway and railroad are interchangeable, although in law railway is the usual term. Railroad was used in the United Kingdom concurrently with railway until the 1850s when railway became the established term. Several American companies have railway in their names instead of railroad, the BNSF Railway being the pre-eminent modern example.

In the United Kingdom, the term railway often refers to the whole organization of tracks, trains, Train station, Railway signalling, timetables and the operating companies that collectively make up a coordinated railway system, while Permanent Way or p/way refers to the tracks alone; however this terminology is generally not commonplace outside of the railway industry or those who take a keen interest in it.

Subway (rail), metros, elevated railway, tram, and London Underground are all specialized railways.

Rail transport by country Of 236 countries and dependencies, 143 have rail transport (including several with very little), of which about 90 have passenger services.

Gallery Image:Railroad-Gyula.jpg|Rail connections.Image:Oikorata Kerava - Lahti Mäntsälässä 2005.jpg|Preparations for an electrified railway.Image:08 tory railtrack ubt.jpeg|Concrete ties (sleepers).Image:Geschweisster schienenstoss.jpeg|Rails joined by thermite welding.Image:Schienenauszugsvorrichtung 100 0845.JPG].Image:Eastbound over SCB.jpg|Spectacular bridge in Southern British Columbia.

See also

Footnotes References

Further reading , Styria (state), Austria, near the Slovenian border.





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