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Design of Powered Rail Vehicles and Locomotives
Published in Simon Iwnicki, Maksym Spiryagin, Colin Cole, Tim McSweeney, Handbook of Railway Vehicle Dynamics, 2019
Maksym Spiryagin, Qing Wu, Peter Wolfs, Valentyn Spiryagin
The history of rail transport development is directly linked with the advent of powered rail vehicles and locomotives and improvements of their designs and their manufacturing. The first locomotive building process can be dated to 1801, with the construction of a high-pressure steam road locomotive, known as the ‘Puffing Devil’, which had been designed by British inventor Richard Trevithick. Within a few years, an era of steam trams and locomotives commenced, which was only to itself be challenged at the beginning of twentieth century when the first modern competitors of steam locomotives were beginning to appear. By the middle of the twentieth century, all industrialised countries had begun the transition to new, advanced forms of traction, which fully replaced steam locomotives in passenger and freight operations with electric and diesel-powered rail vehicles and locomotives. This chapter provides an introduction to the classification of powered rail vehicles/locomotives and focuses on existing modern designs of their components. It also discusses details of their practical application for vehicle system dynamics studies.
Sustainable Energy
Published in Stanley E. Manahan, Environmental Chemistry, 2022
Around 1800, humans began to rapidly increase exploitation of fossil fuels for their energy needs. Initially, coal was burned for heating and to power newly developed steam engines for mechanical energy used in manufacturing, steamships, and steam locomotives. After about 1900, the use of petroleum increased rapidly as a source of fuel and, with the development of the internal combustion engine, became the energy source of choice for transportation needs. Somewhat later, natural gas developed as an energy source. The result was a massive shift from solar and biomass energy sources to fossil fuels.
Sustainable Energy: The Key to Everything
Published in Stanley Manahan, Environmental Chemistry, 2017
Around 1800, humans began to very rapidly increase exploitation of fossil fuels for their energy needs. Initially, coal was burned for heating and to power newly developed steam engines for mechanical energy used in manufacturing, steamships, and steam locomotives. After about 1900, the use of petroleum increased rapidly as a source of fuel and, with the development of the internal combustion engine, became the energy source of choice for transportation needs. Somewhat later, natural gas developed as an energy source. The result was a massive shift from solar and biomass energy sources to fossil fuels.
How conservative is the Norwegian fatigue load model for service life estimation of railway bridges?
Published in Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 2022
Mariia Zakharenko, Gunnstein T. Frøseth, Anders Rönnquist
Unfortunately, traffic load measurements of historic traffic conditions are generally lacking. Despite this, historic loads are important in fatigue life estimation. An important question to then consider is whether the proposed correction factors can be used on past traffic loads, i.e. load models of historic traffic. Historic traffic has changed tremendously during the lifetime of railways. Not only has the volume of transported goods increased around the world, but electric and diesel locomotives have also replaced old steam locomotives. The load functions of these locomotives are vastly different and have a significant influence on the fatigue damage that is induced in components. Trains with locomotives have become heavier and the speeds of such trains have also increased. These tendencies have been reported in several countries, e.g. Great Britain (Hayward, 2014) and Norway (Frøseth and Rönnquist, 2019).
Evolution of load conditions in the Norwegian railway network and imprecision of historic railway load data
Published in Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 2019
Gunnstein T. Frøseth, Anders Rönnquist
Figure 5 shows the maximum speed of locomotives and motorised units throughout the railways’ history. Prior to 1900, the maximum speed of locomotives was 70 km/h. The fastest steam locomotive was NSB Type 30 with the nominal top speed of 90 km/h, introduced to the network in 1913. Diesel- and electric-powered locomotives reached speeds of 100 km/h around 1940. After 1950, the maximum speed increased until reaching the maximum speed of 200 km/h of modern electric locomotives and multiple units. Historically, there has not been a clear difference in speed between locomotives and motorised units, with the fastest locomotives having approximately the same top speed as motorised units.