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South Australian Railways J Class
The two locomotives comprising the South Australian Railways J class were the only steam locomotives with a 0-6-0 wheel arrangement ever operated by the railway. They went into service in August 1875 and were condemned more than five decades later, in 1932 and 1934. Irish origins Both of the locomotives were built in 1872 by Beyer, Peacock and Company, Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd at their Gorton Foundry near Manchester for the Irish companies Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway and Dublin and Drogheda Railway, which were cutting back on purchases. There were few other broad-gauge railways in existence at the time, and they were offered for sale to the Government of South Australia, South Australian Government. Deployment The locomotives were about 25 per cent more powerful than any on the South Australian Railways at the time, so they were put to immediate use hauling copper trains and wheat trains on the Morgan railway line, Port Adelaide to Kapunda route.South Australia' ...
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Beyer, Peacock And Company
Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, and machine tools to service them, throughout the world. Founders German-born Charles Beyer had undertaken engineering training related to cotton milling in Dresden before moving to England in 1831 aged 21. He secured employment as a draughtsman at Sharp, Roberts and Company's Atlas works in central Manchester, which manufactured cotton mill machinery and had just started building locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. There he was mentored by head engineer and prolific inventor of cotton mill machinery, Richard Roberts. By the time he resigned 22 years later he was well established as the company's head engineer; he had been involved in producing more than 600 locomotives. Richard Peacock had been chief engineer of the M ...
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South Australian Railways 700 Class (steam)
The South Australian Railways 700 class was a class of 2-8-2 steam locomotives operated by the South Australian Railways. History Delivery As part of William Webb's rehabilitation of the South Australian Railways, ten 2-8-2 steam locomotives were delivered by Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1926. They were designed to be able to operate across broad gauge branch lines laid with 60lbs rail. The first locomotive, 700 arrived at Port Adelaide via ship in March 1926. 700 operated for the first time in April 1926 on a trial run north of Adelaide. It was involved in a minor collision when it rear-ended a freight train in May 1926 between Upper Sturt and Mount Lofty. In June 1926, it entered regular service between Adelaide and Murray Bridge, and the 9 remaining 700s were delivered that same month. The 700s were more common on freight trains but they also hauled passenger trains. They were not allowed to run on branch lines laid with 40lbs or 50lbs rail. In 19 ...
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South Australian Railways S Class
The South Australian Railways S class was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives operated by the South Australian Railways. History The S Class locomotives were designed as an express locomotive for the route between Murray Bridge and the border with Victoria. The first 12 were delivered by James Martin & Co in 1894, followed by a further six in 1903/04. They type was notably used to haul the ''Melbourne Express''. The S class had 6'6" driving wheels, the largest of any Australian locomotive, to give it high speeds on low grades. The engines were pushed out of main line service in the 1920s by 600 class locomotives and Brill railcars. They continued to serve on secondary services into the 1950s. Some locomotives even served in shunting duties despite being unsuitable due to their large wheel diameter. The last examples were retired in 1961. S136 was set aside for preservation at Islington Railway Workshops The Islington Railway Workshops are railway workshops in the north ...
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South Australian Railways F Class (1902)
The South Australian Railways F class is a class of 4-6-2T steam locomotives operated by the South Australian Railways. History The F class hauled the majority of Adelaide's suburban passenger trains from its introduction in 1902. The first 22 were built by the Islington Railway Workshops. James Martin & Co built 12 units, with the remaining 10 built by Perry Engineering, the last entering service in October 1922. The type replaced the smaller P class 2-4-0T engines, which were struggling with the increasing sizes of suburban passenger trains. From the 1930s, F class locomotives were replaced by 55 and 75 class Brill railcars on lightly patronized routes. They continued to see extensive service on popular routes until their displacement in 1955/56 by the diesel multiple unit Redhen railcars. Some engines were retained for shunting duties at Port Adelaide and Mile End with F225, the final member of the class being condemned in 1969.
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Railway Air Brake
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted. The Westinghouse system uses air pressure to charge air reservoirs (tanks) on each car. Full air pressure causes each car to release the brakes. A subsequent reduction or loss of air pressure causes each car to apply its brakes, using the compressed air stored in its reservoirs. Overview Straight air brake In the air brake's simplest form, called the ''straight air system'', compressed air pushes on a piston in a cylinder. The piston is connected through mechanical linkage to brake shoes that can rub on the train wheels, using the resulting friction to slow the train. Th ...
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Vacuum Brake
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes also enjoyed a brief period of adoption in the United States, primarily on narrow-gauge railroads. Their limitations caused them to be progressively superseded by compressed air systems starting in the United Kingdom from the 1970s onward. The vacuum brake system is now obsolete; it is not in large-scale usage anywhere in the world, other than in South Africa, largely supplanted by air brakes. Introduction In the earliest days of railways, trains were slowed or stopped by the application of manually applied brakes on the locomotive and in brake vehicles through the train, and later by steam power brakes on locomotives. This was clearly unsatisfactory, given the slow and unreliable response times (each brake being separately applied by ...
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Buffer (rail Transport)
A buffer is a part of the buffers-and-chain coupling system used on the railway systems of many countries, among them most of those in Europe, for attaching railway vehicles to one another. Description Fitted at the ends of the vehicle frames on the buffer beam, one at each corner, the buffers are projecting, shock-absorbing pads which, when vehicles are coupled, are brought into contact with those on the next vehicle. The buffer itself comprises the buffer plates which take the impact. The draw chain used between each pair of vehicles includes a screw which is tightened after coupling to shorten the chain and keep the buffers pressed together. Such is known as a 'screw coupling'. Historically, coupling chains were no more than that, a short length of heavy chain (typically three links long) with no adjustment. These would result in a 'loose-coupled train' in which the buffers of adjacent vehicles would only touch when the coupling chain was fully slack, such as when being pus ...
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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 ...
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Pilot (locomotive)
A cowcatcher, also known as a pilot, is the device mounted at the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles on the track that might otherwise damage or Derailment, derail it or the train. In the UK small metal bars called ''life-guards'', ''rail guards'' or ''guard irons'' are provided immediately in front of the wheels. They knock away smaller obstacles lying directly on the running surface of the railhead. Historically, fenced-off railway systems in Europe relied exclusively on those devices and cowcatchers were not required, but in modern systems cowcatchers have generally superseded them. Instead of a cowcatcher, trams use a device called a fender. Objects lying on the tram track come in contact with a sensor bracket, which triggers the lowering of a basket-shaped device to the ground, preventing the overrunning of the obstacles and dragging them along the road surface in front of the wheels. In snowy areas the cowcatcher also has the function of a Snowplow#Railway sno ...
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Footplate
A footplate provides the structure on which a locomotive driver and fireman stand in the cab to operate a British or continental European steam locomotive. It comprises a large metal plate that rests on top of the locomotive frame, usually it is covered with wooden floorboards. It takes up the full width of the locomotive cab, and in depth it extends from the front of the cab to the coal bunker on the tender. The cab and other superstructure elements are in turn mounted on it. On some locomotives, the footplate is extended beyond the front of the cab to form a walkway around the boiler – usually referred to as the "running board" or "foot board" – to facilitate inspection and maintenance. In Britain, the word remains in use as a synonym for the cab or working in the cab, even in the context of diesel and electric locomotives, as in the expression of working ''on the footplate''. The term can also be applied to the external step along the side of a classical tram. Nation ...
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Smokebox
A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is exhausted to the atmosphere through the chimney (or funnel). Early locomotives had no smokebox and relied on a long chimney to provide natural draught for the fire but smokeboxes were soon included in the design for two specific reasons. Firstly and most importantly, the blast of exhaust steam from the cylinders, when directed upwards through an airtight smokebox with an appropriate design of exhaust nozzle, effectively draws hot gases through the boiler tubes and flues and, consequently, fresh combustion air into the firebox. Secondly, the smokebox provides a convenient collection point for ash and cinders ("char") drawn through the boiler tubes, which can be easily cleaned out at the end of a working day. Without a smokebox, all char must ...
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Kerosene Lamp
A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a table, or hand-held lanterns may be used for portable lighting. Like oil lamps, they are useful for lighting without electricity, such as in regions without rural electrification, in electrified areas during power outages, at campsites, and on boats. There are three types of kerosene lamp: flat-wick, central-draught (tubular round wick), and mantle lamp. Kerosene lanterns meant for portable use have a flat wick and are made in dead-flame, hot-blast, and cold-blast variants. Pressurized kerosene lamps use a gas mantle; these are known as Petromax, Tilley lamps, or Coleman lamps, among other manufacturers. They produce more light per unit of fuel than wick-type lamps, but are more complex and expensive in construction and more complex to o ...
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