railroad

Table of Contents

Introduction
Cars
- Freight cars
- Passenger cars
  - Brake systems
  - Automatic body tilting
  - Cars for daytime service
  - Cars for overnight travel
Railroad track and roadway
- Location and construction
- Rail
  - Rail fittings
  - Sleepers (crossties)
  - Track maintenance
- Auxiliary plant
  - Bridges
  - Buildings
  - Tunnels
Railroad operations and control
- Communications
  - Radio
  - Computers
- Signaling
  - Types of signals
  - Automated systems
  - Interlocking and routing
- The marshaling yard
Intermodal freight vehicles and systems
- Development
- Operations
- Passenger intermodals
Railroad history
- Source in inland water transport
- Early European railroads
  - The Stockton and Darlington Railway
  - The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
  - Characteristics of British railroads
  - The railroad in continental Europe
- Early American railroads
  - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
  - Boston railroads
  - The South Carolina Railroad
- North American railroads in the late 19th and 20th centuries
  - American railroads
    - Expansion into the interior
    - The transcontinental railroad
    - Advances in traction systems
    - Railway company mergers
  - Canadian railroads
Modern railways
- Diesel-electric locomotion and electronic systems
- Growth in developing countries
- High-speed passenger lines
  - Japan
  - Western Europe
  - South Korea, Taiwan, and China
  - North America
- Maglev

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railroad summary

railroad

Also known as: railway

Written by James E. Vance, Thomas Clark Shedd, Geoffrey Freeman AllenSee All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 • Article History

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Category: Science & Tech

Key People:: Theodore Roosevelt; Daniel Burnham; Robert M. La Follette; James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie; Sergey Yulyevich, Count Witte

Related Topics:: subway; streetcar; national railways; elevated transit line; funicular railroad

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railroad, mode of land transportation in which flange-wheeled vehicles move over two parallel steel rails, or tracks, either by self-propulsion or by the propulsion of a locomotive. After the first crude beginnings, railroad-car design took divergent courses in North America and Europe, because of differing economic conditions and technological developments. Early cars on both continents were largely of two-axle design, but passenger-car builders soon began constructing cars with three and then four axles, the latter arranged in two four-wheel swivel trucks, or bogies. The trucks resulted in smoother riding qualities and also spread the weight of heavy vehicles over more ...(100 of 20134 words)

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