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    History of Rail Transport

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    Asif Malik
    The history of rail transport began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. It can be divided into periods defined by the track material and motive power used. Early railways used wooden rails and human or animal power. In the late 18th century, iron plates were fixed to wooden rails and the gauge could be varied, allowing turnarounds. John Curr invented the flanged rail in 1787. In the early 19th century, the Surrey Iron Railway opened as a double track plateway powered by horses. James Watt improved the steam engine in the late 18th century, making it suitable to power vehicles, and he patented a steam locomotive design in 1784. Rudolf Diesel and others founded a company

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    History of Rail Transport

    Uploaded by

    Asif Malik
    52 views4 pages
    The history of rail transport began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. It can be divided into periods defined by the track material and motive power used. Early railways used wooden rails and human or animal power. In the late 18th century, iron plates were fixed to wooden rails and the gauge could be varied, allowing turnarounds. John Curr invented the flanged rail in 1787. In the early 19th century, the Surrey Iron Railway opened as a double track plateway powered by horses. James Watt improved the steam engine in the late 18th century, making it suitable to power vehicles, and he patented a steam locomotive design in 1784. Rudolf Diesel and others founded a company

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    Brief history of Rail Transport

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    The history of rail transport began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. It can be divided into periods defined by the track material and motive power used. Early railways used wooden rails and human or animal power. In the late 18th century, iron plates were fixed to wooden rails and the gauge could be varied, allowing turnarounds. John Curr invented the flanged rail in 1787. In the early 19th century, the Surrey Iron Railway opened as a double track plateway powered by horses. James Watt improved the steam engine in the late 18th century, making it suitable to power vehicles, and he patented a steam locomotive design in 1784. Rudolf Diesel and others founded a company

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    52 views4 pages

    History of Rail Transport

    Uploaded by

    Asif Malik
    The history of rail transport began in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. It can be divided into periods defined by the track material and motive power used. Early railways used wooden rails and human or animal power. In the late 18th century, iron plates were fixed to wooden rails and the gauge could be varied, allowing turnarounds. John Curr invented the flanged rail in 1787. In the early 19th century, the Surrey Iron Railway opened as a double track plateway powered by horses. James Watt improved the steam engine in the late 18th century, making it suitable to power vehicles, and he patented a steam locomotive design in 1784. Rudolf Diesel and others founded a company

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    History of rail transport

    The history of rail transport began in 6th century BC in Ancient Greece. It


    can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal
    means of track material and motive power used.

    Pre-steam
    Wooden rails
    In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug,
    a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line
    originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated
    by human or animal power, through a treadwheel The line still exists and is
    operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational
    railway.
    Metal rails
    In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast
    iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation
    of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning,
    but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching.
    A system was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal
    plates – these became known as plateways. John Curr, a Sheffield colliery
    manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is
    disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways
    serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks. In
    1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway, a double track
    plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in
    south London.

    Steam power
    James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, greatly improved
    the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out
    of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine in 1769, capable of
    powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a
    variety of machinery, it was a large stationary engine. It could not be
    otherwise: the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low
    pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder; this required a
    separate condenser and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of
    boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting
    directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that
    might be used to power a vehicle and he patented a design for a steam
    locomotive in 1784.

    Diesel power
    In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine
    manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to
    manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing
    diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel
    locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered
    locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–
    Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial
    success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW
    with a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

    Q.2: What are the Means and Modes of Transportation


    system?
    Transportation modes normally used are:
    1- Motor
    2- Rail
    3- Air
    4- Water
    5- Pipe line
    6- A combination of the above
    7-Multimode transportation
    Means of Transportation are:
    1. Automobile
    2. Local Bus Transit
    3. Express Bus Transit
    4. Para Transit (Mobile Bike, Ambulance)
    5. Light Rail
    6. Heavy Rail
    7. Ferry (Sea, Water)

    Q.3:Comparative Study between\amongst various modes&


    means of transportation system & communication system.
    The functions of transportation and communication systems overlap.
    Both bridge the gaps between geographic locations, the one by
    moving physical objects, the other by moving information.
    In recent years, as the roles of communication have expanded,
    many people expect they’ll come to preempt those that
    transportation has traditionally performed, with messages
    substituting for travel and shipping. Or, is it more likely that
    communication and transportation are mutually reinforcing – that
    each induces expansion in the other?

    Over the past two decades, communication costs have


    plummeted relative to transportation costs, reflecting advanced
    electronic technology and changing prices of some commodities,
    such as energy. For those industries and markets where
    communication and transportation coexist, the comparative
    advantage of communication has been rising.

    Relations between these systems have significant implications for


    regional economics and regional planning because transportation
    costs play a dominant role in locational decisions and in land
    development, infrastructure investment, and the conduct of
    industry. Locational advantage (or disadvantage) is based on the
    costs (including time costs) of gaining access to various
    destinations and services. Early theory of location was based on
    transportation costs, but pertinent access costs nowadays are
    frequently costs of communication instead.

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