Motto: “I am not the Messiah!”, Brian [Later edit: I wrote this during the pandemic, not in a very happy state of mind, nostalgic about good old and normal times, and dreaming of white whales. It is a personal opinion and, to a degree, an expression of powerless frustration. Don’t take it too seriously!] For…
A long time ago in a country far, far away … The King heard about a new marvel of engineering … in England was invented a monstrous machine. It was moving by its own, magically propelled by coal fire and hot steam! Its speed was higher than the quickest eagle or the fastest horse! It…
The measurement and analysis of track geometry is carried out regularly by all the railway infrastructure administrators in order to obtain data from which the track quality is established and the maintenance can be scheduled (Cope – 1993). Historically, the use of track inspection cars can be traced back to the early 1920’s in France…
This is the presentation I gave to the Glasgow Section of the Permanent Way Institution: Track Quality Measurement and Inherent Design Standard Deviation Later note: Some fundamental things stated in this presentation need to be revised.
When designing multiple line alignments – in railway stations or plain line sections – there will be a creep of the alignment stationing due to the length difference between the alignments. This stationing (or chainage) creep becomes relevant when adjacent alignments have to be kept at the same level or with a well-defined elevation difference.…
Motto: Tolle lege! Perhaps the best and most complete technical book about track is “Modern Railway Track” written by Dr Coenraad Esveld, Professor of Railway Engineering at Delft University of Technology. A detailed Table of Contents of the second edition can be found here together with a brief selection of the book. The second edition, written…
Maglev is a transport system that uses the magnetic levitation to move vehicles without contact to the guideway. The system uses magnetic forces for levitation, propulsion and guidance of the vehicle, thereby making practically negligible the friction forces and allowing very high speeds. The technological evolution is making this transportation system competitive and gaining consideration as a…
After the post about the limits of vertical acceleration, and even before, I was asked what was the original curve used to connect vertical gradients. What was first, the circle or the “egg”- the parabolic curve? The expected answer was “the circular curve” because, presumably, a circle can be drawn easier than a parabola… “How…
The theory of vertical movement. The parabolic projectile motion An object thrown in the air, near the earth’s surface, moves along a parabolic path under the action of gravity only. The only force of significance that acts on the object is gravity, which acts downward to cause a downward acceleration. Because of the object’s inertia, no external horizontal force is needed…
A railway track blog 