Railway Geometry and Facilities Design

REGM 6101

Chapter 1. Historical developments of Railways

and its economic impacts

Elias Kassa, Professor, PhD

Email: elias.kassa@gmail.com

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

Feb 2020 © E Kassa
 Content
• Overview of the railway development
– History of Mining and Railways
– Railway Technology
– Railway Transportation

© E Kassa 2
 The history of Mining and Railways are
closely linked
• The rail as supporting and guiding element was first utilized in the 16th
century to transport coal from mines
• Around 1760, wooden rails were covered with cast iron plates
• About 1800, free bearing rails were applied and flanged iron wheels took
care of the guiding, as we still practice
• Vehicles were moved forward by manpower or by horses

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 The history of Railways
• The use of railway (railroad) tracks started some
200 years ago
• It evolved through trial and error
• A continuous cycle of corrective measures

Loadings Track components Higher axle

increased and size and quality loads and train
increased Improved track
increased until speeds → more
damage of track deterioration damage of the components
existing tracks rate diminishes existing tracks
Years
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Rail shapes and material

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 The history of Mining and Railroads
• Steam engine
o Thomas Newcomen, 1712
o James Watt, 1776
• Richard Trevithick, 1771 –
1833
o steam engine designer
o mining engineer
o later returned to designing boilers

James Watt, Steam Engine, 1776

Trevithick's locomotive
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 The “Pen-Y-Darren Locomotive (1804) –
Richard Trevithick

Trevithick’s ‘tram engine’ in 1804 running on flanged rails at the Pen-y-Darren

plateway LREG Course 2007: Understanding
Derailment
 The “Pen-Y-Darren Locomotive (1804) – Richard
Trevithick
• hauled 10 tons of ore, 5 cars and 70 men, 16 km in 4 hrs 5 min average
speed 3.9 km/h

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 George Stephenson, 1781 – 1848
• Mining Engineer
• Locomotive designer
o the Blücher, 1814
o 30 tons of coal at 6.5 km/h
o flanges wheel design
o pure traction engine
o introduced standard gauge
(1435 mm)
• Railway engineer
o first public railway, Stockton
and Darlington Railway, 1821
o designed for horse drawn
carriages
o Robert Stephenson introduced
Locomotion No 1 to haul 80 tons
of coal and a passenger car, 1825

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Blücher (1814) – George Stephenson

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 Robert Stephenson, 1803 – 1859
• Locomotive designer
o Locomotion No 1, 1825
o The Rocket, 1829
o Planet class, 1830
o Crampton class, 1851
• Railroad Engineer
o Liverpool and Manchester
Railroad, 1830
• Bridge Builder
o Gaunless Bridge, 1824
o High Level Bridge, 1847
o Britania Bridge, 1850
(first box girder bridge)
o Viktoria Bridge, 1859

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The Rocket (1829) – Robert Stephenson

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 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1806 – 1859
• Tunnel Designer
o Tames Tunnel, 1825 – 43
(full face tunneling shield)
• Railroad Engineer
o Great Western Railway, 1833 - 59
o Paddington Station
o first use of ballast (vs. soil)
o wide gauge 7 ft ¼ in (2140 mm)
(abandoned 1892)
• Bridge Builder
o Hungerford Bridge, 1845
o Royal Albert Bridge, 1855
o Clifton Suspension Bridge, 1864
• Ship Builder
o Great Britain, 1843
o Great Eastern, 1858
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Paddington Station, 1833 – I. K. Brunel

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 Some Historical Notes I
• 600 BC - Diolkos track way near Corinth in Greece
• 1550’s - tramways to move ore from mines in Germany
• 1712 - Newcomen steam engine (water pump)
• 1760’s - cast iron plates fitted onto wooden rails in England
• 1760’s - flanged wheels introduced
• 1776 - first commercial steam engine by Watt (water pump)
• 1804 - first steam locomotive by Richard Trevithick
• 1812 - first rack railway in UK
• • 1814 - first steam locomotive with tubular boiler
• 1825 - first railway transport of passengers
• 1827 - gravity railroad in US

© E Kassa 15
Profillidis, V.A, : Railway Management and Engineering
 Some Historical Notes II

• 1830 - Baltimore and Ohio Railway opens in US

• 1835 - first railroad in Germany
• 1836 - first railroads in Imperial India
• 1837 - first railroads in Russia
• 1842 - first railroads in France
• 1853 - first Union Station in Indianapolis
• 1854 to 1863 - first underground railroad in London (400 km, 270
stations)
• 1856 - first railway in Sweden
• 1865 - Pullman develops sleeping cars
• 1869 - transcontinental railway link (US)
• 1869 - Westinghouse introduces air brake
• 1870’s - 50,000 miles of railway in US
© E Kassa 16
Profillidis, V.A, : Railway Management and Engineering
 Some Historical Notes III
• 1876 - Bolan Pass railway
• 1876 - Shanghai to Woosung Railroad
• 1886 - standard gauge adopted by law in US
• 1888 - first electric railway in US
• 1896 - Budapest Metro (32 km, 40 stations)
• 1896 - Paris Metropolitan (214 km, 384 stations)
• 1916 - Trans Siberian Railway completed
• 1902 - Maglev trains patented
• 1904 - Hong Kong Tramway
• 1904 - New York City Subway (1056 km, 468 stations, 24/7)
• 1925 - Kyber Pass railroad opens

© E Kassa 17
Profillidis, V.A, : Railway Management and Engineering
 Some Historical Notes IV
• 1950’s - Diesel electric replaces steam locomotives
• 1964 - Shinkhasen high speed railway in Japan (300 km/h - 580 km/h in
1996)
• 1981 - TGV service starts in France (575 km/h)
• 1984 - Maglev train in Birmingham (600m)
• 1988 - ICE V trains in Germany (400 km/h)
• 1990 - X-2000 in Sweden 210 km/h
• 1991 - Maglev M-Bahn - Berlin, 1.6 km track
• 1994 - Channel tunnel opened
• 2003 - UK finishes high speed connection (300 km/h)
• 2004 - Shanghai Transrapid – 30.5 km, 500 km/h

© E Kassa 18
Profillidis, V.A, : Railway Management and Engineering
Railway Technology

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 Railway technology
The railway technology is mainly based on two physical principles
• the guidance of wheel on rail (adhesion of steel on steel)
• an operational technique, the convoy

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Rail guided services

Industrial Railway (narrow gauge)

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Rail guided services

Freight Train
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Rail guided services

Tramway
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Rail guided services

Passenger Train
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Rail guided services

Tramway
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Rail guided services

Rapid transit/Metro/Subway
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 Rail guided services

Funicular Railway 27
 Rail guided services

Funicular Railway 28
Rail guided services

Rack Railway
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Rail guided services

Monorail
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Railway Types

Magnetic levitation train (Maglev) system

http://indiavisions.wordpress.com/2008/11/14
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Railway Types

Magnetic levitation train (Maglev) system

http://indiavisions.wordpress.com/2008/11/14
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Other Rail guided services

Roller Coaster

Gröna Lund Tivoli, Stockholm

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Other Rail guided services

Harbor Cranes

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 New developments
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) developments

Heathrow Airport, U.K. Deployment Operational in 2011

Second generation PRT developments
Low Speed
Up to 48 kph

Small Scale
Local Circulators Only

High Maintenance
Over 440 kg
Uses larger vehicles
 Third generation PRT

High Speed
Up to 240 kph

Scalable Networks Local, Regional, National

Service

Low Maintenance
Uses maglev instead of wheels

Under 440 kg
Uses aerodynamic vehicles

Energy Efficient
New mass transport concept Hyperloop

© E Kassa 38
 The factors influencing transport future
Cheap
Energy
Expensive
Rapid innovation
Technology
Slow innovation

Transport Strong
Economy
futures Weak
State involvement
Public policy
Private investment
Low impact
Environment
High impact

• The energy policy and environmental aspect will be the largest

• In relation to energy, the price of oil has some influence, may be other energy
sources
• On the other side congestion and greater pollution accompanying rising vehicle
numbers → fundamental changes in transport solution
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Railway Transportation
 Railway is a land-based guided form of
transport
• It allows a one degree of freedom movement;
the choices are binary:
o the movement is either forward or backward
along the rail
o the section of the track is either free or
occupied
• Road transport has more flexibility in the
movement (two dimensional space)
• Railway system can not take important decision
if it is in complete isolation, for present and
future linked to other system within national or
cross-border
example. EU’s TSI ‘Technical specification for
Interoperability’, UIC standard, CEN, AREMA, etc

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 Railway infrastructure
Demand for railway infrastructure is driven by
• higher speeds and higher axle loads
• higher availability and fewer disturbances
• lower Life Cycle Cost (LCC)
• satisfy environmental demands
• higher reliability and safety

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 Axle load trend

Development of wheelset (axle) loads (in tons) for passenger and

goods trains

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 Train speed trend

Development of train speeds (in km/h) for passenger and goods trains

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 Trends

Trends in total passenger traffic (passenger‐kms) and total freight traffic (ton‐kms)
in relation to GDP in 15 EU countries
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 Railway statistics
Country GB France Italy Belgium Netherlands Sweden Switzerland Norway
Year 2010 2009 2009 2009 2008 2009
Network Characteristics
Main track
Route kms 15 814 30 683 16 596 3 578 2 879 10 312 2 992 4 128
Track kms 31 073 53 452 27 127 6 436 5 091 12 147 4 870 4 369
Electrified track kms 8 016 31 398 21 444 5 513 5 067 9 655 4 870 2 746
(OHL)
Electrified track kms 4 475
(Other)
Electrified track kms 12 491 31 398 21 444 5 513 5 067 9 655 4 870 2 746
Switches & crossings 19 600 25 570 14 092 6 502 4 463 4 589 5 285 1 434
Level crossings 8 700 900
Bridges 30 832 40 859 60 000 7 163 3 850 6 100
Tunnels 628 1 571 2 050 807 295
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UIC database
 Length of railway line in km
250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

© E Kassa 47
UIC database
 Passengers carried in rail transport in
billions per year
12

10

0
India Japan Germany China Russia UK France

© E Kassa 48
UIC database
 Freight rail by million-ton

3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

© E Kassa 49
UIC database
 Axle load and train speed development

400
Axle load [tonnes]

Speed [km/h]
45 350

35 200 200
30
22,5 25 160

4 25

Years Years
Trends in axle load and train speed

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 Effect of train speed-up
• French TGV – on the line Paris to Lyon the travel time reduced from 3
hours and 44 min to only 2 hours → the number of passengers doubled
• In the UK InterCity – cutting travel time by 10 % induced 8.5 % new
passengers
S (distance) V Speed up Time reduction
Travel time: T = = SV −1
V (speed) (km/h) (To) (Rate)
Travel time reduction for speed increase: 100 200 1
T S 200 300 1/4
= − SV −2 = − 2
V V 300 400 1/9
S V 1
T  = S V 400 500 1/16
V2 V2

• The effect of speed-up on time saving gets less and less when train speed get higher
• The energy consumption increases highly
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 Effect of train speed-up

Distance Time Speed Speed • For short range distance < 100
[km] (desirable) (Ideal) (Practical) km car is more comfortable
[min] [km/h] [km/h] • For travel distance 100-300 km –
0.4 5 4.8 2.4 conventional train with practical
speed 160 km/h is more
4 10 24 15 appropriate to compete with
40 20 120 42 cars
400 40 600 210 • For travel distance 300-600 km –
high speed train with practical
(x10) (x2)
speed 320 km/h
• For travel distance > 600 km –
• Average flying speed 600 km/h very high speed train with speed
• Access to airports 90 min 400 km/h is appropriate to
• Access to train station 30 min compete with airplanes
• 3 hours limit of travel for travel
comfort
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 Railway safety
• Safety must not jeopardised and must be the top agenda for the railway
authorities at the design and implementation stages, and in the maintenance
and operation
• Accidents could occur due to human error, equipment fault, improper
technology, etc.

• Training of railway personnel

• Work on risk assessment and safety at the
planning stage, to assess potential hazards
• Regular maintenance
• Improved technology for inspection and failure detection
• Incident analysis to understand a root cause and to improve the safety further in
the line
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 Railway accidents
• Accidents in level crossings are the highest in statistics
ERA statistics 2011–2015
France Norway

Number of persons
killed in LC accidents 147 6

Number of persons
seriously injured in LC
86 4
accidents

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 Railway accidents
• Train collision has been a cause for several accidents recently

In China a train collision led

to 3 dead and 60 injured China two high-speed trains collided:
43 died, 211 injured

10 dead and 17 critically injured after

head-on train crash in Germany, 2016 23 dead and several injured after
head-on train crash in Italy, 2016 55
Benefits of Railways
 Advantages of Railways
• Limited use of space compared
to large transport capacity
• Better reliability and safety
• High degree of automation and
management

passenger-km [kWh/passenger-km]
• Low energy consumption 0,6
Comparison with car 1 person per car
• Moderate environmental
Energy consumption per
0,5
impact 0,4
2 persons per car
0,3 360 km/h
3 persons per car
0,2 300 km/h 4 persons per car
0,1 200 km/h 70% loading
100 km/h
0 for the train
0 50 100 150
Journey time [mins]
Energy drawn from the line including APS
Energy consumed at the wheel
Fuel energy consumed at power station 57
 Railway vs. road - Passenger vehicles
comparisons

Passenger Car Light Rail Vehicle

Top Speed (km/h) 100 <100
Weight (tonnes) 1.4 53
Power to weight ratio 150 9
(hp/ton)
Length (m) 4.5 28 (Articulated)
# of passengers 5 160

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 Railway vs. highway - Freight vehicles
comparisons

Semi-trailer Truck Freight (Unit) Train

Top Speed (km/h) 80 65
Weight (tonnes) 40 18,000
Power to weight ratio 12.5 0.73
(hp/ton)
Length (m) 20 2,000
# of power units 1 1-4
# of trailing units 1 Up to 125
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 Benefits of Railways
Railway investment
impact

User benefit Non user Operation

benefit impact
Other mode
Rail users
users

- on new rail - time saving - impact on - revenue transfer

- on existing industry
- safety - development
rail improvement - air pollution effect (land value,
- cost saving - noise reduction regional product)
- comfort
improvement

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 Rail infrastructure requirements

Rail infrastructure provides services for the benefit of the

whole community
• For the passenger: travel time as short as possible
• For local residents: nuisance as minimal as possible
• For the railway company: travel time as short as possible,
sufficient capacity, sound and acceptable costs

© E Kassa 61
Profillidis, V.A, : Railway Management and Engineering