Question: What is Airport Engineering. Discuss.

Ans. An Airport is a facility where passengers connect from ground transportation to air
transportation. Engineering that deals with planning, design and construction of airport
structures such as terminals, runways, and navigation aids is known as Airport Engineering.
Airport Engineering is effective in making possible the air transportation. Air transportation
is highly beneficial as it:

• provides accessibility to areas which may be inaccessible by land

• highly effective and quick in emergency situations
• saves reasonable amount of time as compared to other modes of transportation
• helps tourism, thus generates foreign reserves
Air transportation, however, has some disadvantages as well, as mentioned below:

• highly dependent on weather conditions

• requires highly sophisticated machinery
• requires specific demarcation of flight paths
• requires heavy funds during provisions and maintenance
Question: What is a railway station. Discuss along-with its purposes and importance
Ans. A railway station is a facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or
freight. Railway station generally consists of a platform next to the track and a station
building providing related services such as ticket sales and waiting rooms.
Importance of Railway Network: Railway network supports economic growth by providing
reliable and efficient transportation of goods and raw materials. Railway station provides
access to variety of services and immensities including ticketing, baggage hunting, food
festivities and accommodation for travellers. The infrastructure provides employment
opportunities and boosts local economies, especially, in rural areas where transportation
options may be limited. In addition, railway stations serve as important cultural landmarks
reflecting the history, architecture and traditions of the regions they served.
Overall, the railway stations is an integral part of the transportation system and plays a
significant role in connecting people, communities and business.
Following are some of the purposes of railway station discussed:

• for exchange of passengers and goods

• for control of train movements
• to enable the trains on a single line track to cross from opposite directions
• to enable the following express trains to overtake
• for taking diesel, coal and water for locomotives
• for detaching engines and running staff
• for detaching or attaching of compartments and wagons
Question: Define Station Yards and its types:
Ans. Station yards are systems of tracks laid within limits for various purposes like receiving,
storing, making up trains, etc. over which movement of trains is controlled by prescribed
rules, regulations, and signals. Following are types of station yards discussed:
(i) Passenger bogie yards: it provides facilities for the safe movement of vehicles for the use
of passengers. It has specific importance at terminals and junctions where extra bogies are
accommodated and cleaning, washing, or storing is done.
(ii) Good yards: It provides facilities for receiving, loading and unloading, delivery of goods
and the movement of goods-vehicles. All stations except flag stations are provided with
good yards.
(iii) Marshalling yards: It provides facilities to receive, break up, reform, and dispatch trains.
Loaded and empty goods wagons are first received, then separated, sorted, and dispatched
onwards in full trains. Marshalling yards are further divided into three sub-types:
(a) Flat-shunted yard: A flat yard has no hump, and relies on locomotives for all car
movements. These are very costly due to high consumption of power.
(b) Gravity yard: A gravity yard is built on a natural slope and relies less on
locomotives. It requires certain amount of slope for formation; thus, topography
of the area is an important factor in such type of yard.
(c) Hump yard: A hump yard has a constructed hill, over which freight cars are
shoved by yard locomotives, and then gravity is used to propel the cars to
various sorting tracks.
(iv) Locomotive yards: Locomotives are housed, and where all facilities for coaling,
watering, repairing, oiling, cleaning, etc. are provided. These are constructed on the same
side as the Marshalling yards.
Question a: Define Point and Crossings, and also turnouts
Ans. Point and Crossings are provided to transfer train from one track to another. A point is
a device that is used to divert the wheel, while, crossing is a gap in the rail that enables the
actual diversion.
Trains unlike road vehicles do not possess tendency to change the direction, thus, change of
direction is made possible with the provision of turnouts. Turnouts consist of points and
crossings. A turnout is a simple arrangement of points and crossings by the manipulation of
which the train from one track may be diverted to another track or branch line or to siding is
known as turnout. Depending on the direction of movement of trains from main tracks,
there may be two types of turnouts.
(i) Right hand turnout: If a train is diverted from main track to the right of main
route in the facing direction, then the diversion is known as right hand turnout.
(ii) Left hand turnout: If a train is diverted from main track to the left of main route
in the facing direction, then the diversion is known as left hand turnout.
Question: Discuss in detail Water Transportation:
Ans. Water transportation is the movement of goods and passengers from one place to
another through water channels. It mainly consists of inland transportation and ocean
transportation, discussed below:
(i) Inland water transportation: It is the transportation held within a country,
through rivers or canals.
(ii) Ocean water transportation: It is the transportation held from one country to
another, by means of oceans. It is mainly adopted for trade and commerce. It is
very important of transportation as it is estimated that about 75 per cent of
international trade is carried out by this form of transportation.
Some important terms in water transportation are discussed below:
(i) Harbours: Harbours are vast parking spaces where ships, cargo containers, and
vessels are anchored for safety purposes from bad climate and weather
conditions.
(ii) Ports: Ports are places used for loading and unloading of cargo, thus, it is a key
element in managing all imports, exports of goods between two countries
(iii) Docks: Docks are the places where ships are designed and repaired
(iv) Jetty: Jetty are temporary parking space provided for small ships