102-551: The Northampton loop is a railway line serving the town of Northampton . It is a branch of the West Coast Main Line , deviating from the faster direct main line which runs to the west. The WCML is a four track line up to either end of the Loop: the 'up' and 'down' fast tracks take the direct route while the 'up' and 'down' slow tracks are diverted via Northampton railway station . Generally, fast express trains run via
204-408: 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 ,
306-586: 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,
408-731: 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
510-542: 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
612-492: 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
714-431: 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
816-469: 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
918-650: A Works remained in existence until 1988, and was served by a stub of the branch. When the main part of the N&;P line closed, a connection was retained from Northampton Castle station and the Duston curve. There was a triangular junction at Duston leading northwards to Northampton Castle station, which was built on the Northampton Loop, a north–south connection off the Birmingham main line, giving Northampton
1020-522: A branch line from Wellingborough made them unpopular for passenger journeys. That branch closed to passengers in 1959, and completely in 1969. The Midland Railway main line referred to crossed over the N&P line to the east of Wellingborough; it opened in 1857, and a spur connection trailed into the N&P line from it, opened in 1859. It was closed in 1966. Approaching Northampton the Midland Railway Bedford branch ran in from
1122-459: A branch line to their town. After consideration the L&;BR considered that a branch line from Blisworth to Northampton and Peterborough would be advantageous, by connecting Peterborough into their system, as well as the intervening agricultural terrain. Peterborough was an important and expanding regional centre, although the route from London via Blisworth would be very circuitous. At this early date
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#17327727703531224-463: A dependency of the Midland Railway , was under construction at this period. There was serious difficulty with getting land for the line in the central area, and the company opened a detached section from Stamford to Peterborough. It too did not have its own station at Peterborough, and as it was remote from its parent company, it arranged that the L&BR. ) would work its trains, and to use
1326-550: 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
1428-516: A direct service to London, and avoiding the expense of widening Kilsby Tunnel . The LNWR obtained Parliamentary approval for the line in 1875, and commenced construction in 1877. The line was opened for goods throughout on 1 August 1881, for passengers between Rugby and Northampton on 1 December 1881, and for passengers between Northampton and Roade on 3 April 1882. The loop line is a total of 23 + 3 ⁄ 4 miles (38.2 km) long, approximately 2 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles (3.6 km) longer than
1530-478: 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
1632-437: 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
1734-498: 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
1836-423: 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
1938-477: 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
2040-676: 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
2142-465: 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
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#17327727703532244-439: 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
2346-512: A service on that axis. It opened in 1859 and the Duston West Curve was provided then; it closed in 1969; the east curve was opened in 1879 and continued until 1988. The LNWR experimented with internal combustion engine railcars, and acquired at least one for trials. They were self-contained, and had two 105 hp Daimler petrol engines, driving the inner axle on each bogie through a Cardan shaft . The photograph looks posed, and it
2448-739: 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
2550-407: 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
2652-632: 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
2754-408: 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
2856-485: Is Hunsbury Hill Tunnel between Roade and Northampton, which is 1,152 yards (1,053 m) long. There are two shorter tunnels between Long Buckby and Rugby, these are Watford Lodge Tunnel at 115 yards (105 m), and Crick Tunnel at 595 yards (544 m). The line crosses the Pulpit Bridge (or "Armchair Bridge") between Rugby and Long Buckby. Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport )
2958-531: 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
3060-410: 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
3162-415: Is also an hourly local service between Northampton and Birmingham. Prior to December 2012 there was also a service to and from Crewe, but a few serve the loop line during morning and evenings and hourly on Sundays. Avanti West Coast provide a small number of Class 390 Pendolino services to London at the extremes of the day. But nearly all Avanti West Coast trains use the direct main line. Line speeds on
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3264-399: 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
3366-514: Is not known whether the vehicle entered commercial service on the line. The line was closed on 2 May 1964, except for the stub from Peterborough to Oundle which was retained as a freight-only service, mostly for house coal. Special trains to and from Oundle School , a boarding school, operated until 1972, when the line closed completely. A 7.5-mile (12.1 km) long stretch of the Northampton and Peterborough Railway has been reopened as
3468-408: 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
3570-556: 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
3672-482: The Nene Valley Railway heritage line. The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) opened its main line on 17 September 1838, passing from Roade to Rugby to the west of Northampton. The people of Northampton saw that they were at a commercial and economic disadvantage not having a railway station in their town, and following a public meeting on 8 March 1838, they petitioned the L&BR to provide
3774-692: 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
3876-615: 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
3978-528: The gradients would have been too steep for the early locomotives of the 1830s to easily cope with. Robert Stephenson the engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway was determined to avoid gradients steeper than 1:330 (that is 1 foot of rising or falling gradient for every 330 feet of distance). As Northampton is located in the Nene Valley , 120 feet (37 metres) lower than Blisworth , the closest point
4080-414: 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
4182-458: 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
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4284-418: 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
4386-540: 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
4488-521: 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
4590-508: 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),
4692-464: 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
4794-530: 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
4896-514: 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
4998-451: The ECR station. For a short period there was a passenger service from Ely to Stamford. In July 1846 the L&BR was absorbed into the London and North Western Railway. Typical passenger services on the line were five trains each way, with additional shuttle services between Blisworth and Northampton. When the line was opened, it was double track from Blisworth to Northampton, and the remainder
5100-489: The L&BR came, connecting the town would have required gradients significantly steeper than this. This meant however that Northampton, despite being a large town, did not have direct rail links to London. A branch from the main line was built to Northampton in the early 1840s: the Northampton and Peterborough Railway , from Blisworth , which gave the town indirect rail links to London and Birmingham. The successor to
5202-546: The L&BR, the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) decided to construct the loop line through Northampton in the 1870s. It was built as part of a wider scheme to double the capacity of the West Coast Main Line between Bletchley and Rugby, by quadrupling the track; however, routing the additional tracks on a deviation via Northampton had the advantage of giving the town a much better rail service, including
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#17327727703535304-637: The London–Birmingham/Northampton–Birmingham services. The London–Crewe service does not stop at Long Buckby except on Sundays. The line sees heavy freight traffic, as it is used by all freight trains on the southern part of the WCML. Many of these are container trains, with some serving the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal (DIRFT), which is between Northampton and Rugby (thus on
5406-535: The advantages of having a railway connection were so considerable, that few reflected on the lengthy and roundabout route. The proposal for the branch line went to the 1843 session of Parliament and the London and Birmingham Railway (Northampton and Peterborough Branch) Act 1843 ( 6 & 7 Vict. c. lxiv) was passed on 4 July 1843. Robert Stephenson was the engineer of the line; work started in March 1844. The line
5508-478: The direct line, while freight and slower passenger services run via the loop line. The southern interconnect between the Northampton loop and the direct London – Birmingham main line is at Hanslope Junction , just north of Milton Keynes . The lines continue to run alongside until the two routes diverge north of Roade at the northern end of Roade Cutting . The loop line then runs north east for several miles until it reaches Northampton station. After Northampton,
5610-468: The direct line. The loop line made use of the existing but small Northampton Castle railway station which occupied part of the site of the historic Northampton Castle . The station needed to be expanded as part of the works, this required the almost complete demolition of what remained of the Castle to make way for it. Shortly after the completion of the loop line, the southern approach to Rugby station
5712-430: 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
5814-402: 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
5916-471: 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
6018-527: 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
6120-475: 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
6222-522: 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
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#17327727703536324-484: 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. Northampton and Peterborough Railway The Northampton and Peterborough Railway was an early railway promoted by the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) to run from a junction at Blisworth on the L&BR main line to Northampton and Peterborough , in England. The construction of
6426-1230: 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
6528-503: The line heads to the north-west for around twenty miles, until it re-joins the main line at Hillmorton Junction at Rugby , just east of Rugby station . The majority of passenger services on the line are provided by West Midlands Trains using Class 350 electric multiple units . Class 319 units are used for peak-hour express services between Northampton and London Euston. The service consists of three 'semi fast' trains per hour between London Euston and Birmingham New Street . There
6630-596: The line was authorised by Parliament in 1843 and the 47 mile line opened in 1845. The line largely followed the river Nene, and for the economy of construction, it had many level crossings with intersecting roads, rather than bridges. In 1846 the L&BR joined with other companies, together forming the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The line ran through largely agricultural terrain, and it never developed as much as later, neighbouring main line railways. It closed to ordinary passenger traffic in 1964, and closed completely in 1972. A part of it has since been reopened as
6732-527: The line was crossed by the Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon Railway , which opened in 1866. It was a dependency of the Midland Railway, and was absorbed by that company in 1897. It made no connection with the Northampton and Peterborough line, and had its own separate Thrapston station. The N&P line had a Higham Ferrers station , although it was inconveniently located and some distance from
6834-512: The line was made by the directors; and the line to Peterborough was opened to the public on 2 June 1845. It was the first railway in Peterborough. At 47 miles in length, it had cost £429,409 to build. As the ECR had not yet opened its line, the L&BR alone was using the ECR station. These openings were for passenger traffic only; goods trains started running on 15 December 1845. Conveyance of cattle to London and other population centres
6936-429: 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
7038-409: The loop line are currently limited to 75 mph (120 km/h) compared to 125 mph (200 km/h) on the fast line, making the line unattractive to the routing of fast services. As of 2011, line speeds were expected to increase to 90 mph (140 km/h) once signalling improvements are in place north of Northampton up to Rugby. Long Buckby ; the one other station on the line, is served by
7140-419: The loop line). When the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was constructed in the 1830s, Northampton was by-passed, with the line running on high ground to the west via Kilsby Tunnel . Traditionally, this was said to have been because wealthy Northampton landowners objected to having a railway run through their land to reach the town. However, an alternative view is that Northampton was by-passed because
7242-569: 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
7344-433: 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
7446-412: 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
7548-525: 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
7650-416: The possibility of a station on a north–south axis was not pursued; the ECR and the L&BR discussed building a joint station, but the ECR turned this idea down. Instead it would build a Peterborough station (and an extension of the line for 600 yards beyond it) and allow the L&BR to use it. The L&BR opened its line from Blisworth to Northampton on 13 May 1845. On 31 May an inspection trip throughout
7752-493: The same year. The Great Northern Railway made its line to and through Peterborough in 1850. The Stamford and Essendine Railway , an affiliate of the GNR, had a branch to Stamford from the GNR main line, and in 1867 it opened an extension joining the Northampton – Peterborough line at Wansford. It was contemplated that this would be the starting point for a long-distance line, but that idea came to nothing. The connection at Wansford
7854-448: The south-east and crossed over the N&P line, running alongside it on the north side to Hardingstone Junction, and then diverging to a Northampton terminus, called St John's Street from 1924. This was a well-sited central station for the town, but it was inconvenient from the railway operational point of view and it was closed by the LMS railway in 1939. The Bedford line closed in 1968, but
7956-529: The south-eastern outskirts of Rugby serving the Hillmorton area of the town, and the new housing development at Houlton . The purpose of this would be to accommodate the future expansion of the town. The station was originally planned to open in 2019. As funding was not secured, this deadline was not met. Nevertheless, in July 2019, Warwickshire County Council's Draft Rail Strategy for 2019-2034 proposed that
8058-441: 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
8160-462: The station would be opened between 2019 and 2026, with the possibility that at some point additional platforms could be provided on the 'fast' West Coast Main Line lines, in addition to the slow lines via Northampton. The Northampton loop starts at the northern end of Roade Cutting . The line is double track and electrified throughout. There are three tunnels on the Northampton loop, the longest of which
8262-475: 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
8364-486: The town. The people of Higham Ferrers and Rushden pressed for a better station location, and it was the Midland Railway that provided it, the Higham Ferrers branch line , opened in 1893. The LNWR eventually conceded the reality of the location of their own "Higham Ferrers" station and renamed it Irthlingborough in 1910. Even so, the stations were not well sited for Rushden and Higham Ferrers, and their location on
8466-543: 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
8568-471: 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
8670-629: 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 ,
8772-622: 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
8874-512: 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
8976-549: 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
9078-552: Was actually suspended from 1870 to 1879, and the Stamford line used its own station short of the junction. Matters were resolved and the connection was made again from 1879. Nevertheless, that line was never successful and it closed in 1931. The LNWR itself made a branch line from Wansford to Seaton and beyond to Market Harborough , opening in 1879. This was more successful than the S&;ER line, but closed in 1968. At Thrapston
9180-566: Was an important traffic; coal brought in was also a significant business. Blisworth station had been built as a simple wayside station and was unsuitable as an important junction, and inconveniently located. (It was at the point where the line crosses the A43 road.) A new larger Blisworth station was built about half a mile further north-west, at the point of junction. Many of the intermediate stations were built in an Old English or Tudor style from local limestone. The Syston and Peterborough Railway,
9282-514: 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
9384-706: 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
9486-548: 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 ,
9588-489: 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
9690-841: Was not fully understood at first. Colonel Arbuthnot of Woodford displayed specimens of Northamptonshire iron ore at the Great Exhibition, and some early quarrying was carried out in the Blisworth and Heyford area from 1852. New pits near Hardingstone were linked to the line by a tramway in 1851. Tramways or sidings were later laid to connect with the LNWR at Gayton, Duston, Dallington, Heyford, Brixworth, Lamport, Whiston, Earls Barton, Irchester, Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Ringstead, Denford and Orton, and transhipment sidings were laid at Blisworth Station to deal with ironstone brought in by canal from local pits. The Northampton to Peterborough line
9792-520: Was opened in 1996 with a rail connection to the loop line, and has been expanded several times since. The only stations that are currently operational on the route are Northampton and Long Buckby . Previously there were five stations on the loop line, but only these two survive. The three stations closed were: Warwickshire County Council has proposed a new station on the Northampton Loop Line called Rugby Parkway , which would be on
9894-459: Was remodelled, with a new flying junction built near Hillmorton , which allowed trains from the loop line to run into Rugby station without conflicting with trains on the fast lines. The line was electrified along with the rest of the WCML during the 1960s in the wake of the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan . The Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT); a major rail freight interchange,
9996-419: Was single line with a passing place at Thrapston , about halfway. The original intention had been to operate these two halves as one-train-only sections, but this proved impractical. In fact the entire route was formed for double track, and this provision was actually started immediately after opening, and was ready by September 1846. Although iron ore was known to exist along the course of the line, its extent
10098-762: 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
10200-490: Was the first railway through the territory that it penetrated. Naturally later railways either crossed it or made junctions with it. As described above, the line used the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) station at Peterborough at first, and in fact was the only railway in the area. The ECR completed its line from the east there the following year, 1846, joined by the Midland Railway line from Stamford later
10302-636: 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
10404-587: Was to leave the L&BR main line at Blisworth and descend considerably to Northampton. After that the line was to follow the River Nene on an easy alignment all the way to Peterborough. Stephenson's design involved 26 level crossings, 13 river bridges and a short tunnel at Wansford . At the same time the Eastern Counties Railway was building a branch line from Ely to Peterborough. The Great Northern Railway had not yet been formed so
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