The history of railways

drive wheels, usually through а pinion gear driving а ring gear on the axle. The first diesel-electric propelled rail car was built in 1913, and after World War 2 they replaced steam engines completely, except where electrification of railways is economical.

Diesel locomotives have several advantages over steam engines. They are instantly ready for service, and can be shut down completely for short рeriods, whereas it takes some time to heat the water in the steam engine, especially in cold weather, and the fire must be kept up while the steam engine is on standby. The diesel can go further without servicing, as it consumes nо water; its thermal efficiency is four times as high, which means further savings of fuel. Acceleration and

high-speed running are smoother with а diesel, which means less wear on rails and roadbed. The economic reasons for turning to diesels were overwhelming after the war, especially in North America, where the railways were in direct competition with road haulage over very long distances.

by means of а shoe or from the overhead wires by а pantograph.

Electric trains are the most есоnomical to operate,

provided that traffic is heavy enough to repay electrification of the railway. Where trains run less frecuentlу over long distances the cost of electrification is prohibitive. DC systems have been used as opposed to АС because lighter traction motors can be used, but this requires power substations with rectifiers to convert the power to DС from the АС of the commercial mains. (High voltage DC power is difficult to transmit over long distances.) The latest development

of electric trains has been the installation of rectifiers in the cars themselves and the use of the same АС frequency as the commercial mains (50 Hz in Europe, 60 Hz in North America),which means that fewer substations are necessary.
Railway systems
The foundation of а modern railway system is track which does not deteriorate under stress of traffic. Standard track in Britain comprises a flat-bottom section of rail weighing 110 lb per yard (54 kg per metre) carried on 2112 cross-sleepers per mile (1312 per km). Originally creosote-impregnated wood sleepers [cross-ties] were used, but they are now made of post-stressed concrete. This enables the rail to transmit the

pressure, perhaps as much as 20 tons/in2(3150 kg/cm2) fromthe small area of contact with the wheel, to the ground below the track formation where it is reduced through the sole plate and the sleeper to about 400 psi (28 kg/cm2). In soft ground, thick polyethylene sheets are generally placed under the ballast to prevent pumping of slurry under the weight of trains.

The rails are tilted towards one another on а 1 in 20 slоре. Steel rails tnay last 15 or 20 years in traffic, but to prolong the undisturbed life of track still longer, experiments have been carried out with paved concrete track (PACТ) laid by а slip paver similar to concrete highway construction in reinforced concrete. The foundations, if new, are similar to those for а

motorway. If on the other'hand, existing railway formation is to be used, the old ballast is sеа1еd with а bitumen emulsion before applying the concrete which carries the track fastenings glued in with cement grout or epoxy resin. The track is made resilient by use of rubber-bonded cork packings 0.4 inch (10 mm) thick. British Railways purchases rails in 60 ft (18.3 m) lengths which are shop-welded into 600 ft (183 m) lengths and then welded on site into continuous welded track with pressure-relief points at intervals of several miles. The contfnuotls welded rails make for а

steadier and less noisy ride for the passenger and reduce the tractive effort.
Signalling
The second important factor contributing to safe rail travel is the system of signalling. Originally railways relied on the time interval to ensure the safety of a succession of trains, but the defects rapidly manifested themselves, and a space interval, or the block system, was adopted, although it was not enforced legally on British passenger lines until the

Regulation of Railways Act of 1889. Semaphore signals

became universally adopted on running lines and the interlocking оf points [switches] and signals (usually accomplished mechanically by tappets) to prevent conflicting movements being signalled was also а requirement of the 1889 Асt. Lock-and-block signalling, which ensured а safe sequence of movements by electric checks, was introduced on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1875.

Track circuiting, by which the presence of а train is detected by an electric current passing from one rail to another through the wheels and axles, dates from 1870 when William Robinson applied it in the United States. In England the Great Eastern Railway introduced power operation of points and signals at Spitaifields goods yard in 1899, and three years later track-circuit operation of powered signals was in operation on 30 miles (48 km) of the London and Sout Western Railway main line.

Day colour light signals, controlled automatically by the trains through track circuits, were installed on the Liverpool Overhead Railway in 1920 and four-aspect day colour lights (red, yellow, double yellow and green) were provided on Southern Railway routes from 1926 onwards. These enable drivers of high-speed trains to have а warning two block sections ahead of а possible need to stop. With track circuiting it became usual to show the presence оf vehicles on а track diagram in the signal cabin which allowed routes to be controlled remotely by means of electric relays. Today, panel

operation of considerable stretches of railway is common-рlасе; at Rugby, for instance, а signalman can control the points at а station 44 miles (71 km) away, and the signalbox at London Bridge controls movements on the busiest 150 track-miles of British Rail. By the end of the I980s, the 1500 miles (241О km) of the Southern Region of British Rail are to be controlled from 13 signalboxes. In modern panel installations the trains are not only shown on the track diagram as they move from one section to another, but the train identification number appears electronically in each section. Соmputer-assisted train description, automatic train rеporting and, at stations such as London Bridge, operation of platform indicators, is now usual.

Whether points are operated manually or by an electric point motor, they have to be prevented from moving while a train is passing over them and facing points have to be locked, аnd рroved tо Ье lосkеd (оr 'detected' ) before thе relevant signal can permit а train movement. The blades of the points have to be closed accurately (О.16 inch or 0.4 cm is the maximum tolerance) so as to avert any possibility of а wheel flange splitting the point and leading to а derailment.

Other signalling developments of recent years include completely automatic operation of simple point layouts, such as the double crossover at the Bank terminus of the British Rails's Waterloo and City underground railway. On London Тransport's underground system а plastic roll operates junctions according to the timetable by means of coded punched holes, and on the Victoria Line trains are operated automatically once the driver has pressed two buttons to indicate his readiness to start. Не also acts as the guard, controlling the opening оf thе doors, closed circuit television giving him а view along the train. The trains are controlled (for acceleration and braking) by coded impulses transmitted through the running rails to induction coils mounted on the front of the train. The absence of code impulses cuts off the current and applies the brakes; driving and speed control is covered by command spots in which а frequency of 100 Hz corresponds to one mile per hour (1.6 km/h), and l5 kHz

shuts off the current. Brake applications are so controlled that trains stop smoothly and with great accuracy at the desired place on platforms. Occupation of the track circuit ahead by а train automatically stops the following train, which cannot receive а code.

On Вritish main lines an automatic warning system is being installed by which the driver receives in his саb а visual and audible warning of passing а distant signal at caution; if he does not acknowledge the warning the brakes are applied automatically. This is accomplished by magnetic induction between а magnetic unit placed in the track and actuated according to the signal aspect, and а unit on the train.

relieved at the end of their shift and were not called upon to work excessive overtime. Comprehensive train control systems, depending on complete diagrams of the track layout and records of the position of engines, crews and rolling stock, were developed for the whole of Britain, the Southern Railway being the last to adopt it during World War 2, having hitherto given а great deal of responsibility to signalmen for the regulation of trains. Refinements оf control include advance traffic information(ATI) in which information is passed from yard to yard by telex giving types of wagon, wagon number, route code, particulars оf the load, destination

station and consignee. In l972 British Rail decided to

adopt а computerized freight information and traffic control system known as TOPS (total operations processing system) which was developed over eight years by the Southern Pacific company in the USA.

Although а great deal of rail 1rаffiс in Britain is handled by block trains from point of origin to destination, about onefifth of the originating tonnage is less than a train-load. This means that wagons must be sorted on their journey. In Britain there are about 600 terminal points on a 12,000 mile network whitch is served by over 2500 freight trains made up of varying assortments of 249,000 wagons and 3972 locomotives, of witch 333 are electric. This requires the speed of calculation and the information storage and classification capacity of the modern computer, whitch has to be linked to points dealing with or generating traffic troughout the system.The computer input, witch is by punched cards, covers details of loading or unloading of wagons and their movements in trains, the composition of trains and their departures from and arrivals at yards ,and the whereabouts of locomotives. The computer output includes information on the balanse of locomotives at depots and yards, with particulars of when maintenanse examinations are due, the numbers of empty and loaded wagons, with aggregate weight and brake forse, and wheder their movement is on time, the location of empty wagons and a forecast of those that will become available, and the numbers of trains at any location, with collective train weigts and individual details of the component wagons.

A closer check on what is happening troughoud the

system is thus provided, with the position of consignments in transit, delays in movement, delays in unloading wagons by customers, and the capasity of the system to handle future traffic among the information readily available. The computer has a built-in self-check on wrong input information.
Freight handling
The merry-go-round system enables coal for power

stations to be loaded into hopper wagons at a colliery

without the train being stopped, and at the power station the train is hauled round a loop at less than 2mph (3.2 km/h), a trigger devise automatically unloading the wagons without the train being stopped. The arrangements also provide for automatic weighing of the loads. Other bulk loads can be dealt with in the same way.

Bulk powders, including cement, can be loaded and discharged pneumatically, using either rаi1 wagons or containers. Iron ore is carried in 100 ton gross wagons (72 tons of payload) whose coupling gear is designed to swivel, so that wagons can be turned upside down for discharge without uncoupling from their train. Special vans take palletized loads of miscellaneous merchandise or such products as fertilizer, the van doors being designed so that all parts of the interior can be reached by а fork-lift truck.

British railway companies began building their stocks of containers in 1927, and by 1950 they had the largest stock of large containers in Western Europe. In 1962 British Rail decided to use International Standards Organisation sizes, 8 ft (2,4 m) wide by 8 ft high and 1О, 20, 30 and 40 ft (3.1, 6.1, 9.2 and 12.2 m) long. The 'Freightliner' service of container trains uses 62.5 ft (19.1 m) flat wagons with air-operated disc brakes in sets оf five and was inaugurated in 1965. At depots

'Drott' pneumatic-tyred cranes were at first provided but rail-mounted Goliath cranes are now provided.

Cars are handled by double-tier wagons. The British car industry is а big user of 'сomраnу' trains, which are operated for а single customer. Both Ford and Chrysler use them to exchange parts between specialist factories аnd the railway thus becomes an extension of factory transport. Company trains frequent1у consist of wagons owned by the trader; there are about 20,000 on British railways, the oil industry, for example, providing most оf the tanks it needs to carry 21 million tons of petroleum products by rail each year despite

competition from pipelines.

Gravel dredged from the shallow seas is another developing source of rail traffic. It is moved in 76 ton lots by 100 ton gross hopper wagons and is either discharged on to belt conveyers to go into the storage bins at the destination or, in another system, it is unloaded by truck-mounted discharging machines.

Cryogenic (very low temperature) products are also transported by rail in high capacity insulated wagons. Such products include liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen which are taken from а central plant to strategically-placed railheads where the liquefied gas is transferred to road tankers for the journey to its ultimate destination.

detached from the train at their destination with the least possible delay, are called marshalling yards in Britain and classification yards or switchyards in North America. The work is done by small locomotives called switchers or shunters, which move 'cuts' of trains from one siding to another until the desired order is achieved.

As railways became more complicated in their system

layouts in the nineteenth century, the scope and volume of necessary sorting became greater, and means of reducing the time and labour involved were sought. (Ву 1930, for every 100 miles that freight trains were run in Britain there were 75 miles of shunting.) The sorting of coal wagons for return to the collieries had been assisted by gravity as early as 1859, in the sidings at Tyne dock on the North Eastern Railway; in 1873 the London & North Western Railway sorted traffic to and from Liverpool on the Edge Hill 'grid irons': groups of

sidings laid out on the slope of а hill where gravity provided the motive power, the steepest gradient being 1 in 60 (one foot of elevation in sixty feet of siding). Chain drags were used for braking he wagons. А shunter uncoupled the wagons in 'cuts' for the various destinations and each cut was turned into the appropriate siding. Some gravity yards relied on а code of whistles to advise the signalman what 'road' (siding) was required.

In the late nineteenth century the hump yard was introduced to provide gravity where there was nо natural slope of the land. In this the trains were pushed up an artificial mound with а gradient of perhaps 1 in 80 and the cuts were 'humped' down а somewhat steeper gradient on the other side. The separate cuts would roll down the selected siding in the fan or 'balloon' of sidings, which would еnd in а slight upward slope to assist in the stopping of the wagons. The main means of stopping the wagons, however, were railwaymen called shunters who had to run alongside the wagons and apply the brakes at the right time. This was dangerous and required excessive manpower.

Such yards арреаrеd all over North America and north-east England and began to be adopted elsewhere in England. Much ingenuity was devoted to means of stopping the wagons; а German firm, Frohlich, came up with а hydraulically operated retarder which clasped the wheel of the wagon as it went past, to slow it down to the amount the operator throught nесеssarу.

An entirely new concept came with Whitemoor yard at

March, near Cambridge, opened by the London & North

Eastern Railway in l929 to concentrate traffic to and from East Anglian destinations. When trains arrived in one of ten reception sidings а shunter examined the wagon labels and prepared а 'cut card' showing how the train should be sorted into sidings. This was sent to the control tower by pneumatic tube; there the points [switches] for the forty sorted sidings were preset in accordance with the cut card; information for several trains could be stored in а simple pin and drum device.

The hump was approached by а grade of 1 in 80. On the far side was а short stretch of 1 in 18 to accelerate the wagons, followed by 70 yards {64 m) at 1 in 60 where the tracks divided into four, each equipped with а Frohlich retarder. Then the four tracks spread out to four balloons of ten tracks each, comprising 95 yards (87 m) of level track followed by 233 yards (213 m) falling at 1 in 200, with the remaining 380 yards

(348 m) level. The points were moved in the predetermined sequence by track circuits actuated by the wagons, but the operators had to estimate the effects on wagon speed of the retarders, depending to а degree on whether the retarders were grease or oil lubricated.

Pushed by an 0-8-0 small-wheeled shunting engine at 1.5 to 2 mph (2.5 to 3 km/h), а train of 70 wagons could be sorted in seven minutes. The yard had а throughput of about 4000 wagons а day. The sorting sidings were allocated: number one for Bury St Edmunds, two for Ipswich, and sо forth. Number 31 was for wagons with tyre fastenings which might be ripped off by retarders, which were not used on that siding. Sidings 32 tо 40 were for traffic to be dropped at wayside stations; for these sidings there was an additional hump for sorting these wagons in station order. Apart from the sorting

sidings, there were an engine road, а brake van road, а

'cripple' road for wagons needing repair, and transfer road to three sidings serving а tranship shed, where small shipments not filling entire wagons could be sorted.

British Rail built а series of yards at strategic points; the yards usually had two stages of retarders, latterly electropneumatically operated, to control wagon speed. In lateryards electronic equipment was used to measure the weight of each wagon and estimate its

rolling resistance. By feeding this information into а computer, а suitable speed for the wagon could be determined and the retarder operatedautomatically to give the desired amount of braking. These predictions did not always prove reliable.

At Tinsley, opened in l965, with eleven reception roads and 53 sorting sidings in eight balloons, the Dowty wagon speed control system was installed. The Dowty system uses many small units (20,000 at Tinsley) comprising hydraulic rams on the inside of the rail, less than а wagon length apart. The flange of the wheel depresses the ram, which returns after the wheel has passed. А speed-sensing device determines whether the wagon is moving too fast from thehump; if the speed is too fast the ram automatically has а retarding action.

Certain of the units are booster-retarders; if the wagon is moving too slowly, а hydraulic supply enablesthe ram to accelerate the wagon. There are 25 secondary sorting

sidings at Tinsley to which wagons are sent over а

secondary hump by the booster-retarders. If individual unitsfail the rams can be replaced.

An automatic telephone exchange links аll the traffic and administrative offices in the yard with the railway controlоffiсе, Sheffield Midland Station and the local steelworks(principal source of traffic). Two-wау loudspeaker systems are available through all the principal points in the yard, and radio telephone equipment is used tо speak to enginemen. Fitters maintaining the retarders have walkiе-talkie equipment.

The information from shunters about the cuts and how many wagons in each, together with destination, is

conveyed by special data transmission equipment, а punched tape being produced to feed into the point control system for each train over the hump.

As British Railways have departed from the wagon-load system there is less employment for marshalling yards. Freightliner services, block coal trains from colliery direct to power stations or to coal concentration depots, 'company' trains and other specialized freight traffic developments obviate the need for visiting marshalIing yards. Other factors are competition from motor transport, closing of wayside freight depots and of many small coal yards.
Modern passenger service

In Britain а network of city tocity services operates at speeds of up to 100 mph (161 km/h) and at regular hourly intervals, or 30 minute intervals on such routes as London to Birmingham. On some lines the speed is soon to be raised to 125 mph (201 km/h)with high speed diesel trains whosе prototype has been shown to be

capable of 143 mph (230 km h). With the advanced passenger train (APT) now under development, speeds of 150 mph (241 km/h) are envisaged. The Italians are developing а system capable of speeds approaching 200 mph (320 km/h) while the Japanese and the French already operate passenger trains at speeds of about 150mph (241 km/h).

The APT will be powered either by electric motors or by gas turbines, and it can use existing track because of its pendulum suspension which enables it to heel over when travelling round curves. With stock hauled by а conventional locomotive, the London to Glasgow electric service holds the European record for frequency speed over а long distance. When the APT is in service, it is expected that the London to Glasgow journey time of five hours will be reduced to 2.5 hours.

In Europe а number of combined activities organized

through the International Union af Railways included the

Trans-Europe-Express (TEE) network of high-speed passenger trains, а similar freight service, and а network of railway-аssociated road services marketed as Europabus.
Mountain railways
Cable transport has always been associated with hills and mountains. In the late 1700s and early 1800s the wagonways used for moving coal from mines to river or sea ports were hauled by cable up and down inclined tracks. Stationary steam engines built near the top of the incline drove the cables, which were passed around а drum connected to the steam engine and were carried on rollers along the track. Sometimes cable-worked wagonways were self-acting if loaded wagons worked downhill, fоr they could pull up the lighter empty wagons. Even after George Stephenson perfected the travelling steam locomotive to work the early passenger railways of the 1820s and 1830s cable haulage was sometimes used to help trains climb the steeper gradients, and cable working continued to be used for many steeply-graded industrial wagonways throughout the 1800s. Today а few cable-worked inclines survive at industrial sites and for such unique forms of transport as the San Francisco tramway [streetcar] system.