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Railmotor
Railmotor is a term used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Commonwealth for a railway lightweight railcar, usually consisting of a railway carriage with a steam traction unit, or a diesel or petrol engine, integrated into it. Steam railcars Overview In the earliest days of railways, designers wished to produce a vehicle for passenger carrying that was economical to build and operate on routes where passenger numbers were light. A single coach with its own prime mover was a solution adopted in some cases; this may be thought of as the predecessor to the railcar, a term more associated with the use of internal combustion engines. William Bridges Adams started building railmotors in small numbers as early as 1848. The Bristol and Exeter Railway used a steam carriage. In most cases the early designs were unsuccessful technically, but in the early years of the twentieth century, street-running passenger tramways started to use small steam engines to draw tramcars, replacing ...
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GWR Autocoach
The GWR autocoach (or auto-trailer) is a type of coach that was used by the Great Western Railway for push-pull trains powered by a steam locomotive. The distinguishing design feature of an autocoach is the driving cab at one end, allowing the driver to control the train without needing to be located in the cab of the steam locomotive. This eliminates the need to run the engine round to the other end of the coach at the end of each journey. When one or more autocoaches are connected to a suitably equipped steam locomotive, the combination is known as an '' autotrain'', or, historically, a ''railmotor train''. A steam locomotive provided with the equipment to be used as an autotrain is said to be auto-fitted. The autocoach is the forerunner of the driving trailer used with push–pull trains. Design features A locomotive fitted with additional control equipment is used to power the autotrain. When running 'autocoach first', the regulator is operated by a linkage to a r ...
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Railcar
A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (or carriage, car, unit), with a driver's cab at one or both ends. In its simplest form, a "railcar" may also be little more than a motorized railway handcar, draisine or railbus. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles " railmotors" (or "rail motors"). Self-powered railcars were once common in North America; and termed Doodlebugs. Self-propelled passenger vehicles also capable of hauling a train are, in technical rail usage, more usually called " rail motor coaches" or "motor cars" (not to be confused with the motor cars, otherwise known as automobiles, that operate on roads). Alternative use In Australia, the term is sometimes also used as an alternative name for the small types of multiple un ...
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William Bridges Adams
William Bridges Adams (1797 – 23 July 1872) was an English locomotive engineer, and writer. He is best known for his patented Adams axle – a successful radial axle design in use on railways in Britain until the end of steam traction in 1968 – and the railway fishplate. His writings, including ''English Pleasure Carriages'' (1837) and ''Roads and Rails'' (1862) covered all forms of land transport. Later he became a noted writer on political reform, under the pen name ''Junius Redivivus'' ( Junius reborn); a reference to a political letter writer of the previous century. Personal life He was born and grew up in Woore, Shropshire, close to Madeley, Staffordshire, and was educated at the Madeley School. His father, the son of a yeoman farmer of Woore, moved to London where he worked his way from a journeyman coachbuilder to master tradesman. His principal business was that of supplying leather to coachmakers from a shop in Dean Street, Soho. In due course Adams was appre ...
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Bristol And Exeter Railway Fairfield Steam Carriage
The Bristol and Exeter Railway ''Fairfield'' was an experimental broad gauge self-propelled steam carriage. In later use the carriage portion was removed and it was used as a small shunting locomotive. Fairfield The steam carriage was built to the design of William Bridges Adams at Fairfield Works in Bow, London. It was tested on the West London Railway late in 1848, although it was early in 1850 before modifications had been made that allowed Adams to demonstrate that it was working to the agreed standards. The design was not perpetuated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, instead they purchased small 2-2-2T locomotives for working their branch lines. It worked on the Clevedon and Tiverton branches, although it might have spent some time on the Weston branch too. The power unit had a single pair of driving wheels driven through a jackshaft by small cylinders. Originally equipped with a vertical boiler in height, in diameter, this was replaced by a horizontal boiler ...
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Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of Consolidation (business), amalgamations saw it also operate Standard gauge, standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was Nationalization, nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. ...
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LSWR C14 Class
The London and South Western Railway C14 class was a class of ten 2-2-0 tank locomotives intended to work push–pull trains on lightly used lines in 1907. The S14 class was an 0-4-0 version of the same basic design. Both classes proved to be underpowered in this role and many examples were sold as light shunters during the First World War. Three C14 remained with the LSWR and were rebuilt as 0-4-0Ts. They lasted until the late 1950s. History C14 class During the first few years of the twentieth century, the London and South Western Railway became concerned about losses incurred on several branch and short-distance passenger services, and began to experiment with the use of steam-powered railmotors. The resulting units proved to be under-powered during the summer months when traffic was higher, and also inflexible, as the power unit was permanently connected to the coach. As an alternative Dugald Drummond designed a class of small 2-2-0 tank locomotives, based on the railmotor ...
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0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were connected by a single gear wheel, but from 1825 the wheels were usually connected with coupling rods to form a single driven set. The notation 0-4-0T indicates a tank locomotive of this wheel arrangement on which its water and fuel is carried on board the engine itself, rather than in an attached tender. In Britain, the Whyte notation of wheel arrangement was also often used for the classification of electric and diesel-electric locomotives with side-rod-coupled driving wheels. Under the UIC classification used in Europe and, in more recent years, in simplified form in the United States, a 0-4-0 is classified as B (German and Italian) if the axles are connected by side rods or gearing and 020 (French), independent of axle motoring. ...
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0-2-2
An 0-2-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is one that has two coupled driving wheels followed by two trailing wheels, with no leading wheels. The configuration was briefly built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Equivalent classifications Other equivalent classifications are: * UIC classification: A1 (also known as German classification and Italian classification) *French classification: 011 * Turkish classification: 12 * Swiss classification: 1/2 Liverpool & Manchester Railway ''Rocket'' The 0-2-2 or ''Northumbrian'' wheel arrangement was first used for Stephenson's ''Rocket'', their entry for the Rainhill Trials of 1829, a competition to choose a locomotive design for the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Stephenson recognised that the rules of the competition favoured a fast, light locomotive of only moderate hauling power. Although George Stephenson's previou ...
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London And South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter and Plymouth, and to Padstow, Ilfracombe and Bude. It developed a network of routes in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire, including Portsmouth and Reading. The LSWR became famous for its express passenger trains to Bournemouth and Weymouth, and to Devon and Cornwall. Nearer London it developed a dense suburban network and was pioneering in the introduction of a widespread suburban electrified passenger network. It was the prime mover of the development of Southampton Docks, which became an important ocean terminal as well as a harbour for cross channel services and for Isle of Wight ferries. Although the LSWR's area of influence was not the home of large-scale heavy industry, the transport of goods and mineral traffic was a major activity ...
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Train Station
A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales, waiting rooms, and baggage/freight service. Stations on a single-track line often have a passing loop to accommodate trains travelling in the opposite direction. Locations at which passengers only occasionally board or leave a train, sometimes consisting of a short platform and a waiting area but sometimes indicated by no more than a sign, are variously referred to as "stops", " flag stops", " halts", or "provisional stopping places". The stations themselves may be at ground level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams, or other rapid transit systems. Terminology ''Train station'' is the terminology typic ...
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Steam Engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and Crank (mechanism), crank into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is most commonly applied to reciprocating engines as just described, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term ''steam engine'' can refer to either complete steam plants (including Boiler (power generation), boilers etc.), such as railway steam locomot ...
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