The 1910s

The 1920s

The 1930s

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

Railway Britain

At the start of the 19th century Britain had 2400km (1500 miles) of industrial railway – the next 50 years were to see a massive expansion of the railways that revolutionised transport in Britain and across the world. The world's first public goods railway authorised by Act of Parliament, the Surrey Iron Railway, was opened in 1803. Iron rails replaced the unstable wooden rails and William Jessop designed a system of square rails with wagon wheels having flanges on their inside edge. However, the only power to pull the wagons remained the horse. - a situation that was soon to change. Building on the stationary steam engine pioneering work of Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, a Cornishman called Richard Trevithick built the world's first steam locomotive in 1803. His second locomotive, called 'New Castle', was the first to be put to practical use when it began hauling iron a year later at the Pen- y-darren Iron Works in South Wales. In 1807, South Wales also saw the operation of the Oystermouth Railway – the world's first railway to carry fare- paying passengers- although the wagons were still hauled by horses! By 1808, Trevithick had perfected his design, incorporating his innovation of a chimney to remove the exhaust gases, and exhibited his engine Catch Me Who Can to the high society of London. World's first commercially successful steam locomotive. Middleton Railway, Nr Leeds, 1812, Copyright, Science Museum The world's first commercial use of steam locomotives occurred on the Middleton Railway, where in 1812 Matthew Murray's locomotive, Salamanca, came into operation using a rack and pinion method of traction (used later for mountain railways) devised by John Blenkinsop. One of the many visitors to Leeds who came to see the rail operation was a young man called George Stephenson, an engine -wright at Killingworth colliery near Newcastle-upon Tyne. George Stephenson started building engines and his first called Blucher took to the rails in 1814 at Killingworth Colliery. At nearby Wylam colliery, William Hedley also built engines, the first of which named Grasshopper made an appearance a year earlier. George Stephenson eventually became engineer of the Stockton & Darlington Railway that came into being in 1821. In 1823 he opened the world's first railway locomotive construction company run by his son, Robert, to build a locomotive for the railway. On 27 September 1825 on the Stockton to Darlington line, the engine Locomotion driven by George Stephenson became the world's first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public railway. 500 passengers were carried mostly in open goods wagons, although a lucky few sat in a purpose built passenger coach called the Experiment. The train was led by a man on horseback carrying a flag and it reached a speed of 24kph (15 mph). The first railway line to be built between two cities was constructed from Liverpool to Manchester a distance of 48km (30 miles). The building of the line involved significant engineering expertise to cross Chat Moss bog, the Sankey Valley and cut through solid rock at Olive Mount The term navvies (named after the navigators who had cut out the canals) was applied for the first time to the hundreds of travelling workmen, many from Ireland, who achieved this feat using little more than spades and pickaxes! Before the line was opened, the owners decided to hold locomotive trials to see which engine they would choose for their new railway. The famous Rainhill Trials were held in September 1829 over a distance of 4km (21/2 miles) before crowds of upto 15,000! There were five entrants – Sans Pareil built by Timothy Hackworth from Shildon, Novelty entered by John Braithwaite, Timothy Burstall's Perseverance, Cyclopede ( a treadmill worked by two horses!) and the legendary Rocket built by George and Robert Stephenson. The winner was the Rocket and in September 1830 the Liverpool to Manchester line was opened with George Stephenson at the controls of Northumbrian. As a result of the trials the Stephensons went on to construct eight locomotives for the railway. Four months earlier a small local line between Canterbury and Whitstable had opened mainly carrying freight. However the Liverpool- Manchester line was the world's first true railway carrying passengers and freight over some distance on a double track line of metal rails. The first railway line to be built between two cities was constructed from Liverpool to Manchester a distance of 48km (30 miles). The building of the line involved significant engineering expertise to cross Chat Moss bog, the Sankey Valley and cut through solid rock at Olive Mount. The term navvies (named after the navigators who had cut out the canals) was applied for the first time to the hundreds of travelling workmen, many from Ireland, who achieved this feat using little more than spades and pickaxes! Before the line was opened, the owners decided to hold locomotive trials to see which engine they would choose for their new railway. The famous Rainhill Trials were held in September 1829 over a distance of 4km (21/2 miles) before crowds of upto 15,000! There were five entrants – Sans Pareil built by Timothy Hackworth from Shildon, Novelty entered by John Braithwaite, Timothy Burstall's Perseverance, Cyclopede ( a treadmill worked by two horses!) and the legendary Rocket built by George and Robert Stephenson. The winner was the Rocket and in September 1830 the Liverpool to Manchester line was opened with George Stephenson at the controls of Northumbrian. As a result of the trials the Stephensons went on to construct eight locomotives for the railway. Four months earlier a small local line between Canterbury and Whitstable had opened mainly carrying freight. However the Liverpool- Manchester line was the world's first true railway carrying passengers and freight over some distance on a double track line of metal rails. FOR nearly three-quarters of a century the "Flying Scotsman" has left King's Cross for Edinburgh. It is doubtful if this record can be challenged by any other train in the world. The details of the journey were disturbed only during the short period at the end of the War when, owing to the imperative need of reducing train services, the "Scotsman" was combined with a train to Leeds and Bradford, and the starting time was temporarily altered to 9.30 a.m. Except for that break, this famous express has made its daily departure at 10 a.m. since June, 1862, from No. 10 platform at King's Cross, while the up "Scotsman," inaugurated at the same date has, with the exception of a short period during its earlier history, started from the Waverley Station, Edinburgh, at the same hour for London. Since then nearly 45,000 journeys have been made, and the "Flying Scotsman" has travelled for a total of eighteen million miles between London and Edinburgh alone, apart from the still longer journeys of the portions of the train which run through to Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen. Every year the mileage run by the "Flying Scotsman" between the English and Scottish capitals would be sufficient to take each of the two trains on the service roughly five times round the world. During this long life tremendous changes have taken place. When the "Flying Scotsman" first ran, the coaches of which it was composed were six-wheelers ; corridors had not been heard of and dining cars were unknown. Not until 1900 was a really up-to-date seven-coach train, made up entirely of twelve-wheeled cars carried on six-wheeled bogies, introduced to the service. These fine vehicles were 64 ft. 6 in. long, of an American pattern, with bow-end and the American "buck-eye" type of steel-coupling, which has been standard ever since for main-line stock on the East Coast route, and is one of the secrets of the smooth travelling for which these East Coast trains have been famous. Until 1900 the "Flying Scotsman" had always stopped for twenty minutes at York while its passengers ate a hasty lunch in the station dining-room ; but dining cars were included with the new coaches and the stop at York was cut from twenty minutes to under ten minutes. The seven-coach train of 1900 weighed 265 tons, and added at least 30 per cent to the weight of the trains that had been in use up till then. By 1914, amalgamation had continued to such an extent that over 1,000 small railway companies were absorbed, under the watchful eye of the then President of the Board of Trade, Winston Churchill. From 1923, the remaining companies were grouped into 'the big four' - The Great Western Railway, The London and North Eastern Railway, The London, Midland and Scottish Railway and The Southern Railway - who ran the networks separately, until 1947, when the managements united to form one company. This company was nationalised under the British Transport Commission and remained that way until the 1990's, when privatisation saw passenger operations franchised to 25 individual private sector operators. Today's rail network transports over 1 billion people per year, as well as freight and cargo, over 10, 300 miles of track that serve over 2,500 stations. With the changes in rail technology, new rail jobs have been created. Rail vacancies in 1847 would certainly have advertised for 'navvies' to lay the miles of track, but there were other railway jobs available. Railway engineering is a specific and skilled job that, when combined with the construction industry, saw the rise of civil engineering. The need for lawyers to sort out the contentious issues of land ownership, sale and conveyancing helped the emergence of accountancy as a separate profession. For the millions of people around the world that travel by train for business, leisure, and other reasons on a daily basis, there is often a lack of appreciation for the advancement of rail technology. This lack of appreciation is not exclusive to passengers and railway professionals often overlook how far their industry has come in such a short time. After all, rail travel was not commercially viable until the middle of the 19th century and was only made paramount to national travel after World War I. While some travellers take the train to get from one place to another without the hassles of driving, tourists and others see the train as a connection to a humbler past. James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, was responsible for improvements to the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine, capable of powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a variety of machinery, it was a large stationary engine. It could not be otherwise; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, and this mode of operation needed a separate condenser  and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, he investigated the use of high pressure steam acting directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that might be used to power a vehicle, and he actually patented a design for a steam locomotive in 1784. His employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self propelled steam carriage in that year. Robert Stephenson FRS (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive  builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son. He was born in 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the only son of George Stephenson and his wife, Fanny. At the time, George and Fanny were living in a single room and George was working as a brakesman on a stationary colliery engine. In 1804 the family moved to a cottage in West Moor when George was made brakesman at Killingworth Colliery. In 1805 Fanny gave birth to a daughter who died after a few weeks. The next year Robert’s mother died of consumption. George then went and worked in Scotland for a short time, leaving the infant Robert with a local woman. However, George soon returned to West Moor, and his sister Nelly came to live at the cottage to look after Robert. George had received virtually no formal education and he was determined that his son would have the education that he lacked. At a young age, George expected Robert to read books that were extremely difficult and learn how to read technical drawings. Because of his great aptitude for engineering, George was promoted in 1812 to be an enginewright, a skilled job with responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the colliery machinery. His wages were therefore much improved. Robert was sent to a two-room primary school run by Mr and Mrs Rutter in Longbenton, near Killingworth until the age of eleven. George's success in locomotive engineering gave him the ability to enroll Robert in a private academy. He was then sent to Doctor Bruce’s Academy in Percy Street, Newcastle. This was a private institution and Robert would have been studying alongside the children of well-off families. Surprisingly his fellow pupils failed to see any remarkable signs of talent. Whilst at the Academy, Robert became a reading member of the nearby Literary and Philosophical Society. Robert had minimal education compared to today's engineers, but proved to be a very successful engineer. Father and son studied together in the evenings, improving George’s understanding of science as well as Robert’s. They also built a sundial together, which they placed above the front door of their cottage. The cottage subsequently became known as Dial Cottage. It is preserved today as a monument to them. The company was set up in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England  by George Stephenson, his son Robert, with Edward Pease and Michael Longridge (the owner of the ironworks at Bedlington). It was founded as part of their construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Its first engine was Locomotion No 1, which opened the line, followed by three more named Hope, Black Diamond and Diligence. The vertical cylinders meant that these locos rocked excessively and at the Hetton colliery railway Stephenson had introduced "steam springs" which had proved unsatisfactory. In 1828 he introduced the "Experiment" with inclined cylinders, which improved stability, and meant that it could be mounted on springs. Originally four wheeled, it was modified for six and another, Victory was built. Around this time, two locomotives were built for America. The first, a four coupled loco named America, was ordered by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. The second, six-coupled and named Whistler was for the Boston and Providence Rail Road but was lost at sea. Britain's Railway History This is of particular significance since Britain in many ways can justifiably claim to have ‘given railways to the world’. What was to become the world’s standard gauge – 4ft 81⁄2in (1435 mm) – was first established at Willington Colliery near Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1764. It was also in Britain that the key technological advances were made – in particular iron (and, later, steel) rails, and the steam locomotive – that allowed the locomotive to be developed as a complete transportation system. The understanding of the interface between the metal rail and wheel has continued to be refined in Britain, leading to significant further international breakthroughs. In addition, innumerable industrial and social changes resulted from the development of the railway – such as the standardisation of time within a state. Railway companies established hotels, shipping lines, road services and, later, even air and hovercraft services. Much of this story may be seen interpreted at the National Railway Museum at York – winner of the 2001 European Museum of the Year (the first national railway museum to be so honoured), which houses the largest railway collection of any museum in the world. Certainly Britain possesses one of the world’s richest collections of railway records – probably the finest collection of records of any major industry in the world. Britain’s railways were also unusual, at least in Europe, insofar as the government played little part in their development as a network. By 1914, more than 20,000 route miles existed, built up piece by piece on the initiative of more than 1,000 separateentrepreneurial companies (albeit many were owned and/or operated by larger companies – and the maximum that existed at any one given time was 476, in 1867). Vigorous competition had led to cities, towns, and even many villages boasting railway stations and lines belonging to more than one company. Inevitably, there were many mergers – and some company failures. Inter-company rivalries gave passengers choice and tended to promote better services on individual routes; as exemplified above, however, they could also lead to the quite unjustified over-provision of facilities. From the early years of this century, railway companies were already seeing the advantages of working together and began to enter into closer working arrangements. During the First World War there was a high degree of government control. This period exhausted the railways, and after the war was over it was clear that a new approach was needed. In 1923, 150 or so of the main railway companies were grouped into the ‘Big Four’: the Great Western, the London Midland & Scottish, the London & North Eastern, and the Southern. The LMS became the Empire’s largest joint stock company. Then in 1948, following the further exhaustion of the Second World War, the Big Four were finally nationalised and combined into one organisation: British Railways, part of a new British Transport Commission. In 1962, a self-standing British Railways Board was formed. Thus from the earliest times, Britain has frequently been at the leading edge of railway organisational Of the four great railways formed in 1923 by the Railways Act of 1921, the London, Midland and Scottish is the largest. It is the only British railway serving England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Excluding the Irish Northern Counties Committee and certain joint lines, its route mileage is 6,758, and its total length, reduced to single track, is 18,921 miles. The L.M.S. is made up of seven constituent and twenty-seven subsidiary companies. The seven constituent companies absorbed in 1923 were the London and North Western, the Midland, the North Staffordshire, and the Furness Railways in England, and the Caledonian, Glasgow and South Western, and Highland Railways in Scotland. Many of these had already assimilated scores of smaller lines. The London and North Western, for example, was made up of about a hundred companies. Its last acquisitions were the Lancashire and Yorkshire and North London Railways, taken over on the eve of the general amalgamation. Some years before the war of 1914-18 the Midland absorbed the London, Tilbury and Southend and the Belfast and Northern Counties Railways. Of the constituent companies the London and North Western, generally accorded the title of "the premier line." was the largest, with a route mileage of 1,807 in 1921. Next in order of length were the Midland, with 1,529, and the Caledonian, with 896 route miles. The corresponding figures for the other constituent companies were Highland 485, Glasgow and South Western 449, North Staffordshire 206, and Furness 115. The route mileage of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1920 was 533. , or business organisational, change. By 1900, America's railroads were very nearly at their peak, both in terms of overall mileage and employment. In the 20 years leading up to World War I, however, the foundations of railroading would change drastically. New technology would be introduced, and the nation would go to war, during which time the railroads would be run by the government. Most significantly, the railroads would enter the age of government regulation. The dawn of the twentieth century was, for the most part, eagerly anticipated by America. There was much to celebrate. Things were going well for business, and that meant there was employment for almost everyone. Railroads capitalized on the prosperity with colorful brochures promoting top-notch passenger trains. The West was glorified as the nation's wonderland, regularly being featured in railroad-commissioned paintings and in the pages of numerous magazines. Posters featuring dreamy damsels lured vacationers to exotic destinations like California, while fast "Limiteds" raced business travelers across the land. The nation's railroads were still growing. By 1900, more than 195,000 miles of track were in service, and there were still another 16 years of expansion ahead. The biggest opportunities existed in the West and in the South, where large portions of the landscape were still lightly populated. The Shinkansen   also known as "the bullet train" is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies. Starting with the 210 km/h (130 mph) Tōkaidō Shinkansen in 1964, the now 2,459 km (1,528 mi) long network has expanded to link most major cities on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū  at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph). Test runs have reached 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record 581 km/h (361 mph) for maglev trainsets in 2003. Shinkansen literally means "New Trunk Line", referring to the tracks, but the name is widely used inside and outside Japan to refer to the trains as well as the system as a whole. The name "Superexpress"  initially used for Hikari trains, was retired in 1972 but is still used in English-language announcements and signage. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the world's busiest high-speed rail line. Carrying 151 million passengers a year (March 2008), it has transported more passengers (over 6 billion) than any other high speed line in the world.  Between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, up to ten trains per hour with 16 cars each (1,300 seats capacity) run in each direction with a minimum of 3 minutes between trains. Though largely a long-distance transport system, the Shinkansen also serves commuters who travel to work in metropolitan areas from outlying cities. Full UK Government approval was granted in 1996 for the two sections of the 69-mile (108km) high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The opening date of the first phase, 43km, was 28 September 2003, with the rest four years afterwards. Speeds of up to 186mph (300km/hr) make the journey time from London's Waterloo International station to Paris, Lille and Brussels up to 20 minutes quicker (fastest journey times of 1hr 40min to Lille, 2hr 20min to Brussels and 2hr 35min to Paris). After 11 years of financial and political turmoil, the £1.9 billion project suddenly moved forward after the signing by London & Continental Railways (LCR) in October 1999 of construction contracts for the new line from the Channel Tunnel to Fawkham Junction in north-west Kent. The project was originated by London & Continental Railways, a consortium of eight major shareholders, including design and planning consultancy Ove Arup and Partners, engineering firm Bechtel, train and transport operators Virgin and National Express, investment bank SBG Warburg and French rail project manager Systra. Control passed to the newly-formed Network Rail in 2002. Four civil engineering contracts were awarded for Section 1 - the East Thames to Medway Valley connection, River Medway crossing, North Downs Tunnel and the Ashford station area realignment. CTRL is basically a French-style LGV high-speed line linking London with the Channel Tunnel portal at Dollands Moor near Folkestone. Although Section 1 is relatively straightforward and follows existing transport corridors such as the M2 motorway, Section 2 requires large amounts of tunnelling under the River Thames and under East and North London. The British Channel Tunnel Group consisted of two banks and five construction companies, while their French counterparts, France–Manche, consisted of three banks and five construction companies. The role of the banks was to advise on financing and secure loan commitments. On 2 July 1985, the groups formed Channel Tunnel Group/France–Manche (CTG/F–M). Their submission to the British and French governments was drawn from the 1975 project, including 11 volumes and a substantial environmental impact statement. The design and construction was done by the ten construction companies in the CTG/F-M group. The French terminal and boring from Sangatte was undertaken by the five French construction companies in the joint venture group GIE Transmanche Construction. The English Terminal and boring from Shakespeare Cliff was undertaken by the five British construction companies in the Trankslink Joint Venture. The two partnerships were linked by TransManche Link (TML), a bi-national project organisation.  The Maître d'Oeuvre was a supervisory engineering body employed by Eurotunnel under the terms of the concession that monitored project activity and reported back to the governments and banks. Because a stiff wheel rolling on a rigid rail requires less energy per ton-mile moved than road transport (with a highly compliant wheel on an uneven surface), railroads are highly suitable for the movement of bulk goods such as coal and other minerals. This was incentive to focus a great deal of inventiveness upon the possible configurations and shapes of wheels and rails. In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale  Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. These (and earlier railways) had flanged wheels as on modern railways, but another system was introduced, in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates - these became known as plateways. John Curr, a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks. Meanwhile William Jessop, a civil engineer, had used a form of edge rail successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan, Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. Jessop became a partner in the Butterley Company in 1790. The flanged wheel eventually proved its superiority due to its performance on curves, and the composite iron/wood rail was replaced by all metal rail, with its vastly superior stiffness, durability, and safety. As the colliery and quarry tramways and wagonways grew longer, the possibility of using the technology for the public conveyance of goods suggested itself. On 26 July 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London - arguably, the world's first public railway, albeit a horse-drawn one. It was not a railway in the modern sense of the word, as it functioned like a turnpike road. There were no official services, as anyone could bring a vehicle on the railway by paying a toll. In 1812 Oliver Evans, an American engineer and inventor, published his vision of what steam railways could become, with cities and towns linked by a network of long distance railways plied by speedy locomotives, greatly reducing the time required for personal travel and for transport of goods. Evans specified that there should be separate sets of parallel tracks for trains going in different directions. Unfortunately, conditions in the infant United States did not enable his vision to take hold. This vision had its counterpart in Britain, where it proved to be far more influential. William James, a rich and influential surveyor and land agent, was inspired by the development of the steam locomotive to suggest a national network of railways. It seems likely  in 1808 James attended the demonstration running of Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive Catch me who can in London; certainly at this time he began to consider the long-term development of this means of transport. He was responsible for proposing a number of projects that later came to fruition, and he is credited with carrying out a survey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Unfortunately, he became bankrupt and his schemes were taken over by George Stephenson and others. However, he is credited by many historians with the title of "Father of the Railway". Of all the inventions of ancient  or modern times none have more importantly and beneficently influenced the affairs of mankind than the double acting high pressure steam engine, the locomotive, the steam railway system, and the steamboat, all of which inventions are of American origin. The first three are directly and the last indirectly associated with a patent that was granted by the State of Maryland, in 1787, being the very year of the framing of the Constitution of the United States. In view of the momentous nature of the services which these four inventions have rendered to the material and national interests of the people of the United States, it is to be hoped that neither they nor their origin will be forgotten in the coming celebration of the centennial of the framing of the Constitution. The high pressure steam engine in its stationary form is almost ubiquitous in America. In all great iron and steel works, in all factories, in all plants for lighting cities with electricity, in brief, wherever in the United States great power in compact form is wanted, there will be found the high pressure steam engine furnishing all the power that is required, and more, too, if more is demanded, because it appears to be equal to every human requisition. But go beyond America. Go to Great Britain, and the American steam engine - although it is not termed American in Great Britain - will be found fast superseding the English engine - in other words, James Watt's condensing engine. It is the same the world over. On all the earth there is not a steam locomotive that could turn a wheel but for the fact that, in common with every locomotive from the earliest introduction of that invention, it is simply the American steam engine put on wheels, and it was first put on wheels by its American inventor, Oliver Evans, being the same Oliver Evans to whom the State of Maryland granted the before mentioned patent of 1787. Experiments with electrical railways were started by Robert Davidson in 1838. He completed a battery-powered carriage capable of 6.4 km/h (4 mph). The Giant's Causeway Tramway was the first to use electricity fed to the trains en-route, using a third rail, when it opened in 1883. Overhead wires were taken into use in 1888. At first this was taken into use on tramways, that until then had been horse-hauled horsecars. The first conventional electrified railway was the Roslag Line in Sweden. During the 1890s, many large cities, such as London, Paris  and New York used the new technology to build rapid transit for urban commuting. In smaller cities, tramways became common, and were often the only mode of public transport until the introduction of buses in the 1920s. In North America, interurbans  became a common mode to reach suburban areas. At first all electric railways used direct current, but in 1904, the Spubeital Line  in Austria opened with alternating current. The Los Angeles Railway (LARY — pronounced "Larry") was the streetcar system around which central L.A. was developed. LARY used a yellow paint scheme — hence LARY was known as the "Yellow Car" system. Los Angeles area real estate and utility tycoon Henry Huntington gained control of LARY in 1898. The streetcar system grew rapidly through the first decade of the 20th century, when the population of Los Angeles more than tripled. After Huntington's death in 1927, the streetcar system was owned by the Huntington Estate (operator of the museum and library in San Marino) until its sale to National City Lines in 1944, at which time it was renamed Los Angeles Transit Lines. The Pacific Electric "Red Car" system has become legendary in the history of Los Angeles. But in reality LARY/LATL had a much higher ridership — nearly three times as high. During the 1940s about a million people lived within about a half mile of the bus and streetcar lines of LARY/LATL. By 1950 some LATL bus lines penetrated as far as Beverly Hills on the westside, and the 5 streetcar line — the longest line — reached 13 miles south to Hawthorne. But for the most part LARY/LATL services were concentrated in the area that today would be called "central Los Angeles", and it covered this area fairly intensively. The all-time high transit ridership in central Los Angeles was achieved in 1946 when there were 424 transit rides per person handled by Los Angeles Railway, local central Los Angeles routes of Pacific Electric, and the jointly owned Los Angeles Motor Coach. By 1950 the level of transit ridership had returned to roughly the same level as the '30s — 249 transit rides for every man, woman and child in central Los Angeles. This is still quite high by present-day standards. This would be higher than all cities in the USA at present other than San Francisco and New York. The '50s and '60s were the era when transit ridership crashed in Los Angeles. The all time low was reached in 1969 when the central Los Angeles portion of the bus network handled only 96 transit rides per person for the year. One advantage of electrification is the lack of pollution from the locomotives themselves. Electrification also results in higher performance, lower maintenance costs, and lower energy costs for electric locomotives. Power plants, even if they burn fossil fuels, are far cleaner than mobile sources such as locomotive engines. Also the power for electric locomotives can come from clean and/or renewable sources, including geothermal power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar power, and wind turbines. Electric locomotives are also quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise. The lack of reciprocating parts means that electric locomotives are easier on the track, reducing track maintenance. Power plant capacity is far greater than what any individual locomotive uses, so electric locomotives can have a higher power output than diesel locomotives and they can produce even higher short-term surge power for fast acceleration. Electric locomotives are ideal for commuter rail service with frequent stops. They are used on all high-speed lines, such as ICE in Germany, Acela in the US, Shinkansen in Japan and TGV in France. Electric locomotives are also used on freight routes that have a consistently high traffic volume, or in areas with advanced rail networks. Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90%. Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put some power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. The chief disadvantage of electrification is the cost for infrastructure (overhead power lines or electrified third rail, substations, control systems). Public policy in the US currently interferes with electrification—higher property taxes are imposed on privately owned rail facilities if they have electrification facilities. Also, US regulations on diesel locomotives are very weak compared to regulations on automobile emissions or power plant emissions. The Principal of the Third rail system Note the 3rd rail The idea is simple, an extra steel rail is laid along side the track, and its primary purpose is to carry electricity. Then on the trains a pick-up shoe sits on the rail which provides electricity to the train. The 3rd rail sits slightly higher up than the other rails, and instead of being supported by sleepers, it is supported by a series of insulating supports. Britain is the only country in the world with extensive 3rd rail electrification of main railways. The reason for this was because back in the early part of this century, Southern Railways, who owned the railways in the south east of England launched a program to get rid of the steam engines. They decided to electrify all their lines. Now of course back in those days no one had established the overhead wires system, the only example was the London Underground which used electricity carrying rails so Southern adopted that idea. So today we have third rail electric systems running at 750 V. The Pick-up shoeThe London Underground uses two electric rails, a positive and a negative direct current at 660 V, so it in fact has four rails. Most urban transport trains use a 3rd rail or a 3rd & 4th rail system Why is the Voltage lower for 3rd rail systems? The energy efficiency of transporting electricity is as mentioned before R/I2 (R is resistance, I is current) so it is always desirable to keep current low. However in the 3rd rail system the cross sectional area of the rail is much greater than a cable, this means the resistance is very much lower, so the need to keep the voltage high is generally not so important. Being so close to the ground if the voltage was too high it would be very hard to insulate the rails and could lead to further energy losses. Advantages of 3rd rail: It is very cheap relatively speaking. Instead of having to construct a whole series of supports with wire suspended under high tension, all that's needed is to lay an extra railway down. Also when railways go through tunnels it is very costly to build overhead lines as it often requires the roof of the tunnel to be raised, and the same goes for bridges. Disadvantages of 3rd rail: There are a number of disadvantages for using 3rd rail. Power is a key issue, for light local passenger trains its fine, but cannot supply enough power for really heavy freight trains. Secondly speed, the 3rd rail is not continuous, it has to break for points and crossovers and sometimes to switch from one side to the other. Trains have to slow so that damage isn't caused to the shoe. Also 3rd rail trains are all limited to 100mph or 160km/h, not suitable for high speed. The class 73 is the only 3rd rail locomotive in the UK, and if you look at the locomotive list you can see that it is significantly less powerful than other electric's. Mostly electrical multiple units use the 3rd rail system. So why hasn't 3rd rail caught on around the world? It may be cheap, but the problem is because of lack of power and speed, it doesn't offer much advantages over diesel trains, which is why electrification would be considered in the first place. However for underground railway systems it has caught on, clearly diesels cannot run in closed tunnels without causing massive health problems, and because the tunnels in underground are generally small, there isn't room in the roof for overhead lines, so electric rails are ideal. The Diesel Electric Locomotive is the dominant type of locomotive in the world today. But what does the term "Diesel-Electric" really mean? There have been five major types of locomotives used in the history of railroads; The Steam Locomotive, The Electric Locomotive, The Diesel (or gas) Torque-Converter Locomotive, The Turbine Electric Locomotive, and finally, the Diesel Electric. A steam locomotive burns coal or oil, converting water into steam, and then uses the steam to drive pistons, which are connected by drive rods to the wheels . A straight electric locomotive, on the other hand, uses electricity provided by an overhead wire or "3rd rail" next to the tracks, to power electric motors (known as "traction motors") that are geared directly to its wheels. Straight electric locomotives are usually very powerful, fast, and long-lived machines (The Pennsylvania RR's famous GG1 is a classic example of a straight electric). Our third type, the diesel or gas torque-converter locomotive uses some kind of internal combustion engine which is geared directly to the drive wheels using a "torque converter", more commonly known as a "clutch". The disadvantages of this arrangement are many, as burning out a clutch 200 miles from your maintenance base would present obvious problems. The fourth type listed, the turbine-electric, is also one of the rarest types. The basic idea was to burn some kind of fuel to produce either steam or hot combustion gases, which were then passed through a turbine, which would spin at high speed. The turbine would drive an electric generator, which would provide electricity to traction motors on the wheels of the locomotive. Some turbines burned coal, others burned oil, and most were experimental in nature. The Union Pacific Railroad had a whole series of turbine-electrics that burned bunker C fuel. The last of their series were the most powerful locomotives ever built, at 10,000 h.p. each. Although successful, they had high maintenance costs, and used almost as much fuel at idle as they did at full throttle. Finally we come the subject of this article, the diesel-electric locomotive. As you can probably guess by now, the diesel-electric uses a diesel engine to drive an electric generator, which then supplies the current to traction motors, which are geared directly to the locomotive's wheels. One of the main advantages of this arrangement is that, since the engine is not directly attached to the wheels, starting a heavy train cannot "stall" the engine, as in the case of the torque-converter locomotive. The motors simply heat up until they start the train moving, at which point the current level drops. Another advantage is that, unlike the straight electric locomotive, expensive and hard to maintain overhead wires (called "catenary") or third rails are not necessary. This is less of a factor in Europe, where distances are smaller, but since some North American railroads have tens of thousands of miles of track, it's a major consideration. And compared to a steam locomotive, Diesels require very little maintenance, and can be started up and shut down instantly. Steam locomotives would take hours to build up a head of steam, and required frequent boiler rebuilds and costly maintenance by skilled shop forces. Diesel-electrics came into prominence in North America after the Second World War, when railroads, anxious to replace their war-worn fleets of locomotives, started looking carefully at the economics involved. Diesels, although of lower horsepower than modern steam engines, could be combined into multiple sets at will, all run by one crew. Thus a group of three or four engines could be combined to run a large freight, and then broken up to run a number of local trains with one engine each. This offered more flexibility than steam, which required one complete crew for each engine, making running multiple engines very expensive. The much lower maintenance costs of diesels were also a deciding factor in railroads switching over to them. A much smaller list of skills was required to maintain diesels than were required to maintain steam engines. This meant lower employment numbers, and big savings in salaries. Diesel-electrics started out in the 600-hp range, and the early ones were primarily switchers. The earliest examples were built in the late 1920's, and really didn't start to catch on until the late 1930's when railroads turned to diesel switchers to solve their problems with smoke in railroad yards located in major cities. At this time many cities had started fining the railroads for excessive smoke production. All the smoke from steam engines really made life difficult for inner city dwellers and workers. After they had run the diesel switchers for a while, they started to notice the economics of these engines, but before they could experiment with them further, WWII broke out, and all further experimentation ceased. In the U.S., Diesel manufacturers were ordered by the war production board to produce whatever products that they had already developed, which meant that some companies which had successful diesel switchers were stuck producing only switchers for the whole war. Others, which had concentrated on diesel road locomotives, enjoyed a head start on their competition, as they had the whole war to further refine their products. After the war, the diesel-electric really took off. In the U.S. and Canada, General Motors rapidly became the dominant diesel locomotive builder, eventually putting most of its competition out of business. It's landmark FT locomotive was embraced wholeheartedly by North American railroads, and by the end of the 1950's steam was all but dead. Railroads, once they decided to switch to diesel-electric, bought virtually anything that was available, including some fairly poorly designed products. Diesels by GM, Fairbanks Morse, American Locomotive Company, Lima, and General Electric were all over the continent. Eventually, all but GM and GE were eliminated from the market in the U.S. and Canada. Today's diesel-electrics are impressive machines indeed. From the early days where a diesel road locomotive would be 1500-1700 h.p., we now see single diesels which have 6000 h.p. Modern diesels are high tech wonders, employing such features as ground radar to determine speed, feeding this information to computers that prevent the locomotive's wheels from slipping under heavy loads. Other diesels are equipped to control additional "mid-train" helper locomotives by means of radio control, allowing one crew to run as many as three separate sets of locomotives at the same time. Nowadays, General Electric in Erie, PA is the number one locomotive builder in North America, followed by General Motors Diesel Division in London, Ontario. Both builders have seen a boom in recent years, as railroads have expanded their markets for bulk commodities, truck trailers, and shipping containers. So it looks like the diesel-electric locomotive is here to stay! Go down to the tracks and check some out the next time you have the chance. The Diesel Electric Locomotive is the dominant type of locomotive in the world today. But what does the term "Diesel-Electric" really mean? There have been five major types of locomotives used in the history of railroads; The Steam Locomotive, The Electric Locomotive, The Diesel (or gas) Torque-Converter Locomotive, The Turbine Electric Locomotive, and finally, the Diesel Electric. A steam locomotive burns coal or oil, converting water into steam, and then uses the steam to drive pistons, which are connected by drive rods to the wheels. A straight electric locomotive, on the other hand, uses electricity provided by an overhead wire or "3rd rail" next to the tracks, to power electric motors (known as "traction motors") that are geared directly to its wheels. Straight electric locomotives are usually very powerful, fast, and long-lived machines (The Pennsylvania RR's famous GG1 is a classic example of a straight electric). Our third type, the diesel or gas torque-converter locomotive uses some kind of internal combustion engine which is geared directly to the drive wheels  using a "torque converter", more commonly known as a "clutch". The disadvantages of this arrangement are many, as burning out a clutch 200 miles from your maintenance base would present obvious problems. The fourth type listed, the turbine-electric, is also one of the rarest types. The basic idea was to burn some kind of fuel to produce either steam or hot combustion gases, which were then passed through a turbine, which would spin at high speed. The turbine would drive an electric generator, which would provide electricity to traction motors on the wheels of the locomotive. Some turbines burned coal, others burned oil, and most were experimental in nature. The Union Pacific Railroad had a whole series of turbine-electrics that burned bunker C fuel. The last of their series were the most powerful locomotives ever built, at 10,000 h.p. each. Although successful, they had high maintenance costs, and used almost as much fuel at idle as they did at full throttle.