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British Rail Mark 3
The British Rail Mark 3 is a type of passenger railway carriage, carriage developed in response to growing competition from passenger airline, airlines and the automobile, car in the 1970s. A variant of the Mark 3 became the rolling stock for the InterCity 125, High Speed Train (HST). Originally conceived as locomotive-hauled coaching stock, the first coaches built were for the prototype HST in 1972. Production coaches entered service between 1975 and 1988, and multiple-unit designs based on the Mark 3 bodyshell continued to be built until the early 1990s. Most of the surviving fleet of the Mark 3 and its derivatives were still in revenue service on the British railway network in 2020, however, as of 7 April 2021, 300 carriages have been sent for scrap. Introduction Under the chairmanship of Stanley Raymond, it was decided to reduce journey times further on long-distance trains by increasing line speed to , where practical – the maximum considered possible on Britain's Victor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail Engineering Limited
British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance subsidiary of British Rail. It was established on 1 January 1970 by the British Railways Board to operate its 14 rolling stock maintenance centres and to provide construction, maintenance, and repair services to Britain’s railways. A key activity of BREL was the manufacturing of new rolling stock, such as the InterCity 125 trainset, the British Rail Mark 3, Mark 3 carriage, and the British Rail Class 58 freight locomotive. Both domestic and international sales were pursued; rolling stock produced by BREL was exported to various nations, including Republic of Ireland, Ireland, Kenya, Gabon, Taiwan, Sweden, Malaysia, Yugoslavia, State Railway of Thailand ASR class, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Numerous projects were undertaken on a collaborative basis with private sector manufacturers, including Brush Traction, Metro-Cammell, and Metropolitan-Vickers. BREL also built numerous prototype rail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Air Brake
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted. The Westinghouse system uses air pressure to charge air reservoirs (tanks) on each car. Full air pressure causes each car to release the brakes. A subsequent reduction or loss of air pressure causes each car to apply its brakes, using the compressed air stored in its reservoirs. Overview Straight air brake In the air brake's simplest form, referred to as a ''straight air system'', compressed air is directed to a ''brake cylinder'', causing its piston to apply force to mechanical linkage, which linkage is conventionally referred to as the ''brake rigging'' (see illu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alternator
An alternator (or synchronous generator) is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Gordon R. Selmon, ''Magnetoelectric Devices'', John Wiley and Sons, 1966 no ISBN pp. 391-393 Occasionally, a linear alternator or a rotating armature with a stationary magnetic field is used. In principle, any AC electrical generator can be called an alternator, but usually, the term refers to small rotating machines driven by automotive and other internal combustion engines. An alternator that uses a permanent magnet for its magnetic field is called a magneto. Alternators in power stations driven by steam turbines are called turbo-alternators. Large 50 or 60 Hz three-phase alternators in power plants generate most of the world's electric power, which is distributed by electric power grids. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Brake
A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational features are more complex because of the need to control multiple linked carriages and to be effective on vehicles left without a prime mover. Clasp brakes are one type of brakes historically used on trains. Early developments In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive. The first trains had brakes operative on the locomotive tender and on vehicles in the train, where "porters" or, in the United States brakemen, travelling for the purpose on those vehicles operated the brakes. Some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Suspension
Air suspension is a type of vehicle suspension powered by an electric or engine-driven air pump or compressor. This compressor pumps the air into a flexible bellows, usually made from textile-reinforced rubber. Unlike hydropneumatic suspension, which offers many similar features, air suspension does not use pressurized liquid, but pressurized air. The air pressure inflates the bellows, and raises the chassis from the axle. Overview Air suspension is used in place of conventional steel springs in heavy vehicle applications such as buses and trucks, and in some passenger cars. It is widely used on semi trailers and trains (primarily passenger trains). The purpose of air suspension is to provide a smooth, constant ride quality, but in some cases is used for sports suspension. Modern electronically controlled systems in automobiles and light trucks almost always feature self-leveling along with raising and lowering functions. Although traditionally called air bags or air bell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crashworthiness
Crashworthiness is the ability of a structure to protect its occupants during an impact. This is commonly tested when investigating the safety of aircraft and vehicles. Different criteria are used to figure out how safe a structure is in a crash, depending on the type of impact and the vehicle involved. Crashworthiness may be assessed either prospectively, using computer models (e.g., RADIOSS, LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH, MSC Dytran, MADYMO) or experiments, or retrospectively, by analyzing crash outcomes. Several criteria are used to assess crashworthiness prospectively, including the deformation patterns of the vehicle structure, the acceleration experienced by the vehicle during an impact, and the probability of injury predicted by human body models. Injury probability is defined using criteria, which are mechanical parameters (e.g., force, acceleration, or deformation) that correlate with injury risk. A common injury criterion is the head impact criterion (HIC). Crashworthiness is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, a true monocoque carries both tensile and compressive forces within the skin and can be recognised by the absence of a load-carrying internal frame. Few metal aircraft other than those with milled skins can strictly be regarded as pure monocoques, as they use a metal shell or sheeting reinforced with frames riveted to the skin, but most wooden aircraft are described as monocoques, even though they also incorporate frames. By contrast, a semi-monocoque is a hybrid combining a tensile stressed skin and a compressive structure made up of longerons and ribs or frames. Other semi-monocoques, not to be confused with true monocoques, include vehicle unibodies, which tend to be composites, and inflatable shells or balloon tanks, both of whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Railways Mark 2
The Mark 2 family of railway carriages are British Rail's second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops (from 1969 British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL)) between 1964 and 1975 and were of steel construction. Development and production The Mark 2 has a semi-integral construction, giving it more strength than a British Railways Mark 1, Mark 1 in the event of an accident. A key driver of the changed construction method was to overcome the serious corrosion problem point in the Mark 1 at the base of the body, where it was attached to the underframe. Other changes of design, such as the window units, were for the same reason, which had become a serious problem in Mark 1 vehicle maintenance costs. Revised painting methods were also part of this, which coincided with the change of livery from maroon (dark green on the Southern) to the blue and grey that Mark 2 coaches wore for much of their lives (some of the earliest Mark 2 coaches had the old livery at f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Gazette International
''Railway Gazette International'' is a British monthly business magazine and news website covering the railway, metro, light rail and tram industries worldwide. Available by annual subscription, the magazine is read in over 140 countries by transport professionals and decision makers, railway managers, engineers, consultants and suppliers to the rail industry. A mix of technical, commercial and geographical feature articles, plus the regular monthly news pages, cover developments in all aspects of the rail industry, including infrastructure, operations, rolling stock and signalling. History ''Railway Gazette International'' traces its history to May 1835 as ''The Railway Magazine'', when it was founded by Effingham Wilson. The ''Railway Gazette'' title dates from July 1905, created to cover railway commercial and financial affairs. In April 1914, it merged with ''The Railway Times'', which incorporated '' Herapath's Railway Journal'', and in February 1935 it absorbed the ''Railw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail Class 252
Class 252 was the classification allocated to the prototype High Speed Train (HST) unit, numbered 252001. History When originally built, in 1972, the prototype High Speed Train (HST) units were considered to be formed of two locomotives at either end of a rake of carriages. As a result, the power cars were designated Class 41 and numbered 41001/41002, while the carriages were given numbers in the new Mark 3 carriage number series. Shortly after their introduction, it was decided to classify the unit as a Diesel Electric Multiple Unit. It was allocated Class 252, and the whole formation was renumbered into a new carriage number series for HST and Advanced Passenger Train vehicles (4xxxx). Two coaches were not included in the renumbering (one Trailer First and one Trailer Second), as these were transferred for use in the Royal Train as part of its upgrade before the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The power cars were allocated numbers in the 43xxx series, and the two prototype ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
InterCity 125
The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125) or High Speed Train (HST) is a diesel-powered High-speed rail, high-speed passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. A total of 95 sets were produced, each comprising two British Rail Class 43 (HST), Class 43 power cars, one at each end, and a rake (train)#R, rake of seven or eight British Rail Mark 3, Mark 3 coaches. The name is derived from its top operational speed of . At times, the sets have been classified as British Rail Classes 253, 254 and 255. British Rail (BR) initially developed the HST as an interim measure in the early 1970s, as delays and cost concerns began to threaten their primary high-speed train project, the Advanced Passenger Train (APT). The HSTs are now widely considered to be among the most successful trains to have operated on the British railway network, both in terms of their initial impact and their longevity: their introduction into service between 1976 and 1982 res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolling Stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches), and Railroad car#Non-revenue cars, non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can be un-powered, or self-propelled, Railcar, single or Multiple unit, multiple units. In North America, Australia and other countries, the term consist ( ) is used to refer to the rolling stock comprising a train, a list containing specific information for each car of a train, or a group of locomotives. In the United States, the term ''rolling stock'' has been expanded from the older broadly defined "trains" to include wheeled vehicles used by businesses on roadways. The word ''stock'' in the term is used in a sense of inventory. Rolling stock is considered to be a liquid asset, or close to it, since the value of the vehicle can be readily estimated and then ship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
