magnificently, moving 2,5 times the level of freight in 1944 as in 1938,
with minimal increase in equipment, and supplying more than 300,000
employees to the armed forces in various capacities. In combat areas, and
in later conflicts such as the Korean war, it proved difficult to disrupt
an enemy's rail system effectively; pinpoint bombing was difficult,
saturation bombing was expensive and in any case railways were quickly and
easily repaired.
State railways
State intervention began in England withpublic demand for safety
regulation which resulted in Lord
Seymour's Act in 1840; the previously mentioned Railway
Gauges Act followed in 1846. Ever since, the railways havebeen recognized
as one of the most important of nationalresources in each country.
In France, from 1851 onwards concessions were granted for a planned
regional system for which the Government provided ways and works and the
companies provided track and roiling stock; there was provision for the
gradual taking over of the lines by the State, and the Societe Nationale
des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF) was formed in 1937 as а company in which
the State owns 51% of the capital and theompanies 49%.
The Belgian Railways were planned by the State from the outset in 1835.
The Prussian State Railways began in 1850; bу the end of the year 54 miles
(87 km) were open. Italian and Netherlands railways began in 1839; Italy
nationalized her railways in 1905-07 and the Netherlands in the period 1920-
38. In Britain the main railways were nationalized from 1 January 1948; the
usual European pattern is that the State owns the main lines and minor
railways are privately owned or operated by local authorities.
In the United States, between the Civil War and World Wаr 1 the
railways, along with all the other important inndustries, experienced
phenomenal growth as the country developed. There were rate wars and
financial piracy during а period of growth when industrialists were more
powerful than the national government, and finally the Interstate Commerce
Act was passed in l887 in order to regulate the railways, which had а near
monopoly of transport. After World War 2 the railways were allowed to
deteriorate, as private car ownership became almost universal and public
money was spent on an interstate highway system making motorway haulage
profitable, despite the fact that railways are many times as efficient at
moving freight and passengers. In the USA, nationalization of railways
would probably require an amendment to the Constitution, but since 1971 а
government effort has been made to save the nearly defunct passenger
service. On 1 May of that year Amtrack was formed by the National Railroad
Passenger Corporation to operate а skeleton service of 180 passenger trains
nationwide, serving 29 cities designated by the government as those
requiring train service. The Amtrack service has been heavily used, but
not adequately funded by Congress, so that bookings,
especially for sleeper-car service, must be made far in
advance.
The locomotive
Few machines in the machine age have inspired so much affection as
railway locomotives in their 170 years of operation. Railways were
constructed in the sixteenth century, but the wagons were drawn by muscle
power until l804. In that year an engine built by Richard Trevithick worked
on the Penydarren Tramroad in South Wales. It broke some cast iron
tramplates, but it demonstrated that steam could be used for haulage, that
steam generation could be stimulated by turning the exhaust steam up the
chimney to draw up the fire, and that smooth wheels on smooth rails could
transmit motive power.
Steam locomotives
The steam locomotive is а robust and
simple machine. Steam is admitted to а cylinder and by
expanding pushes the piston to the other end; on the return stroke а port
opens to clear the cylinder of the now expanded steam. By means of
mechanical coupling, the travel of the piston turns the drive wheels of the
locomotive.
Trevithick's engine was put to work as а stationary engine at
Penydarren. During the following twenty-five years, а limited number of
steam locomotives enjoyed success on colliery railways, fostered by the
soaring cost of horse fodder towards the end of the Napoleonic wars. The
cast iron plateways, which were L-shaped to guide the wagon wheels, were
not strong enough to withstand the weight of steam locomotives, and were
soon replaced by smooth rails and flanged wheels on the rolling stock.
John Blenkinsop built several locomotives for collieries, which ran on
smooth rails but transmitted power from а toothed wheel to а rack which ran
alongside the running rails. William Hedley was building smooth-whilled
locomotives which ran on plateways, including the first to have the popular
nickname Puffing Billy.
In 1814 George Stephenson began building for smooth rails at
Killingworth, synthesizing the experience of the earlier designers. Until
this time nearly all machines had the cylinders partly immersed in the
boiler and usually vertical. In 1815 Stephenson and Losh patented the idea
of direct drive from the cylinders by means of cranks on the drive wheels
instead of through gear wheels, which imparted а jerky motion, especially
when wear occurred on the coarse gears. Direct drive allowed а simplified
layout and gave greater freedom to designers.
In 1825 only 18 steam locomotives were doing useful work. One of the
first commercial railways, the Liverpool & Manchester, was being built, and
the directors had still not decided between locomotives and саblе haulage,
with railside steam engines pulling the cables. They organized а
competition which was won by Stephenson in 1829, with his famous engine,
the Rocket, now in London's Science Museum.
Locomotive boilers had already evolved from а simple
flue to а return-flue type, and then to а tubular design, in which а nest
of fire tubes, giving more heating surface, ran from the firebox tube-plate
to а similar tube-plate at the smokebox end. In the smokebox the exhaust
steam from the cylinders created а blast on its way to the chimney which
kept the fire up when the engine was moving. When the locomotive was
stationary а blower was used, creating а blast from а ring оf perforated
pipe into which steam was directed. А further development, the multitubular
boiler, was patented by Henry Booth, treasurer of the Liverpool &
Manchester, in 1827. It was incorporated by Stephenson in the Rocket, after
much trial and error in making the ferrules of the copper tubes to give
water-tight joints in the tube
plates.
After 1830 the steam locomotive assumed its familiar form, with the
cylinders level or slightly inclined at the smokebox end and the fireman's
stand at the firebox end.
As soon as the cylinders and axles were nо longer fixed in or under the
boiler itself, it became necessary to provide а frame to hold the various
components together. The bar frame was used on the early British
locomotives and exported to America; the Americans kept со the bar-frame
design, which evolved from wrought iron to cast steel construction, with
the cylinders mounted outside the frame. The bar frame was superseded in
Britain by the plate frame, with cylinders inside the frame, spring
suspension (coil or laminated) for the frames and axleboxes (lubricated
bearings) to hold the
axles.
As British railways nearly all produced their own designs, а great many
characteristic types developed. Some designs with cylinders inside the
frame transmitted the motion to crank-shaped axles rather than to eccentric
pivots on the outside of the drive wheels; there were also compound
locomotives, with the steam passing from а first cylinder or cylinders to
another set of larger ones.
When steel came into use for building boilers after 1860, higher
operating pressures became possible. By the end of the nineteenth century
175 psi (12 bar) was common, with 200 psi (13.8 bar) for compound
locomotives. This rose to 250 psi (17.2 bar) later in the steam era. (By
contrast, Stephenson's Rocket only developed 50 psi, 3.4 bar.) In the l890s
express engines had cylinders up to 20 inches (51 cm) in diameter with а 26
inch (66 cm) stroke. Later diameters increased to 32 inches (81 cm) in
places like the USA, where there was more room, and locomotives and rolling
stock in general were built larger.
Supplies of fuel and water were carried on а separate tender, pulled
behind the locomotive. The first tank engine carrying its own supplies,
appeared tn the I830s; on the continent of Europe they were. confusingly
called tender engines. Separate tenders continued to be common because they
made possible much longer runs. While the fireman stoked the firebox, the
boiler had to be replenished with water by some means under his control;
early engines had pumps running off the axle, but there was always the
difficulty that the engine had to be running. The injector was invented in
1859. Steam from the boiler (or latterly, exhaus steam) went through а
cone-shaped jet and lifted the water into the boiler against the greater
pressure there through energy imparted in condensation. А clack (non-return
valve)
retained the steam in the boiler.
Early locomotives burned wood in America, but coal in Britain. As
British railway Acts began to include penalties for emission of dirty black
smoke, many engines were built after 1829 to burn coke. Under Matthetty
Kirtley on the Midland Railway the brick arch in the firebox and deflector
plates were developed to direct the hot gases from the coal to pass over
the flames, so that а relatively clean blast came out of
the chimney and the cheaper fuel could be burnt. After 1860 this simple
expedient was universа11у adopted. Fireboxes were protected by being
