Rolling stock
Rail vehicles are vehicles of railways that operate on one or more rails or out. Vehicle and rail are a tightly coordinated system, commonly referred to as wheel-rail system.
Technology and Definition
Most common are rail vehicles running on tracks in pairs and arranged in parallel steel rails ( rail track ). The rails used for this purpose are usually the flat bottom rail and trams the grooved rail. On these rail cars are self- guided through the conical shaped tread its wheels ( sinusoidal running ) and preserved by additional, running along the inside of the rail pairs flanges under normal operating circumstances before derailment.
A derailment is still not completely ruled out in this system. Since the derailing of vehicle kinetic energy is consumed quickly with relatively little damage, it makes you look for safety devices ( derailers ) advantage, that can cause the vehicle when driving targeted derail.
Conventional rail vehicles have the advantage that the rolling friction of steel wheels on smooth steel rails is very low and therefore large quantities of goods can be moved with relatively little expenditure of energy. The tracking properties of the wheel-rail system allow also to compile trains of comparatively great length, so that the maximum movement of goods can be actually used. At low speeds, rail vehicles being surpassed in this respect only of ships.
In the early days of railroad history, it came as a result was still misunderstood on material phenomena at steam locomotive boilers to creep and changing tires often claimed to serious accidents. The latter were by August Wöhler (* 1819, † 1914) explored for the first time.
Types of railway vehicles
In funiculars a wheel in the wheel may be cylindrical, while the other two wheel flanges has and the tracking takes over.
Other rail vehicles include monorail railways, suspended lines or lifts. These can be made impossible with appropriate design derailment.
Cabins of fully automated so-called Personal Rapid Transit systems ( PRT) to use based on the determined from the cab switch position not a conventional wheel-rail system. In addition to the drive system and the rail systems are different, the first public ULTra PRT is only track out.
A special kind of rail vehicle, the solar path dar. features of this system of wheel-rail system here is an important part of the overall concept, which aims primarily to best energy utilization.
Rolling stock of the railway may motorized (locomotives, multiple units, motor coaches, rail tractors, cabooses as rail construction, tower wagons, two-way vehicle, or rail cleaning vehicles, rail cars ) or unmotorisiert be (wagons, rail bikes, hand lever - track inspection vehicles).
Stock of rail vehicles in Germany
Stock of railway vehicles ( 1999):
Several German cities in the former West Germany built in the 1960s and 1970s, the tram from and instead the road network, or replace tram connections by bus lines. From the 1980s began a process of repentance: trams played a role again in public transport (PT ) and the restriction of motorized private transport. Part trams were replaced by the expansion of light rail and subway.
Inventory of roads, urban and metros (2000):
- 4900 trams
- 4400 town and subways