Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Is railroading still a thing?
A railfan, rail buff, or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast or railway buff (Australian/British English), trainspotter or anorak (British English, usually derogatory) is a person interested, recreationally, in rail transport. Railfans of many ages can be found worldwide. Railfans often combine their interest with other hobbies, especially photography and videography, radio scanning, model railroading, studying railroad history and participating in railway station and rolling stock preservation efforts. Magazines dedicated to railfanning include "Trains" and "Railfan & Railroad".
One possible reason for this difference in design principles between American and European carbuilding practice could be the average distance between stations on the two continents. While most European railroads connected towns and villages that were still very closely spaced, American railroads had to travel over much greater distances to reach their destinations. Building passenger cars with a long passageway through the length of the car allowed the passengers easy access to the restroom, among other things, on longer journeys.
Since their introduction, Japan's Shinkansen systems have been undergoing constant improvement, not only increasing line speeds. Over a dozen train models have been produced, addressing diverse issues such as tunnel boom noise, vibration, aerodynamic drag, lines with lower patronage ("Mini shinkansen"), earthquake and typhoon safety, braking distance, problems due to snow, and energy consumption (newer trains are twice as energy efficient as the initial ones despite greater speeds).
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, represents the configuration of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. In the mid 19th century, this wheel arrangement became the second most popular configuration for new steam locomotives in the United States of America, where this type is commonly referred to as a Ten-wheeler.As a locomotive pulling trains of lightweight all wood passenger cars in the 1890-1920s, it was exceptionally stable at near 100 mph speeds on the New York Central's New York to Chicago Water Level Route and on the Reading Railroad's Camden to Atlantic City, NJ, line. As passenger equipment grew heavier with all steel construction, heavier locomotives replaced the Ten Wheeler.
The of railway between Valdosta and Waycross were once the longest straight stretch of railroad in the world. Today highways stretch through the county for miles with hardly a curve, rise, or fall.
During the mid-1920s the IMR formed a bus subsidiary that operated most of the island's bus services, and helped the railway to remain profitable into the 1960s. The first serious examination of the long term viability of the railway came with the Howden Report in 1949, which recommended the closure of the Ramsey line, which was already losing money; the eventual closure of the Peel line, which was breaking even in the late 1940s; and the retention of the then profitable Port Erin line. Howden also reported that the existing equipment of the railway had an economic life of 10–25 years. Economies were made throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. These included the ending of evening and Sunday services, the deferral of track maintenance, and cuts to train mileage as locomotives became unserviceable. To further reduce expenses, there were winter closures of the Peel line (1960-61 only) and the Ramsey line after September 1961, but A. M. Sheard, the then general manager, refused to close the Ramsey line which by this time was losing a considerable amount of money each year.
The ride is capable of running three trains at any one time. Each train has five cars with six passengers to a car, enabling each train to carry 30 riders two-abreast in total. This gives Big One a capacity of 1,800 people per hour. The colour scheme for each train is the same: a blue base with two coloured bands around the side and front (red and white) showing the Union Jack logo. Each train is numbered at the back of the fifth car, and each car is numbered according to the back of each section. During testing, sand bags are used to weigh the train down. This is a safety mechanism and is common practice on roller coasters of a certain height. Before the ride was granted a certificate to operate, Blackpool Pleasure Beach had to appeal to Blackpool Airport which is one mile from the park. Due to the ride's height, warning beacons had to be installed on the peaks of the first two hills, including the main drop, before the ride was given the all clear to operate.
The episode follows the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, the first transcontinental rail system, which would unite the eastern and western seaboards of the United States. Started in Sacramento by a consortium of local shopkeepers with no experience in building a railroad, the episode follows their efforts to build from west to east through the forbidding Sierra Nevada mountains with the help of Chinese labourers whilst simultaneously following the efforts of the workers of the Union Pacific to build from east to west, and their problems in dealing with the lawless nature of the Wild West, attacks by hostile Indians, and financial corruption and scandal.
The Shinkansen, or "bullet trains", as they are often known, are the high-speed rail trains that run across Japan. The of 8 Shinkansen lines run on completely separate lines from their commuting train counterparts, with a few exceptions. Shinkansen take up a large portion of the long distance travel in Japan, with the whole system carrying over 10 billion passengers in its lifetime. 1,114 journeys are made daily, with the fastest train being the JR East E5 and E6 series trains, which operate at a maximum speed of . Shinkansen trains are known to be very safe, with no accident-related deaths or injuries from passengers in its 50-plus year history. Shinkansen trains are also known to be very punctual, following suit with all other Japanese transport; in 2003, the average delay per train on the Tokaido Shinkansen was a mere 6 seconds. Japan has been trying to sell its Shinkansen technology overseas, and has struck deals to help build systems in India, Thailand, and the United States.
Today's railway is a fraction of its original size: it once served the western town of Peel, the northern town of Ramsey and the small mining village of Foxdale. Since 1969 only the southern line has been operational. Although it is only about half of its former size, Douglas railway station is still an impressive complex. After crossing the River Douglas, the line climbs the two-and-a-half-mile-long 1-in-65 Nunnery Bank through a wide rock cutting that brings it through a large estate, and past an industrial estate to the White Hoe, where the island's largest brewery is passed on the left of the train before crossing the first bridge. The train continues to climb to Port Soderick, just before which passengers get the first view of the sea at Keristal, before descending into the railway station. The train then passes through Crogga Woods, under another bridge at Meary Veg (centre for the island's sewage treatment works) and climbs, reaching its summit (, marked by a board visible from the train) close to the site of Ballacostain Halt. The train descends to Santon, the only intermediate station in substantially original condition. From here the train descends at 1 in 60 to Ballasalla railway station, with interesting sea-cliff views to the east. Regular service trains formerly passed each other here. After Ballasalla the line runs over relatively flat land past the request halt at Ronaldsway to the ancient capital of Castletown.
After the closure of Eldon sidings all clay exports were via lorry. For several years the clay was carried from the mines across the A351 by trains to the "Lorry Drop". It was realised that the lorries could take the clay directly from the mines and the cost of maintaining a railway system avoided. The transhipment buildings were raised to accommodate the lorries beneath them and in the early 1970s the railway system sold partly into preservation and the rest scrapped. Use of narrow gauge railways continued underground at Norden No 6 & 7 mines until all mining operations ceased in 1999.
This gearing is part of the machinery within the locomotive and should not be confused with the pinion that propels a rack locomotive along the rack between the rails. The geared steam locomotives that have been built have been for conventional track, relying on the adhesion between wheels and rail.
GateKeeper operates with three open-air steel and fiberglass trains, each with eight cars of four seats each, with two on each side of the track. Each train holds 32 riders and the ride has a capacity of about 1,710 riders per hour. Riders are restrained by flexible over-the-shoulder restraints and interlocking seat belts and riders are required to be between and to ride. Because the seats are on the side of the track, a cantilevered steel arm is used to support the wings. The trains are painted Sunset Gold with Zenith, Meteor, and Orion Gold accents. The fourth row of each train has extendable harnesses enabling large passengers to ride. The front of each train is shaped to resemble the head of a griffin. The griffin's eyes and the outside seats of each row incorporate LED lighting, a first for a roller coaster at Cedar Point. The LED lights on the trains recharge while the trains are in the station. Unlike the other B&M coasters at Cedar Point, the station's floor does not drop before the trains dispatch, as guests are required to climb into the seats while boarding.
This rail is a skulking species, its streaked plumage making it difficult to see in its wetland habitat. Its laterally compressed body allows it to slip though the densest vegetation, and it will "freeze" if surprised in the open. It walks with a high-stepping gait, although it adopts a crouch when it runs for cover. It swims, when necessary, with the jerky motion typical of rails, and it flies short distances low over the reeds with its long legs dangling. Although their flight looks weak, water rails are capable of long sustained flights during their nocturnal migrations, and are sometimes killed in collisions with lighthouses or wires. British-ringed birds have been recovered from as far away as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden.
The world's first commercial maglev system was a low-speed maglev shuttle that ran between the airport terminal of Birmingham International Airport and the nearby Birmingham International railway station between 1984 and 1995. Its track length was , and trains levitated at an altitude of , levitated by electromagnets, and propelled with linear induction motors. It operated for 11 years and was initially very popular with passengers, but obsolescence problems with the electronic systems made it progressively unreliable as years passed, leading to its closure in 1995. One of the original cars is now on display at Railworld in Peterborough, together with the RTV31 hover train vehicle. Another is on display at the National Railway Museum in York.
Panic of 1873 created one of the worst and longest depressions in American history, seriously affecting every aspect of the economy and bringing the railroad expansion to a halt. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt, a total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875, unemployment reached 14% by 1876, during a time which became known in Britain as the Long Depression. Politically, the Democrats took control of Congress in 1874, the election of 1876 was deadlocked.
A series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that united the country by rail. The first of these, the "Pacific Railroad", was built by the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to link the San Francisco Bay at Alameda, California, with the nation's existing eastern railroad network at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska, thereby creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. Its construction was made possible by the US government under Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864, and 1867.
Owned and operated by the Porto Metro, the single-track funicular uses a central loop system that is long, allowing it to descend , with the upper situated within the passenger tunnel, with the markedly steep gradient in the section below the passing loop. Two vehicles run the course, with a capacity for 25 persons each, operating at a maximum speed of . Due to the difference in slope along the line, the cars have self-levelling platforms, allowing the car floor to maintain itself horizontal no matter the track incline. Although the journey is short (approximately 3 minutes) after emerging from the upper tunnel, passengers are able to view the landscape from the Dom Luís I Bridge, the river margins (including both quays along Ribeira and Cais de Gaia and the Port wine warehouses and traditional boats along the Douro River.
The electrification of old horse trams came within less than a decade for the Holyoke Street Railway and in Massachusetts as a whole. When the railway's first electric cars appeared in 1891, at the time about a third of all street railway lines in Massachusetts had electric overhead systems. However by the turn of the century not only were these cars commonplace in the Holyoke system, they comprised more than 99% of such streetcar lines in the Commonwealth.
A further development of this policy occurred between 1909 and 1926 when the bodies of the four wheel coaches were removed from their original chassis and mounted in pairs on to bogie underframes supplied by Metropolitan. By the late 1950s, relatively few were used in regular service, but two sets were reserved for schools traffic. These were used in regular service on exceptionally busy days, such as Tynwald Day, but otherwise were confined to the school runs. By this time they were painted in a utilitarian all-over brown colour scheme. Oddly, several of the pairs were rehabilitated in the early 1970s, as their steel frames were of relatively recent date. Surviving pairs carriages are mostly in poor condition, as their bodies date from 1873–75, and have been surrounded by a certain amount of controversy in recent years, having been removed from the railway for storage. The Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association have campaigned for their retention on the railway. Some are now in the carriage sheds at Douglas and Port Erin, four in open storage at Port St. Mary protected with tarpaulins.
A separate organisation, the United Railway Companies' Committee, was formed in 1858, but folded in 1861. It was re-established in June 1867 and became the Railway Companies' Association (RCA) in 1869. There was a certain degree of overlap between the RCA and the RCH, and it was later agreed that the RCA should represent the railways in Parliament, whilst the RCH concentrated on organising the business of railway traffic.
O͘ is one of the six Taiwanese Hokkien vowels as written in the Peh-oe-ji (POJ) orthography. It is a normal o followed by Unicode , and is not to be confused with the Vietnamese Ơ. It is pronounced .
"We designed the building from the inside out, not the outside in,” said Loretta H. Cockrum, Foram’s founder, chairman and CEO. “We wanted the most efficient office building ever designed, with no wasted space or wasted energy. This is a building of the future more than a building of the present. A lot of love has gone into that building, and a lot of pride."
In 1872, the Coleman Brothers purchased the Buena Vista and Storms ranches, and other properties in the area, as they were developing the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, known affectionately as the "Never Come Never Go." Completed in 1876, the Railroad connected the area to the transcontinental railroad at Colfax, spurring its agricultural development. Among other things, the Colemans established a saw mill and cleared land of trees to build the Railroad and to feed the Railroad's steam locomotives. Stations in the area were established at Storms Ranch, just south of present Lakewood Lane; at Buena Vista, just south of the present intersection of You Bet Road and Highway 174; and at Peardale. The Railroad provided a good means of transporting agricultural products to market. Still standing at the intersection of Mount Olive and Lower Colfax Roads is the Pacific Fruit Packing Shed, built in 1930 alongside the railroad tracks, to replace an earlier shed which collapsed in a snowstorm.
Another appeal of the railroads is the business side of railroading. Railroads were long central to economic growth and commerce, and still are to some extent. The history of railroads and railroaders (such as James J. Hill) is a fascination for some, whether they view them in a positive way as capitalist heroes or in a negative way as robber barons.