Chemin de iron

See also: Railroad (homonymy)

The railroad is a transport system guided being used for the Transport people and goods. It is composed of a infrastructure specialized, rolling stock and procedures of exploitation sometimes utilizing the human one, even if in the case of the automatic subways this intervention is limited in normal weather to monitoring.

By Métonymie, “railroad” indicates also the operating companies, often formerly called “companies”. The railroad workers are the “railwaymen”.

The expression “railroad” officially appeared in the Royal decree of the February 26th 1823 authorizing the construction of the first French line with Saint-Etienne. The Adjectif corresponding, “railway”, which derives from the Italian ferrovia , appeared about 1911.

The railway system is also used under various specialized variations: Subway S, Tram S, cog railways. The infrastructure of the railroads is called Railway. It is composed, most of the time, of two files of Rail S posed on Traverse S), of trackside equipment, crossings level, indication and, if necessary, installations of electric traction (sub-station S, Caténaire S…).

Rolling stock circulates commonly in convoys, called Train S or oar S. the convoys are composed of Wagon S or of cars tractor drawn by Locomotive S. It can also be a question of autotractées oars, i.e. including their own system of traction.

The human one is in the center of the railway systems usually met, that it is for the led trains, the orientation of the convoys towards their destination, the security of the travellers or goods transported. The work of human is framed by procedures. Very early, one legislated on the railroad. In France, the law of July 15th, 1845 (still into force) poses the bases of the Police force of the Railroad (statute of the railways, constraints, rights and duties of the owners and the thirds…). Since, new laws and many payments came to supplement it, with regard to safety, the organization and the public service.

History

See also: History of the railroads

It is considered that the first example of railroad is that of the Diolkos, a system allowing the boats to cross the isthmus of Corinthe in Greece, built with the 6° century AJC. Carriages pushed by slaves circulated in blocks of notched stones. This primitive railroad functioned roughly until year 900.

The first Wagon S tractor drawn by horses appeared in Greece and in the Romain Empire in the neighborhoods of year 0, using them also a way made up of notched stones.

The reappearance of guided transport took place in Europe in the neighborhoods of 1550, for mining ways. Those Ci used wood rails. The first railway was established in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 17° century, mainly for the transport of the coal of a mine to a channel, from where it could be charged on barges. One finds traces of this kind of railroads to Broseley in Shropshire. The rails consisted of naked wood, the wheels were provided with rolls, as on the current railway vehicles. In 1768, the company Coalbrookdale had the idea to replace its rails of wood by cast iron rails, to limit the wear of the way and to transport heavier loads.

The steel rails appeared at the beginning of the 18° century. The engineer William Jessop designed rails designed to be used with flangeless wheels: they constituted a kind of angle. These rails were to be used for a project in the sector of Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790 it was those which founded steel-works with Butterley, Derbyshire to produce rails (inter alia). The first railroad open to the public was the Surrey Iron Railway, opened in 1802 by Jessop. The convoys were tractor drawn by horses.

The first Locomotive with vapor has to function on rails was built by Richard Trevithick and was tested in 1804 with Merthyr Tydfil with the Wales. This attempt was not crowned success, the machine being so heavy which it broke the way. In 1811, John Blenkinsop designed the first engine really usable. It made patent (No 3431) a transport system of coal mû by an engine with vapor. The line was built, connecting Middleton Colliery to Leeds. The engine was built by Matthew Murray de Fenton, Murray and Wood. The Middleton Railway was thus the first railroad to use the vapor successfully in an commercial objective. It is also the first to be the subject of legal documents.

The first network is born in continental Europe in the area of Saint-Etienne, in France, between 1827 (Louis-Antoine Beaunier) and 1830 (Marc Seguin).

In Europe and North America, the period of greater development of the railroad goes from 1848 to 1914. After the First World War, the railroad continues to develop, in particular the secondary lines with narrow gauge railway, but it is strongly competed with, on the short distances, by the Automobile and the Camion. After the Second world war the competition of the Avion arrives on the long distances; the secondary lines disappear.

The oil crisis of 1973 mark the beginning of the revival of the railroad, mainly for the passenger transports inside the large metropolises and thanks to new lines intercities, traversed by trains at high speed.

The magnetic lift (known as Maglev) whose line of 43 km was put in exploitation in 2005 at Shanghai (China) can become a viable competitor.

Fundamental characteristics

The railroad is distinguished from the others means of transport by the following points:

Technique

  • Bearing steel on steel : the fundamental characteristic of the railroad is the bearing Acier (wheel) on steel (Rail) with weak adhesion coefficient, which limits very appreciably the Résistance to advance, and n the other hand increases the distances from old Frein. Weak the adherence imposes also constraints of layout of the lines to avoid the too strong slopes: layout in bottom of valleys, works of art important (Tunnel S, Viaduct S). The important braking distances prohibit in normal circulation the Marche at sight.
  • Transport guided : it is a Transport guided (by the rails) which offers to the Véhicule S one degree of freedom, ahead or behind. The change of way can be done only with the Aiguillage S, the going beyond is impossible, the formation of the trains requires complex operations.
  • Circulation in convoy : the vehicles (Coach S) do not circulate separately as on the road, but grouped in convoy, the Train, tractor drawn by a Locomotive. That authorizes a great transport capacity and limit resistance to advance. That imposes for the construction and the attachments of the coaches and passenger the cars of the standards minimum of compressive strength and to traction.

All these characteristics induce a particular operating system, which rests initially on a strict system of indication and on the establishment of a Graphic of circulation. N the other hand, they limit the expenditure of energy and get for the railroad an high level of Sécurité.

Economy

  • Public transport: the railroad is by definition a Public transport, whose exploitation and schedules right from the start were very regulated by the State, for which was essential very quickly the concept of Public service. In addition the influence on the Urbanisme is important because it is a crucial factor of the Town and country planning.
  • natural Monopoly : the importance of the Investment S necessary to build the Railway network and more still the lines at high speed does this one a natural Monopole and gives him a strategic military importance.
  • Transport integrated : the very close links imposed by the Technical between the way and rolling stock led in the very large majority of the cases to integrated railway companies, i.e. simultaneously controlling the management of the network and the exploitation of the trains. The policy of liberalization in progress in the European Union aims at opening the Concurrence between the owners by entrusting the network to administrative independent of those. It is also necessary to ensure the Interopérabilité networks.

Infrastructures

See also: Railway

The railway systems require a particular infrastructure called Railway. The vehicles are guided by one or more files of Rail S fixed on Traverse S at the means, in France, coach screws. The ballast is a drainage course on which the cross-pieces rest. It makes it possible to refine the geometry of the way, for example to create a warped in curve. The vehicles being guided by the rails, they cannot change direction without using a particular installation. Most of the time it is about a Aiguillage, operated either on-site or of a Signal box S. The railway material, from its technique of bearing, cannot go up or go down from too important slope, nor to carry out of too marked curve. To adapt to the ground, the construction of the railway lines to need establishment of Works of art: Bridge S, Viaduct S and Tunnel S. the way can also cross the road with a Crossing level.

The distance between the two guide rails (the most frequent case) is called spacing. It is measured between the inner faces of the rail. The spacing most commonly widespread is that of the normal Voie: 1,435 m (standard UIC). Beyond that, one speaks about broad Way, as lower part it acts of Narrow gauge railway.

Certain trains are mûs by electricity and require specific infrastructures since they do not provide them even their energy. In the majority of the cases, this energy supply is done by a Caténaire suspended on the top of the ways, the train coming to collect the current thanks to a pantograph or a pole. The Subway S and certain countries (England) use a Conductor rail side: collecting is then ensured by shoes. Other systems use a third central rail, for example the new tram of Bordeaux. Since two trains can circulate at the same time on a common trunk, it is necessary to lay down rules of circulation in order to guarantee safety. As on road, a indication was installation as well as systems of prevention of the railway risks. One of these systems is the quartering, which prohibits with a train entering on a section of line where already another train is.

Like any public transport, the trains do not stop anywhere. The travellers travel by the train in a Gare to go down in another, sometimes after having had to carry out correspondences. The goods are charged on coaches in a station with Fret or on a particular Embranchement. They change direction in Triage S. the containers are charged and discharged with a Terminal from transport combined.

Types of particular railroads

A large variety of transport systems deriving from the basic principle of the railroad exist. The common points between these systems are the bearing iron on iron and guidance. The alternatives are at the level of the structure and the mode of exploitation.

In urban area

Thus, in dense urban area requiring an intense service road one had recourse to Métro S, sometimes undergrounds to limit occupied space. Elsewhere, of the systems less lours was used: VALLEY - Skytrain. For the service road of a whole metropolis, the system of the Réseau regional express is used. It is a question of setting up axes making it possible to transport important quantities of travellers, often of suburbs in the urban center. The Tramway allows a finer service road (more brought closer stops) while fitting in urban fabric. However, its capacity is much less low than that of the subways.

Particular techniques

From its principle of operation, a train cannot climb important declivities. To compensate for that, the engineers had the idea to place a third axis on which the convoy comes to take support. It is about the Cog railway. If the declivities are even more important, one has recourse to the Funiculaire. Traction is then ensured by a cable. In certain cities, San Francisco for example, or Paris in the past, there exist Tramway with traction by cable. The equipment of traction in only one point is thus concentrated.

The Téléphérique can be regarded as a " funicular suspendu" , whose way is consisted one or more fixed carrying cables. This railway installation with whole share was called besides " funicular aérien" at its beginnings. The Flammarion dictionary of 1982 defines the cable car as a “type of railroad whose vehicles circulate on overhead cables acting as rails”.

To limit occupied space, some thought of Monorail S. This system is used relatively little for the common passenger transport but in industry in its bearing version (rail with the ceiling).

One of the tracks of evolution of the railroad is the Train with magnetic lift. The tests of this system are promising. Contrary, other experimentation carry (or carried) on gravitational Train, mûs by gravity, with the manner of the trains of amusement park which, once launched, advances thanks to their own inertia.

Rolling stock

The railway vehicles are called Train S. Since a score of year one saw appearing the expression Train at high speed to qualify the materials exceeding the 250km/h.

The trains which one meeting have several structures. The first, most traditional, is that of a convoy made up of one (or several) Locomotive (S), of cars in the case of or passenger trains Wagon S. If the engine can push the oar instead of drawing it, one lays out of pilot cars, equipped with a driving cabin.

The engines can be several types, according to their energy source. In the past, one found locomotive with vapor, burning coal or fuel oil. Currently, one finds especially Diesel loco, driven by a thermal engine, as well as electric locomotive , supplied with overhead line or conductor rail.

The second case of figure is that of indeformable convoys including/understanding at the same time elements of traction and compartments travellers called motorized oars. There exists in Germany motorized oars intended for the goods. A motorized oar with diesel traction is called Autorail, except notable Turbotrain S. the TGV are railcars, as well as the majority of the trains at high speed.

For the operations or the traction of light trains, one has recourse to Locotracteur, electric or diesels. So in France, one will find only diesels, Switzerland has a majority of electric machines.

The services of the maintenance of the ways use Draisine S, small vehicles able to move a team on her building site. One will also find with the maintenance of the ways a large variety of specialized materials: désherbeuses, raccoon, bourreuses, etc…

Companies and networks

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • the encylopédie of the railroads
  • http://www.photos-trains.ch Of the railway photographs of the whole world

Random links:62 (number) | Yoko Asaoka | Henri Peretz | The Review of the Two Worlds | Alain Cophignon | 703