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ALCO RS-1
The ALCO RS-1 was a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Alco-GE between 1941 and 1953 and the American Locomotive Company from 1953 to 1960. ALCO subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works built an additional three RS-1s in 1954. This model has the distinction of having the longest production run of any diesel locomotive for the North American market. The RS-1 was in production for 19 years from the first unit Rock Island #748 in March 1941 to the last unit National of Mexico #5663 in March 1960. Design In 1940, the Rock Island Railroad approached ALCO about building a locomotive for both road and switching service. To meet the Rock Island's request, ALCO created the RS-1. Their new design was a hood unit, in contrast to most existing locomotive designs at the time which were predominantly carbody units. The hood unit design allowed for improved visibility, especially to the rear. Rear visibility is very important for switching, which often involves reverse movements. Unlike ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axle Load
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle is supported. In the latter case, a bearing or bushing sits inside a central hole in the wheel to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle. Sometimes, especially on bicycles, the latter type axle is referred to as a ''spindle''. Terminology On cars and trucks, several senses of the word ''axle'' occur in casual usage, referring to the shaft itself, its housing, or simply any transverse pair of wheels. Strictly speaking, a shaft which rotates with the wheel, being either bolted or splined in fixed relation to it, is called an ''axle'' or ''axle shaft''. However, in looser usage, an entire assembly including the surrounding axle housing (typically a casting) is als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AAR Wheel Arrangement
The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive (or unit) wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. Essentially a simplification of the European UIC classification, it is widely used in North America to describe Diesel locomotive, diesel and electric locomotives (including third-rail electric locomotives). It is not used for steam locomotives, which use the Whyte notation instead. The AAR system counts axles instead of wheels. Letters refer to powered axles, and numbers to unpowered (or idler) axles. "A" refers to one powered axle, "B" to two powered axles in a row, "C" to three powered axles in a row, and "D" to four powered axles in a row. "1" refers to one idler axle, and "2" to two idler axles in a row. A dash ("–") separates Bogie, trucks or wheel assemblies. A plus sign ("+") refers to articulation, either by connecting bogies with span bolsters or by connecting individual locomotives via solid drawbars instead of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport. A bogie may remain normally attached (as on many railroad cars and semi-trailers) or be quickly detachable (as the dolly in a road train or in railway bogie exchange); it may contain a suspension within it (as most rail and trucking bogies do), or be solid and in turn be suspended (as most bogies of tracked vehicles are); it may be mounted on a swivel, as traditionally on a railway carriage or locomotive, additionally jointed and sprung (as in the landing gear of an airliner), or held in place by other means (centreless bogies). In Scotland, the term is used for a child’s (usually home-made) wooden cart. While ''bogie'' is the preferred spelling and first-listed variant in various dictionaries, bogey and bogy are also used. Rai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ALCO RSD-1
The ALCO RSD-1 was a diesel-electric locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). This model was a road switcher type rated at and rode on three-axle trucks, having a C-C wheel arrangement. It was often used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the ALCO RS-1, though the six-motor design allowed better tractive effort at lower speeds, as well as a lower weight-per-axle. It was developed to meet the need to supply the Soviet Union over the Trans-Iranian Railway starting in mid 1943. On the other hand, due to the traction generator and appurtenant control apparatus being sized for four axles and yet having two additional powered axles, it had poorer performance at higher speeds.Rakov (1995), p. 371-374. Variations There were three different specifications issued that covered the RSD-1 model; E1645 and E1646 were for wartime production for the US Army, while E1647 was a post-war order for the Mexican National Railways (Ferrocarriles Nacionales de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trans-Iranian Railway
The Trans-Iranian Railway ( fa, راهآهن سراسری ایران) was a major railway building project started in Pahlavi Iran in 1927 and completed in 1938, under the direction of the then-Iranian monarch Reza Shah. It was entirely built with indigenous capital, and links the capital Tehran with Bandar Shahpur (now: Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni) on the Persian Gulf in the south and Bandar Shah (now: Bandar Torkaman) on the Caspian Sea in the north, via Ahvaz and Ghom. In 1961, under Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, it was extended from Bandar Shah to a new terminus in Gorgan. During the land reforms of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1963, as part of the "White Revolution", the Trans-Iranian railway was extended to link Tehran to Mashhad, Tabriz and Isfahan. The original 1938 Bandar Shahpur-to-Bandar Shah route was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2021. Before World War I: the Russian scheme The idea of a railway connecting the Russian Empire and British India ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road Switcher
A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive designed to both haul railcars in mainline service and shunt them in railroad yards. Both type and term are North American in origin, although similar types have been used elsewhere. A road switcher must be able to operate and have good visibility in both directions. As a road engine, a road switcher must be able to operate at road speeds, with suitable power and cooling capacity. It has high-speed road trucks rather than low-speed switcher only trucks. Modern road trucks are always equipped with "frictionless" roller bearings, whereas switcher trucks were almost always equipped with "friction" plain bearings, until plain bearings were outlawed in interchange service on both railcars and locomotives. Overview For the reasons given above, road switchers are generally hood units. The set-back cab of a hood unit provides more safety in the event of a collision at speed than most switcher designs, and the rear visibility is muc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shunting (rail)
Shunting, in railway operations, is the process of sorting items of rolling stock into complete trains, or the reverse. In the United States this activity is known as switching. Motive power Motive power is normally provided by a locomotive known as a ''shunter'' (in the UK) or switcher (in the US). Most shunter/switchers are now diesel-powered but steam and even electric locomotives have been used. Where locomotives could not be used (e.g. because of weight restrictions) shunting operations have in the past been effected by horses or capstans. Hazards Coupling The terms "shunter" and "switcher" are applied not only to locomotives but to employees engaged on the ground with shunting/switching operations. The task of such personnel is particularly dangerous because not only is there the risk of being run over, but on some railway systems—particularly ones that use buffer-and-chain/screw coupling systems—the shunters have to get between the wagons/carriages in order to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cab Unit
In North American railroad terminology, a cab unit is a railroad "locomotive" with its own cab and controls. "Carbody unit" is a related term, which may be either a cabless booster unit controlled from a linked cab unit, or a cab unit that contains its own controls. Characteristics With both body styles, a bridge-truss design framework is used to make the body a structural element of the locomotive. The body extends the full width and length of the locomotive. The service walkways are inside the body. Carbody units, gaining rigidity from the body trusswork, require less structural weight to achieve rigidity than do locomotives with non-structural bodies. For that reason, carbody construction was favored to increase the power-to-weight ratio for early diesel locomotives, before the power available with diesel technology was increased. Recent years have seen carbody construction revived in the quest for greater fuel efficiency with passenger locomotives. The full-width body ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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