Trains and Railroads
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Wikipedia-Article "Trains"
- For other types of train see train (disambiguation)
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In rail transport, a train consists of a single or several connected rail vehicles that are capable of being moved together along a guideway to transport freight or passengers from one place to another along a planned route. The guideway (permanent way) usually consists of conventional rail tracks, but might also be monorail or maglev. Propulsion for the train is typically provided by a separate locomotive, or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Power is usually derived from diesel engines or from electricity supplied by trackside systems. Historically the steam engine was the dominant form of locomotive power, and other sources of power (such as horses, pneumatics, or gas turbines) are possible as well.
In American railway terminology, a consist is used to describe the group of rail vehicles which make up a train.
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Types of trains
There are various types of trains designed for particular purposes, see rail transport operations.
A train can consist of a combination of a locomotive and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit (or occasionally a single powered coach, called a railcar). Trains can also be hauled by horses, pulled by a cable, or run downhill by gravity.
Special kinds of trains running on corresponding special 'railways' are atmospheric railways, monorails, high-speed railways, Dinky Trains, maglev, rubber-tired underground, funicular and cog railways.
A passenger train may consist of one or several locomotives, and one or more 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 Japan and Europe, high-speed rail is utilized extensively for passenger travel.
Freight trains comprise wagons or trucks rather than carriages, though some parcel and mail trains (especially Travelling Post Offices) are outwardly more like passenger trains.
In the United Kingdom, a train hauled by two locomotives is said to be "double-headed", and in Canada and the United States it is quite common for a long freight train to be headed by three, four, or even five locomotives.
Trains can also be mixed, hauling both passengers and freight, see e.g. Transportation in Mauritania. Such mixed trains became rare in many countries, but were commonplace on the first 19th-century railroads.
Special trains are also used for track maintenance; in some places, this is called maintenance of way.
A single uncoupled rail vehicle is not technically a train, but is usually referred to as such for signaling reasons.
Motive power
The first trains were rope-hauled or pulled by horses, but from the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomotives. From the 1920s onwards they began to be replaced by less labor intensive and cleaner (but more expensive) diesel locomotives and electric locomotives, while at about the same time self-propelled multiple unit vehicles of either power system became much more common in passenger service. Most countries had replaced steam locomotives for day-to-day use by the 1970s. A few countries, most notably the People's Republic of China where coal is in cheap and plentiful supply, still use steam locomotives, but this is being gradually phased out. Historic steam trains still run in many other countries, for the leisure and enthusiast market.
Electric traction offers a lower cost per mile of train operation but at a very high initial cost, which can only be justified on high traffic lines. Since the cost per mile of construction is much higher, electric traction is less favored on long-distance lines. Electric trains receive their current via overhead lines or through a third rail electric system.
Passenger trains
Passenger trains have Passenger cars. Passenger trains travel between stations; the distance between stations may vary from under 1 km to much more. Long-distance trains, sometimes crossing several countries, may have a dining or restaurant car; they may also have sleeping cars, but not in the case of high-speed rail, these arrive at their destination before the night falls and are in competition with airplanes in speed. Very long distance trains such as those on the Trans-Siberian railway are usually not high-speed.
Very fast trains sometimes tilt, like the Pendolino or Talgo. Tilting is a system where the passenger cars automatically lean into curves, reducing the centrifugal forces acting on passengers and permitting higher speeds on curves in the track with greater passenger comfort.
For trains connecting cities, we can distinguish inter-city trains, which do not halt at small stations, and trains that serve all stations, usually known as local trains or "stoppers" (and sometimes an intermediate kind, see also limited-stop).
For shorter distances many cities have networks of commuter trains, serving the city and its suburbs. Some carriages may be laid out to have more standing room than seats, or to facilitate the carrying of prams, cycles or wheelchairs. Some countries have some double-decked passenger trains for use in conurbations. Double deck high speed and sleeper trains are becoming more common in Europe.
Passenger trains usually have emergency brake handles (or a "communication cord") that the public can operate. Abuse is punished by a fine.
Large cities often have a metro system, also called underground, subway or tube. The trains are electrically powered, usually by third rail, and their railroads are separate from other traffic, without level crossings. Usually they run in tunnels in the city center and sometimes on elevated structures in the outer parts of the city. They can accelerate and decelerate faster than heavier, long-distance trains.
A light one- or two-car rail vehicle running through the streets is not called a train but a tram, trolley, light rail vehicle or streetcar, but the distinction is not strict.
The term light rail is sometimes used for a modern tram, but it may also mean an intermediate form between a tram and a train, similar to metro except that it may have level crossings. These are often protected with crossing gates. They may also be called a trolley.
Maglev trains and monorails represent minor technologies in the train field.
The term rapid transit is used for public transport such as commuter trains, metro and light rail. However, in New York City, lines on the New York City Subway have been referred to as "trains".
See also
Freight trains
Freight trains have freight cars.
Much of the world's freight is transported by train. In the USA the rail system is used mostly for transporting freight (or cargo).
Under the right circumstances, transporting freight by train is highly economic, and also more energy efficient than transporting freight by road. Rail freight is most economic when freight is being carried in bulk and over long distances, but is less suited to short distances and small loads.
The main disadvantage of rail freight is its lack of flexibility. For this reason, rail has lost much of the freight business to road competition. Many governments are now trying to encourage more freight onto trains, because of the environmental benefits that it would bring.
There are many different types of freight train, which are used to carry many different kinds of freight, with many different types of wagon. One of the most common types on modern railways are container trains, whereby the containers can be lifted on and off the train by cranes and loaded off or onto trucks or ships.
This type of freight train has largely superseded the traditional "box wagon" type of freight train, whereby the cargo had to be loaded or unloaded manually.
In some countries "piggy back" trains are used whereby trucks can drive straight onto the train and drive off again when the end destination is reached. A system like this is used on the Channel Tunnel between England and France. Piggy back trains are the fastest growing type of freight trains in the United States, where they are also known as 'trailer on flat car' or TOFC trains. There are also some "inter-modal" vehicles, which have two sets of wheels, for use in a train, or as the trailer of a road vehicle.
There are also many other types of wagon, such as "low loader" wagons for transporting road vehicles. There are refrigerator wagons for transporting food. There are simple types of open-topped wagons for transporting minerals and bulk material such as coal and tankers for tranporting liquids and gases.
Freight trains are sometimes illegally boarded by passengers who do not wish, or do not have the money, to travel by ordinary means. This is referred to as "Hopping" and is considered by some communities to be a viable form of transport. Most hoppers sneak into train yards and stow away in boxcars. More bold hoppers will catch a train "on the fly", that is, as it is moving, leading to occasional fatalities, some of which go unrecorded.
Famous train routes
Main article: Famous trains
Famous historical train services include the:
- Orient Express in Europe.
- Trans-Siberian in Russia.
- Blue Train in South Africa.
- Train-de-Luxe from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls.
- Chihuahua al Pacifico in Mexico.
- Palace on Wheels in Rajasthan, India.
- Frontier Mail and Grand Trunk Express, India.
- The Canadian in Canada.
- 20th Century Limited in the USA.
- City of New Orleans in the USA.
- California Zephyr in the USA.
- Indian Pacific and The Ghan in Australia (long-distance rail).
- Puffing Billy and The Gulflander in Australia (heritage and touring).
- Rheingold Express in The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, following the course of the Rhine.
Fictional trains
See also: Rail transport in fiction
- Hogwarts Express — Takes Harry Potter to Hogwarts Academy.
- Taggart Comet (Atlas Shrugged)
- The Great Train Robbery — feature film based on a true story, also title of a modern film.
- Starlight Express (Andrew Lloyd Webber) — Musical about an old steam engine being replaced by an electrical engine.
- Galaxy Express 999 — From the manga and anime of the same name by Leiji Matsumoto, this train travels the galaxy from planet to planet.
- The Polar Express — From the book of the same name, this train takes children to the North Pole.
- Runaway Train — Film about escaped inmates on a runaway train.
- Atomic Train — TV movie (1999) A runaway train carrying an atomic bomb into a town.
- Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV Series originated from The Railway Series by the Rev.W.Awdry
For a list of railway movies, see [1] (website last updated December 5, 1995).
See also
Further reading
- Jonathan Glancey - The Train (2004)
External links
- Book European rail travel online
- High Speed Train
- Official train times in the UK (from National Rail).
- RailServe.com: The Internet Railroad Directory - directory of 10,000 train sites
- Trainfoamers.com - It's Free To Talk Trains Again!
- Trainorders.com - Focus on trains of North America
Wikipedia-Article "Railroads"
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Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. A railway (or railroad) track consists of two parallel rail tracks, usually of steel, generally mounted upon cross beams (termed "railroad ties" (US) or "sleepers" (UK) ) of timber, concrete or steel. The underlying support maintains the rails at a fixed distance (gauge) apart. Usually vehicles running on the rails are arranged in a train (a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together).
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General
Rail transport is an energy efficient means of mechanised land transport. The rail tracks 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 rail car can hold up to 125 tons of freight with this and the weight of the car on two four-wheel bogies. Fully loaded, the contact between each wheel and the rail is the space of about one U.S. ten-cent piece. This can save energy compared with other forms of transportation, such as road transport which depends on rubber wheels on pavement. Trains also have a small frontal area in relation to the load they are carrying, which cuts down on air resistance and thus energy usage. 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. Furthermore, the rails and sleepers distribute 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 right of way.
Rail transport makes highly efficient use of space: a double-tracked rail line can carry more passengers or freight in a given amount of time than a four-laned road.
As a result, rail transport is often the major form of public transport in many countries. In Asia, for example, many millions use trains as regular transport in India, South Korea, Japan, China, and elsewhere.
Commercially, rail transport has had a mixed record. Most rail systems, including urban metro/subway systems, are highly subsidised and have never or rarely been profitable; however, their indirect benefits are often great. For example, despite a well-developed network consisting of four grades of trains and a widespread urban rail network in Seoul and Pusan, Korean National Rail is a nationalized organization that has never come close to having receipts equal costs (see Transportation in South Korea). Similarly, passenger rail in the US and many other countries is dependent on government subsidies. As a result levels of rail transport have in some times and places been reduced in order to save money (see Beeching Axe). Conversely, US freight railways have consolidated and become more efficient in their progress toward profitability. The East Japan Railway Company has taken an innovative and creative marketing stance and have achieved profitability as a result.
Like other forms of public transport, many railways are having to make considerable investment in order to meet new requirements for security in the face of recent terrorism incidents, for instance the Madrid train bombings of 11 March 2004. Securing railways is often more difficult than other modes of transport because stations are designed with easy access and high capacity as their primary goals rather than security; because most trains make many stops, rendering any sort of passenger screening difficult; and because securing the tracks as they run through cities and the countryside is impractical.
Operations
- Main article: Rail transport operations
A rail transport system consists of several necessary elements, and should be viewed from a system-wide perspective when planning, constructing and maintaining it. Some locomotives may be wonderfully aesthetic constructions, but they will not work unless they are given an appropriate system on which to run. This system includes infrastructure such as tracks, railroad switches or points, signals, classification yards, etc.
Firstly there is the geography onto which the permanent way is built. Next are the requirements of the system – what was it built for? For carrying cargo, commuters, medium or long-distance travellers? Has that requirement changed over time and left the system to adapt?
As a result of this, what is the type of system? Is it light rail or rapid transit, high-speed or industrial rail? To what gauge is it built? In a broader sense, rail transport includes monorail, rubber-tyred metros and maglev, since the cars also run in a guided path. (The term "guideway" describes the non-traditional modes better.)
Trains require a propulsion mechanism: horses, or steam, diesel or electric locomotives. The last of these options, the most energy-efficient, requires electrification of the system. To be electrified, a means of supplying electricity to the train is needed. This can be done with overhead wires or with a third-rail system. The former is the more common method.
Depending on how much traffic they carry, railways can be built with a varying number of tracks. Rail lines that carry little traffic are often built with a single track used by trains in both directions; on rail lines like these, "crossovers", "passing loops" or "passing sidings", which consist of short stretches of double track, are provided along the line to allow trains to pass each other, and travel in opposite directions. Alternatively, there may be longer sections of the line that are double track - effective timetabling can allow train travel up and down a partially double-track line equivalent to travel on full double tracks. Conversely, double tram track is sometimes interlaced at narrow passages (see tram tracks). Single-track lines are cheaper to build, but can handle only a limited amount of traffic and are consequently mainly used on branch lines.
On busier lines two or more tracks are provided, one or more for each direction of travel. On very busy lines as many as eight tracks (four tracks in each direction) are used to handle large amounts of traffic.
With the advent of containerized freight in the 1960s, rail and ship transportation have become an integrated network that moves bulk goods very efficiently with a very low labor cost. An example is that goods from east Asia that are bound for Europe will often be shipped across the Pacific and transferred to trains to cross North America and be transferred back to a ship for the Atlantic crossing.
Major cities often have metro and/or light rail/tram systems. For a tram on the road the terms streetcar track, tram track or tramway are used, rather than railway or railroad.
Level
Usually railways are at ground level. However, in hilly terrain and mountains, to avoid large slopes, the railway is at some places elevated, on an embankment or bridge / viaduct, and at some places in a cutting (ditch / trench) or tunnel. The same are also used for non-level crossings. In the case of many crossings, such as in a city, a longer stretch may be elevated or underground.
Safety and railway disasters
Trains can travel at very high speed, are heavy, are unable to deviate from the track and require a great distance to stop. Possibilities for accidents include jumping the track (derailment), head-on collision with another train coming the opposite way and collision with an automobile at a level crossing (also called a grade 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 Britain are 30 and 12. For information regarding major accidents, see List of rail accidents.
The most important safety measure is railway signalling. Train whistles warn others of the presence of a train, trackside signals maintain the distances between trains. In Britain, vandalism is thought responsible for about half of rail accidents.
Compared to road travel, railways remain relatively safe. Annual death rates on roads are over 40,000 in the United States & about 3000 in Britain, compared with a thousand passenger fatalities on railways in the United States and under 20 in Britain. (Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation and U.K. Health & Safety Executive).
History
- Main article: History of rail transport
- See also: Heritage railway
The Diolkos was a 6-km long railway that transported boats across the Corinth isthmus in Greece in the 6th century BC. Trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in a limestone track. The Diolkos ran for over 1300 years, until 900 AD.
The first horse-drawn wagonways appeared in Greece, Malta, and parts of the Roman Empire at least 2000 years ago, using cut-stone track. They began reappearing in Europe from around 1550, usually operating with crude wooden track.
In the late 18th century iron rails began to appear: British civil engineer William Jessop designed edge rails to be used with flanged wheels for use on a scheme in Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789 and subsequently opened an iron-works to produce more rails. In 1802, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London - arguably the world's first public railway, albeit a horse-drawn one.
The first steam locomotive to operate on rails, built by Richard Trevithick, was operated in 1804 in Wales. It was not financially successful, with Trevithick ending bankrupt. In 1806 a horse-drawn railway was built between Swansea and Mumbles. In 1807 this railway started carrying fare-paying passengers - the first in the world to do so.
In 1812 the Middleton Railway which had been built to carry coal from the pits to Leeds became to first railway to successfully use steam locomotives on a commercial basis.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway, ran in northern England in the 1820s. This was soon followed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which proved the viability of rail transport, with George Stephenson's famous Rocket steam locomotive. Railways soon spread throughout Britain and through 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 Leiper Railroad in Pennsylvania was the first permanent railroad, opened in 1810, and the Granite Railroad in 1826 may have been the first 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. (See oldest railroads in North America.)
The use of overhead wires conducting electricity, invented by Granville T. Woods in 1888, amongst several other improvements by Woods, led to the development of electrified railways, the first of which was operated at Coney Island from 1892. Diesel and electric trains and locomotives replaced steam in many countries in the decades after World War II.
Many countries since the 1960s have adopted high-speed railways.
On 24 August 2005 the Qingzang Railway became the highest railway track in the world, when track was laid through the Tanggula Mountain Pass at 5072 meters above sea level. [1]
Terminology
- Main article: Rail terminology
In Britain and other British Commonwealth countries the term railway is used in preference to railroad, while in the United States the reverse is true. However, railroad was used in Britain concurrently with railway until the 1850s when railway became the established term. Furthermore a number of American companies have railway in their names instead of railroad, the BNSF Railway being the most pre-eminent modern example. (See usage of the terms railroad and railway.)
In Britain the term railway often refers to the complete organisation of tracks, trains, stations, 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.
- See also: Rail transport in the United Kingdom
Subways, metros, elevated lines, trolley lines, and undergrounds are all specialized railways.
For translations of the word 'railroad', see International railroad terminology.
Rail transport by country
- Main article: 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.
See also
- Underground railway
- Rail gauge
- History of rail transport
- List of railway companies
- List of named passenger trains
- High-speed rail
- Magnetic levitation train
- Aérotrain
- Public transport
- Private transport
- Private railroad
- Railway Mail Service
- Economy of Earth (Transportation section)
- Railway electrification system
- Railway ferry
- Rail transport in fiction
- Hillclimbing (railway)
- railroad-related periodicals
- Arrangements between railroads
- Freighthopping
- Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends A fictional railway
- Northern Africa Railroad Development
- Vactrain
External links
- Indian Railways Fan Club of America
- RailServe.com: The Internet Railroad Directory - directory of 10,000+ rail-related sites
- Trainorders.com - Focus on North American railroads
- Railway pictures - published on Usenet stored with optional search function.
- http://www.northrail.co.nr - defending rail services and jobs in the north of England
- http://bueker.net/trainspotting/maps.php - maps of European railway networks
- http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2121.html - rail transport by country
- http://www.bahn.de/pv/uebersicht/die_bahn_international_guests.shtml - travel planner of German Railways (covers Europe and the Trans-Siberian railway)
- http://www.railpassengers.org.uk/News/OtherPublications/Council/Railfuture_NRIS - National Railcard International Survey - survey of national rail discount cards in various European countries
- Barraclou.com - Rail
- The Granite Railway and its Associated Enterprises, by Robert E. Scholes, copyright 1968 (not the first railroad in the United States)
- RTD Flexible Railway Passenger Car Concepts For Efficient And Attractive Passenger Transportation
- Indian Railways
- Steel Wheels AF Garnett- This book is about the evolution of the railways and about the engineers and architects who made them possible
- California High-Speed Rail Authority
- Railways Online - A resource for railways in Great Britain
- Preserved Carriage Database - UK and Ireland
- Railpage was set up in 1992. It is currently Australia's biggest rail related site.
- Middleton Railway, Leeds
- IMB International Maglev Board
- Railroad Collections - National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, archival resources.