118-544: A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) used by standard-gauge railways . Broad gauge of 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ), more known as Russian gauge , is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ( CIS states , Baltic states , Georgia , Ukraine ) and Mongolia . Broad gauge of 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ), commonly known as Five foot gauge ,
236-662: A 1,664 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge of five Portuguese feet – close enough to allow interoperability in practice. The new high-speed network in Spain and Portugal uses standard gauge. The dual-gauge high-speed train RENFE Class 130 can change gauge at low speed without stopping. The 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauge was first used in Great Britain in Scotland for two short, isolated lines,
354-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
472-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
590-710: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
708-527: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
826-488: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
944-478: A logging railroad . Some industrial uses require still broader gauges, such as: These applications might use double track of the country's usual gauge to provide the necessary stability and axle load. These applications may also use much heavier than normal rails, the heaviest rails for trains being about 70 kg/m (141 lb/yd). Vehicles on these gauges generally operate at very low speeds. Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport )
1062-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
1180-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
1298-677: A century about the practicability of third rail operation, and numerous devices have been promoted to overcome the problem, especially at turnouts, including the "Brennan Switch". This gauge was once used by the United Railways and Electric Company and the MTA Maryland and is now used only by the Baltimore Streetcar Museum . As finally established, the Iberian gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in )
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#17328490300061416-544: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
1534-468: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1652-616: A gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) but Luas , the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ) (originally 5 ft ( 1,524 mm )) gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge inherited from the Russian Empire (the two standards are close enough to allow full interoperability between Finland and Russia). Portugal and
1770-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1888-488: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
2006-459: A law stating "The width of the track or gauge of all roads under this act, shall be four feet ten inches between the rails." When American railroads' track extended to the point that they began to interconnect, it became clear that a single nationwide gauge was desirable. Six-foot-gauge railroads ( 6 ft [ 1,829 mm ]) had developed a large regional following in New York State in
2124-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
2242-523: A modified Siemens Velaro High Speed Train on its flagship St Petersburg to Moscow service at 250 km/h (160 mph) and can run at 350 km/h (220 mph) on dedicated track. The country is planning to build its portion of the Beijing to Moscow high speed railway in broad gauge. Finland uses a modified Alstom pendolino on the Allegro service to Helsinki at 220 km/h (140 mph). Uzbekistan uses
2360-625: A modified Talgo 250 on the Tashkent–Bukhara high-speed rail line at 250 km/h (160 mph). South Asia primarily uses the broad gauge for its passenger rail services and the fastest broad gauge train presently in the region is the Indian Railways' Vande Bharat Express (a.k.a. Train 18) . During one of the trial runs, the Vande Bharat Express achieved a peak speed of 180 km/h (110 mph). The sustained speeds of this train
2478-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
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#17328490300062596-567: A period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad-gauge lines in the South, moved them 3 in (76 mm) east and spiked them back in place. The new gauge was close enough that standard-gauge equipment could run on it without difficulty. By June 1886, all major railroads in North America were using approximately the same gauge. The final conversion to true standard gauge took place gradually as track
2714-650: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
2832-460: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
2950-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
3068-724: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
3186-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
3304-620: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
3422-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
3540-531: Is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power
3658-418: Is a compromise between the similar, but slightly different, gauges first adopted as respective national standards in Spain and Portugal in the mid-19th century. The main railway networks of Spain were initially constructed to a 1,672 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 13 ⁄ 16 in ) gauge of six Castilian feet. Those of Portugal were initially built in standard gauge, but by 1864 were all converted to
Broad-gauge railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
3894-453: Is considerably lower, with a peak operational speed of 160 km/h and an average speed of 95 km/h, due to track limitations. Indian Railways has plans to introduce a higher speed Vande Bharat sleeper train that is capable of 200 km/h, but the project has encountered delays stemming from bids for rolling-stocks with poor local sourcing. A number of semi high speed railway projects using broad gauge tracks are being planned or built in
4012-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
4130-607: Is mainly used in Finland . Broad gauge of 1,600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ), commonly known as Irish gauge , is the dominant track gauge in Ireland , the Australian state of Victoria and Adelaide in South Australia and passenger trains of Brazil . Broad gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ), commonly known as Iberian gauge , is
4248-756: Is still used on the streetcars in New Orleans , and the Pittsburgh Light Rail system. This gauge was also used for the now defunct Pittsburgh Railways , West Penn Railways , and trams in Cincinnati . Similar 5 ft 2 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 1,581 mm ) gauge is used in Philadelphia on SEPTA routes, 15 , the Media–Sharon Hill Line , the Subway–Surface Trolleys and
4366-497: Is the second most widely used gauge in the world, and spans the whole of the former Soviet Union/ CIS bloc including the Baltic states and Mongolia. Finland uses 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ). The difference is clearly lower than the tolerance margin, so through running is feasible. Care must be taken when servicing international trains because the wear profile of the wheels differs from that of trains that run on domestic tracks only. When
4484-408: Is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with the invention of the steam locomotive in
4602-550: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
4720-629: The Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum (Dutch Railway Museum) in Utrecht. These replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39. The erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula Railway introduced a broad gauge of 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) for the first passenger railway line in India, between Bori Bunder and Thane . This was later adopted as the standard throughout
4838-522: The 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) broad gauge was officially adopted as the standard gauge for the Province of Canada , becoming known as the Provincial gauge and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. This caused problems in interchanging freight cars with northern United States railroads, most of which were built to standard gauge or a gauge similar to it. In
Broad-gauge railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-958: The Board of Trade (with the advice of engineers Charles Pasley and George Stephenson ) introduced the gauge as a compromise. The Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 was passed to formalise the gauge used on the island of Ireland to 5 feet 3 inches (1600mm). As of 2013 the network totals over 2,730 km or 1,696 mi, 2,400 km or 1,491 mi in the Republic of Ireland and 330 km or 205 mi in Northern Ireland . Fun'Ambule Funicular in Neuchâtel, 330 m long, opened 27 April 2001. The Pennsylvania trolley gauges of 5 ft 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,588 mm ) and 5 ft 2 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 1,581 mm ) are similar to this gauge, but incompatible. There
5074-568: The Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836-1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838- ). Both the lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the Scottish rail network. Later this gauge was adopted as a standard for many British colonies such as Province of Canada and British India . In 1851, the 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) broad gauge was officially adopted as
5192-527: The Market–Frankford Line . Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area was opened in 1972 with 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauge. The system has been extended multiple times since then, using new railcars custom built with this non-standard gauge. The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On
5310-663: The North East line, Victoria and the 125 km (77.7 mi) long Oaklands railway line , which runs into New South Wales from Victoria, were converted to standard gauge in 2008–2010. The Mildura and Murrayville railway lines were converted to standard gauge in 2018. Lines connecting the states of Rio de Janeiro , São Paulo and Minas Gerais ; E.F.Carajás in Pará and Maranhão states, and Ferronorte in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states. Used in older Metro systems. Although
5428-671: The United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
5546-609: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
5664-591: The metre gauge network is almost five times longer, Irish gauge is considered the standard by ABNT . The current network is 4,057 km or 2,521 mi, 15% of the total Brazilian network. Following proposed projects of the Ulster Railway and Dublin and Drogheda Railway companies (using 6 ft 2 in ( 1,880 mm ) and 5 ft 2 in ( 1,575 mm ), respectively), and existing issues of competing gauges in Great Britain, in 1843
5782-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
5900-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
6018-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
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#17328490300066136-463: The 1870s (mainly between 1872 and 1874), Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railroads. Today, almost all Canadian railways are standard-gauge. In the early days of rail transport in the US, railways tended to be built out from coastal cities into the hinterland , and systems did not initially connect. Each builder
6254-532: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
6372-510: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
6490-500: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
6608-584: The 1960s. Finland retained the original gauge with no re-standardisation. As part of the railway gauge standardisation considered by the United Kingdom Parliamentary Gauge Commission, Ireland was allocated its own gauge, Irish gauge. Ireland then had three gauges, and the new standard would be a fourth. The Irish gauge of 1,600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ) is used in Ireland and parts of Australia and Brazil. A problem with
6726-460: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
6844-573: The British Great Western Railway the 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) gauge was supposed to allow high speed, but the company had difficulty with locomotive design in the early years, losing much of the advantage, and rapid advances in railway track and suspension technology allowed standard-gauge speeds to approach broad-gauge speeds within a decade or two. On the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) and 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauges,
6962-522: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
7080-511: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
7198-649: The Dutch state, but soon by the Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij (NRS), for its Amsterdam–Utrecht–Arnhem line. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, so the two companies had to regauge their first lines. In 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. The HSM followed in 1866. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive ( De Arend ) and three carriages in
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#17328490300067316-881: The Erie. These included the Walkill Valley, the Albany and Susquehanna (later part of the Delaware and Hudson); the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua (later the Northern Central, becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad); the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western mainline (which also had a significant amount of trackage in Pennsylvania); predecessor lines of the New York and Oswego Midland (later
7434-620: The Finnish rail network was founded in 1862, Finland was the Grand Duchy of Finland , an autonomic state ruled by the Imperial Russia . The first border crossing railway to Russia was opened in 1870, while the first to Sweden was not until 1919, so railways were built to the broad Russian track gauge of 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ). In Russia, this gauge was re-standardized to 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ) during
7552-415: The Irish Gauge in Australia is that it is only 165 mm ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) wider than the standard gauge used in other parts of Australia, principally New South Wales . Therefore, it is not considered advisable to use a third rail to allow dual-gauge operation on mainline sections of track, because of the danger of material lodging between the two rails. There has been argument for well over
7670-567: The New York and Erie would operate passenger cars up to 11 feet (3.4 m) wide. Building westward from the Hudson River, it eventually reached Lake Erie, establishing a mainline longer than 400 miles (640 km) providing a shortcut to the American Midwest region from the New York City vicinity, and helping spawn a regional network of six-foot-gauge railroads almost exclusively within New York State. Many early New York railways were Erie railroad-built branch lines, while others were independent railroads that wanted to partner and interchange with
7788-429: The New York, Ontario, and Western); and the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls (later becoming part of the New York Central railroad's Peanut Route along the shoreline of Lake Ontario). However, by the late 1870s, the trend was inevitable, and conversion to standard gauge began, some lines first becoming "dual gauged" with the addition of a third running rail. Between 1876 and 1880, most of the remaining six-foot gauge trackage
7906-523: The Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ) called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese (see Iberian gauge ); though there are plans to convert to standard gauge . In Toronto , Canada, the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861. Toronto adopted a unique Toronto gauge of 4 ft 10 + 7 ⁄ 8 in ( 1,495 mm ), an "overgauge" originally stated to "allow horse-drawn wagons to use
8024-408: The additional costs of train procurement, due to the essential modifications of the rolling-stock for the broad gauge, from European rolling-stock manufacturers such as Alstom or Siemens would be softened through a large minimum order size of at least thirty train sets. A considerable debate has continued about the suitability of the high speed rail on standard gauge for the Indian travel demands and
8142-492: The cost of construction led to the adoption of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) gauge and then 2 ft 6 in ( 762 mm ) and 2 ft ( 610 mm ) narrow gauges for many secondary and branch lines. In the later part of the 20th century, due to interchangeability and maintenance issue, the railways in each of the countries in the Indian Subcontinent began to convert all metre-gauge and narrow-gauge lines to this gauge. Today,
8260-434: The country, as it was thought to be safer in areas prone to cyclones and flooding. The 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) gauge is now commonly referred to as Indian gauge . While some initial freight railway lines in India were built using standard gauge , most of the standard and narrow gauge railways have since been dismantled and relaid in broad gauge. Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have
8378-508: The dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal . Broad gauge of 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ), commonly known as Indian gauge , is the dominant track gauge in India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sri Lanka , Argentina , Chile , and on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay Area . This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world. It is possible for trains on both Iberian gauge and Indian gauge to travel on each other's tracks with no modifications in
8496-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
8614-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
8732-467: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
8850-515: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
8968-470: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
9086-457: The extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, a problem solvable by using outside cylinders and higher steam pressure on standard gauge. In the end, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any early broad-gauge locomotive, but then met limits set by other factors such as the capacity of manual stoking, the axle (and total) locomotive weight that would trigger upgrades to
9204-515: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
9322-544: The first part of the 19th century, due to the influence of the New York and Erie , one of the early pioneering railroads in America, chartered in 1832, with its first section opening in 1841. The builders and promoters decided that a six-foot track gauge would be needed for locomotives to be larger and more powerful than were in general use at the time, for pulling very large trains. Also the six-foot gauge provided greater stability, and
9440-614: The gauge with the greatest mileage. Railways which had already received their enabling Act would continue at the 7 ft gauge. Ireland, using the same criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge, the Irish gauge , of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) which is also used in the Australian states of South Australia and Victoria. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864 and finally
9558-677: The high speed rail on the standard gauge over the broad gauge, for cost sensitive rail markets in South Asia, especially in India. This gauge is used by the Toronto streetcar system and the Toronto subway This gauge was first used in the United Kingdom and the United States before it became the standard gauge for most railways in the former Soviet Union. Russian gauge or CIS gauge 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in )
9676-486: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. Irish gauge Railways with a track gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) fall within the category of broad gauge railways . As of 2022 , they were extant in Australia , Brazil and on the island of Ireland . Currently,
9794-497: The last of Brunel's broad gauge was converted over a weekend in 1892. In 1839, the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. The chosen gauge of 1,945 mm ( 6 ft 4 + 9 ⁄ 16 in ) was applied between 1839 and 1866 by the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) for its Amsterdam–The Hague–Rotterdam line and between 1842 and 1855, firstly by
9912-1218: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
10030-435: The locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft ( 2,134 mm ) exactly but this was soon increased by 1 ⁄ 4 in (6 mm) to 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. George Stephenson was to add an extra half inch to his original 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge for
10148-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
10266-560: The main portion of the B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
10384-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
10502-522: The nationwide rail network in Pakistan , Sri Lanka and Nepal is entirely on this gauge, whereas India , under Project Unigauge , and Bangladesh are still undergoing gauge conversion. This gauge is the widest gauge in regular passenger use in the world. Some railways in the United States were laid with a gauge of 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ). The Gualala River Railroad operated 5 feet 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (1,740 mm) tracks for
10620-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
10738-456: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
10856-518: The possible exclusion of the existing rail network in India. The recent discussions around the Kerala semi-high speed rail has highlighted the limitations of high speed rail on broad gauge. Since most of the global high speed rail infrastructure is built using the standard gauge, the cost benefits of using off-the-shelf rolling-stocks with minimal customizations and the availability of extensive, well proven technical know-how, are significant factors in favor of
10974-600: The rails and bridges, the maximum wheelbase and/or boiler length compatible with an individual route's curves. In the 1930s German engineering studies focused on a Breitspurbahn system of railways of 3 meter gauge to serve Hitler's future German Empire. Spain uses standard gauge track for its high speed railways in order to provide cross-border services with France and the rest of Western Europe, but runs high speed trains on its legacy broad gauge network at 200 km/h (120 mph) and are developing trains to travel at speeds in excess of 250 km/h (160 mph). Russia uses
11092-444: The rails" on the horse-drawn streetcar lines of the day but with the practical effect of precluding the use of standard-gauge equipment in the street. The Toronto Transit Commission still operates the Toronto streetcar system and three heavy-rail subway lines using this unique gauge. The light metro Scarborough RT and two light rail lines under construction ( Eglinton Crosstown line and Finch West ) use standard gauge. In 1851,
11210-500: The region, with sustained speeds of 200 km/h with future-proofing for 250 km/h. India's current high speed railway project is being built on the standard gauge due to limitations imposed by the Japanese consortium funding the project, however the feasibility reports by both the French and German consultants preferred a broad gauge high speed railway. These European reports stated that
11328-475: The same reason. While the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was initially prepared to authorise lines built to the broad gauge of 7 ft ( 2,134 mm ), it was eventually rejected by the Gauge Commission in favour of all new railways in England, Wales and Scotland being built to standard gauge of 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ), this being
11446-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
11564-427: The standard gauge for the Province of Canada , becoming known as the Provincial gauge , and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. In the 1870s, mainly between 1872 and 1874, Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railways. Today, all Canadian railways are standard-gauge. In US, this gauge
11682-544: The suburban rail networks in Adelaide , Melbourne , and most regional lines in Victoria (including some that cross the border into New South Wales ) use 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ). The 828 km (514.5 mi) long Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor linking South Australia and Victoria, and some associated branch lines, was converted to standard gauge in 1995. The final 200 km (124.3 mi) section of
11800-470: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
11918-536: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
12036-466: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
12154-429: The vast majority of cases. In Great Britain , broad gauge was first used in Scotland for the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836–1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838–1848). Both short and isolated lines, they were built in 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ). The lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the emerging Scottish rail network. The Great Western Railway
12272-609: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
12390-489: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
12508-507: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
12626-585: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
12744-430: Was adopted for many lines, but soon fell out in favour of standard gauge. Today, only California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) uses this gauge. In British India , some standard gauge freight railways were built in initial period, though they were dismantled later. Later, in the 1850s, the gauge of 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) was adopted as standard for the nationwide network. Attempts to economize on
12862-509: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
12980-687: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
13098-534: Was converted. In 1886, the railways in the Southern United States agreed to coordinate changing gauge on all their tracks. After considerable debate and planning, most of the southern rail network was converted from 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge to 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) gauge, nearly the standard of the Pennsylvania Railroad , over two days beginning on 31 May 1886. Over
13216-443: Was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838 with a gauge of 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ), and retained this gauge until 1892. Some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings . As it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until
13334-612: Was free to choose its own gauge, although the availability of British-built locomotives encouraged some railways to be built to standard gauge. As a general rule, southern railways were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), while northern railroads that were not standard gauge tended to be narrow gauge. Most of the original track in Ohio was built in 4 ft 10 in ( 1,473 mm ) Ohio gauge , and special "compromise cars" were able to run on both this track and standard gauge track. In 1848, Ohio passed
13452-535: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
13570-479: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
13688-408: Was maintained. Some North American tram (streetcar) lines intentionally deviated from standard gauge. This may have been to make the tram companies less tempting targets for takeovers by the steam railways (or competing tram companies), which would be unable to run their trains over the tram tracks. Pennsylvania trolley gauge of 5 ft 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,588 mm ),
13806-742: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
13924-609: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
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