Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A fishplate joins two lengths of track. A fishplate, splice bar or joint bar is a metal connecting plate used to bolt the ends of two rails into a continuous track. The name is derived from fish, [1] a wooden reinforcement of a "built-up" ship's mast that helped round out its desired profile. [2] The top and bottom faces taper inwards along ...
A rail fastening system is a means of fixing rails to railroad ties (North America) or sleepers (British Isles, Australasia, and Africa). The terms rail anchors, tie plates, chairs and track fasteners are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system. The components of a rail fastening system may also be known collectively as other ...
A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as a train track or permanent way (often "perway" [1] in Australia or "P Way" in Britain [2]), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, British English) and ballast (or slab track ...
Steam locomotive components. Main components found on a typical steam locomotive include: enlarge. The diagram, which is not to scale, is a composite of various designs in the late steam era. Some components shown are not the same as, or are not present, on some locomotives – for example, on smaller or articulated types.
The railway track or permanent way is the elements of railway lines: generally the pairs of rails typically laid on the sleepers or ties embedded in ballast, intended to carry the ordinary trains of a railway. It is described as a permanent way because, in the earlier days of railway construction, contractors often laid a temporary track to ...
Plate rail was an early type of rail and had an 'L' cross-section in which the flange kept an unflanged wheel on the track. The flanged rail has seen a minor revival in the 1950s, as guide bars , with the Paris Métro ( Rubber-tyred metro or French Métro sur pneus ) and more recently as the Guided bus .
Originally, various track gauges were used in the United States. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used standard gauge of 4 ft8+1⁄2in (1,435 mm); others used gauges ranging from 2 ft (610 mm) to 6 ft (1,829 mm). As a general rule, southern railroads were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft (1,524 mm), while northern ...
There are two main types of signaling aspect systems found in North America, speed signaling and weak route signaling. [citation needed] Speed signaling transmits information regarding how fast the train is permitted to be going in the upcoming segment of track; weak route signaling transmits information related to the route a train will be taking through a junction, and it is incumbent upon ...