Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов специальности «Вагоны» Ростов-на-Дону 2008 Майорова Э. Е., Марченко А. Н

(РГУПС)

Э.Е. Майорова, А.Н. Марченко
ОБУЧЕНИЕ ОСНОВНЫМ ВИДАМ ЧТЕНИЯ
Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов специальности «Вагоны»

Ростов-на-Дону

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CLASSIFICATION OF FREIGHT CARS

There are different kinds of cars for different kinds of freight. We distinguish the following classes of freight cars: flat cars, depressed, centre flat cars, box cars, low-sided cars, carrier cars, tank cars, and refrigerator cars, cars for transporting oil bitumen and dump cars.

Each class of freight cars has its own kinds. These kinds differ according to the loading capacity, body arrangement, the rail gauge and the freight they are to transport.

The simplest type of car is the flat car. It is a platform moun­ted on a frame, two-axle trucks of 4, 6 or 8 wheels with neither sides nor ends above the floor, there being no roof. Flat cars handle large pieces of machinery, lumber, iron and steel products, and other commodities of large bulk that stand exposure to the weather and which are sometimes protected by improvised roofs.

The box car comprises the second largest class of freight cars. The body of the car is a huge box, with a sliding door on each side. The roof slopes toward each side. It has two-axle trucks of four wheels. The inside capacity of such box cars is different and depends on the kind of freight they are to handle. These cars are used to carry grain in bulk packages, sugar and other bulky articles that need protection from the weather.

A special development of the standard box car is the automobile car which is used for carrying motor-cars. This car is so equipped that automobiles may be securely fastened for safe transportation. Some automobile cars accommodate a double row of automobiles, one set above the other. Special devices load automobiles into freight cars and fasten them.

There is a double-deck stock car of the box type with roofs, but the sides consist of slats spaced sufficiently far apart to provide ventilation. This car is used for transporting live stock.

In future the fleet of freight wagons should be considerably increased by building new high capacity 8-axle wagons with a raised running and axle load, gondola and tank wagons in the first place.

The freight wagon fleet should largely be increased by special-purpose wagons, namely cement and mineral wagons; container flats equipped with devices designed to prevent the containers from shifting and overturning; flats for carrying timber products fitted with service metal posts and tie-down chains; two-tier car carriers etc. The special-purpose gondola wagons and large number of the all-purpose gondolas will have eight axles.
FREIGHT WAGONS AND PASSENGER CARS
The freight wagon fleet consists mainly of four-axle bogie wagons with a capacity of 62 - 65 t, and the passenger car fleet of all-steel cars with a body length of 23.6 m. All the vehicles, freight and passenger, are outfitted with automatic couplers (авто-сцепка) and automatic brakes (тормоз). All the passenger cars and every second freight wagon have bogies with roller bearing axle boxes (roller bearing - шариковый подшипник, axle box - букса). All-steel freight wagons are being supplied in greater and greater numbers.

The Russian railways are receiving large-capacity eight-axle open-top wagons with a capacity of 125 t and tank wagons with a capacity of 120 t.

The quantitative growth of the wagon fleet from year to year is attended by its qualitative improvement associated with strengthening of automatic couplers and automatic brake equipment of the wagons, the introduction of roller bearing axle boxes, and an increase in the share of specialized freight wagons. Development of the container fleet and refrigerator rolling stock is continuing.

The renewal and improvement of the structure of the wagon fleet is one of the most important directions of technical progress on the railways. During the last few years the share of specialized, wagons has grown considerably. The production of open-top wagons for the transportation of coal and ore, of covered hopper wagons for grain, cement, and mineral fertilizers, flat wagons (with low sides) for the transportation of large-capacity containers and automobiles is growing. Specialization makes it possible to improve capacity utilization, diminish the costs of preparation for trans­portation, lower the losses of freight on route, and raise the le­vel of freight handling mechanization.

The operation of the Russian railways is characterized by a high level of utilization of the basic technical equipment and by a great traffic density.

The transportation of all the commodities produced by the natio­nal economy will grow and a greater increase in traffic will fall to the handling of fuel (coal, petroleum and its products), iron and non-ferrous metal ores, timber, grain, and other freight.

The structure of the freight traffic on the railway network will have a number of features. First of all, the further accele­rated development of the regions of Siberia and the Far East, and the increase in their part in the production of many kinds of raw material, fuel, and products will tell. The freight traffic on ma­ny railways in the Eastern part of the country, first of all on the Sverdlovsk, Tselinnaya, West Siberian, Krasnoyarsk, East Siberian, Trans-Baikal, and Far East railways, will grow at higher rates.

The further development of railway passenger traffic will take place too. Unlike freight traffic, the major growth in the trans­portation of passengers will fall to the railways of the European part of the country. The rates of its growth will be especially high on the routes joining the centre, the Urals and the North West to the southern regions of the country.

Tank cars carrying acids or other dangerous liquids are unloaded either by sucking their contents out through the dome of the car or by pumping compressed air into the tank and "blowing" the con­tents out through the dome. Some liquids form gas if they become too warm, and tank cars have safety valves which open and permit the gas to escape when the pressure reaches a certain point.

Most tank cars are built of steel, but tank cars made of other materials are used also. Some of the tank cars which carry acids are lined with lead or rubber because some acids will sat through ordinary steel. Tank cars for carrying other chemicals may be lined with nickel or with stainless steel. Tank cars which carry liquids which must be kept perfectly clean are lined with glass.

The transportation of bulk freight in liquid or semi-liquid form requires the use of a large number of tank cars of various types. Hundreds of different commodities are thus bandied and the number is increasing. The products include crude oil, fuel oils, lubricating oils, gasoline, alcohols, acids, coal tar products, chlorine, fertilizers, animal, vegetable and fish oils, fruit juices, wines and compressed gases.

Many of these commodities require special linings or material in the tank to prevent tank damage and contamination (загрязнение) of the products. Some tanks are made of aluminum or nickel steel to preserve them from the corrosive action of the contents. Others are lined with rubber, glass, enamel (эмаль), nickel or stainless steel. For the transportation of certain compressed gases under high pressures, multiple cylinders or containers of comparatively small diameter are mounted on or form part of the car.

A recent development is the transportation of liquefied gases such as oxygen and hydrogen at extremely low temperatures. This cryogenic (при низкой температуре) transportation, minus 450 deg. F in the case of hydrogen, makes necessary cars of “thermos-bottle” design with the inner shell heavily insulated and with a vacuum established between the two shells. Great skill is required to minimize the structural connections between the two shells because such connections represent paths of heat flow.

The covered hopper cars are used to carry all kinds of bulk ma­terials that cannot be exposed to the weather – such as sugar and clay, cement, dry powdered chemicals. These cars are loaded through watertight hatches in the car roofs and emptied through their hopper bottom.

Gondola cars handle heavy materials that can be exposed to the weather such as coal, iron ore, gravel, sand, rough iron, steel articles, and other bulky materials. High-capacity gondolas are used for handling wood chips and sawdust.

Transporter cars are freight cars which are used for transportation of heavy pieces of freight which cannot be carried by ordinary flat cars. They are of different types. There are transporter cars of a platform type, a well car type, and an articulated and coupled types.

There is a small class of cars which are used for tran­sporting oil bitumen. We distinguish two types of these cars: 1) with load capacity of 40 tons and 2) with load capacity of 50 tons.

Both are mounted on a four-axis bogie. The oar is of all metal wel­ded construction, consisting of a frame on which four or three turn­over bunkers are mounted.

The main elements that carry the load are made of high strength steel. Each bunker is a welded tank covered with a lid. The cars are loaded through hatches in the lid and unloaded by bunker, turnover.

Dump cars represent the last class of freight cars. They are self-emptying metal welded cars consisting of a lower frame, a reclining body, a discharger and a running gear. Dump cars differ according to the loading capacity, the gauge and the bogie. There are dump cars with loading capacity from 60 to 180 tons. They are mounted on four-, six- and eight-axle bogies. The car is loaded with the help of excavators and unloaded by means of 45 bodies reclining of the car.

In the new Trans-Flo compartmented freight car twelve separate hoppers are built into a framework of steel aide and end members. The product to be shipped is loaded through a hatch at the top of each of the hoppers. The inner hatch includes a special filter device, the outer hatch sealing the opening. On arrival at point of destina­tion, the car is unloaded by an air suction device at the bottom of each hopper.

The Trans-Flo car is 53 ft. in overall length and has a capacity of approximately 2,900 cu. ft., equivalent to 50 to 60 tons of milled flour. It has a light weight of 71,500 lb. and load limit of 138,500 lb. In addition to the pneumatic unloading device developed by the Puller Company, General American's research and development depart­ment overcame the difficulties caused by the bridging and packing of the commodity which previously had made efficient unloading impo­ssible. The overall development eliminates all necessity for intro­ducing any internal means for loosening the commodity or breaking bridges that have formed, and accomplishes one of the most desired results, namely, the assurance of no contamination of the transported material through the introduction of foreign substances.

In the development of the Trans-Flo car, General American construc­ted at its East Chicago Laboratory a plant in which full size sections of the car, а Fuller Company pneumatic conveyor, and storage facilities were installed. These facilities are now being used to study other difficult-to-handle materials.

Containerization can now be regarded as having arrived at the end of its initial phase of development, which, moreover, has been attended by two simultaneous evolutions, as follows – on the one hand, the development of containerization in "profile", i.e. its introduction on an ever-increasing number of services, involving a greater num­ber of countries throughout the world – on the other hand, the deve­lopment of containerization in "depth", i.e. the transport of an in­creasing number of categories of goods in containers, thanks to their variations (at the outset, the container was usually a box fitted with an end door) today it takes on the most varied forms; tank containers, containers with controlled temperature, containers with side doors, containers with opening roof, half-height containers, etc.

The container has thus become a universal appliance transporting nearly everything and going everywhere.

In an ever-increasing number of cases, the container will form the basis of new transport systems.

The use of containers for the movement of freight is increasing. These containers are large steel boxes, so dimensioned that they can be packed onto a flat car, gondola car, or into an open car, four or eight to a car. This car is of the standard type, with few additional fittings for attaching (закрепления) the containers.

Containers may be lifted from the car and set upon a dray (грузовая платформa) or a motor truck. The containers are packed with goods at a factory or warehouse (товарный склад) looked, sealed, hauled to the freight yards by trucks, swung onto the freight car by cranes and carried to final destination where the reverse operation takes place.

The container car reduces the work of loading and unloading cars at freight stations and lessens the danger of loss and breakage of the goods which they carry.

When container cars were first introduced it was thought that they would be used only for the transportation of valuable goods, usually shipped In less-than-carload quantities (мелкими партиями) but it has been found that container cars are also useful for ca­rrying various kinds of low-grade freight (низкого сорта). Many bricks are shipped in container cars, and container cars are also used for the transportation of cement. Some container cars are built, the con­tainers of which are simply demountable tanks used in the transpor­tation of milk and cream (сливки).

The container has many manifold qualities. The advantages of loa­ding and unloading are very often the decisive factor in choosing methods of transport. However, the container today offers a large variety of types, making it possible to transport very differing types of goods; it is well adapted to their loading and unloading. The "container" transport unit generally fits into integrated physical distribution systems well.

The container provides an excellent method of intermediate storage. It is well-suited to stacking, which should enable the railway to achieve considerable savings in space. In fact, each wagon requires its own "stabling" space on the track, while containers can be stored away from the track and at a considerable height.

The container is a universal appliance easy to mass-produce and therefore relatively cheap; the more current types are also inter­changeable between the various operations.

The land container must be well adapted to the requirements of con­tinental traffic and offer qualities similar to those provided by other transport unite such as the lorry and the wagon.

By the end of the XX century the considerable increase in container traffic will be accomplished by a modification of the con­tainer fleet in our country. High-capacity containers (mainly 20-30t) will play an active part, together with the average-capacity contai­ners (from 5 to 5t), in carrying goods. It must be noted that specialized type containers (rigid and elastic, closed and open) will remain in service. A new branch of the transport machine-building industry, namely the container building industry, will have to be developed to specialize mainly on constructing high-capacity-containers. New containers will be made of steel, aluminium and aluminium alloys as well as of a large assortment of polyme­ric materials (plastics, foam plastics, etc.)

The delivery of containers will be effected by special high-speed container trains operating according to strict schedules. Specialized stations for handling high-capacity containers will probably be provided as wall as combined stations which will also handle the average-capacity containers. The loading of containers onto wagons and lorries and their unloading should be mainly be done by using container cranes with semi-automatic and automatic control which makes it possible to provide a smooth acceleration (ускорение) and braking of mechanisms, as well as realize high speeds of moving, lifting and lowering the containers. An automated container traffic control sub-system should be provided.

However, the free use of wagons is not the only requirement which must be met if international railway goods traffic is to work in the best possible way. As in internal traffic the wagons used for international traffic must have a modern and uniform technical stan­dard if the service is to be attractive, if the provision of wagons is to be facilitated and if the maintenance and serving costs are to be reduced.

These requirements have been recognized at an early stage. Early efforts to standardize European goods wagons were already undertaken just after World War I. But these attempts remained without success. After World War II it was the United Nations who, in 1947, through the Internal Traffic Committee of the European Economic Commission, insisted on the standardization of the European goods wagons and gave the initiative to extensive efforts on the part of the UIС in this field. At that time the UIC intended to classify the standardi­zation programme as follows:

- interchangeability of the most fre­quently required goods wagon components;

- assimilation of the lea­ding goods wagon data;

- complete standardization of the goods wagons.

In 1951 the ORE Experts Committee BI2 was created in order to restrict the multiplicity in the sphere of unified goods wagons and their interchangeable components.

At the suggestion of the SNCF, work was begun as early as 1964 with efforts to unify a short bogie wagon and, a year later at the initia­tive of the BUEOF pool, with studies for unifying a covered bogie wa­gon of the same length with full-length opening roof.

In 1967 the Management Committee of the UIC set up a multi-discip­linary group on "Bogie wagons", consisting of representatives of the commercial, operating and engineering departments, and entrus­ted this group with all the further investigations concerned with the expansion of the fleet of bogie wagons.

The studies of this group were carried out in four working parties ("Market Research", "Wagons", "Transport Costs", "Tariffs"). In I970 the group presented a report proving the advantages of bogie wa­gons in different spheres and suggesting the unification and stan­dardization of new types of goods wagons.

Safety of personnel has been another reason to produce wagons with all loading and unloading controls at ground level.

The French Railways have got a series of bogie wagons with sliding walls.

Movable internal partitions are used in these vehicles, but because of the absence of intermediate vertical pillars (опоры) both underframe and roof have to be provided with stiffening members (элементы, придающие жесткоcть). These wagons in France are named Habiss, which refers to a special bogie wagon of more than 40 tones with gliding side panels and capable of running at 120 кm/h. With a tare weight of 26.5 tones, or 27.З tones with suspended (пoдвешенный) movable internal partitions, the wagon can carry 44 pallets (контейнеров) of 800*1200 mm size.

What other wagon designs were taken by the International Union of Railways (UIC)? Among the projects taken in hand by the UIC's Pushing Group on the Standardization of Railway Equipment in the design of a bogie hopper wagon of 75m3 capacity with humped floor (покатый пол) and either-side bottom unloading, and a similar wagon of 80m3 capacity for contro­lled top unloading with or without roof.

Other UIC studies completed include a covered bogie wagon with 50m² floor area, and a wagon with telescopic cover (телескопическое покрытие) for cold-rolled sheet (лист) metal. Reports have been approved on long and short bogie flat wagons, a high-sided bogie open wagon, and 60ft.and 80ft. container wagons for block trains(маршрутные составы) work is in hand (ведётся) on several further designs.

Much of the development work in Britain has been directed toward four wheel suspensions and several designs have been produced in recent years which promise improved riding with low maintenance costs. In all these designs the aim has been to give existing and future four wheel wagons the same availability as bogie vehicle,

British Steel Corporation (BSC) had earlier developed a friction control pedestal suspension.

Important conversions (преобразования) carried out with BSC pedes­tal suspensions including 207 bulk grain wagons owned by British Railway Traffic & Electric Company.

For higher speeds British Railways developed its own HSFV range of suspensions. In terms of riding quality and freedom from maintenance these offer a performance greatly improved over pre­vious suspensions. Its principle disadvantage is first cost, which has been found to be almost twice that of corresponding British Railway's friction link (кулисная) suspension.

In Britain development of two-axle wagon has been more marked than
in the rest of Europe. The 50 ton gross laden weight hopper wagon built by British Rail Engineering for Tilicon (British Company) is mounted on BSC friction pedestal suspension units, one of several suspensions developed in Britain to give two-axle wagons a performance comparable with bogie vehicles. Capacity is 950 ft and maxi­mum speed is 60 mile/hour.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW UIC UNIFIED BOGIE WAGONS
In the following, it is intended to provide a short report of some new UIC unified bogie wagons. Four-axled wagon with opening roof (Taes) is used for conveying metal products sensitive to weather. The loading and unloading of these wagons must be carried out by means of travelling cranes and forklifts and because of that it was decided to design this wagon with high sides.

The design of the fully opening roof had not been specified in the first place so that some railway administrations use roller roofs and other slewing roofs for the Taes wagon. Comparative trials carried out by DB and SNCF on behalf of the UIC in 1937 led to the decision of admitting the roller roof as the only option. The slewing roof would admittedly make it easier to deal with the sealing prob­lems, but this type of roof, when open, would exceed the vehicle gauge so that difficulties would be experienced during loading if the shed tracks are immediately flanked by columns or if the track is flan­ked on either side by high loading ramps.

Four-axled covered bogie wagon with sliding sides, Habiss.

Two-axled wagons with sliding sides are already used in great numbers by several European railway administrations and are highly app­reciated by clients because of their special advantage for the transshipment of palletized goods. As there are predominantly goods of light weight, the two-axled wagons generally have the same loading area as the long two-axled UIC unified wagons of normal type (33m3), corresponding to accommodation for 50 pool pallets (800 1266mm) in one layer. For the four-axle wagon with nearly twice the loading capacity, the ad-hoc group concerned with “Bogie wagons” desired a correspondingly large loading area (target concept accommodation for 50 pallets, weighing 1t each). The four-axle wagon with sliding sides was given the maximum possible length over buffers of 21,7m, suitable for a load of 44 pool pallets in one layer.

Four-and six-axle wagons with telescopic hoods and pockets for metals coils (Shis and Sahis) are used for transporting metal coils sensitive to weather influences. Both types have five pockets. In this way, the load can be evenly distributed even, with odd numbers of coils. This wagon should be as short as possible (because of the limited length of the sheet tracks).The minimum length for the four-axle wagon was governed by the geometry of the pockets; for the six-axle wagon. The length was governed by the maximum metre load of 8t/m permissible in international traffic.

Four-axle goods wagon with low-level bilateral abrupt gravity discharge without roof (Fads), and with opening roof (Tads). These wagons are known as saddle wagons. They have been used for many years especially by the German federal Railway and have been found very suitable for bulk goods.

The wagons without roof are mainly used for conveying coal, coke and minerals while bulk goods sensitive to moisture such as lime and fertilizers are carried in similar wagons with opening roof. The loa­ding space (70 to 75m),having regard to the maximum permissible load of 55t for four-axle wagons of this type, is so arranged that the capacity is fully utilized by a payload of 0.8 to 0.9t/m weight (e.g. coal).
TALGO OFFERS A NEW ANGLE ON SLEEPING CAR DESIGN
Talgo is the name of a Spanish Train.

SNCF - French National Railways.

Stone-Iberica – the name of air conditioning system.
From May 26, 1974 – an overnight service is to be introduced between Barcelona and Paris using dual (двойной) gauge Talgo trains with sleeping accommodation. A dual gauge daytime Talgo train already operates between Barcelona and Geneva.

Initially each train will consist of 12 cars, hauled by a Talgo diesel locomotive on Spanish National Railways (RENFE) and by stan­dard SNCF diesel locomotive in France. Trains will later be streng­thened to 16-car formation including four double-berth and eight four-berth coaches, and it will be possible to increase the forma­tion to 20 cars by adding four additional four-berth coaches.

Unladen (порожний) weight of a 12-car train is 132 tones, rising to 173 tones for 16 cars and 215 tones for 20 cars.

Probably the most distinctive feature of the train is the angle (угловое) arrangement of the compartments and berths. An important feature of the Talgo principle is its low centre of gravity, and this in turn places restriction on the height and width of vehicles. The oblique (угловая) compartment system not only makes it possible to accommodate full size berths at low levels within the small space of the coaches, but also permits a semi-concealed (полускрытый) location for the washbasin and the wardrobe.

Stone-Iberica air conditioning is provided with power for this and other auxiliaries (вспомогательные оборудования) including cooking and lighting, supplied by diesel generators housed in the end cars of the train.
SLEEPING CARS IN THE USA
The first passenger cars in the United States were high in pro­portion to their length, and were not fitted for movement upon rails. Their characteristics have gradually changed, so as to make them lon­ger, lower, safer, more comfortable and convenient.

One of the most important railroad inventions of the United States was the sleeping car. The earliest trains had no sleeping cars. There was really no need for them, for the early railroads were short, no journey lasted more than a few hours, and nearly all trains went in the daytime.

As railroads increased in number, it became possible to make longer and longer journeys and night travel became common. Long journeys by night were very tiresome and uncomfortable, because it was almost impossible for passengers to sleep in the car seats. Steamboats and sailing vessels had good sleeping rooms, and even canal boats used for passenger transportation had bunks in which travelers could rest at night, (bunks - койки). It can easily be seen that there was a real need for sleeping cars on the railroads, and especially upon the railroads of the United States, where the dis­tance which one might travel was so great.

The earliest sleeping cars had a row of double bunks on each side. While these cars were more comfortable for night travel than the ordinary coach, they had one great defect. They could not be used for day travel. They were sleeping cars and nothing else. What was needed was a convertible (приспособляемый) car, a car in which the seats used during the day could be converted into beds at night.

George M. Pullman of Chicago invented the modern sleeping car. He built his first one in 1859. This car was much dimplier in design than the sleeping cars of today, but it was so much more suitable for long-distance travel than any other kind of car in use at that time.

Encouraged by the success of his first car, Mr. Pullman built a much larger sleeping car a few years later, a car which was a great improvement over his first coach. This car was named the “Pioneer”.

Mr. Pullman received many orders for sleeping cars. In 1879 he bought a large tract of land near Chicago. On this tract of land the city of Pullman was built, and there the Pullman-Standard Car Manu­facturing Company still has its great manufacturing plant, which is capable of producing many hundreds of all kinds of cars a year. Practically all of the sleeping cars on the USA's railroads used to be owned and operated by the Pullman Company.

At present much attention is given to the convenience and comfort of passengers. The sleeping cars are not only comfortable but they are heated by steam or electricity, lighted by electricity and have vestibuled platforms. Sanitary comforts, air-conditioning and att­ractive finish add to their comfort.

In some respects the attractiveness of the sleeping car thus becomes indifferent to journey distance and we have found it possible to continue to run sleeping car services between London and such towns as Cardiff (243 km), Manchester (304 km) and Leeds (299 km) as well as from major towns much further apart. At these short distances it is normal for the sleeping cars to form part of a train used also for parcels and mail traffic, thus sharing the haulage coats.

Main sources of complaint have been noise and lack of heat con­trol. These will be overcome on the next generation by air-conditioning. We have been successful in attracting custom by use of a “bar car”, and there has been a demand for light breakfast instead of the present tea and biscuit service. To meet these needs in future we plan to use three car units incorporating a bar area which would be used for the service of light meals in the evening and breakfast-service to the compartments. First class travel in sleeping cars is concentrated on to weak nights (Monday to Tuesday) and outside the summer holiday periods, whilst second class travel peaks at weekends and in the summer. By the development of a new type of sleeping car, easily convertible from single bed (first class) to twin berth (se­cond class) we expect to reduce the size of the fleet by 25%, whilst providing more capacity and better utilization of the vehicles. A prototype unit is under construction to test the new ideas, before quantity production begins.
KINDS OF PASSENGER CARS IN RUSSIA
The Russian passenger cars are distinguished for their high strength and reliability, long service life, comfort and attractive interior finish. Effective lighting, radio installations, the large windows of saloons, convenient furniture, spacious service premises, and compartments in which air conditioning system always maintain the optimum temperature and humidity all create excellent conditions for work or recreation during a trip.

There are several kinds of passenger cars in Russia. The main types are day coaches, open type cars, sleeping cars, upholste­red cars, tourist cars with observation dome, mail cars, baggage and mail саrs, etc.

There are also narrow-gauge passenger cars (900 mm and 750mm), but they are not so numerous and run on restricted sections of our railways.

The kind of car used most often is the day coach. It has a row of seats on each side, with an open aisle in the centre.

There is a prototype PT-200 type day coach in our country. It runs at a speed of 200 km/hr. The coach has a common saloon for the passengers (76 seats), a service compartment, a cloakroom, a small corridor and two toilet rooms.

The car is provided with automatic ventilation system and is lighted with incandescent as well as luminescent lamps.

This prototype day coach is to serve interurban traffic.

Open type passenger cars are designed for passenger service in long distance trains moving at a speed of 160 km/hr. There are 58 sleeping berths and 87 seats for day travel. The car has nine six-berth compartments, two vestibules, two toilet rooms, a service compartment, and small corridors. The car is provided with cold and hot water supply, a boiling tank, a drink – water cooler and an automatic ventilation system. All the sections of the car are pro­vided with loud-speakers.

All-metal upholstered cars are used for carrying passengers over long distances.

The body interior is sheeted with plywood sheets and finished with plastics, wood and synthetic materials. The wooden floor is covered with linoleum.

Each two-berth compartment of the car has an upholstered lower sofa, an armchair, a table, an upper folding upholstered berth. There are four collapsible tables and six collapsible seats in the corri­dor. The wide window, mirrored door, fan, loud-speaker, ceiling lamp, table lamp and two wall lamps (for lighting the sofa and the upper berth), and the electric bell signaling system (for calling attendants) create a high degree of comfort.

Each four-berth compartment has two lower sofas and two upper fol­ding upholstered berths, a collapsible table and a portable ladder for access to the upper berths.

Natural ventilation system delivers air freed of dust, which is heated in cold weather.

All the compartments and the corridors are provided with loud-speak­ers.

Tourist car is an all-metal car with an observation dome designed for tourists. The dome part of the car (the upper storey) is glazed and has convenient upholstered seats with swiveling backs and elbow rests. The glass walls and ceiling create excellent conditions for observation. The lower storey of the car accommodates compartments with sleeping berths, two toilet rooms with showers, and a boiler room for the supply of hot water to the showers and washing stands.

Two air-conditioning units ensure optimal temperature in the car. Power supply of the lighting fixtures is centralized from a diesel-electric power plant installed in a special car in the train.

The car is outfitted with electromagnetic brakes.
NEW PASSENGER CARS IN FRANCE
The passenger is concerned with the amount of space provided for him, but the cost is inversely (обратно) proportional to the number of seats. Any solution can be no more than a compromise bet­ween these two requirements.

There are two types of conventional coaches, the coach with compartments and the coach with a central corridor.

The comfort of the coach with compartments has been greatly im­proved as a result of the definition of 26400m European standard coaches with nine compartments in 1-st class and eleven compartments of six seats in 2-nd class, this definition having been adopted by the SNCF for the 600VU 75 coaches.

With regard to the amount of space provided for passengers, these coaches are very advantageous.

There is no doubt that the new coaches with side corridor will offer a very high standard of comfort.

It seems that the coach with compartments will have to be re­served for long distance journeys, the coach with central corridor, which is clearly more advantageous from an economic point of view, being used for medium distances.

The 26400 m сoaсh with central corridor actually provides for 80 seats in 2-nd class, with a width of 0.980 m, offering a very high degree of comfort if one takes into account the type of seat adopted.

The experience with these coaches shows that this type is very popular. In these coaches, in each of the two compartments the pa­ssengers have luggage accommodation where they can leave their largest things of luggage without losing sight of them. In 1st class, the difference in capacity is very slight: 54 seats for the coach with compartments instead of 58 for the coach with central corridor, and it seems desirable to make both types of coaches available to passengers, even for medium distances.

The Т2 type sleeping cars offering 18 compartments with two beds are meeting with very great success.
ICF'S DOUBLB-DECK PROTOTYPE ON TRIAL
As part of a plan to improve passenger comfort and provide in­creased accommodation on busy short and medium distance trains without adding extra coaches, Indian Railways have completed a prototype broad-gauge double-deck car. Constructed at the Integral Coach Fac­tory (ICF) at Perambur, the car has seats for 148 passengers for a tare weight of 44 tones, compared with seating capacity of 90 in a standard IСF broad-gauge day coach weighing 40 tones tare.

Although Indian Railway's loading gauge (габарит нагрузки) is rather great on the broad-gauge, careful design has been necessary to give adequate headroom (высота кузова) for passengers on the upper deck. However, the double-deck car is slightly narrower at 3.050 mm and the upper deck gangway (проход) has been slightly lowered into the floor to give good standing (постоянный) headroom. In addition, the roof has been raised to the maximum permitted height of 4.265 mm in the centre.

Pairs of 1,350 mm wide sliding doors are provided at each end giving access to a vestibule from which steps lead up and down to the two saloons. Floor height in the vestibule is 1,304 mm-suitable for the raised platforms at major stations. Additional seating space is provided beyond the vestibules over the bogies.

Inside the car standard half-opening windows are fitted, while interior cladding is in white plastics material with aluminium trim.

Seats have individual moulded cushions and are arranged four-and-one in the lower saloon and three-and-two in the upper, again to achieve maximum headroom by offsetting (смещением) the gangways. Accommodation is all second class; four lavatories are provided.

After initial trials with Indian Railways' vehicle-parameter test car, the prototypes will go into service on short-distance routes. Construction of a batch of eight is envisaged for running in the Taj Express between Delhi and Agra so that a full evaluation (проверка) may be made,

Based on the UIC type X specifications, the coaches have eight four-seat compartments designed for both day and night use. A ninth compartment for an attendant includes cooking and refrigerating facilities, a folding berth and seat, and storage areas. Passenger compartments are 2,306 mm between centers and in the day position have a folding table between the seats on each side. Behind the table is а space for clothes and above each seat is a reading lamp. In the night position the seats are pulled out to form the two lower berths and the seat backs retracted to a near-vertical position. The upper berths fold out and are balanced by torsion springs. Ample luggage space is provided above the ceiling of the corridor, which is somewhat wider than usual as the compartments only seat two passengers across. At each of the coach is a toilet with hot and cold water supply; cooled drinking water is also available at each end of the corridor.

The underframe is of rolled sections welded together and pvc layers rising up the lower part of the side walls ensure that water cannot penetrate to the metal parts. The side sheets of the body are 2-5 mm thick and the roof panels 1-25 mm thick. Standard Euro­pean draw-gear with side buffers is provided, but subsequent insta­llation of automatic coupling is possible.

Bogies are a standard Minden-Deutz design suitable for 160 km/h, but the Knor disc-brake equipment is designed only for 120 km/h. The light-weight wheels have spherical roller bearings.

Current for lighting, air-conditioning and other services is supplied at 110 V by two 15 KW cardan-shaft driven three-phase ge­nerators via rectifier diodes and a nickel cadmium battery. At low external temperatures heating is provided by steam from the train heating pipe. The double-glazed windows are fixed but small tilting ventilator panes are provided for emergency use on selected windows.
JAPANESE BULLET ТRAIN
In 1973 the Japanese National Railway completed a new bullet train capable of running at 260 km/h. The train consists of 16 carri­ages. The new model is considerably more powerful than its current counterparts. The output of the electric motors of this new model, installed on every other carriage, is 275 km each, as compared with the 185 km output of the motors in the conventional unit. Shinkansen (the name of the line) are driven not by a single giant engine, as many people imagine, but a number of electric motors mounted on every other of the carriages forming a train.

Improvements have also been made on the chassis and pantographs in order to ensure safety during high-speed runs.

Another technological innovation made to increase the speed of the train is the reduction of its weight. The carriages currently in operation are made of welded steel and each weighs about 10.5 tons. The new model, however, is made of light alloy and weighs only 7.5 tons. Technical improvements have also been made on the train to ensure safe operation in extremely cold and snowy regions.

In order to ensure safe operation on the Shinkansen, the JNR re­gularly runs two types of test cars on the line to cheek electric and track facilities for any signs of trouble.

The JNR has developed unique test vehicles which do the work of the electric and track test cars simultaneously. Consisting of seven carriages, the testing train has a maximum speed of 210 km/h. All the carriages are equipped with complex measuring instruments capable of checking all the required points of the electric facilities and tracks. Another innovation, said to be the first ever developed in the world, is a high-efficiency device installed in the new testing train which is able to measure the wear and abrasion of the trolley lines while the car is travelling at high speed.
BRITAIN'S APT
Britain’s entry in the high-speed age is the Advanced Passenger Train (APT). This train with its new suspension system and light ­weight construction has the fastest, quietest and smoothest riding in the world, and the first to be able to run at very high speed - up to 155 mph - on existing rail routes with little or no change to the track and signaling.

Britain's plans for the next 10-15 years are based on the exploitation of the technology of the APT used on existing track along present routes. Its commercial prototype will test the plan­ning assumption (предположение) that trains of fourteen cars (700-800 seats) can be operated to provide the capacity required during that period. The first introduction of APT will be at 125 m.p.h (200 km/h) maximum speed. Even so the advanced suspension features will enable journey times London to Glasgow to be reduced from 5 to 4 h. The present maximum speed of the design is 155 m.p.h (250 km/h), and it seems quite possible to stretch it to a speed approaching 200 m.p.h.(300 km/h) giving journey times London to Glasgow around 3 hours,

Whether at 155 m.p.h or at faster speeds there will undoubtedly (нecoмнeннo) be problems of control, compatibility (copaзмepность) with freight and at the higher speeds, wear and tear (износ) on the track. All these problems will be investigated in future plans. At speeds above 200 m.p.h. (300 km/h) all forms of surface transport expend most of their energy in overcoming wind resistance and only a small part on vehicle support, be it by wheel, magnet, or air.

The advantages of the two latter suspensions lie in the ability to effect substantial reduction in journey time, with perhaps some reduction in energy consumption for suspension. Their disadvantage, and it is a most substantial one, is that they will require new routes through urban areas to penetrate to city centres, where rail routes already exist.

Thus Britain's long term strategic studies will need to be concerned with determining the possibilities of very high speeds on new railway routes allied to (тecнo связанных) the use of existing links to city centres. Work which has been done already suggests that the optimum speed from the railway business viewpoint may approach 200 m.p.h (300 km/h); beyond this speed progress would depend on the social need for even shorter journey times, and the development of even more advanced suspension and control systems.
TURBOTRAINS
The new fastest Canadian train the Rapido has four powered cars. The engines are ST6 gas turbines made by United Aircraft of Canada.

What advantages have turbotrains to offer? Primarily the ac­celeration and high top speed of a powerful electric train without the enormous capital cost of electrifying the track. And the engines themselves are so light and compact that they can be tucked away underneath the floors of passenger carrying coaches so that there is no locomotive in the ordinary sense of the word.

The construction of the turbotrains in aluminium with stres­sed skins has as much in common with aircraft as with conventional railway coaches. A complete train of fourteen cars with engines weighs only about a quarter as much as a conventional train of the same ca­pacity. And with the aircraft construction go aircraft interiors: reclining seats, indirect lighting with individual reading lights, air-conditioning serving each seat area and the aircraft type meals.

The train sustains high speeds particularly round bends. Here the suspension system plays an important part: it supports the cars from above so that they can swing outwards on bends like pendulums. This reduces the effect of the forces which tend to throw the passen­gers about and makes it possible to take bends 30 percent faster.

British Railways' Advanced Passenger Train concept has a good deal in common with the Canadian National turbos.

But British Railways have gone further by discovering how to build suspension systems that would enable trains to run safely at speeds up to 150 m.p.h. on existing track.

The C.N. turbotrains are likely to have plenty of successors.
RAILWAY TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA
The Russian railway transport is the most important integral part of the united transport system. Over two thirds of the internal freight turnover falls on the railways.

Though all modes of transport are developing very rapidly (the rates of freight turnover being especially high for the pipeline and road transport), the railway transport will keep its leading role as the main mode of transportation for the visible future. The ability and readiness to carry any type of goods including mass goods, at any distances, rather high speeds of transportation irre­spective of the season and weather conditions, low cost of transpor­tation, its high reliability have made the railways practically uncompetitive with other modes of transport by many technical indices. The volume of railway transportation keeps on growing – at present it has grown by over 6-fold as compared with the prewar year of 1940 and by more than 192-fold over the sixty years after the war. Rapid developments of the country’s eco­nomy as well as great technical and organizational potentialities of the railway transport are manifest in that. Millions of tones of different freight and millions of passengers are transported by the Russian railways daily. The freight turnover of the Russian railways is growing at high rates.

These rapid rates of development of railway transport have become possible due to the measures regularly carried out both in expen­ding the railway network, improving the technical level of the rail­ways, in enhancing management and introducing the progressive me­thods of labor.

Along with the increase of the length of the railway network the technical equipment of all the branches of the railway trans­port is being improved.

Electrification remains the most important road to technical re­construction of the railway transport, as it does not only provide for the introduction of the traction of trains with the highest efficiency but also promotes the development of other aspects of the railway economy such as the locomotive stock, station facilities, signaling and others.

Modern track facilities are characterized by the use of long thermically hardened rails of R-65 types which are capable of withstanding 750-900 million t of freight and even more than that.

The wagon stock comprises large 4- and 8-axle cars with the load capacity of 65 and 120-125 t, respectively. Specialized grain carriers, cement carriers, dump cars, refrigerators, hoppers, and container-carriers are being employed on a wide scale. The whole carriage stock is equipped with auto coupling and automatic braking; its transition to roller bearings and to the technique of self-sealed doors for carrying grain and other bulk materials is boosted.

Traction is provided by two-unit diesel locomotives with the rating capacity of up to 6 000 hp and electric locomotives with the rating capacity of 6 520 KW.

The same holds true for other branches of the railway transport. Automatic block systems, centralized traffic control of traction sections, hump yard centralization and electric centralization of post controlled switches have been widely introduced.

Computer technique with up-to-date electronic computers has found wide use.

High-capacity cranes, big container terminals, the use of me­chanical and electric lift trucks, elevated tracks for unloading bulk materials have radically altered freight handling and opera­tion where hard, labor consuming manual work of loaders has been replaced by machines; mechanization of track operations is regularly perfected.

Scientific and technical progress in the railway transport is closely connected with the efficient solution of social problems such as the improvement of the working conditions of railroaders, elimination of hard labor consuming and dangerous jobs, raising of labor productivity as well as the growth of the well-being and the improvement of housing and cultural conditions of railway workers and their families.

Every year the railways employ many thousands of young specialists graduating from higher and technical schools.

For many years the railways have been conducting considerable work aimed at improving the skill of supervisors, engineers, and technicians. In 1967, an Institute for improving the skill of rail­way officials and specialists started functioning in Moscow. Eleven railway higher schools have faculties for improving the skill of railway employees. The existing system of raising the qualification of the staff in the main copes with the task of providing this form of training for officials and specialists. It is organized so that each supervisor and specialist could take a special course for rai­sing his qualification once in six years with or without disconti­nuing work.

The railways also have a harmonious system for training, retrai­ning and improving the skill of employees of mass trades. Every year about 250 000 skilled employees are trained and over 400 000 employees improve their skill at 90 railway technical schools and in the railways' network of courses. In addition, 185 trade schools functioning on the production base of the railways train over 40 000 young skilled workers annually.

The wage rates for the workers of a number of leading trades have been increased, the additional payment for night work; has been more than doubled, wage coefficient have bean additionally intro­duced for the employees of a number of railway terminals. Long-ser­vice bonuses have been introduced for the majority of employees of the railways, metro, railway enterprises and construction organiza­tions, and also additional privileges and advantages for employees in the regions of the Far East, Siberia, the Urals, and Kazakhstan.
LONG-DISTANCE САR (Open Type)
The open-type (without closed compartments) car, while providing all necessary conveniences for its passengers, gives the highest technical and economical results in service.

To improve the dependability and service life of the construction, and also to make the car more comfortable, the following features have been introduced in its design:

- the thickness of the metal part of the floor has been increased;

- a high-quality anti-corrosive and sound-insulating mastic has been used (its layer is at least one millimeter thick);

- the flooring in the toilet rooms is made from a glass fibre laminate;

- a non-combustible foamed plastic with a low moisture absorbing capacity based on polystyrene has been used for insulation purposes (instead of mirror);

- a plastic laminate has been used for facing the side walls;

- all the sections of the car are provided with loud-speakers.

The car is provided with cold and hot water supply, a boiling tank, a drinking water cooler, and an automatic ventilation system. An up-to-date electrical signaling system reliably controls the operation of the axle-box heating transmitters, the anti-slipping devices, the toilet-room occupancy signals, the signal showing the failure of the brakes to release, the ventilation system, etc.

The brake equipment includes an anti-slipping device, automatic duty, an intercar coupling with an electrical contact, which makes it possible to improve the effectiveness of braking.

The cars and their equipment are manufactured at enterprises out­fitted with modern highly accurate equipment. Many years of experi­ence and the high skill of the workers and engineers at these plants ensure a high quality of the rolling stock.

The modal ЭP-9п electric train is a cheap and convenient means of transportation ensuring the rapid carrying of over a thousand passengers to the remotest suburban districts. The cars of the train are successfully adapted for the entrance and exit of passengers at stops having high or low platforms.

Their high speed, low cost of transportation, reliable service, attractive appearance and excellent interior finish of the saloons together with other conveniences has given these trains a good re­putation. Owing to the high service properties and great convenience, the number of passengers preferring this type of transportation is growing every year.

Depending on the volume of traffic, the trains can be made up of 10, 8, 6 and 4 cars, including load, motor and trailer cars. The cars are connected by means of serial type CA-3 automatic couplers and have convenient passages with safe inferior vestibules.

The motor cars of the train, which are the propelling units, carry the main traction and auxiliary equipment.

The lightweight and strong body is welded of separate components and is a load-carrying member without a central sill. The increased rigidity of the body together with a low weight are ensured by the wide use of bent and press worked sections. High-quality welding of the components is ensured by the use of modern automatic and semi­automatic welding machines with following weld control. The floor, walls and ceiling of the body have high-quality thermal insulation. Special coatings protect the body from corrosion.

The body of a motor car is supported by two four-wheel motor-carrying pivot-type trucks with pedestal axle boxes.

Owing to the use of soft central spring suspension of the cradle type, helical springs and also friction and hydraulic vibration dampers on the tracks, very smooth riding of the car is ensured. To reduce the dynamic action on the track, the weight of all the parts of the trucks without spring suspension has been reduced as much as possible, and frame suspension of the traction motors is employed.

The type PT-5ID traction motor is a highly dependable d-c machine designed for the supply of power from a rectifying unit with full-wave rectification and a current pulsation coefficient up to 35%. The torque is transmitted from the motor to the wheel set through a dog coupling and a spur reduction gear.

The traction motors are fed from the contact system through a pantograph, a main transformer and the rectifying unit.

The highly reliable model OUP-1000/25 oil-type main transformer with forced-circulation cooling of oil ensures stepping down of the voltage to a value required for operation of the traction motors and the auxiliary circuits.

The compact silicon rectifying unit arranged in two lockers of the car is reliable in operation, simple in design and does not require much servicing. It is designed for operation within a wide range of temperatures (from –50 to +40°) in regions with humidity up to 80%. The single-phase bridge circuit of the unit with split ends of the two arms creates good communication in the transition stages and ensures practically currentless commutation of the group selector switch.

A smoothing reactor is included in the circuit of the traction motors for reducing the pulsations of the rectified current.

The rectifying unit, smoothing reactor end the oil of the main transformer are cooled with air according to a combined arrangement whose high effectiveness has been proved by long service.

The auxiliary mechanisms (except for the auxiliary compressor) are driven by exceedingly reliable three-phase induction motors without commutators. These motors are of a vibration-proof design with dampproof insulation of a high class. The motors are fed from type РФ-IA phase splitters which convert the single-phase voltage of the secondary winding of the main transformer into three-phase voltage.

Each train has at its ends head cars equipped with driver's cabs containing all modern conveniences. The cabs are spacious and ensure excellent visibility of the track. They have control panels with control and measuring instruments, a five-aspect cab colour light signal, a fan, a train broadcasting installation, brake controls, a controller, convenient upholstered seats, etc. The cabs have att­ractive interior finishing. In cold weather the temperature of the air in the cab is automatically maintained within I5-I9°C.

After the cab is a service room with control apparatus. The rear vestibule of the car has two lockers also designed for accommodating electrical apparatus.

The dividing transformers, type CH-I02A voltage stabilizer, elec­tric air distributing device, brake distributing valve, air reser­voirs, motor compressor, type KH-45 cadmium-nickel alkaline storage battery and other units arranged, under the car body are readily accessible and when necessary can be easily and rapidly replaced.

The four-wheel trucks of the head and trailer cars with double spring suspension ensuring smooth running are of the standard type also used on all-metal passenger cars.

The bodies of the head and trailer cars in comparison with those of the motor cars have insignificant alterations connected with the installation of different equipment. Toilet rooms are provided in the trailer cars.

Each car of the train has at both sides two double-leaf sliding doors with air control from the driver's cab. The passenger saloons are separated from the vestibules by glazed sliding doors.

Convenient two-side seats are installed in the saloons in two rows. The racks and hangars arranged along the walls at their upper part are very convenient for holding the passengers' baggage. The wide windows with sliding frames and polished glass ensure excellent visibility of the scenery. The floor of the car is covered with lino­leum, and the walls are coated with an attractive plastic laminate.

Comfort is improved quite noticeably by effective installations for the forced ventilation of air, ensuring the delivery of from 2,600 to 6,600 cubic meters of fresh air on hour into the car. The stream of fresh air, entering through special hatchways, is uniform­ly distributed over the whole car, and when the windows of the car are closed creates an excess pressure in the saloon which prevents dust from getting into the car.

In cold weather, the car is heated by electric heaters arranged under the seats, and an electric air heater in the ventilation duct. She preset temperature is controlled automatically by means of a special thermal regulating device.

Uniform lighting of the passenger saloons and vestibules is en­sured by ceiling lamps with incandescent bulbs arranged over the seats. Some of the lamps have two bulbs, for general and reserve lighting.

On Customers' request luminescent lamps can be installed.

Effective braking of the train is ensured by means of shoe-type brakes with electro pneumatic control from the driver's cab.

The train is equipped with dead man’s control, which automatical­ly stops the train if the driver loses his vigilance. On Customers’ request various types of this control can be installed.

Each trailer car is provided with a motor-compressor having an output of 580 liters a minute, which is a reliable and continuous source of compressed air for brake and other air systems of the train. The compressors are switched on and off automatically depending on the pressure of the air in the main brake reservoirs.