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The mainline railways in Australia were initially built in three different gauges, with 'breaks-of-gauge' where passengers and goods transferred between them. This paper studies how the gauge situation affected regional development and the railway network in the 20th century. Regional breaks-of-gauge caused substantial local growth, with population and employment increasing by around 50% within a decade of them opening. However, these effects were unwound within two decades of a break-of-gauge being closed. There is little evidence of gauge segmentation causing different paces of regional development. The gauge muddle also appears to have limited the extent of the railway network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rolling stock gauge standards are generally based on the operation and technical equipment characteristics of railways in various countries. As the research and application of non-adhesive braking technology started late in our country, the domestic gauge standards are not specific on related issues, which restricts the upgrading of rolling stock and the application of new equipment. In recent years, the application demand for non-adhesive braking technology has been increasing. This article systematically compares and analyzes the current domestic and foreign rolling stock gauge standards and the problems related to non-adhesive braking, and puts forward suggestions on the revision of domestic gauge standards to provide a basis for the development of rolling stock and braking technology. The study shows that there are differences in calculation methods and lower part zone of rolling stock gauges at home and abroad. The European gauge standards fully considers the zones of components close to the track and in contact with the rails, which is an important basis for the design of non-adhesive braking devices. The external dimensions of the existing non-adhesive braking device can meet the horizontal space requirements of our country's gauge standards, but the relevant regulations need to be further clarified on the zone close to rail surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an edition of the source important for the history of the development of the railway network in Poland, namely the Information on the approach railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate (Viedomosti o suŝestvuûŝih v Varšavskoj guberni pod"ezdnyh železnyh dorogah). This document is in the archival collection labeled Warsaw Governorate Government no. 1181, kept in the State Archive in Warsaw. In the Information on the approach railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate, there is data on the public and industrial narrow-gauge railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate in 1911, as well as the standard-gauge industrial sidings of the Warsaw-Vienna Railways. This document is of great historical importance due to the degree of destruction and scattering of technical archives related to the communication infrastructure in the territory of the Russian partition. It contains important, previously unknown elementary technical and operational data of these railways and sidings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railways are an indispensable component of sustainable transportation systems, but also exact a toll on wildlife. Wild Asian elephants are often killed by trains in Assam, India, where we assess temporal variations in the occurrences of elephant-train collisions (ETCs) and casualties during 1990–2018. This study also assesses spatially varying relationships between elephant-train collision (ETC) rates and elephant and train densities in the adjoining 10 km2 grid cells of 11 prioritized railroad segments using ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models. The temporal analysis indicated that ETCs spiked at certain hours and months. The adult and calf elephant casualties on the railroads were found to be two to fivefold high during the post monsoon season compared to other seasons. During the operation period of meter gauge railroads (1990–1997), the proportions of ETCs and casualties were only 15.6% and 8.7% respectively. However, these increased substantially to 84.4% and 91.3% respectively during the operation of broad gauge railroads (1998–2018). The OLS model indicated that both elephant and train densities explained 37% of the variance of ETC rate, while GWR model showed 83% of the variance of ETC rate. The local coefficient values of GWR indicated that both the predictor variables interplayed significantly and positively to determine ETC rates in the Mariani-Nakachari and Khatkhati-Dimapur railroad segments. However, the relationship between ETC rate and elephant density is significantly negative in the Habaipur-Diphu railroad, implying that the elephant population along this railroad stretch is significantly affected by railways through large scale ETCs. Hence, there is an urgent need to address long-term mitigation strategies so that elephants can be conserved by providing safe passages and survival resources along railway lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Collusion is widely condemned for its negative effects on consumer welfare and market efficiency. In this paper, I show that collusion may also in some cases facilitate the creation of unexpected new sources of value. I bring this possibility into focus through the lens of a historical episode from the 19th century, when colluding railroads in the U.S. South converted 13,000 miles of railroad track to standard gauge over the course of two days in 1886, integrating the South into the national transportation network. Route-level freight traffic data reveal that the gauge change caused a large shift in market share from steamships to railroads, but did not affect total shipments or prices on these routes. Guided by these results, I develop a model of compatibility choice in a collusive market and argue that collusion may have enabled the gauge change to take place as it did, while also tempering the effects on prices and total shipments. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I investigate the effect of assets' liquidation values on capital structure by exploiting the diversity of track gauges in nineteenth-century American railroads. The abundance of track gauges limited the redeployability of rolling stock and tracks to potential users with similar track gauge. Moreover, potential demand for both rolling stock and tracks was further diminished when many railroads went under equity receiverships. I find that the potential demand for a railroad's rolling stock and tracks were significant determinants of debt maturity and the amount of debt that was issued by railroads. The results are consistent with liquidation values models of financial contracting and capital structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Prestressed concrete sleepers are the most commonly used type of railway sleepers in ballasted railway track. They have a strong influence on track performance, track stiffness and railway safety. Reportedly in many railway lines (especially in heavy-rail networks), many prestressed concrete sleepers have failed due to rail seat abrasion (RSA). RSA is a wear deterioration of the concrete underneath the rail that results in various problems such as loss of fastening toe load, gauge variation, improper rail cant, and eventually loss of rail fastening. In addition, the RSA will directly decrease the capacity of worn concrete sleepers. However, to the best of authors' knowledge, there were very few studies that quantitatively examined the effects of RSA on the structural capacity of the prestressed concrete sleepers. In this paper, a numerical study is executed to evaluate the load-carrying capacity of a prestressed concrete sleeper using LS-DYNA. The nonlinear model was validated firstly based on both theoretical analyses and experimental results in accordance with Australian Standard. Using the validated finite element model, the influences of different wear depth of RSA are investigated; and different compression strength and tensile strength of concrete and the prestress losses are highlighted. The outcomes of this study lead to better insight into the influences of RSA more clearly and improve track maintenance and inspection criteria. Highlights • Nonlinear FEM for railway sleeper failures is developed. • Three dimensional finite element models have been established using material nonlinearities. • Experimental and design data have been used to rigorously validate the model results. • Failure modes of sleepers with abrasion are comprehensively identified. • Structural capacity of the sleepers depends largely on the abrasion types and severity. • The new insight into failure mechanisms will help track engineers to better monitor and maintain sleepers in ballasted track environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As the number of concrete railway sleepers has steadily grown in North America, the importance of understanding the performance and failure of these components has also increased. Concrete sleepers typically perform better than timber sleepers to maintain track geometry and have a longer expected service life. Nevertheless, there have been derailments that were caused by excessive increase of track gauge due to deteriorated concrete sleepers and fastening systems. As ballast support conditions are closely related to sleeper performance, there is a need to fully understand the behavior of poorly supported sleepers. To quantify the influence of support conditions on sleeper deflection and gauge widening, laboratory experiments were performed. Using a static structural loading frame, new and center-cracked concrete sleepers were subjected to different support conditions, engineered using rubber pads. Simulated conditions included center bound sleepers, newly tamped track, and track under high impact loads. This paper presents a correlation between ballast support conditions and their effect on concrete sleeper health and track gauge. Using statistical tools to analyze the experimental results, it is shown that there is no significant difference between new sleepers and lightly center-cracked sleepers. Even extreme deterioration at the sleeper center has little influence on the gauge widening effect due to sleeper bending. Moreover, the gauge widening effect due to pure concrete sleeper bending seemed to be minimal, but not insignificant when compared to the amount of track gauge increase due to other track infrastructure conditions. Therefore, railway accidents where damaged concrete sleepers fail to restrain track gauge are more likely to be related to the rail seat, fastening system, or other production problems rather than center cracking. Highlights • Railroad track gauge increase due to concrete sleeper bending is quantified. • Various support conditions representing real railroad track are considered. • Light and severely center-cracked sleepers are analyzed. • Bending of center-cracked concrete sleepers does not seem to be a safety issue for railroad operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the technical possibilities to solve a gauge crossing is to install a dual gauge. This solution has several advantages and disadvantages discussed in this paper. Lack of experience of maintenance and lack of standards for the design of dual track are among the most important disadvantages. The wheel and rail interface on track curves is more difficult than in straight sections. Therefore, the subject of the present article is a geometrical parameter of dual gauge track, i.e., the rail superelevation, which has an impact on the wheel-rail interaction at curves and influences the value of uncompensated acceleration, occurring when a train passes a curve, and, consequently, the intensity of rail wear. The objective of the present article is to analyse the features of dual gauge track and the superelevation calculation methodology considered, to present the approach to rational calculation of superelevation for dual gauge track of Šeštokai-Mockava (Lithuania-Poland) using several calculation versions as well as to make recommendations for the calculation of superelevation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]