The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) rail-safety oversight framework relies on inspections to ensure railroads comply with federal safety regulations. FRA inspects railroad infrastructure and operations, identifies safety defects, and may, if warranted, cite the railroads for violations of federal safety regulations. This book examines the overall framework that FRA, the states, and the railroads use to ensure rail safety; the extent to which FRA and the railroads assess safety risks and allocate resources to address those risks; and what challenges, if any, exist to FRA's current safety framework, and what ongoing and emerging issues FRA faces.

New sources of crude oil from North Dakota, Texas, and western Canada have induced new routes for shipping crude oil to U.S. and Canadian refineries. While pipelines have traditionally been the preferred method of moving crude overland, they either are not available or have insufficient capacity to move all the crude from these locations. While rail has picked up some of this cargo, barges, and to a lesser extent tankers, also are moving increasing amounts of crude in domestic trade. This book discusses the Waterborne and rail transport of United States crude oil.

To provide efficient goods movement on the U.S. transportation network, the United States will need to undertake new approaches. An approach advanced by industry groups as a potential path forward for the continued economic prosperity and competitiveness of the United States is a focus on corridor level thinking. A corridor approach can help focus the Nation's assets and resources on key transportation infrastructure that supports national economic activity. The European Union (EU) adopted the corridor approach in the mid-1990s and has continually evolved its freight corridor program with the admission of new member states, increased freight volumes, and the changing demands, including environmental sustainability, placed on the transportation network. The EU views this corridor approach as strategically important to its global economic competitiveness. Given EU's experience with this concept, the scanning study was designed to engage the European Commission and key member states in the policy, funding, and programmatic implications of integrating corridors into their transportation planning. This book discusses the understanding of the policy and program structure of national and international freight corridor programs in the EU.

R. P. Bradley's look at the design and performance of London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) 4-6-0s locomotives containing useful tables, diagrams and photographs.

The goal of this book is to provide transportation and land use planning practitioners in the public and private sectors with the tools and resources to properly assess the impacts of land use decisions on freight movements, as well as the impacts of freight development and growth on land use planning goals. The book identifies freight-related land use issues, key considerations, and available resources. Throughout the handbook, examples and case studies from a range of urban and rural areas across the country are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques.

THIS standard treatise on mechanical railway signalling by Leonard Lewis was written at the turn of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1910 as Railway Signal Engineering (Mechanical), a second edition followed in 1912. A third edition, revised and enlarged by J. H. Fraser, appeared in 1932. Since its original publication, now more than 100 years ago, much if not all of the mechanisms and practices described and illustrated have disappeared from the modern high-speed railways of Britain and the rest of the world. In his preface to the first edition, Lewis wrote that he intended the book to be '... suitable for men who are engaged in railway work, but not necessarily in connection with the Signalling Engineer's Department.' Today, such men no longer have any professional interest in what to them is now archaic and superseded. However, with the popular growth of preserved heritage railways, and the dedicated reconstruction and re-creation of many railway artefacts by enthusiasts, it is no longer possible to state categorically that any particular mechanism or operating procedure described in the book is extinct. Although they may have disappeared from modern railways in the electronic and computer controlled age, original or replica items or otherwise obsolete methods of working may well be in regular use on preserved branch line railways or be on display in railway museums. Herein lies the main inspiration for this new edition at the start of the twenty first century. Lewis's book, once describing the very cutting edge of railway technology, has become with the passage of time a valuable work of history. Nevertheless, its contents may still be very relevant and of inestimable value to those responsible for the maintenance and operation of precious and irreplaceable signalling equipment on preserved steam and diesel railways, wheresoever those lines might be. Again, the ever growing band of collectors and restorers of old signalling equipment will find the technical material in these pages of more than passing interest. Likewise, enthusiasts viewing the artefacts on display in railway museums might find that this volume can usefully supplement the information provided in simplified guide books and explanatory leaflets. Railway Signal Engineering (Mechanical) is long out of print. The present derivative work is based on the 1932 edition and non of Lewis's original text, nor that later added by Fraser, has been omitted from this reprint. It is in every word as the original, except for a few minor corrections and one important detail. That is, the captions to some of the drawings have been amended to more accurately reflect the intent of the illustration, than did Lewis's original captions. Also note that no illustrations have been omitted, although a few have been added. However, as the most cursory glance through the book pages will show, all the illustrations have been redrawn, in many cases substituting more realistic depictions of signals and mechanisms for the sometimes rather crude sketches in the original. Most notably, colour has been used, not only to provide a more visually appealing book for the enthusiast and the historian, but also in the hope that it adds somewhat to the understanding of technical descriptions and of the illustrations themselves.

In late nineteenth-century Mexico the Mexican populace was fascinated with the country's booming railroad network. Newspapers and periodicals were filled with art, poetry, literature, and social commentaries exploring the symbolic power of the railroad. As a symbol of economic, political, and industrial modernization, the locomotive served to demarcate a nation's status in the world. However, the dangers of locomotive travel, complicated by the fact that Mexico's railroads were foreign owned and operated, meant that the railroad could also symbolize disorder, death, and foreign domination.

In "The Civilizing Machine" Michael Matthews explores the ideological and cultural milieu that shaped the Mexican people's understanding of technology. Intrinsically tied to the Porfiriato, the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Gen. Porfirio Diaz, the booming railroad network represented material progress in a country seeking its place in the modern world. Matthews discloses how the railroad's development represented the crowning achievement of the regime and the material incarnation of its mantra, "order and progress." The Porfirian administration evoked the railroad in legitimizing and justifying its own reign, while political opponents employed the same rhetorical themes embodied by the railroads to challenge the manner in which that regime achieved economic development and modernization. As Matthews illustrates, the multiple symbols of the locomotive reflected deepening social divisions and foreshadowed the conflicts that eventually brought about the Mexican Revolution.

One of America's foremost civil engineers of the past 150 years, John Frank Stevens was a railway reconnaissance and location engineer whose reputation was made on the Canadian Pacific and Great Northern lines. Self-taught and driven by a bulldog tenacity of purpose, he was hired by Theodore Roosevelt as chief engineer of the Panama Canal, creating a technical achievement far ahead of its time. Stevens also served for more than five years as the head of the US Advisory Commission of Railway Experts to Russia and as a consultant who contributed to many engineering feats, including the control of the Mississippi River after the disastrous floods of 1927 and construction of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Drawing on Stevens s surviving personal papers and materials from projects with which he was associated, Clifford Foust offers an illuminating look into the life of an accomplished civil engineer."

In this book, the authors present current research on the types, design and safety issues of railways. Topics discussed include the acoustic characteristics of noise in train stations; monitoring railway structure conditions and opportunities to use wireless sensor networks as tools to improve the monitoring process; hydraulic absorbers as dampers to dissipate the energy of oscillations in railway electric equipment; development of train fare calculation and adjustment systems using VDM++; efficient development and verification of safe railway control software; and evolution of the connectivity of the Portuguese broad gauge railway network (1948-2012).

The problem of environmental vibrations induced by moving traffic loads, is today increasingly one of the fundamental problems to be solved in traffic line planning and design, because they not only influence the living and working of human beings, but also make many high-tech projects unable to work normally. Since the effects of various transportation sources are different, and soil properties play a critical role in the propagation of vibrations, the problem of environmental vibrations is very complex. This book contains the research of the authors via fundamental theories, numerical simulations and field experiments. The main contents include the basic theory and analysis approaches in traffic-induced environmental vibrations, prediction and mitigation through ballast mats of rail traffic induced track-ground vibrations, railway traffic induced ground vibration and its prediction approaches, numerical modelling of vibrations induced by rail traffic in tunnels, investigation of train-induced ground vibrations using FEM and field experiments, human induced vibrations of pedestrian bridges and their prevention, prediction of environmental vibration from underground trains, numerical evaluation on train-induced ground vibration around high-speed railway viaducts, vibration isolation by ground barriers, environmental vibration induced by elevated railway traffic, and train induced vibration in elevated railway stations.

Written by a leading expert in the field, this volume contains comprehensive numbering and building details of almost every variety of Engineers Department wagon built by or for British Railways between 1978 and 1994.

An all-inclusive guide to the design and optimization of high pressure common rail systems for diesel engines based on extensive research and latest developments Systematically covers all the fundamental high pressure common rail technologies for diesel engines Includes up-to-date developments and optimization approaches for current common rail systems Details the design of next-generation twin CRS and marine applications Illustrates concepts through simulations, extensive research and experimental studies

Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive documents the role played by mechanical engineers in the development of locomotive design. The steam engine and the mechanical engineering profession both grew directly out of the Industrial Revolution's need for sources of power beyond that of men and animals. Invented in England when coal mining was being developed, the practical steam engine eventually found numerous applications in transportation, especially in railroad technology. J. Parker Lamb traces the evolution of the steam engine from the early 1700s through the early 1800s, when the first locomotives were sent to the United States from England. Lamb then shifts the scene to the development of the American steam locomotive, first by numerous small builders, and later, by the early 20th century, by only three major enterprises and a handful of railroad company shops. Lamb reviews the steady progress of steam locomotive technology through its pinnacle during the 1930s, then discusses the reasons for its subsequent decline. The contributions and role of mechanical engineers in the evolution of locomotive design.

Electric Railways 1880-1990 explores the history of the integration of both electric and diesel-electric railway systems and identifies the crucial role that diesel-electric traction played in the development of wireless electrification. The evolution of electrical technology and the modern railway produced innovations in engineering that were integral to the development of traction, power and signalling systems. This book presents a thorough survey of electric railway development from the earliest days pf the London Underground to modern electrified main line trains. The distinction between 'enforced electrification' and 'economic electrification' is also discussed and the pioneering role of J.J. Heilmann assessed. Developed from many years of research into railway engineering, topics covered include signalling and communications, power supplies, and a detailed survey of traction systems, both AC and DC. The introduction first of mercury arc rectifiers, and later of power semiconductor controls, is also discussed in detail. The author has a long-standing interest in engineering history and has written many papers on aspects of railway technology. This book will be of particular interest to scientists and historians interested in the development of electric railways.

" After the Civil War, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad took the lead among southern railroads in developing rail systems and organizing transcontinental travel. Through two world wars, federal government control, internal crises, external dissension, the Depression, and the great Ohio River flood of 1937, the L&N Railroad remained one of the country's most efficient lines. It is a southern institution and a railroad buff's dream. When eminent railroad historian Maury Klein's definitive History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was first published in 1972, it quickly became one of the most sought after books on railroad history. This new edition both restores a hard-to-find classic to print and provides a new introduction by Klein detailing the L&N's history in the thirty years since the book was first published.

This comprehensive history of North American railroad electrification has been out of print for many years. Now, Indiana University Press is proud to announce its return in an new, updated second edition.

For most of the first half of the 20th century the United States led the way in railroad electrification. Before the outbreak of World War II, the country had some 2,400 route-miles and more than 6,300 track-miles operating under electric power, far more than any other nation and more than 20 percent of the world s total. In almost every instance, electrification was a huge success. Running times were reduced. Tonnage capacities were increased. Fuel and maintenance costs were lowered, and the service lives of electric locomotives promised to be twice as long as those of steam locomotives. Yet despite its many triumphs, electrification of U.S. railroads failed to achieve the wide application that once was so confidently predicted. By the 1970s, it was the Soviet Union, with almost 22,000 electrified route-miles, that led the way, and the U.S. had declined to 17th place.

Today, electric operation of U.S. railroads is back in the limelight. The federally funded Northeast Corridor Improvement Program has provided an expanded Northeast Corridor electrification, with high-speed trains that are giving the fastest rail passenger service ever seen in North America, while still other high-speed corridors are planned for other parts of the country. And with U.S. rail freight tonnage at its highest levels in history, the ability of electric locomotives to expand capacity promises to bring renewed consideration of freight railroad electrification.

Middleton begins his ambitious chronicle of the ups and downs of railway electrification with the history of its early days, and brings it right up to the present which is surely not the end of this complex and mercurial story."

There is a fascination about the simple oscillating steam engine which attracts even the builders of true-scale, exact-to-prototype quadruple expansion marine engines! It may be their sheer simplicity of mechanism, it may be memories of childhood days when Father Christmas put one in the stocking, or it may just be the fun of seeing the machine work. This book describes the making of four such models: Polly - a vertical steam plant. Elizabeth - a horizontal steam power plant. Hercules - a working model steam crane. Jenny Wren - a miniature vertical steam engine. The author built all four himself, and the first three were all featured in articles which appeared in Model Engineer magazine and elsewhere. Designs and methods of construction are clearly detailed with instructions that even a beginner will be able to follow.

In this illustrated collection, H. Roger Grant, one of America's leading railroad historians, brings together a rich assortment of personal accounts of train travel in the United States since the dawn of railroading. The twenty-one accounts included here tell of the excitement, the romance, the difficulties, and sometimes the danger of traveling by train. Together they present a lively picture of the great changes that have taken place since the 1830s. Some describe wild rides on high-speed raceways, while others recount arduous trips on rickety branch lines. Rail travel at its most luxurious is recreated--the elegant Pullman sleeping berths, the fine parlor and observation cars--as are some of the more grim journeys of troops, itinerant workers, and prisoners of war in squalid boxcars. Binding these accounts together is an enduring fascination with the rails.

Between 1900 and 1950, Americans built the most powerful steam locomotives of all time-enormous engines that powered a colossal industry. They were deceptively simple machines, yet, the more their technology was studied, the more obscure it became. Despite immense and sustained engineering efforts, steam locomotives remained grossly inefficient in their use of increasingly costly fuel and labor. In the end, they baffled their masters and, as soon as diesel-electric technology provided an alternative, steam locomotives disappeared from American railroads. Drawing on the work of eminent engineers and railroad managers of the day, this lavishly illustrated history chronicles the challenges, triumphs and failures of American steam locomotive development and operation.

Trespassing is the leading cause of rail-related fatalities in the United States. A large proportion of these trespasser fatalities are from intentional acts (i.e., suicides). With a lack of systematic research and evaluation of the countermeasures that are currently in place as well as those that have been proposed, it is difficult for railroad carriers and communities that seek to select appropriate countermeasures that are likely to be effective at mitigating suicides. This book discusses the current information available on trespasser fatalities and the implementation of countermeasures in use internationally to prevent suicides on the railroad right-of-way. The book presents a discussion of each countermeasure according to various intervention points along the path to complete suicide on the railroad right-of-way.

Positive Train Control (PTC) is a communications and signalling system that has been identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a technology capable of preventing accidents caused by train operator or dispatcher error. PTC is expected to reduce the number of accidents due to excessive speed, conflicting train movements, and engineer failure to obey wayside signals. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA08) requires implementation of positive train control on railroads which carry passengers or have high-volume freight traffic with toxic or poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous materials. This book provides an overview of the issues and economics for improved rail safety. While PTC promises benefits in terms of safety, its implementation entails substantial costs and presents a variety of other policy-related issues. These include the interoperability of individual railroads' systems, sufficient radio spectrum to support PTC, and the possibility that PTC could be a barrier to market entry.