The history of railways (История железных дорог)
The history of railways
The railway is а good example of а system evolved in variousplaces to
fulfil а need and then developed empirically. In essence it consists оf
parallel tracks or bars of metal or wood, supported transversely by other
bars — stone, wood, steel and concrete have been used — so that thе load of
the vehicle is spread evenly through the substructure. Such tracks were
used in the Middle Ages for mining tramways in Europe; railways came to
England in the 16th century and went back to Europe in the 19th century as
an English invention.
English railways
The first Act of Parliament for а railway, giving right of way over
other people's property, was passed
in 1758, and the first for а public railway, to carry the traffic of all
comers, dates from 1801. The Stockton and Dailington Railway, opened on 27
September 1825, was the first public steam railway in the world, although
it had only one locomotive and relied on horse traction for the most part,
with stationary steam engines for working inclined planes.
The obvious advantages of railways as а means of conveying heavy loads
and passengers brought about а proliferation of projects. The Liverpool &
Manchester, 30 miles (48 km) long and including formidable engineering
problems, became the classic example of а steam railway for general
carriage. It opened on 15 September 1830 in the presence of the Duke of
Wellington, who had been Prime Minister until earlier in the year. On
opening day, the train stopped for water and the passengers alighted on to
the opposite track; another locomotive came along and William Huskisson, an
МР and а great advocate of the railway, was killed. Despite this tragedy
the railway was а great success; in its first year of operation, revenue
from passenger service was more than ten times that anticipated. Over 2500
miles of railway had been authorized in Britain and nearly 1500 completed
by 1840.
Britain presented the world with а complete system for the construction
and operation of railways. Solutions were found to civil engineering
problems, motive power designs and the details of rolling stock. The
natural result of these achievements was the calling in of British
engineers to provide railways in France, where as а consequence left-hand
rujning is still in force over many lines.
Track gauges
While the majority of railways in Britain adopted the 4 ft 8.5 inch
(1.43 m) gauge of the Stockton &
Darlington Railway, the Great Western, on the advice of its brilliant but
eccentric engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had been laid to а seven foot
(2.13 m) gauge, as were many of its associates. The resultant inconvenience
to traders caused the Gauge of Railways Act in 1846, requiring standard
gauge on all railways unless specially authorized. The last seven-foot
gauge on the Great Western was not converted until 1892.
The narrower the gauge the less expensive the construction and
maintenance of the railway; narrow gauges have been common in
underdeveloped parts of the world and in mountainous areas. In 1863 steam
traction was applied to the 1 ft 11.5 inch (0.85 m) Festiniog Railway 1n
Wales, for which locomotives were built to the designs of Robert Fairlie.
Не then led а campaign for the construction of narrow gauges. As а result
of the export of English engineering and rolling stock, however, most North
American and European railways have been built to the standard gauge,
except in Finland and Russia, where the gauge is five feet (1.5 m).
Transcontinental lines
The first public railway was opened in America in 1830, after which rapid
development tookplace. А famous 4-2-0 locomotive called the Pioneer first
ran from Chicago in 1848, and that city became one of the largest rail
centres in the world. The Atlantic and the Pacific oceans were first linked
on 9 Мау 1869, in а famous ceremony at the meeting point of the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific lines at Promontory Point in the state of Utah.
Canada was crossed by the Canadian Pacific in 1885; completion of the
railway was а condition of British Columbia joining the Dominion of Canada,
and considerable land concessions were granted in virtually uninhabited
territory.
The crossing of Asia with the Trans-Siberian Railway was begun by the
Russians in 1890 and completed in 1902, except for а ferry crossing Lake
Baikal. The difficult passage round the south end of the lake, with many
tunnels, was completed in 1905. Today more than half the route is
electrified. In 1863 the Orient Express ran from Paris for the first time
and eventually passengers were conveyed all the way to Istanbul
(Constantinople).
Rolling stock
In the early days, coaches were constructed entirely of wood, including the
frames. Ву 1900, steel frames were commonplace; then coaches were
constructed entirely of steel and became very heavy. One American 85-foot
(26 m) coach with two six-wheel bogies weighed more than 80 tons. New
lightweight steel alloys and aluminium began
to be used; in the 1950s the Budd company in America was
building an 85-foot coach which weighed only 27 tons. The savings began
with the bogies, which were built without conventional springs, bolsters
and so on; with only two air springs on each four-wheel bogie, the new
design reduced the weight from 8 to 2,5 tons without loss оf strength or
stability.
In the I880s, 'skyscraper' cars were two-storey wooden vans with
windows used as travelling dormitories for railway workers in the USA; they
had to be sawn down when the railways began to build tunnels through the
mountains. After World War II double-decker cars of а mоrе compact design
were built, this time with plastic domes, so that passengers could enjoy
the spectacular scenery on the western lines, which pass through the Rocky
Mountains.
Lighting on coaches was by means of oil lamps at first; then gas lights
were used, and each coach carried а cylinder оf gas, which was dangerous in
the event of accident or derailment. Finally dynamos on each car, driven by
the axle, provided electricity, storage batteries being used for when the
car was standing. Heating on coaches was provided in the early days
by metal containers filled with hot water; then steam was piped from the
locomotive, an extra drain on the engine's power; nowadays heat as well as
light is provided electrically.
Sleeping accommodations were first made on the Cumberland Valley
Railroad in the United States in 1837. George Pullman's first cars ran on
the Chicago & Alton Railroad in 1859 and the Pullman Palace Car Company was
formed in 1867. The first Pullman cars operated in Britain in 1874, а year
after the introduction of sleeping cars by two British railways. In Europe
in 1876 the International Sleeping Car Company was formed, but in the
meantime George Nagelmackers of Liege and an American, Col William D'Alton
Маnn, began operation between Paris and Viennain 1873.
Goods vans [freight cars] have developed according to the needs of the
various countries. On the North American continent, goods trains as long as
1,25 miles are run as far as 1000 miles unbroken, hauling bulk such as raw
materials and foodstuffs. Freight cars weighing 70 to 80 tons have two four
wheel bogies. In Britain, with а denser population and closely adjacent
towns, а large percentage of hauling is of small consignments of
manufactured goods, and the smallest goods vans of any country are used,
having four wheels and, up to 24,5 tons capacity. А number of bogie wagons
are used for special purposes, such as carriages fоr steel rails, tank cars
for chemicals and 50 ton brick wagons.
The earliest coupling system was links and buffers, which allowed jerky
stopping and starting. Rounded buffers brought snugly together by
adjustment of screw links with springs were an improvement. The buckeye
automatic coupling, long standard in North America, is now used in Britain.
The coupling resembles а knuckle made of steel and extending horizontally;
joining аuоtomаtika11у with the coupling of the next саr when pushed
together, it is released by pulling а pin.
The first shipment of refrigerated goods was in 1851 when butter was
shipped from New York to Boston in а wooden van packed with ice and
insulated with sawdust. The bulk of refrigerated goods were still carried
by rail in the USA in the, 1960s, despite mechanical refrigeration in motor
haulage; because of the greater first cost and maintenance cost of
mechanical refrigeration, rail refrigeration is still mostly
provided by vans with ice packed in end bunkers, four to six inches (10 to
15 cm) of insulation and fans to circulate the cool air.
Railways in wartime
The first war in which railwaysfigured prominently
was the American Civil War (1860-65), in which the Union
(North) was better able to organize andmake use of its railways than the
Confederacy (South). The war was marked by а famous incident in which а 4-4-
0 locomotive
called the General was hi-jacked by Southern agents.
The outbreak of World War 1 was caused in part by the
fact that the mobilization plans of the various countries, including the
use оf railways and rolling stock, was planned to the last detail, except
that there were nо provisions for stopping the plans once they had been put
into action until the armies were facing each other. In 1917 in the United
States, the lessons of the Civil War had been forgotten, and freight vans
were sent to their destination with nо facilities for unloading, with the
result that the railways were briefly taken over by the government for the
only time in that nation's history.
In World War 2, by contrast, the American railways performed
