108-611: The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London ( Marylebone ) and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill ) on a 112-mile (180 km) route via High Wycombe , Bicester , Banbury , Leamington Spa and Solihull in England. It is currently one of two main line railway routes between London and Birmingham; the other is the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Birmingham New Street , which
216-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
324-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
432-731: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
540-542: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
648-492: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
756-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
864-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
972-450: A basic two-hourly DMU service between Marylebone and Banbury remained serving Bicester. Through lines were removed from most of those stations which had them, such as Denham in 1965, Beaconsfield in 1973 and Gerrards Cross in 1989 and the relief lines were lifted between Lapworth and Tyseley. The tunnel between Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill closed on 2 March 1968. Local services from Leamington and Stratford terminated at Moor Street, and
1080-408: A bidirectional platform loop. A new turnback siding was provided at Gerrards Cross and a new 'down' through track built from Northolt Junction to Ruislip Gardens, running alongside the 'up' line to the east of the waste transfer station; the 'down' line will continue to serve South Ruislip . Speed restrictions through Bicester North were raised to permit 100-mile-per-hour (160 km/h) running, with
1188-550: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
SECTION 10
#17327653047751296-478: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1404-528: A few months in early 1948, an M prefix was added to existing LMS locomotive numbers. From mid-1948, 40000 was added, giving numbers of ex-LMS types in the 4XXXX and 5XXXX series. Some elderly locomotive classes were renumbered in the 58XXX series to make way for new production of LMS designs. The LMR initially continued building ex-LMS stock, particularly Black Fives , Ivatt 2MT , two Duchesses , and rebuilds of Royal Scots and Patriots . Stanier "Period III" carriages continued to be built and were developed into
1512-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1620-498: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
1728-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
1836-410: A much smaller scale than the original, beneath a multi-storey car park , with its tunnel reinstated and new platforms on the through lines at Moor Street, where the terminus was taken out of use, with Leamington/Stratford services diverted to Snow Hill. The opening of the extension of the parallel M40 motorway from Oxford to Birmingham in 1991 spawned development in towns along the northern section of
1944-552: A new 'up' alignment and platform. Two of the original terminal platforms at Birmingham Moor Street were reopened for Chiltern services in December 2010. Accelerated services started in September 2011, after being postponed due to concerns about whether the works would be completed in time. Thanks to the speed increases, journey times have been reduced significantly. From Marylebone, the fastest journey time to Birmingham Moor Street
2052-480: A new style known as "Porthole" stock. Freight stock on order at Nationalisation was completed: some LMS designs were accepted as BR standard designs and continued to be built for the whole network through the 1950s and early 1960s. The LMR had some experimental diesel locomotives, such as the Class D16/1 and "Fell locomotive" 10100 . In August 1968 it was the last region of BR to eliminate steam traction under
2160-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
2268-676: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
SECTION 20
#17327653047752376-465: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
2484-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
2592-739: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
2700-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
2808-632: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
2916-534: A two-hourly frequency, increased to hourly the following year. In 1995 the Jewellery Line was re-opened to allow Worcester line services to be diverted from New Street to Snow Hill; this allowed some of Chiltern's weekday peak-period services to be extended beyond Snow Hill, first to Stourbridge Junction and then to Kidderminster. Upon rail privatisation in 1996, the Chiltern Railways franchise
3024-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
3132-531: Is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power
3240-406: Is a five-minute walk from London Marylebone. In September 2021, Class 168/3 HybridFlex battery/diesel trains were introduced. These train emit lower emissions. The trains operate on batteries giving zero emissions when in stations or sensitive urban areas. However the trains were removed from service in September 2023 as the diesel engine emitted high pollutants in stations. No section of the line
3348-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
Chiltern Main Line - Misplaced Pages Continue
3456-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
3564-408: Is electrified, but in 2010 the then chairman of Chiltern Railways , Adrian Shooter , indicated that electrification was being considered, though not in the immediate future. He added: "We could do some very interesting things with high-acceleration EMUs and possibly some further infrastructure work". There are several proposals: Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport )
3672-477: Is now 94 minutes instead of 117 minutes. The table below outlines the originally proposed peak timetable improvements as indicated by Network Rail . This compares to roughly 85 minutes for the fastest Euston- Birmingham New Street trains via the West Coast Main Line. Chiltern Railways chairman Adrian Shooter said, "This is the biggest passenger rail project for several generations not to call on
3780-661: Is now the Chiltern Main Line was built in three key phases by the Great Western Railway (GWR) between 1852 and 1910: During the heyday of the route, many prestigious trains ran from Paddington to the northwest of England via the Joint Line, reaching Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury , Wrexham General , Chester and Birkenhead Woodside . Various through services from Marylebone to the GCR network also ran via
3888-663: Is the principal InterCity route between the two cities. A third main line, High Speed 2 , is currently under construction. The name Chiltern Line was invented as a marketing name for the line by Network SouthEast in 1985, in reference to the Chiltern Hills which the route passes through near its southern end. The route was originally part of the Great Western Railway 's main line from London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill , Wolverhampton Low Level and Birkenhead Woodside . Most main line services between London and Birmingham on this route were discontinued in 1967 after
3996-408: Is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with the invention of the steam locomotive in
4104-556: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
4212-578: The 1976–79 Labour government the proposals were not implemented. The route was considered for partial closure between Marylebone and Northolt Junction in the early 1980s. All services would have run to Paddington via the New North route, and Marylebone station and all lines leading to it would have been closed and converted into a bus station. Services to and from Aylesbury would have been taken over by London Underground and run into Baker Street . However, these proposals proved impractical, and Marylebone
4320-555: The Oxford to Bicester Line at Bicester Village to the Chiltern line, allowing a new Oxford to London Marylebone service to operate, calling at Bicester Village and High Wycombe. The track between Wolvercote Tunnel (on the outskirts of Oxford) and Bicester Village has been rebuilt and a new station constructed at Water Eaton , named Oxford Parkway . The scheme includes additional platforms at Bicester, Islip and Oxford. The Oxford line
4428-637: The United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
Chiltern Main Line - Misplaced Pages Continue
4536-615: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
4644-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
4752-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
4860-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
4968-540: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
5076-521: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
5184-508: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
5292-464: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
5400-530: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
5508-514: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
SECTION 50
#17327653047755616-559: The Joint Line between London and Ashendon Junction. At nationalisation in 1948 , the line passed to the Western Region of British Railways , which continued to operate Paddington-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Birkenhead fast trains through the 1950s in competition with the London Midland Region's (LMR) from Euston via the West Coast Main Line (WCML). The Paddington-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Birkenhead fast service
5724-585: The LMS in 1923, also joined the LMR. The LMR's territory principally consisted of the West Coast Main Line (WCML), the Midland Main Line (MML) south of Carlisle , and the ex-Midland Cross Country route from Bristol to Leeds . During the LMR's existence there were a number of transfers of territory to and from other regions. The major changes were: The LMR inherited ex-LMS types of steam locomotive. For
5832-582: The Leamington Spa station area is controlled from the box at Leamington via a new Westcad workstation. More recently the Leamington to Birmingham section has been resignalled and is controlled from the new West Midlands ICC at Saltley (taking over the old signalling centre at Saltley) with new 4-aspect LED signals throughout. However, the manual signal boxes at Banbury North and South remained, along with some GWR lower-quadrant signals controlling
5940-688: The Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of the rail network , and by 1979 BR presented a range of options to electrify numerous routes by 2000. Some of these options included the Banbury – Birmingham section of the line, plus the Cherwell Valley Line and the Coventry to Leamington line . Under the 1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded
6048-450: The WCML electrification, express trains from Paddington to Birmingham/Wolverhampton/Birkenhead were discontinued under The Reshaping of British Railways . The route was downgraded to secondary status, with all but one of the mainline services between London and Birmingham diverted via Oxford. In 1968 the line between Princes Risborough and Aynho Junction was reduced to single track, and only
6156-503: The West Coast Main Line was electrified, and Snow Hill station was closed. Services were resumed between London and the reopened Snow Hill in 1993; however they were routed into Marylebone, formerly the London terminus of the now-closed Great Central Main Line , instead of the historic terminus at Paddington. Since the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s, the main operator has been Chiltern Railways , who have continued to develop
6264-566: The bay platforms and sidings at the station. In 2016 the station was re-modelled and re-signalled, being incorporated into the West Midlands ICC take over control as Oxford (exclusive) in 2016. Most of the route from Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton is now used by the Midland Metro light-rail system, which diverges from Network Rail's Jewellery Line at The Hawthorns. The route between Marylebone and Leamington/Bordesley
6372-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
6480-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
6588-471: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
SECTION 60
#17327653047756696-527: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
6804-475: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
6912-522: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
7020-619: The future franchisee. The infrastructure upgrade was carried out by main contractor BAM Nuttall , in partnership with Jarvis and WS Atkins . Chiltern Railways are the main operators of the route, however parts of the line carry services by other operators: West Midlands Trains operate local services in the West Midlands area between Birmingham, Dorridge and Leamington Spa as part of the Snow Hill Lines , and CrossCountry operate some services from either Birmingham (joining
7128-556: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex- London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England , Wales and Northern Ireland . The region
7236-1230: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
7344-554: The line at Bordesley junction) or Leamington (joining from the Coventry-Leamington line ) and running as far as Aynho Junction where they diverge towards Oxford . Great Western Railway also operate a few services to Banbury via Oxford. At May 2011: Passenger trains are operated by: Connections are available at: Birmingham New Street , Birmingham's main station, is a five-minute walk from Moor Street; Baker Street , where several London Underground lines call,
7452-599: The line between Bicester North and Aynho Junction was also redoubled. Chiltern took over Hatton to Stratford-upon-Avon services from Thames Trains and Central Trains , with direct services between Marylebone (rather than Paddington) and Stratford. Also at this time Chiltern took over the operation of Leamington Spa , Warwick , Hatton and Lapworth stations from Central Trains, as the latter's services (now operated by London Midland) no longer operated beyond Dorridge except during weekday peak periods. John Laing plc acquired 84% ownership of M40 Trains in 1999, buying out 3i, and
7560-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
7668-569: The main portion of the B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
7776-492: The main-line platforms at Greenford on the New North route between Old Oak Common and Northolt Junction were closed. After the GCR main line was closed between Calvert and Rugby Central in September 1966, some trains from the South Coast were diverted north of Banbury via the route. These became the forerunners of today's CrossCountry services between Birmingham and Bournemouth . On 6 March 1967, after completion of
7884-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
7992-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
8100-525: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
8208-533: The remaining services from Paddington and the South Coast were diverted into New Street. Snow Hill closed completely, along with most of the line to Wolverhampton, on 4 March 1972. On 24 March 1974 the line from Marylebone to Banbury transferred from the Western Region to the London Midland Region and all stations between South Ruislip and Bicester were also transferred to LMR giving LMR the responsibility of all passenger services out of Marylebone. In 1977
8316-413: The route and services. In the early 2010s, the line underwent a major upgrade which saw much of the line cleared for 100 mph (160 km/h) running, resulting in significant reductions in journey times from 2013. The line is not electrified , although electrification is an aspiration. The line forms part of the suburban rail networks in both cities. The majority of towns towards the London end of
8424-463: The route are prosperous suburbs or commuter-belt towns, such as Ruislip , Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield . These have a journey time of 30 minutes or less to London Marylebone . In the West Midlands it is one of the Snow Hill Lines . Commuter trains operated by West Midlands Trains run between Birmingham Snow Hill , Solihull and Leamington Spa , also to Stratford-upon-Avon . What
8532-509: The route of the Chiltern Main Line. The viaduct ( Chalfonts No. 1 (Misbourne) Viaduct ) crossing the M25 between Denham Golf Club and Gerrard's Cross is especially noted as a local landmark, as for many years it has borne a graffiti slogan, " give peas a chance " painted in large white letters on the south-facing parapet. The graffiti was partially removed in 2018. A quarter of a mile (about 0.3 km) of double track has been constructed joining
8640-583: The route, notably Bicester , Banbury, Leamington Spa and Warwick. This generated additional patronage for train services in the corridor. Between 1988 and 1992 British Rail used the Chiltern Line as a test bed for total route modernisation which included resignalling from Marylebone to Aynho Junction, and both Marylebone to Aylesbury routes, from the new Marylebone Integrated Control Centre , with full Automatic Train Protection provided. The track
8748-513: The signal spacings. Only the little-used line from Northolt Junction to Paddington has not been improved. In September 2006, Chiltern completed its "Evergreen 2" upgrade project, carried out by Carillion , which realigned the track through Beaconsfield to increase non-stop speeds from 40 to 75 miles per hour (64 to 121 km/h), installed additional signals between High Wycombe and Bicester North and between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury, and added two platforms (Nos 5 and 6) at Marylebone, on
8856-475: The single platform constructed in 1987, and a new down platform at Princes Risborough, together with the raising of the speed limit. Also in 1998 the first Class 168 Clubman trains with a 100-mile-per-hour (160 km/h) maximum speed were introduced to reduce journey times. In 2000 Chiltern Railways opened a new station at Warwick Parkway , to the west of the town next to the A46 and close to M40 Junction 15. This
8964-723: The site of the daytime carriage sidings, replaced by the new Wembley Light Maintenance Depot, just south and west of Wembley Stadium station . The new platforms and partial resignalling of the station throat make it possible to run 20 trains per hour in and out of the station. At weekends during 2008, when major engineering works were taking place on the WCML, the line was used by Virgin Trains' London Euston – Birmingham International "Blockade Buster" service via Willesden, Acton Main Line, Ealing Broadway, Greenford, High Wycombe, Banbury and Coventry, using pairs of five-car class 221 sets. There are several major civil engineering structures along
9072-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
9180-548: The taxpayer for support. Working closely with Network Rail, we are going to create a new main line railway for the people of Oxfordshire and the Midlands. This deal demonstrates that real improvements to rail services can be paid for without public subsidy by attracting people out of their cars and on to trains." Network Rail said its investment will be reimbursed by a 'facility charge' over the next 30 years, by Chiltern Railways, whose franchise expires in December 2021, and then by
9288-475: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
9396-543: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
9504-471: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
9612-418: The tunnel for overhead electrification to be installed at a later date. The second part of the project upgraded the line to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) running on 50 miles (80 km) more of track, with junctions at Neasden, Northolt and Aynho rebuilt to permit higher speeds. The 'up' through track was restored at Princes Risborough and signalled for bidirectional use, the existing 'up' line becoming
9720-629: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
9828-622: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
9936-512: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
10044-549: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
10152-514: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
10260-706: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
10368-454: Was formally reprieved in 1986 and the closure proposals rescinded. With Sectorisation of British Rail in the mid-1980s, operations south of Banbury fell under the control of Network SouthEast in 1986, under the Thames & Chiltern sub-sector, later split into two constituent parts. In 1987 a new station was opened at Haddenham & Thame Parkway . Birmingham Snow Hill reopened in 1987 on
10476-504: Was intended to be a railhead for nearby towns without a station such as Kenilworth , and for towns south of Birmingham close to the M42 with no direct rail link to London, such as Redditch and Bromsgrove . Construction was funded by Chiltern Railways with some support from Warwickshire County Council . At first only Chiltern services called there but it is now also served by London Midland. In 2002, after Chiltern won its 20-year franchise ,
10584-548: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
10692-453: Was itself bought out by Henderson Investments in 2006, resulting in the sale of Laing Rail to the German national railway operator Deutsche Bahn in 2007. The Cherwell Valley line between Banbury and Leamington Spa was resignalled during 2004, with the closure of Fenny Compton signal box and the removal of its remaining semaphore signals. The new signalling and the existing signalling in
10800-489: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
10908-460: Was managed first from buildings adjacent to Euston station , and later from Stanier House in Birmingham . It existed from the creation of BR in 1948, ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s, and was wound up at the end of 1992. At its inception, the LMR's territory consisted of ex-LMS lines in England and Wales. The Mersey Railway , which had avoided being "Grouped" with
11016-516: Was re-opened in stages during 2015 and 2016, with services from London Marylebone to Oxford Parkway commencing in October 2015, and services through to Oxford starting on 11 December 2016. The delay to the full service was due to works in the Wolvercote tunnel, which were specifically scheduled to minimise disruption to roosting bats. The upgraded track has two bi-directional tracks and headroom in
11124-717: Was renewed, and Marylebone was refurbished. Much of this work was funded by selling part of Marylebone for development, which meant that the station lost two of its platforms, and so the central cab road at Marylebone was removed, and two replacement platforms inserted in its place. New Class 165 Turbo trains were introduced in 1991, replacing the aging 1960s diesels. These improved passenger comfort and enabled journey times to be reduced; frequencies were increased, with an hourly stopping service to/from High Wycombe and hourly semi-fast service to/from Banbury. In 1993, Marylebone-Banbury services were extended to Snow Hill, calling at Leamington Spa, Warwick, Solihull and Moor Street, initially on
11232-412: Was sharply increased in frequency to up to 15 trains a day each way from the 1959–60 timetable to compensate for the withdrawal of most London Midlands Region trains during electrification of the WCML. For the same reason, the Chiltern line was used by many trains between Paddington and Birkenhead from 1965. All local trains were diverted to Marylebone in 1963 and operated by four-car Class 115 DMUs, and
11340-705: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
11448-636: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
11556-782: Was used by open access operator Wrexham & Shropshire 's services from London to Wrexham via Tame Bridge, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury, which comprised three Mk3 coaches hauled by Class 67 diesel locomotives. Since these were neither Sprinters nor HSTs, they were restricted to lower line speeds, e.g. 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) between Princes Risborough and Bicester, and 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) between Leamington and Bordesley, although they were permitted to travel at 85 miles per hour (137 km/h) between Bicester and Aynho. Wrexham & Shropshire had negotiated with Network Rail to allow its trains to travel at higher speeds on these sections, which required it to show that they had sufficient brake force to stop from such speeds within
11664-402: Was won by M40 Trains , a consortium of a management buyout, Laing Rail (a subsidiary of construction company and PFI specialist John Laing plc ), and venture capitalist 3i , and in 1998 the line between Princes Risborough and Bicester North was redoubled by the company. This included the total reconstruction of Haddenham and Thame Parkway at platform level, with two side platforms instead of
#774225