Professional Documents
Culture Documents
•Rail Transport
• Rail Transport commenced in the mid 16th century in Germany in the form of Horse-powered funiculars and Wagon ways.
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Modern Rail Transport
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• Modern Rail Transport commenced with the British development of the steam locomotives in the early 19th century.
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• Rails/Tracks
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• The introduction of Bessemer process, enabling Steel to be made inexpensively, led to 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 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.
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Types of Gauge
Broad Gauge(1676mm)
Standard Gauge(1435mm)
Rolling Stock Wheels Meter Gauge(1000mm)
Electric Locomotive
• Electricity is supplied to moving trains with a(nearly) continuous conductor running along the track that usually takes one of the
three forms: an Overhead line, a Third Rail mounted at track level, or an onboard battery.
• Both Overhead wire and third-rail system usually use the running rail as the return conductor but some systems use a separate
fourth rail for this purpose.
• The type of Electrical power used is either Direct Current(DC) or Alternating Current(AC).
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The Earlier and Modern System at a Glance
Motive Force
• In Thermodynamics, Motive Force is a natural agent, such as water or steam, wind or electricity, used to impart motion to
machinery such as engine.
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• Traction Motor
• A Traction Motor is an Electric Motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as an Electric Locomotive.
• Traction Motors are used in Electrically Powered Rail vehicles.
• DC Motors with series field winding are the oldest type of Traction Motors.
• Nowadays, AC Induction Motors and Synchronous Motors, being simple and require low maintenance, are commonly used.
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• Multiple Unit(MU)
• A Multiple Unit is a self propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another Multiple
Unit can be controlled by a single driver.
• MUs are classified on the basis of their power source and are of two main types:
• EMUs(Electric Multiple Units)
• DMUs(Diesel Multiple Units)
• A MU has the same power and traction components as a locomotive, but instead of components being concentrated in one car, they
are spread throughout the cars that make up the unit.
• The INDIAN RAILWAY uses DMUs & EMUs on its National Network. All Suburban and Rapid Transit lines are served by EMUs.
• Rapid Transit
Rapid Transit is a passenger railway in an Urban area with high capacity and high
frequency.
• Rapid Transit is also referred to as Mass Rapid Transit(MRT), Metro or Heavy Rail.
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• Rapid Transit systems are Electric railways that operate on an exclusive right-of-way,
which can not be accessed by pedestrain or other vehicles of any sort and which is
often grade separated in tunnels(underground) or an elevated railways(overhead).
• Modern services on rapid Transit systems are typically provided using Electric Multiple
Units(EMUs) on rail tracks.
• The Stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains, requiring
custom made trains in order to minimize the gaps between train and platform.
• Metro is the most common term for underground Rapid Transit Systems used by Non-Native English Speakers.
• History of Rapid transit System
• The Worlds first Rapid transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a conventional railway in 1