Lec. - Railway Engineering Assist. Lec.

Zaid Abdul Zahra Mahdi

Introduction to Railways and Trains

Railway Engineering: The branch of Civil Engineering which deals with the design, construction and
maintenance of the railway tracks for safe and efficient movements of trains.

The Importance of Rail Transport:

1- Large transport heavy loads over long distances.

2- The ability to quickly and clear superiority of a lot of other means; where some trains
speed reached 210 km / h and others 510 km/ h.

3- Economy and safe mode of transportation.

Types of Land Transportation System

1- Rail transport Owing to the heavy expenditure on the basic infra-structure

required, rail transport is best suited for carrying bulk commodities and a large number
of passengers over long distances.

2- Road transport Owing to flexibility of operation and the ability to provide door to- door
service, road transport is ideally suited for carrying light commodities and a small number of
passengers over short distances.
Lec. - Railway Engineering Assist. Lec. Zaid Abdul Zahra Mahdi

3- Pipe lines (for oil, gas, etc...).

The History of Railways

1- About 5000 BC by the Babylonians and the ancient Egyptians invented the wheels.

2- Greeks used paths to their vehicles digging ground lines nearly 15 cen meters in depth. And
the vehicle was paid on two parallel lines a distance of one meter or more between them are
more like bars rail.

3- In the 16th century used lines of iron above the ground (rails) to transport coal from the mines
to the vehicles wheels above it.

4- The first trains were rope- hauled, gravity powered or pulled by horses.

5- The opening of the rst railway in 1825 the planning of the English author George Stephenson
Klangurt. The length of the railway line 40 kilometers.

6- From the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomo ves ( .

Pulled by horses Steam Locomotives

7- From the 1910s onwards the steam locomo ves began to be replaced by diesel locomotives
and electric locomotives. From city transit trains, subways, trams, to high speed rapid transit
trains.
Lec. - Railway Engineering Assist. Lec. Zaid Abdul Zahra Mahdi

8-
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Diesel locomotives Electric locomotives

8- Nowadays; Maglev technology has invented to achieve much faster opera on over 500
km/h (310 mph), in addition to modern tram system developed.

Maglev Light rail

Types of Railways

It might be divided according to its eleva on into 1- at grade rails. 2- Elevated rails and 3- metro
those in the urban areas, also it might be in form of 1- ballast rails 2- slabs, and 3- maglev.

The most divisions of railways types:

1- Common railway From the first moments that steam engines started rolling across the fields
of England, standard configuration of railway began spreading across the world.