



TRAIN HISTORY

Trains played very important role not only during industrial revolution but also is very important in today's fast growing world. From steam locomotive to bullet,maglev trains we have seen so many changes that have not only reduced the time to reach destination but also more safe,reliable and comfortable.It is very important to know the working of the trains with new technology and how effectively they use technology to overcome various hurdles.

After the wagon's were invented,they were frequently used as horse-wagon to transport goods and people for long distance. But the real application came when the steam locomotives were invented which can drive tonnes of load from one place to another.

There were many invention carried out on steam engines before they were utilized in trains.Mostly they were used in cotton mills,water-pumps etc which were of low capacity because of low pressure generation.





MODELED BY AMAL NAMBIAR (toy train)

MODELED BY AMAL NAMBIAR (toy train)



'James Watt', a Scottish inventor & mechanical engineer was responsible for improvements in steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine capable of powering a wheel & patented in 1784. After more improvements it was used in most part of the world for transportation through trains.









Maglev Train



More advancement was made after the introduction of diesel and electric locomotives. They are cleaner,more efficient and requires less maintenance compared to steam locomotive. World's first electric tram line opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin,Germany built by Wernet von Siemens.But now the recent advances in train are bullet train, Maglev train which have speed more than take-off speed of an aircraft.





TGV-France The maximum operating speed for bullet train is 320 km/hr (200mph). Tests run have reached 443 km/hr (275mph) for conventional rail in 1996 and upto a world record 603km/hr (375mph) for maglev in April 2015. Also TGV( Train a Grande Vitesse-High speed train) of France has a record speed of 574.3 km/hr (352.7mph) on 3 April 2007.



But the first fastest train was developed by Japan - Bullet train.





BULLET TRAIN:





A normal train can't sustain the stresses the bullet train undergoes and due to this Japan engineers had to redesign the whole concept keeping in mind 'speed, comfort,safety'.









The first part that needed to be redesigned, was the wheels. Well they are obviously round in shape but the important part is surface that makes contact with rails. If the shape is not accordingly, everything can possibly go wrong.

Train wheels are not perfectly flat as you might think. It is little bit conical with track as as shown in figure above. This angle has being kept to keep the wheel in contact to track during cornering while a flat wheel will just derail or run out of rail. Even with flanges on side that guides the wheel,using it in flat wheels will wear out very soon. Hence use of conical shape wheels solved the problem in conventional trains. The optimum amount of angle will provide the wheels to be in contact with the track. But this angle will cause ' hunting' when the speed is increased beyond limit.





Hunting is unusual and unwanted oscillation caused due to cone angle as shown below.



