Топик: The history of railways (История железных дорог)

In the I880s, 'skyscraper' cars were two-storey wooden vans with windows used as travelling dormitories for railway workers in the USA; they had to be sawn down when the railways began to build tunnels through the mountains. After World War II double-decker cars of а mоrе compact design were built, this time with plastic domes, so that passengers could enjoy the spectacular scenery on the western lines, which pass through the Rocky Mountains.

Lighting on coaches was by means of oil lamps at first; then gas lights were used, and each coach carried а cylinder оf gas, which was dangerous in the event of accident or derailment. Finally dynamos on each car, driven by the axle, provided electricity, storage batteries being used for when the car was standing. Heating on coaches was provided in the early days

by metal containers filled with hot water; then steam was piped from the locomotive, an extra drain on the engine's power; nowadays heat as well as light is provided electrically.

Sleeping accommodations were first made on the Cumberland Valley Railroad in the United States in 1837. George Pullman's first cars ran on the Chicago & Alton Railroad in 1859 and the Pullman Palace Car Company was formed in 1867. The first Pullman cars operated in Britain in 1874, а year after the introduction of sleeping cars by two British railways. In Europe in 1876 the International Sleeping Car Company was formed, but in the meantime George Nagelmackers of Liege and an American, Col William D'Alton Маnn, began operation between Paris and Viennain 1873.

Goods vans [freight cars] have developed according to the needs of the various countries. On the North American continent, goods trains as long as 1,25 miles are run as far as 1000 miles unbroken, hauling bulk such as raw materials and foodstuffs. Freight cars weighing 70 to 80 tons have two four wheel bogies. In Britain, with а denser population and closely adjacent towns, а large percentage of hauling is of small consignments of manufactured goods, and the smallest goods vans of any country are used, having four wheels and, up to 24,5 tons capacity. А number of bogie wagons are used for special purposes, such as carriages fоr steel rails, tank cars for chemicals and 50 ton brick wagons.

The earliest coupling system was links and buffers, which allowed jerky stopping and starting. Rounded buffers brought snugly together by adjustment of screw links with springs were an improvement. The buckeye automatic coupling, long standard in North America, is now used in Britain. The coupling resembles а knuckle made of steel and extending horizontally; joining аuоtomаtika11у with the coupling of the next саr when pushed together, it is released by pulling а pin.

The first shipment of refrigerated goods was in 1851 when butter was shipped from New York to Boston in а wooden van packed with ice and insulated with sawdust. The bulk of refrigerated goods were still carried by rail in the USA in the, 1960s, despite mechanical refrigeration in motor haulage; because of the greater first cost and maintenance cost of mechanical refrigeration, rail refrigeration is still mostly

provided by vans with ice packed in end bunkers, four to six inches (10 to 15 cm) of insulation and fans to circulate the cool air.

Railways in wartime

The first war in which railwaysfigured prominently

was the American Civil War (1860-65), in which the Union

(North) was better able to organize andmake use of its railways than the Confederacy (South). The war was marked by а famous incident in which а 4-4-0 locomotive

called the General was hi-jacked by Southern agents.

The outbreak of World War 1 was caused in part by the

fact that the mobilization plans of the various countries, including the use оf railways and rolling stock, was planned to the last detail, except that there were nо provisions for stopping the plans once they had been put into action until the armies were facing each other. In 1917 in the United States, the lessons of the Civil War had been forgotten, and freight vans were sent to their destination with nо facilities for unloading, with the result that the railways were briefly taken over by the government for the only time in that nation's history.

In World War 2, by contrast, the American railways performed 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%.