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Philadelphia And Western Railroad
The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was a high-speed, third rail-equipped, commuter-hauling interurban electric railroad operating in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is now SEPTA, SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line, though the Strafford, Pennsylvania, Strafford spur has been abandoned. Part of the abandoned line within Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, Radnor Township is now the Radnor Trail, a multi-use path or rail trail. Lines The current line runs from 69th Street Terminal just west of Philadelphia, west and north to Norristown, Pennsylvania, Norristown, splitting from the original main line at Villanova (SEPTA Route 100 station), Villanova Junction. P&W's previous main line went west to a terminus just east of Sugartown Road in Strafford, Pennsylvania, Strafford, then later, another further, on an extension providing transfer to the Strafford (SEPTA station), Strafford station and a transfer track for freight trains. The Strafford Branch was abandoned ...
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Liberty Bell Trail
The Liberty Bell Trail is a suburban rail trail under construction in southeastern Pennsylvania. When complete it will cover in suburban southeastern Pennsylvania, traveling from East Norriton Township in Montgomery County to Quakertown in Bucks County. It was proposed in 1996, and partially follows the former path of the now defunct Liberty Bell Trolley Route, which had been operated by the Lehigh Valley Transit Company from around 1900 to 1951. The tram route was named by the company for the Liberty Bell because a branch of it followed Bethlehem Pike, the road along which the bell was transported in September 1777 when it was being moved from Philadelphia to Northamptontown (now Allentown) for safekeeping shortly before the British occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that compris ...
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Single Track (rail)
A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the cost of constructing and maintaining a second track. Advantages and disadvantages Single track is significantly cheaper to build and maintain, but has operational and safety disadvantages. For example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction safely. By contrast, a double track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction safely, provided all the trains travel at the same speed. This hindrance on the capacity of a single track may be partly overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days. Long freight trains are a problem if the passing stretches are not long enough. Other disadvantages include the ...
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Rail Profile
The rail profile is the cross-sectional shape of a Railway track#Rail, rail as installed on a railway or railroad, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron. All modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross section Profile (engineering), (profile) approximate to an I-beam, but asymmetric about a horizontal axis (however see #Grooved rail, grooved rail below). The head is profiled to resist wear and to give a good ride, and the foot profiled to suit the fixing system. Unlike some other uses of iron and steel, railway rails are subject to very high stresses and are made of very high quality steel. It took many decades to improve the quality of the materials, including the change from iron to steel. Minor flaws in the steel that may pose no problems in other applications can lead to broken rails and dangerous derailments when used on railway tracks. By and large, the heavier the rails and the rest of the track work, the heavier an ...
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Block Signal
Railway signalling (), or railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight and inertia of a train, which makes it difficult to quickly stop when encountering an obstacle. In the UK, the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 introduced a series of requirements on matters such as the implementation of interlocked block signalling and other safety measures as a direct result of the Armagh rail disaster in that year. Most forms of train control involve movement authority being passed from those responsible for each section of a rail network (e.g. a signalman or stationmaster) to the train crew. The set of rules and the physical equipment used to accomplish this determine what is known as the ''method of working'' (UK), ''method of operation'' (US) or ''safe-working'' (Aus.). Not all these methods require the use of p ...
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Track Ballast
Track ballast is the material which forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties (UK: sleepers) are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to bear the compression load of the railroad ties, rails, and rolling stock; to facilitate drainage; and keep down vegetation that can compromise the integrity of the combined track structure. Ballast also physically holds the track in place as the trains roll over it. Not all types of railway tracks use ballast. A variety of materials have been used as track ballast, including crushed stone, washed gravel, bank run (unwashed) gravel, torpedo gravel (a mixture of coarse sand and small gravel), slag, chats, coal cinders, sand, and burnt clay. The term "ballast" comes from a nautical term for the stones used to stabilize a ship. Construction The appropriate thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various other factors. Track ballast ...
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Rock (geology)
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's outer solid layer, the Earth's crust, crust, and most of its interior, except for the liquid Earth's outer core, outer core and pockets of magma in the asthenosphere. The study of rocks involves multiple subdisciplines of geology, including petrology and mineralogy. It may be limited to rocks found on Earth, or it may include planetary geology that studies the rocks of other celestial objects. Rocks are usually grouped into three main groups: igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools in the Earth's crust, or lava cools on the ground surface or the seabed. Sedimentary rocks are formed by diagenesis and lithification of sediments, which in turn are formed by the weathe ...
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Grade (slope)
The grade (US) or gradient (UK) (also called stepth, slope, incline, mainfall, pitch or rise) of a physical feature, landform or constructed line is either the elevation angle of that surface to the horizontal plane, horizontal or its tangent. It is a special case of the slope, where zero indicates horizontal plane, horizontality. A larger number indicates higher or steeper degree of "tilt". Often slope is calculated as a ratio of "rise" to "run", or as a fraction ("rise over run") in which ''run'' is the horizontal distance (not the distance along the slope) and ''rise'' is the vertical distance. Slopes of existing physical features such as canyons and hillsides, bank (geography), stream and river banks, and stream bed, beds are often described as grades, but typically the word "grade" is used for human-made surfaces such as roads, landscape grading, roof pitches, rail tracks, railroads, aqueduct (watercourse), aqueducts, and pedestrian or bicycle routes. The grade may refer to ...
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Level Crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass or tunnel. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate Right-of-way (railroad), right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion. Other names include railway level crossing, railway crossing (chiefly international), grade crossing or railroad crossing (chiefly American), road through railroad, criss-cross, train crossing, and RXR (abbreviated). There are more than 100,000 level crossings in Europe and more than 200,000 in North America. Road-grade crossings are considered incompatible with high-speed rail and are virtually non-existent in European high-speed train operations. File:The 5.20 for West Kirby leaving Hoylake - geograph.org.uk - 1503619.jpg, A level crossing at Hoylake, Merseyside, Engl ...
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Double Track
A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lines were built as double-track because of the difficulty of co-ordinating operations before the invention of the telegraph. The lines also tended to be busy enough to be beyond the capacity of a single track. In the early days the Board of Trade did not consider any single-track railway line to be complete. In the earliest days of railways in the United States most lines were built as single-track for reasons of cost, and very inefficient timetable working systems were used to prevent head-on collisions on single lines. This improved with the development of the telegraph and the train order system. Operation Handedness In any given country, rail traffic generally runs to one side of a double-track line, not always the same side ...
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Swedeland, Pennsylvania
Swedeland is a small unincorporated community that is located in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 1,495. It was founded as "Matsunk" by Swedish settlers in 1710. The name was changed to Swedeland sometime in the late 19th century. History Situated along the Schuylkill River and the Matsunk Creek, this Swedish village was composed of roughly nineteen homes. After the conquering of the Swedish colony by the Dutch, followed by English control, in 1664, a third generation settler with the New Sweden Colony named Peter Yocum the Third (1678–1753) established Swedeland. William Penn offered the Swedish and Finnish colonists land from his grant in this Upper Merion area. By the mid-nineteenth century, Abraham Supplee operated a factory producing Kentucky Jean, employing some twenty-five hands. The extensive works of the Swede Iron Company were also locate ...
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Millbourne Mills, Pennsylvania
Millbourne Mills was a flour mill owned by the Sellers family in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, U.S., as well as the name of a former railroad station located there. The Pennsylvania Railroad's Cardington Branch ended there, where interchange was made with the Philadelphia and Western Railroad. Deliveries were also made to the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company and to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. No interchange of cars was possible with the latter two railroads due to the difference in rail gauge. The mill produced flour under the King Midas Flour brand. History Occupation by Samuel Sellers Millbourne Borough was first occupied by Samuel Sellers. The land was used for living and farming for over half a century. His grandson, John Sellers, purchased plots of land in the borough. Before Sellers' death in 1804, he devised his estates to his sons, Nathan, David, John, and George. Sellers devised a plan of grist and saw-mills to his son John, Jr. Th ...
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