Railway engineering

Railway engineering is a multi-faceted engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction and operation of all types of rail transport systems. It includes a wide range of engineering disciplines, including(but not limited to) civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and production engineering.

"Railway engineer" redirects here. For the person who drives a train, see Train driver.

History

During the medieval times, people travelled by foot and horseback while moving goods.^[1]

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the first railways were built for the horse-drawn trains of wagons in collieries and quarries, with the first materials consisting of stone slabs and timber baulks. However, the rails were weary with carrying heavier loads.^[1]

During the Industrial Revolution, cast iron were added to the railway tracks to reduce the wear on the wooden baulks, which evolved further into iron edge rails, which enabled to flanged wheels' utility.^[1]

In the early nineteenth century, as the locomotives came into the picture, wrought iron rails and steel rails developed to support heavy axle loads without longitudinal timbers. With the advent of the railway, a need arose for specialized engineers capable of dealing with the unique problems associated with railway engineering. As the railways expanded and became a major part in logistics, more engineers became involved in the field, probably the most notable in Britain being Richard Trevithick, George Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.^[2]

Subfields

• Mechanical engineering
• Electrical engineering
  • Command, control & railway signalling
    • SCADA
    • Network design
• Civil engineering
  • Permanent way engineering
• Railway systems engineering
  • Railway signalling
  • Fare collection
  • CCTV
  • Public address
  • Intrusion detection
  • Access control

• Computer engineering
  • Systems integration

Professional organisations

• In Australia and New Zealand: The Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA)^[3]
• In the UK: The Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
• In the US: The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA)
• In the Philippines: Philippine Railway Engineers' Association, (PREA) Inc.
• Worldwide: The Institute of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE)

See also

• Association of American Railroads
• Exsecant
• Degree of curvature
• List of engineering topics
• List of engineers
• Minimum railway curve radius
• Radius of curvature (applications)
• Track transition curve
• Transition curve

Glossary

• Light rail systems
• On-track plant
• Train control systems
  • Cab signalling
• Rolling resistance
  • Curve resistance
• Wheel–rail interface
  • Hunting oscillation
• Energy electrification
  • Third rail
    • Fourth rail
  • Overhead contact system

External links

• Institution of Mechanical Engineers - Railway Division
• AAR