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Railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, 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 rail freight transport, freight transport globally, thanks to its Energy efficiency in transport, energy efficiency and potentially high-speed rail, high speed.Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower friction, frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains. Power is usually provided by Diesel locomotive, diesel or Electric locomotive, electric locomotives. While railway transport is capital intensity, 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 an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Transportation In The United States
Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of Rail freight transport, freight shipments along a well integrated network of Standard-gauge railway, standard gauge private freight railroads that also extend into Canada and Mexico. The United States has the List of countries by rail transport network size, largest rail transport network of any country in the world, about . Passenger train, Passenger service is a Public transport, mass transit option for Americans with commuter rail in most major American cities, especially on the East Coast of the United States, East Coast. Intercity passenger service was once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, but passenger service shrank in the 20th century as Aviation in the United States, commercial air traffic and the Interstate Highway System made commercial air and road transport a practical option throughout the United States. The nation's earliest railroads were built in the 1820s and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Train
A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often known simply as "engines"), though some are self-propelled, such as multiple units or railcars. Passengers and cargo are carried in railroad cars, also known as wagons or carriages. Trains are designed to a certain gauge, or distance between rails. Most trains operate on steel tracks with steel wheels, the low friction of which makes them more efficient than other forms of transport. Many countries use rail transport. Trains have their roots in wagonways, which used railway tracks and were powered by horses or pulled by cables. Following the invention of the steam locomo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Track
Railway track ( and UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers ( railroad ties in American English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a dependable, low-friction surface on which steel wheels can roll. Early tracks were constructed with wooden or cast-iron rails, and wooden or stone sleepers. Since the 1870s, rails have almost universally been made from steel. Historical development The first railway in Britain was the Wollaton wagonway, built in 1603 between Wollaton and Strelley in Nottinghamshire. It used wooden rails and was the first of about 50 wooden-railed tramways built over the subsequent 164 years. These early wooden tramways typically used rails of oak or beech, attached to wooden sleepers with iron or wooden nails. Gravel or small stones were pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Freight Transport
Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, transporting cargo all or some of the way between the shipper and the intended destination as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material handling, bulk material, intermodal containers, general freight or specialized freight in purpose-designed cars. Rail freight practices and economics vary by country and region. When considered in terms of ton-miles or tonne-kilometers hauled, Energy efficiency in transport#Trains, energy efficiency can be greater with rail transportation than with other means. Maximum economies are typically realized with bulk commodities (e.g., coal), especially when hauled over long distances. Moving goods by rail often involves transshipment costs, particularly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source 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. The most common are diesel–electric locomotives and diesel–hydraulic. Early internal combustion engine, 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 transmission (mechanics), transmissions, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam Locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat water in the locomotive's Boiler (power generation), boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. In most locomotives, the steam is admitted alternately to each end of its Steam locomotive components, cylinders in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a Tender (rail), tender coupled to it. #Variations, Variations in this general design include electrically powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Transport In Europe
Rail transport in Europe has diverse technological standards, operating concepts, and infrastructures. Common features are the widespread use of Standard-gauge railway, standard-gauge rail, high operational safety and a high proportion of railway electrification, electrification. Electrified railway networks in Europe operate at many different voltages, both alternating current, AC and direct current, DC, varying from 750 to 25,000 volts, and railway signalling, signaling systems vary from country to country, complicating cross-border traffic. The European Union (EU) aims to make cross-border operations easier as well as to introduce competition to national rail networks. EU member states were empowered to separate the provision of transport services and the management of the infrastructure by the Single European Railway Directive 2012. Usually, national railway company, railway companies were split into separate divisions or independent companies for infrastructure, passenger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-speed Rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is no single definition or standard that applies worldwide, lines built to handle speeds of at least or upgraded lines of at least are generally considered to be high-speed. The first high-speed rail system, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, began operations in Honshu, Japan, in 1964. Due to the streamlined spitzer (bullet), spitzer-shaped nose cone of the 0 Series Shinkansen, trains, the system also became known by its English nickname bullet train. Japan's example was followed by several European countries, initially in High-speed rail in Italy, Italy with the Florence–Rome high-speed railway, Direttissima line, followed shortly thereafter by High-speed rail in France, France, High-speed rail in Germany, Germany, and High-speed rail in Spain, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as Diesel–electric powertrain, diesel–electric or turbine–electric powertrain, gas turbine–electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a Transmission (mechanics), power transmission system. Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90% (not including the inefficiency of generating the electricity). Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric loco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska Railroad Oil Train At Nenna
Alaska ( ) is a Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost (the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian into the eastern hemisphere) state in the United States. It borders the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Yukon and the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border, in the Bering Strait, with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Chukchi Sea, Chukchi and Beaufort Sea, Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. Technically, it is a enclave and exclave, semi-exclave of the U.S., and is the largest exclave in the world. Alaska is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, largest U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tram
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated Right-of-way (property access), right-of-way. The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in the wider term ''light rail'', which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than Main line (railway), main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a Pantograph (transport), pantograph sliding on an overhead line; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector. In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city stre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
