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1996 Silver Spring, Maryland Train Collision
On February 16, 1996, a MARC commuter train collided with Amtrak's ''Capitol Limited'' passenger train in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, killing three crew and eight passengers on the MARC train; a further eleven passengers on the same train and fifteen passengers and crew on the ''Capitol Limited'' were injured. Total damage was estimated at $7.5 million. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the crew of the MARC train had forgotten the indication of an approach signal which they had passed before a station stop, and as a consequence could not slow down in time after encountering a stop signal. The crash led to the creation of comprehensive federal rules for passenger car design, the first in the history of passenger service in the U.S., as well as changes to operating rules. Accident The two-track railroad line between Brunswick, Maryland, and Union Station in Washington, D.C., is owned by CSX Transportation (save fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 census, making it the fifth-most populous place in Maryland after Baltimore, Columbia, Germantown, and Waldorf. Downtown, next to the northern tip of Washington, D.C., is the oldest and most urbanized part of the community, surrounded by several inner suburban residential neighborhoods inside the Capital Beltway. Many mixed-use developments combining retail, residential, and office space have been built since 2004. Silver Spring takes its name from a mica-flecked spring discovered there in 1840 by Francis Preston Blair, who subsequently bought much of the surrounding land. Acorn Park, south of downtown, is believed to be the site of the original spring. Geography As an unincorporated CDP, Silver Spring's boundaries are not consistently de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maryland Transit Administration
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. There are 80 bus lines serving the Baltimore Metropolitan Area, along with rail services that include the Light Rail, Metro Subway, and MARC Train. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . With nearly half the population of Baltimore residents lacking access to a car, the MTA is an important part of the regional transit picture. The system has many connections to other transit agencies of Central Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and south-central Pennsylvania (Hanover, Harrisburg, and York): WMATA, Charm City Circulator, Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland, Annapolis Transit, Rabbit Transit, Ride-On, and TransIT. History The MTA took over the operations o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hi-Level
The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars; a sleeping car variant was considered but never produced. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. Boarding was on the lower level; passengers climbed up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. Vestibules on the upper level permitted passengers to walk between cars; some coaches had an additional stairwell at one end to allow access to single-level equipment. The Budd Company designed the car in the 1950s for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ("Santa Fe") for use on the ''El Capitan'', a coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago. The design was inspired by two recent developments in railroading: the dome car, employed in intercity routes in the western United States, and bilevel commuter cars operating in the Chicago area. Budd built ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dining Car
A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, such as buffet cars, cars in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Grill cars, in which customers sit on stools at a counter and purchase and consume food cooked on a grill behind the counter are generally considered to be an "intermediate" type of dining car. History United States Before dining cars in passenger trains were common in the United States, a rail passenger's option for meal service in transit was to patronize one of the roadhouses often located near the railroad's "water stops". Fare typically consisted of rancid meat, cold beans, and old coffee. Such poor conditions discouraged many from makin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sleeping Car
The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American and English railways in the 1830s; they could be configured for Coach (rail), coach seating during the day. History Possibly the earliest example of a sleeping car (or ''bed carriage'', as it was then called) was on the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways between London and Lancashire, England. The bed carriage was first made available to first-class passengers in 1838. In the spring of 1839, the Cumberland Valley Railroad pioneered sleeping car service in America with a car named "Chambersburg", between Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Chambersburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A couple of years later a second car, the "Carlisle", was introduced into service. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superliner (railcar)
The Superliner is a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier in the United States. Amtrak ordered the cars to replace older single-level cars on its long-distance trains in the Western United States. The design was based on the Budd Hi-Level vehicles, employed by the Santa Fe Railway on its ''El Capitan'' trains. Pullman-Standard built 284 cars, known as Superliner I, from 1975 to 1981; Bombardier Transportation built 195, known as Superliner II, from 1991 to 1996. The Superliner I cars were the last passenger cars built by Pullman. Car types include coaches, dining cars, lounges, and sleeping cars. Most passenger spaces are on the upper level, which features a row of windows on both sides. The Sightseer Lounge observation cars have distinctive floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper level. Boarding is on the lower level; passengers climb up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. The first Superliner I car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baggage Car
A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passengers. The term ''passenger car'' can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, railway post office and prisoner transport cars. The first passenger cars were built in the early 1800s with the advent of the first railroads, and were small and little more than converted freight cars. Early passenger cars were constructed from wood; in the 1900s construction shifted to steel and later aluminum for improved strength. Passenger cars have increased greatly in size from their earliest versions, with modern bi-level passenger cars capable of carrying over 100 passengers. Amenities for passengers have also improved over time, with developments such as lighting, heating, and air conditioning added for improved passenge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GE Genesis
General Electric Genesis (officially trademarked GENESIS) is a series of passenger diesel locomotives produced by GE Transportation, then a subsidiary of General Electric. Between 1992 and 2001, a total of 321 units were built for Amtrak, Metro-North, and Via Rail. The Genesis series of locomotives was designed by General Electric in response to a specification published by Amtrak and ultimately selected over a competing design presented by Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD). Until the introduction of the Siemens Charger, the Genesis series had the lowest height of any North American diesel-electric locomotives, being lower than the previous-generation F40PH. This low height allows the locomotive to travel easily through low-profile tunnels in the Northeast Corridor. Technical design The GE Genesis series is unique among recently manufactured North American passenger locomotives in that it uses a single, monocoque carbody design styled by industrial designer Cesar Vergara, thus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EMD F40PH
The EMD F40PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in several variants from 1975 to 1992. Intended for use on Amtrak's short-haul passenger routes, it became the backbone of Amtrak's diesel fleet after the failure of the EMD SDP40F. The F40PH also found widespread use on commuter railroads in the United States and with Via Rail in Canada. Additional F40PH variants were manufactured by Morrison-Knudsen and MotivePower between 1988 and 1998, mostly rebuilt from older locomotives. Amtrak retired its fleet of F40PHs in the early-2000s in favor of the GE Genesis, but the locomotive remains the mainstay of Via Rail's long-distance trains; a depiction of the locomotive hauling ''The Canadian'' is featured on the reverse of the Frontier series Canadian $10 bill. The F40PHs are still a common sight on many other commuter railroads throughout the United States. In addition, Amtrak has kept 22 of its F40PHs in use as non-powere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Push–pull Train
Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not. A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other end of the train. This second vehicle may be another locomotive, or an unpowered control car. In the UK and some other parts of Europe, the control car is referred to as a ''driving trailer'' (or driving van trailer/DVT where there is no passenger accommodation); in the US and Canada, they are called ''cab cars''. Train formation Locomotive at one end Historically, push–pull trains with steam power provided the driver with basic controls at the cab end along with a bell or other signalling code system to communicate with the fireman located in the engine itself in order to pass commands to adjust controls not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Control Car (rail)
A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK and Ireland) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or two driver compartments with all the controls and gauges required to remotely operate the locomotive, including exterior locomotive equipment such as horns, bells, ploughs, and lights. They also have communications and safety systems such as GSM-R or European Train Control System (ETCS). Control cars enable push-pull operation when located on the end of a train opposite its locomotive by allowing the train to reverse direction at a terminus without moving the locomotive or turning the train around. Control cars can carry passengers, baggage, and mail, and may, when used together with diesel locomotives, contain an engine-generator set to provide head-end power (HEP). They can also be used with a power car or a railcar. European railways have used control c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combustion locomotives and railcars used kerosene and gasoline as their fuel. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression-ignition engine in 1898, and steady improvements to the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratios to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited power band, and while low power gasoline engines could be coupled to mechanical transmissions, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmission. This is because clutches would need to be very large at these power levels and would not fit in a standard -wide locomotive frame, or wear too quic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
