History of railway transport
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This article describes the history of railways, starting from the time of their origin.
Content
1 Prerequisites for the appearance of railways 1.1 The appearance of a steam engine and the prototype of a locomotive 1.2 The appearance of a rail track 1.3 The appearance of a steam locomotive
2 The first railway experiments 3 The formation of railways 3.1 Europe 3.2 America 3.3 Russia
4 Railway boom 5 Railways in the XX century 5.1 The development of progressive types of traction 5.1.1 Electric traction 5.1.1.1 The appearance of electric traction 5.1.1.2 The initial stage 5.1.1.3 The Interwar period 5.1.1.4 Modernity 5.1.1.5 Technical development
5.1.2 Experiments with other types of traction
6 Railways currently 6.1 International cooperation 6.2 High speed traffic
7 Prospects for the development of railways 8 The use of railways for military purposes 9 See also 10 References 11 Notes
Prerequisites for the appearance of railways[edit / edit wiki text]
The appearance of the steam engine and the prototype of the locomotive[edit / edit wiki text]
In the 60 — 80s of the XVIII century, first in England, and then in other countries, an industrial boom began.
Instead of manual labor, machine production appeared, instead of craft workshops and manufactories — large industrial enterprises.
The English blacksmith Thomas Newcomen demonstrated his "atmospheric engine" in 1712.
This was an improved Severi steam engine, in which Newcomen significantly reduced the working steam pressure.
The first application of the Newcomen engine was pumping water out of a deep mine.
In 1763, the Russian engineer I. I. Polzunov presented a project of a steam engine for supplying air to melting furnaces.
Polzunov's steam engine had a power of 40 horsepower (steam engines were practically not used in Russia at that time, and Polzunov received all the information from the book "Detailed instructions to the Mining business", published in 1760).
In 1773, Watt built his first working steam engine.
And in 1774, together with the industrialist Matthew Bolton, Watt opened a company for the production of steam engines.
A real revolution in industry was made by the first universal steam engine, created by engineer James Watt in 1784.
From this point on, the steam engine ceases to be tied to the coal mines.
They are beginning to use it in factories, install it on steamships, create trains.
The steam engine gave a powerful impetus to the development of transport.
In 1769, the French artillery officer Joseph Cunho invented the first steam wagon for moving heavy guns.
It turned out to be bulky and during tests on the streets of Paris, it broke through the wall of a house.
This cart has found its place in the Paris Museum of Arts and Crafts.
In 1802, the English designer Richard Trevithick made a steam car.
The carriage moved with a rumble and smoke, scaring pedestrians.
To get this speed, Trevithick made huge driving wheels, which were a good help on bad roads.
The appearance of a rail track[edit / edit wiki text]
Mine wooden rail track and trolley, Germany, XVI century.
German Technical Museum
Preserved fragments of a cast iron wheel pipeline in Petrozavodsk
One of the predecessors of the rail track was the ancient Greek diolk — a stone portage road for transporting ships across the Isthmus of Corinth.
As guides, deep gutters were used, in which skids greased with grease were placed.
In the XVI century, wooden rail tracks and trolleys were used in the mines of Germany and neighboring regions, the wheels of which were equipped with rebords[1].
In some regions of England, wooden rail roads for trolleys were known during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (the second half of the XVI century), in the XVII century they became widespread in the mining areas of England, and in the XVIII century they were gradually replaced by iron rail roads[1].
The first surface railway is considered to be the "Wollaton Wagon Road" (English: Wollaton Wagonway)[2].
This railway, approximately three kilometers long, was built between 1603 and 1604 to transport coal between the villages of Strelley (English Strelley) and Wollaton (English Wollaton) near Nottingham.
The exact time of the closure of the road is unknown, but the Strelli mines were closed in 1620.
Most likely, the railway also ceased to exist at the same time.
In 1755, a narrow gauge track with wooden rails was already built for the transportation of rock in the Altai mines, along which wooden trolleys moved.
A rope loop was stretched along the path.
To set it in motion, horses were used to rotate the pulley.
There were two clips on each trolley, which could be alternately attached to one or the other side of the loop of the driving cable.
Thanks to this, it was possible to stop the trolleys or change the direction of their movement with the continuous movement of the driving cable.
In 1788, the "Cast Iron Wheel Pipeline" appeared in Petrozavodsk — the first railway in Russia.
The railway was built at the Alexander Plant for the needs of the enterprise.
(Now the sections of the first Russian railway are stored in Petrozavodsk near the building of the OTZ museum and in the Governor's Garden; in addition, the wheels from the trolley are preserved in the Governor's Garden).
For a long time, railway tracks were built only at mines, but then passenger roads with horse traction became widespread.
The first such rail road was built in 1801 in England between Wandsworth and Croydon.
The appearance of a steam locomotive[edit / edit wiki text]
The steam locomotive "Rocket" by Stephenson.
The first steam locomotive was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, who in his youth knew James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.
However, iron was too expensive in those years, and cast iron rails could not withstand a heavy machine.
In the following years, many engineers tried to create steam locomotives, but the most successful of them was George Stephenson, who in 1812-1829 not only proposed several successful designs of steam locomotives, but also managed to convince the mine owners to build the first railway from Darlington to Stockton that could withstand a steam locomotive.
Later, Stephenson's steam locomotive "Rocket" won a specially arranged competition and became the main locomotive of the first public road Manchester Liverpool.
The first railway experiments[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: Great Western Railway
The first railway on which regular passenger services were organized was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales in 1807.
Since there were no working steam locomotives at that time, horses were used as traction power.
The first railway in Germany was opened between the Bavarian cities of Nuremberg and Fürth in 1835.
Monument fountain in Nuremberg
Nuremberg Central Station
Model of the first Adler steam locomotive on the Nuremberg Fürth line
Fürth Railway Station
Monument fountain in Fürth
The formation of railways[edit / edit wiki text]
Europe[edit / edit wiki text]
The world's first public railway with steam traction was built in England by George Stephenson in 1825 — between Stockton and Darlington, and was 40 kilometers (26 miles) long.
The first railway between relatively large cities was opened in 1830 and connected the industrial center of Manchester with the port city of Liverpool (56 km).
Stephenson steam locomotives were also used on the line.[3]
By 1840, the length of railways in Great Britain was 2,390 km.[4]
America[edit / edit wiki text]
The railway history of the United States dates back to 1815, when Colonel John Stevens received a so called railway charter for the construction of the New Jersey Railroad Company, which would later become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
By that time, there was no developed land transport that was both convenient, fast, and cheap.
Therefore, the development of railways was a progressive solution.
The first short steam powered railways for industrial needs appeared in the United States in the late 1820s.
It was not difficult to build railway tracks.
The situation was much worse with locomotives.
Then in 1826, the same Stevens designed and conducted the first tests of his steam locomotive " Steam Wagon "(which was called" a steam powered horse carriage " — a steam horse).
For testing, D. Stevens designed a circular track at his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The tests were successful.
Then in 1829, Hortario Allen, as the chief engineer of the Delaware & Hudson shipping company, successfully tested a simple, from the point of view of engineering, an English locomotive called the Stourbridge Lion between Honesdale and Carbonvale, in Pennsylvania.
These three events (the charter and 2 steam locomotives) served as the starting point for the development of railways in the United States, which fully began in the late 20s of the XIX century.
The first public road with passenger traffic opened in 1830 in the state of Maryland (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) [5].
For passenger transportation in the same year, the Tom Thumb steam locomotives were designed, built by the American Peter Cooper (Peter Cooper) and" The Best Friend Of Charleston", built by the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company at West Point Foudry in New York.
The locomotive has proven itself as a reliable mode of transport.
Therefore, railways began to compete directly with shipping.
However, the public considered steam engines to be "Sons of the devil" and that traveling on them, except for "concussion", does not lead to anything.
However, their advantage over steamships was indisputable.
A striking example is an experiment, or rather a competition, between a steam locomotive and a steamship.
The conditions of the competition were incredibly simple: to complete a certain path as quickly as possible.
For this purpose, a route was chosen between the cities of Cincinnati and St. Louis.
The distance by water was 702 miles and was covered by the steamer in 3 days.
The locomotive spent only 16 hours, and the distance he had to walk was only 339 miles!..
In 10 years (1830-1840), the length of railways in the United States increased from 40 miles to 2755 miles[6] (4.4 thousand km[7]).
And before the start of the Civil War, in 1860, and at all, more than 30 thousand miles!
The development of agriculture led to a rapid growth in the construction of railways.
Since the farms worked for the market from the very beginning, modern communication routes were necessary for the export of their products.
Since about 1865, the "Golden Age" of railways in the United States begins.
In the 50 years since (1865-1916), the development of railways has taken on a grand scale: the railway network has increased from 35,000 to 254,000 miles!
By 1916, almost 100 % of domestic transportation (passenger and freight) was carried out by rail.
The history of railway construction in the United States is the history of the mobilization of public resources and natural resources of the country in favor of a handful of railway magnates.
Even before the construction began, the railway companies were provided with government subsidies at the rate of 16 to 48 thousand dollars for each mile of the future track.
The route was determined by the companies themselves and naturally they tried to lengthen it as much as possible, as a result, the railways turned out to be extremely winding, later they had to be straightened.
In addition, companies were granted ownership of land for 10 miles in each direction from the road being laid.
Thus, the owners of railways received 242 thousand miles of land in the years 1870-1880, while the settlers according to the Homestead Act (for this period) — only 65.
Railroad magnates extorted large subsidies and tracts of land from cities and counties, threatening otherwise to send the railroad past them.
However, railway construction had important consequences for the United States.
First, an infrastructure was created that finally connected the domestic market into a single whole.
Secondly, railway construction contributed to the rise of metallurgy and transport engineering.
This was especially evident when cast iron rails began to be replaced with steel ones.
Railway construction put so much demand on rails that, despite the huge growth of metallurgy and high import duties, up to the 90s steel rails were still partially imported from England.
An important result of railway construction was the accumulation of capital of joint stock companies that took contracts for the construction of transcontinental roads.
However, during the First World War, the US federal government took control of the railway sector.
From this moment on, we can assume that the Golden Age of Railways in the United States is beginning to end.
By 1920, the railways were again transferred to private hands, but they were returned in a dilapidated state, and needed radical reconstruction and significant improvement.
In 1920, the federal government adopted the "Law on Transportation", which was the last stage in federal regulation.
The "golden age" in the US railway construction has ended.
Russia[edit / edit wiki text]
The Russian government took care of the construction of the railway at the beginning of the XIX century.
The basis for this direction was the Department of Water Communications, created in 1798 according to the project approved by Emperor Paul I.
The organization was headed by N. P. Rumyantsev[8].
The department under Rumyantsev operated successfully, actively developed and in 1809 expanded its powers and was renamed the Department of Water and Land Communications.
On the base built by Rumyantsev, in the same 1809, the military Institute of the Corps of railways was established.[8]
See also: Ministry of Railways#History of education
After the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812, work on improving the communication system was continued.
They entered the final stage in the second quarter of the XIX century.
The Institute of the Railway Corps has produced a galaxy of highly qualified, modern specialists for the construction and operation of Russian railways.
See also: St. Petersburg State University of Railway Transport#1826-1851.
Preparation and creation of railways
In addition to solving technical and personnel issues, it was necessary to overcome public opinion: in Russia at that time, the number of opponents of the construction of railways significantly prevailed over supporters.
The main argument of the opponents of the construction of railways was the climate — six months of winter with frosts and blizzards:
... and where to get such a darkness of fuel to have you always kept the fire burning under the moving samovar?[8]
In addition, the arguments of foreign specialists were given:
The English press of the 1820s put forward the following arguments:
...
Railways will prevent cows from grazing, chickens will stop laying eggs, the air poisoned by smoke will kill birds flying by... houses near the road will burn down... in the event of an explosion of a locomotive, all passengers will be torn to pieces...[8]
In Germany, these concerns were supported by the Bavarian Main Medical Commission, which warned about the danger of developing brain disease in passengers due to fast movement.[8]
Simultaneously with the training of engineering personnel, F. Gerstner built the Tsarskoye Selo Railway in 1837, which connected the capital with Tsarskoye Selo.
This landfill allowed us to fulfill the following task — the construction of a double — track railway St. Petersburg Moscow by 1851, and then by 1862 the St. Petersburg — Warsaw road.
In 1851, Nicholas I divided the technical personnel serving the railway tracks into companies, and from August 6, railway troops appeared.
According to the decree of the emperor, 14 separate military workers, two conductor and "telegraphic" companies with a total number of 4,340 people were formed, which marked the beginning of the formation of the first military railway units.
They were ordered to maintain the railway track in good condition, to ensure the uninterrupted operation of bridge protection stations and railway crossings.
From August 6 (18), 1851 to the present day, the day of railway troops is celebrated[9].
The most important contribution of the emperor engineer was the establishment of a standard for the width of the rail track about an inch wider than the standard adopted in the West: 1524 versus 1435 mm.
This was done so that "the enemy would not enter Russia on a steam locomotive."
This proposal of Nikolai played an extremely important role during the Second World War on the Eastern Front, when the Wehrmacht was constantly experiencing a shortage of locomotives for broad gauge.
For example, for this reason, during the decisive battle for Moscow in November 1941, the daily supply for the troops of the Center group was 23 echelons instead of the required 70 [10]
Railway boom[edit / edit wiki text]
In the second half of the 1880s of the XIX century, the highest level of growth of the world railway network in history was achieved.
In ten years, from 1880 to 1890, the railway network grew by 245 thousand km, reaching 617.3 thousand km.
Railway investments in the world network during this five year period amounted to about 2 billion pounds, reaching a total of 7 billion pounds.
In terms of the pace and absolute growth of railways, the United States was ahead, where the gigantic scale of railway construction stimulated the intensive growth of industrial production of means of production[11].
Railways in the XX century[edit / edit wiki text]
The development of progressive types of traction[edit / edit wiki text]
Electric traction[edit / edit wiki text]
The appearance of electric traction[edit / edit wiki text]
The birthday of electric traction is considered to be May 31, 1879, when the first electric railway with a length of 300 m, built by Werner Siemens, was demonstrated at the industrial exhibition in Berlin.
The electric locomotive, which resembled a modern electric car, was driven by an electric motor with a power of 9.6 kW (13 hp).
An electric current of 160 V was transmitted to the engine via a separate contact rail, the return wire was the rails on which the train was moving — three miniature wagons with a speed of 7 km/h, benches could accommodate 18 passengers.
In the same year, 1879, an internal electric railway line with a length of about 2 km was launched at the Duchene Fourier textile factory in Breuil, France.
In 1880, in Russia, F. A. Pirotsky managed to set in motion a large heavy car with a capacity of 40 passengers by electric current.
On May 16, 1881, passenger traffic was opened on the first city electric railway Berlin Lichterfeld.
The rails of this road were laid on an overpass in a transverse attachment and laid out in double the size of the nominal norm.
Initial stage[edit / edit wiki text]
A little later, the Elberfeld — Bremen electric railway connected a number of industrial points in Germany.
Initially, electric traction was used on urban tram lines and industrial enterprises, especially in mines and coal mines.
But very soon it turned out that it is profitable on the transit and tunnel sections of railways, as well as in suburban traffic.
In 1895, the tunnel in Baltimore and the tunnel approaches to New York were electrified in the United States.
Electric locomotives with a capacity of 185 kW (50 km/h) were built for these lines.
Interwar period[edit / edit wiki text]
After the First World War, many countries entered the path of railway electrification.
Electric traction began to be introduced on main lines with a high traffic density.
In Germany, the Hamburg — Alton, Leipzig — Halle — Magdeburg lines, the mountain road in Silesia, and the Alpine roads in Austria are being electrified.
Italy electrified the northern roads.
France and Switzerland have started electrification.
In Africa, an electrified railway appeared in the Congo.
In Russia, there were projects for the electrification of railways even before the First World War.
The electrification of the St. Petersburg Oranienbaum line has already begun, but the war prevented its completion.
It was only in 1926 that the movement of electric trains between Baku and the Sabunchi oil field was opened.
On August 16, 1932, the first main electrified section of Khashuri — Zestafoni, passing through the Suram pass in the Caucasus, came into operation.
In the same year, the first domestic Ss series electric locomotive was built in the USSR.
Already by 1935, 1,907 km of tracks had been electrified in the USSR and 84 electric locomotives were in operation.
Modernity[edit / edit wiki text]
Currently, the total length of electric railways worldwide has reached 200 thousand km, which is about 20 % of their total length.
These are, as a rule, the most heavily loaded lines, mountain sections with steep ascents and numerous curved sections of the track, suburban hubs of large cities with heavy traffic of electric trains.
Technical development[edit / edit wiki text]
The technology of electric railways has changed radically during their existence, only the principle of operation has been preserved.
The locomotive axles are driven by electric traction motors that use the energy of power plants.
This energy is supplied from power plants to the railway via high voltage power transmission lines, and to the electric rolling stock via the contact network.
The reverse chain is the rails and the ground.
Three different electric traction systems are used — direct current, low frequency alternating current and 50 Hz standard industrial frequency alternating current.
In the first half of this century, before the Second World War, the first two systems were used, the third was recognized in the 50s and 60s, when the intensive development of converter technology and drive control systems began.
In a DC system, current is supplied to the current collectors of electric rolling stock with a voltage of 3000 V (in some countries, 1500 V and lower).
This current is provided by traction substations, where the high voltage alternating current of general industrial power systems is lowered to the desired value and rectified by powerful semiconductor rectifiers, previously electromechanical or mercury rectifiers were used.
The advantage of the DC system at that time was the possibility of using DC collector motors with excellent traction and operational properties.
And among its disadvantages is a relatively low voltage value in the contact network, limited by the permissible voltage value of the motors.
For this reason, significant currents are transmitted through the contact wires, causing energy losses and complicating the process of current collection in contact between the wire and the current collector.
The intensification of railway transportation, the increase in the mass of trains led to difficulties in powering electric locomotives on some sections of direct current due to the need to increase the cross sectional area of the wires of the contact network (hanging the second reinforcing contact wire) and ensuring the efficiency of current removal.
Nevertheless, the DC system has become widespread in many countries, more than half of all electric lines operate on such a system.
The task of the traction power supply system is to ensure the efficient operation of electric rolling stock with minimal energy losses and at the lowest possible cost for the construction and maintenance of traction substations, contact networks, power transmission lines, etc.
The desire to raise the voltage in the contact network and exclude the current rectification process from the electric power supply system explains the application and development in a number of European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Austria) ac systems with a voltage of 15000 V, having a reduced frequency of 16.6 Hz.
In this system, single phase collector motors are used on electric locomotives, which have worse performance than DC motors.
These engines cannot operate at the general industrial frequency of 50 Hz, so it is necessary to use a reduced frequency.
To generate an electric current of this frequency, it was necessary to build with special "railway" power plants that are not connected to general industrial power systems.
The power transmission lines in this system are single phase, only voltage reduction by transformers is carried out at substations.
Unlike DC substations, in this case, AC to DC converters are not needed, as they were used unreliable in operation, bulky and uneconomical mercury rectifiers.
But the simplicity of the design of DC electric locomotives was crucial, which determined its wider use.
This led to the spread of the DC system on the railways of the USSR in the first years of electrification.
To work on such lines, the industry supplied six axle electric locomotives of the Ss series (for railways with a mountain profile) and VL19 (for flat roads).
In suburban traffic, motor car trains of the Se series were used, consisting of one motor and two trailer cars.
In the first post war years, intensive electrification of railways was resumed in many countries.
In the USSR, the production of direct current electric locomotives of the VL22 series has resumed.
For suburban traffic, new Sr motor car trains were developed, capable of operating at a voltage of 1500 and 3000 V.
In the 1950s, a more powerful eight axle DC electric locomotive VL8 was created, and then — VL10 and VL11.
At the same time, work began in the USSR and France to create a new more economical system of alternating current electric traction of industrial frequency 50 Hz with a voltage in the traction network of 25,000 V.
In this system, traction substations, as in the DC system, are powered by general industrial high voltage three phase networks.
But there are no straighteners on them.
The three phase AC voltage of the power transmission lines is converted by transformers into a single phase voltage of the contact network of 25,000 V, and the current is rectified directly on the electric rolling stock.
Lightweight, compact and safe for personnel semiconductor rectifiers, which replaced the mercury ones, ensured the priority of this system.
All over the world, railway electrification is developing using an AC system of industrial frequency.
For the new lines electrified with alternating current with a frequency of 50 Hz and a voltage of 25 kV, six axle electric locomotives VL60 with mercury rectifiers and collector motors were created, and then eight axle ones with semiconductor rectifiers VL80 and VL80s.
The VL60 electric locomotives were also converted to semiconductor converters and received the designation of the VL60k series.
Experiments with other types of traction[edit / edit wiki text]
One of the results of the evolution of the railway is a train hanging under the influence of a magnetic force.
The tests of this system are promising.
On the other hand, the experiments were aimed at creating a gravitational train driven by gravity, like amusement park trains that, when launched once, move forward due to their own inertia.
In the USSR, attempts were made to develop a locomotive with a nuclear power plant.
Its positive aspects (unlimited autonomy, high traction and weight ratio) were overlapped by serious disadvantages (environmental hazard, the need to reconstruct the railway infrastructure), and developments in this area were discontinued.
Railways currently[edit / edit wiki text]
International cooperation[edit / edit wiki text]
The first experience of international cooperation in the field of railways dates back to 1893, when, in accordance with the Berne Convention,
