This thesis analyses the world rolling stock market. It was written on claim of SKF Group. It contains the information about segmentation, status and development of the market. Moreover there is also basic information about transport and railway technology market.

The purpose of this thesis is to draw out historical progress of the railway and railway transport in our land, to emphasize the necessity of railway transport in post-war renewal and to point out undesirable effects of state intervention and nationalization of railways. In the opening part are described the beginnings of railway transport in our land and is emphasized importance of particular railway lines in light of their utilize after the Second World War and after changing our foreign business orientation after the year 1948 as well. Furthermore is point out the necessity of the railway after the Second World War when the economy required fast consolidation and the railway played significant role. Other part of the thesis deals with comparison of the railway transport and the automobile transport with emphasis on state intervention in favour of the railway transport after the First Word War. The economic part of this thesis is influenced by Austrian economic school and describes the problems of nationalization of railways and their unintended effects.

Trespassing behaviour is a problem for railway operations and manifests itself through train-pedestrian collisions, incidents of theft and vandalism to rail infrastructure, as well as encroachment on railway property. The study has consisted of a quantitative and a qualitative part. The quantitative part analyses demographic, temporal and spatial data on train-pedestrian fatalities and injuries, as well as data on occurrences of theft and malicious damage to rail infrastructure in the Cape Town Functional Region between 2015 and 2018. The qualitative part presents the perspective from a diverse group of subject matter experts, having explored opinions on trespassing behaviours and preventative measures. Additionally, the trespassing behaviour at several sites was investigated and a case study evaluation of the efficacy of a pilot Rail Enforcement Unit was carried out. There were 456 railway-related deaths during the study period with 330 of this being train-pedestrian collisions. There were 4715 occurrences of theft and malicious damage to railway assets over the period. Several hot-spot areas were identified via the data and interviews with experts and several sites chosen for further verification. Site visits confirmed widespread trespassing behaviours with the two worst locations recording an average of over 300 persons in a 15-minute period. The case study reviewing the effectiveness of the security and enforcement countermeasure revealed that occurrences of train-pedestrian incidents, as well as security occurrences have increased by 1.4% and 7.5% respectively. Evidence of geographical displacement of crime is evident, suggesting that enforcement countermeasures are temporarily effective and need to be considered in combination with other measures to ensure its durability. In conclusion, this research presents a detailed analysis of railway trespassing and its main effects in order to understand the problem locally. Different approaches are required to combat the various guises of railway trespassing. Certain countermeasures may well be within the rail operator's remit, but essentially, the nature of problems experienced by the rail operator is beyond a rail problem, and requires a systems approach involving multiple authorities

The view of the author presented in this dissertation is that the integration of modern railway technologies and information technology systems establishes effective maintenance management and ensures continuous asset management improvement. In conjunction with the integration of different technologies is the requirement to implement these technologies and strategies in a systematic process according to a prioritised order of value adding, to improve the required service objectives (Mitchell et al., 2007; Woodhouse, 2001). The dissertation describes the planning of maintenance activities on railway assets. It involves various aspects through the asset management life cycle from asset inventory and condition data acquisitioning methods and the utilization of maintenance history to assist in the work identification, planning and work execution of maintenance activities. The challenge in the railways includes a large geographic area resulting in challenges to minimize maintenance visits and resulting costs. It further provides details on the integration and efficient utilisation of information and presents the value it adds to ensure maintenance effectiveness. The study focuses on methods for data collection and a systematic process for decision-making analysis with the ultimate aim of producing an effective maintenance plan (specifically for mechanised tamping) based on all available infrastructure management data including operational requirements. Lastly the effect of condition-based maintenance is illustrated, demonstrating that this strategy increases maintenance effectiveness (doing the right things), resulting in a decrease in maintenance cost and an increase in capacity. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Civil Engineering / unrestricted

No description available.

Swedish transport administration initiated this Master Thesis project and the aim was to compare regulations for the design of high-speed railways from three European countries: France, Germany and Spain. The reason why this is of interest for the Swedish transport administration is the design of the first Swedish high-speed railway, called Ostlänken. Therefore, a literature study of the regulations and other literature regarding high-speed railway has been carried out. A basic description of railway components, slab track and ballasted tracks is presented. Ballasted embankments usually consist of a trackbed layer (ballast onto subballast), and the ultimate thickness of this layer is discussed, as there are a number of methods available to calculate the appropriate thickness, with a number of different design parameters. These design methods results in different trackbed thickness and choosing the “wrong” method might lead to an overestimation or underestimation of the trackbed layer. Constructing a ballastless railway line means that the ballast is replaced by another material, usually a slab made of reinforced concrete or asphalt, and the rail is cast onto this slab. Countries design their slab using different methods. Germany has constructed high-speed railway lines with a slab track solution, generally slabs with low flexible stiffness. France has until recently constructed their high-speed line ballasted but is now developing a new slab track technique, called NBT (New Ballastless Track) and Spain uses various methods. It is difficult to compare the regulations, however, there are some factors that at least begin to explain the differences between the countries: the frost hazard, the inherent ground quality, purpose with the railway (mixed traffic, solely passenger traffic, etc.), design parameters (life, axle load, etc.). Furthermore, the settlement requirements, soil classification and bearing capacity are factors that varies from country to country, but the origin for this variation is harder to detect.

This work focuses on automated classification of railway ties based on their condition using aerial imagery. Four approaches are explored and compared to achieve this goal - handcrafted features, HOG features, transfer learning and proposed CNN architecture. Mean test accuracy per class and Quadratic Weighted Kappa score are used as performance metrics, particularly suited for the ordered classification in this work. Transfer learning approach outperforms the handcrafted features and HOG features by a significant margin. The proposed CNN architecture caters to the unique nature of the railway tie images and their defects. The performance of this approach is superior to the handcrafted and HOG features. It also shows a significant reduction in the number of parameters as compared to the transfer learning approach. Data augmentation boosts the performance of all approaches. The problem of label noise is also analyzed. The techniques proposed in this work will help in reducing the time, cost and dependency on experts involved in traditional railway tie inspections and will facilitate efficient documentation and planning for maintenance of railway ties. / Master of Science

Yes / Maintenance planning for busy railway systems is challenging because there is growing pressure on increasing operation time, which reduces the infrastructure-accessible time for maintenance. This paper proposes an optimization model that is aimed at finding the best maintenance schedule for multiple components in a railway track to minimize the total cost in the planning horizon. One distinct and practical feature of the model is that the track accessible time for maintenance is limited. We formulate all relevant costs in the component's life cycle, including maintenance cost, fixed track-closure (possession) cost, social-economic cost related to the effects of maintenance time on the train operation, and service-life shortening cost due to the shifting of activities. Generally, it is beneficial to cluster and maintain several components in a single possession because this helps reduce the cost by occupying the track only once. However, the decision must depend on the available possession time. A sensitivity analysis is performed to highlight the effects of available possession time on the number of required possessions as well as the total cost incurred.

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2019

This research presents a demographic investigation into the effects the development of Britain’s railways in the Victorian Era had on the largely rural counties of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. A ‘gateway’ to London, this region was traversed by many lines with a wide range of impacts. Railway historiography has questioned the extent to which railways affected national development; contemporary views of their central importance giving way to more critical opinion. Local rural studies have been recognised in addressing this; these at present are, however, few. Comparing and contrasting the three counties, the findings were used to create hypotheses of rural impacts, subsequently tested for accuracy and applicability by comparison with individual settlements. They demonstrated that occupations became decreasingly agricultural; railways having varying involvement. Sometimes a key factor, mostly they were of a supporting nature triggering knock-on effects. Land use became more urbanised but this was not railway originating; contrarily land use affected rail development itself. Railways, nonetheless, actively boosted urbanisation and industry by 1900, and in cases even supported agriculture. Population changes were assisted by railways, particularly rural-urban migration, but while aiding later in the period, railways did not initiate the process. A case study of Wolverton (Buckinghamshire), the first planned ‘railway town’, reveal exceptional differences even down to the appropriateness of the broader historiography. Limited prior research on this settlement type had been undertaken, and this study revealed their development was more complex than at first glance. As a result, a new structural framework was created to explain how they could transform from company tool to independent town. The contribution of this research is thus threefold. In analysing a new region, another area is added to a growing number collectively building a national understanding from a local level. As a rural region yet close to London, this shows that while current historiographical ‘facilitator’ views are correct, variation was rife. The hypotheses present a starting point for future rural rail studies – a method for comparing regions alongside a list of investigable aspects. Lastly, the proposed model for ‘railway town’ development provides a framework for comparison not just of these settlements but potentially other forms of planned ‘company town’. While railways were one factor among many, their importance should not be underestimated.