Railroad - Track Maintenance, Repair, Safety

railroad

Table of Contents

Introduction
Cars
- Freight cars
- Passenger cars
  - Brake systems
  - Automatic body tilting
  - Cars for daytime service
  - Cars for overnight travel
Railroad track and roadway
- Location and construction
- Rail
  - Rail fittings
  - Sleepers (crossties)
  - Track maintenance
- Auxiliary plant
  - Bridges
  - Buildings
  - Tunnels
Railroad operations and control
- Communications
  - Radio
  - Computers
- Signaling
  - Types of signals
  - Automated systems
  - Interlocking and routing
- The marshaling yard
Intermodal freight vehicles and systems
- Development
- Operations
- Passenger intermodals
Railroad history
- Source in inland water transport
- Early European railroads
  - The Stockton and Darlington Railway
  - The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
  - Characteristics of British railroads
  - The railroad in continental Europe
- Early American railroads
  - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
  - Boston railroads
  - The South Carolina Railroad
- North American railroads in the late 19th and 20th centuries
  - American railroads
    - Expansion into the interior
    - The transcontinental railroad
    - Advances in traction systems
    - Railway company mergers
  - Canadian railroads
Modern railways
- Diesel-electric locomotion and electronic systems
- Growth in developing countries
- High-speed passenger lines
  - Japan
  - Western Europe
  - South Korea, Taiwan, and China
  - North America
- Maglev

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Modern machinery enables a small group of workers to maintain a relatively long stretch of railroad track. Machines are available to do all the necessary track maintenance tasks: removing and inserting ties, tamping the ballast, cleaning the ballast, excavation and replacement of worn ballast, spiking rail, tightening bolts, and aligning the track. Some machines are equipped to perform more than one task—for example, ballast tamping combined with track lining and leveling. Mechanized equipment also can renew rail, either in conventional bolted lengths or with long welded lengths; a modern machine of this type has built-in devices to lift and pass ...(100 of 20134 words)

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