History of rail transport

The history of rail transport began in 6th century BC in Ancient Greece. It

can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal
means of track material and motive power used.

Pre-steam
Wooden rails
In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug,
a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line
originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated
by human or animal power, through a treadwheel The line still exists and is
operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational
railway.
Metal rails
In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast
iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation
of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning,
but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching.
A 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 in 1787, 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. In
1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway, a double track
plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in
south London.

Steam power
James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, greatly improved
the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out
of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine in 1769, 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; this required a
separate condenser and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of
boilers improved, Watt 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 patented a design for a steam
locomotive in 1784.

Diesel power
In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine
manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to
manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing
diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel
locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered
locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–
Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial
success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW
with a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

Q.2: What are the Means and Modes of Transportation

system?
Transportation modes normally used are:
1- Motor
2- Rail
3- Air
4- Water
5- Pipe line
6- A combination of the above
7-Multimode transportation
Means of Transportation are:
1. Automobile
 2. Local Bus Transit
3. Express Bus Transit
4. Para Transit (Mobile Bike, Ambulance)
5. Light Rail
6. Heavy Rail
7. Ferry (Sea, Water)

Q.3:Comparative Study between\amongst various modes&

means of transportation system & communication system.
The functions of transportation and communication systems overlap.
Both bridge the gaps between geographic locations, the one by
moving physical objects, the other by moving information.
In recent years, as the roles of communication have expanded,
many people expect they’ll come to preempt those that
transportation has traditionally performed, with messages
substituting for travel and shipping. Or, is it more likely that
communication and transportation are mutually reinforcing – that
each induces expansion in the other?

Over the past two decades, communication costs have

plummeted relative to transportation costs, reflecting advanced
electronic technology and changing prices of some commodities,
such as energy. For those industries and markets where
communication and transportation coexist, the comparative
advantage of communication has been rising.

Relations between these systems have significant implications for

regional economics and regional planning because transportation
costs play a dominant role in locational decisions and in land
development, infrastructure investment, and the conduct of
industry. Locational advantage (or disadvantage) is based on the
costs (including time costs) of gaining access to various
destinations and services. Early theory of location was based on
transportation costs, but pertinent access costs nowadays are
frequently costs of communication instead.