94-586: The Vitznau–Rigi railway line is a Swiss standard gauge rack railway that runs from Vitznau on the shore of Lake Lucerne to Rigi . It was built in 1871 by the Rigibahn , and is now owned by Rigi Railways , along with the Arth–Rigi railway line , which runs on the other side of the mountain, and the Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad cable car ( Luftseilbahn Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad , LWRK). The Vitznau–Rigi railway (VRB)
188-500: A Built-up area (BUA) as an area of built-up land of at least 20 hectares (0.077 sq mi), separated from other settlements by at least 200 metres (660 ft). For 2011 census data there are 5,493 built-up areas, of which 501 are divided into Built-up area sub-divisions (BUASD) for which data is also available. Each built-up area is named algorithmically, using Ordnance Survey place-name data. The ONS has produced census results from urban areas since 1951, since 1981 based upon
282-401: A diesel locomotive or electric locomotive , the steam locomotive only works when its powerplant (the boiler, in this case) is fairly level. The locomotive boiler requires water to cover the boiler tubes and firebox sheets at all times, particularly the crown sheet , the metal top of the firebox. If this is not covered with water, the heat of the fire will soften it enough to give way under
376-477: A 20- tooth , 3-foot (914 mm) diameter cog wheel (pinion) on the left side that engaged in rack teeth (two teeth per foot) on the outer side of the rail, the metal "fishbelly" edge rail with its side rack being cast all in one piece, in 3-foot (1 yd; 914 mm) lengths. Blenkinsop's system remained in use for 25 years on the Middleton Railway, but it became a curiosity because simple friction
470-480: A building at least every 200 m (660 ft) and at least 200 people. To be considered a town or a city ( kaupunki ) for statistical purposes, an urban area must have at least 15,000 people. This is not to be confused with the city / town designation used by municipalities . In France , an urban area ( Fr: aire d'attraction d'une ville ) is a zone encompassing an area of built-up growth (called an "urban unit" ( unité urbaine ) – close in definition to
564-440: A continuous rack. So long as the breaks in the rack were shorter than the distance between the drive pinions on the locomotive, the rack rail could be interrupted wherever there was need to cross over a running rail. Turnouts are far more complex when the rack is at or below the level of the running rails. Marsh's first rack patent shows such an arrangement, and the original Mount Washington Cog Railway he built had no turnouts. It
658-653: A densely settled core created from census blocks and contiguous qualifying territory that together have at least 2,000 housing units or 5,000 persons." There were 2,646 urban areas identified by the Census Bureau for 2020. 511 of these had a population of 50,000 or more. For the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the Census Bureau differentiated between two kinds of urban areas: urbanized areas and urban clusters. The term urbanized area denoted an urban area of 50,000 or more people. Urban areas under 50,000 people were called urban clusters . Urbanized areas were first delineated in
752-543: A density requirement of 4,000 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,000/sq mi). Seoul is the largest urban area in South Korea . For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is a place having a minimum population of 5,000 of density 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi) or higher, and 75% plus of the male working population employed in non-agricultural activities. Places administered by
846-445: A gradient. This is one of the reasons why rack railways were among the first to be electrified and most of today's rack railways are electrically powered. In some cases, a vertical boiler can be used that is less sensitive for the track gradient. On a rack-only railroad, locomotives are always downward of their passenger cars for safety reasons: the locomotive is fitted with powerful brakes, often including hooks or clamps that grip
940-495: A ladder between two L-shaped wrought-iron rails. The first public trial of the Marsh rack on Mount Washington was made on August 29, 1866, when only one quarter of a mile (402 meters) of track had been completed. The Mount Washington railway opened to the public on August 14, 1868. The pinion wheels on the locomotives have deep teeth that ensure that at least two teeth are engaged with the rack at all times; this measure helps reduce
1034-514: A large majority of the population, typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes used. Since 2000, China 's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050, when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion. The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009. Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in
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#17327837839271128-469: A minimum of 20 hectares (200,000 m ; 49 acres). Any areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single built-up area. Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 90% while Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States are countries where the urbanization rate is between 80% and 90%. There are two measures of
1222-572: A municipal corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee are automatically considered urban areas. The Census of India 2011 also defined the term "urban agglomeration" as an integrated urban area consisting of a core town together with its "outgrowths" (contiguous suburbs). In Pakistan , an area is a major city and municipality if it has more than 100,000 inhabitants according to census results. Cities include adjacent cantonments . Urbanisation in Pakistan has increased since
1316-507: A number of large cities . The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region (11 million in 2008 ), including Düsseldorf (the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia ), Cologne , Bonn , Dortmund , Essen , Duisburg , and Bochum . The Netherlands is the 30th-most densely populated country in the world, with 404.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,048/sq mi)—or 497 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,287/sq mi) if only
1410-641: A population centre remains unchanged from that of an urban area: a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per km . Mexico is one of many countries where the urbanization rate is at least 80%. Mexico City , its capital, is the largest urban area in the country. In the United States , the Census Bureau defines urban areas and delineates urban area boundaries after each census. The Bureau defines an urban area as "a statistical geographic entity consisting of
1504-417: A population of more than 50,000. Urban areas originate through urbanization , and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs . In urbanism , the term "urban area" contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets ; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment . The development of earlier predecessors of modern urban areas during
1598-711: A rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop . The first mountain cog railway was the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the U.S. state of New Hampshire , which carried its first fare-paying passengers in 1868. The track was completed to reach the summit of Mount Washington in 1869. The first mountain rack railway in continental Europe was the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn on Mount Rigi in Switzerland , which opened in 1871. Both lines are still running. As well as
1692-468: A simplified but compatible rack, where the teeth on the engine pinions engaged square holes punched in a bar-shaped center rail. J. H. Morgan patented several alternative turnout designs for use with this rack system. Curiously, Morgan recommended an off-center rack in order to allow clear passage for pedestrians and animals walking along the tracks. Some photos of early Morgan installations show this. A simplified rack mounting system could be used when
1786-409: A suburb of another urban area rather than as a self-contained urban entity, or is geographically remote from other urban communities. Accordingly, the new definition set out three distinct types of population centres: small (population 1,000 to 29,999), medium (population 30,000 to 99,999) and large (population 100,000 or greater). Despite the change in terminology, however, the demographic definition of
1880-547: Is 56.2% urbanized, with roughly one-quarter of the countries reported as greater than 80% urbanized. Data is taken from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook estimates from 2020. According to Demographia, these are the 202 largest urban areas in the world by population (as of 2023): The UN publishes data on cities, urban areas and rural areas, but relies almost entirely on national definitions of these areas. The UN principles and recommendations state that due to different characteristics of urban and rural areas across
1974-409: Is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail , usually between the running rails . The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the trains to operate on steep gradients of 100% (45 degrees) or more, well above the 10% maximum for friction-based rail . The rack and pinion mechanism also provides more controlled braking and reduces
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#17327837839272068-493: Is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi). If two or more urban areas are within 2 km (1.2 mi) of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area, provided they do not cross census metropolitan area or census agglomeration boundaries. In the Canada 2011 Census , Statistics Canada redesignated urban areas with
2162-421: Is considered to be rural by the Census Bureau. The largest urban area in the United States is that of New York City and its surrounding suburbs. The New York– Jersey City – Newark , NY–NJ urban area had a population of 19,426,449 as of 2020, while the larger metropolitan area had a population of 20,140,470, and the combined statistical area had a population of 23,582,649. The next five largest urban areas in
2256-686: Is divided into 5 regions for planning purposes by the URA, even though as a city state Singapore is defined as a single continuous urban area. It is further subdivided into 55 urban planning areas , which acts as the boundaries of planned towns within the country. In Vietnam , there are six types of urban areas: Bangkok is the largest urban area in Thailand . As in other Nordic countries , an urban area ( taajama in Finnish ) in Finland must have
2350-550: Is highly urbanized. The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, and fewer than one in ten live in rural areas. About 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 15 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world, with a population of 18 million all up. Córdoba has around 1.5 million people living in
2444-952: Is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population residing in Australia's three biggest urban centres. Statistics New Zealand defines urban areas in New Zealand, which are independent of any administrative subdivisions and have no legal basis. There are four classes of urban area: major urban areas (population 100,000+), large urban areas (population 30,000–99,999), medium urban areas (population 10,000–29,999) and small urban areas (population 1,000–9,999). As of 2021, there are 7 major urban areas, 13 large urban areas, 22 medium urban areas and 136 small urban areas. Urban areas are reclassified after each New Zealand census , so population changes between censuses does not change an urban area's classification. According to Statistics Canada , an urban area in Canada
2538-506: Is the largest city by population and area, with a population of 19.10 million. In Bangladesh , there are total 11 City Corporations and 329 Municipal Corporations and 203 Small towns , which serves as the center for Upazilas . According to 2011 population census, Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%, with a growth rate of 2.8%. At this growth rate, it is estimated that the urban population of Bangladesh will reach 79 million or 42% of total population by 2035. In 2020, 54 percent of
2632-577: Is very low, generally from 9 to 25 kilometres per hour (5.6 to 15.5 mph) depending on gradient and propulsion method. Because the Skitube has gentler gradients than typical, its speeds are higher than typical. The Culdee Fell Railway is a fictional cog railway on the Island of Sodor in The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry . Its operation, locomotives and history are based on those of
2726-540: The Nilgiri Mountain Railway . The Agudio rack system was invented by Tommaso Agudio. Its only long-lived application was on the Sassi–Superga tramway which opened in 1884. It used a vertical rack with cog wheels on each side of the central rack. Its unique feature, however, was that the 'locomotive' was propelled by means of an endless cable driven from an engine house at the foot of the incline. It
2820-616: The Snowdon Mountain Railway . It is featured in the book Mountain Engines . The Štrbské Pleso rack railway in Slovakia is featured in "The Bounty" by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton . Urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment . This is the core of a metropolitan statistical area in the United States, if it contains
2914-565: The U.S. Department of Agriculture 's natural resources inventory , urban areas are officially known as developed areas or urban and built-up areas. Such areas include cities, ethnic villages, other built-up areas of more than 10 ac (4 ha), industrial sites, railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf courses, shooting ranges, institutional and public administration sites, and similar areas. The 1997 national resources inventory placed over 98,000,000 ac (40,000,000 ha) in this category, an increase of 25,000,000 ac (10,000,000 ha) since 1982. Argentina
Vitznau–Rigi railway line - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-595: The Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn since 1 January 1970) connects in Rigi Staffel with the tracks of the Arth–Rigi railway line , which has operated from Arth-Goldau since 1875. The VRB used a track that ran parallel with the track of the ARB to the common terminus in Rigi Kulm. Both railways were once strictly separated and competitors. The only connection was a transfer table in front of the joint depot building on Rigi Kulm. It
3102-428: The urban revolution of the 4th millennium BCE led to the formation of human civilization and ultimately to modern urban planning , which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources has led to a human impact on the environment . In 1950, 764 million people or about 30 percent of the world's 2.5 billion people lived in urban areas. By 2014, it was 3.9 billion or about 53 percent of
3196-722: The Abt system was on the Harzbahn in Germany, which opened in 1885. The Abt system was also used for the construction of the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales from 1894 to 1896. The pinion wheels can be mounted on the same axle as the rail wheels, or driven separately. The steam locomotives on the West Coast Wilderness Railway have separate cylinders driving the pinion wheel, as do the "X"-class locomotives on
3290-646: The Abt system, but typically wider than a single Abt bar. The Lamella rack can be used by locomotives designed for use on the Riggenbach or the Strub systems, so long as the safety-jaws that were a feature of the original Strub system are not used. Some railways use racks from multiple systems; for example, the St. Gallen Gais Appenzell Railway in Switzerland has sections of Riggenbach, Strub, and Lamella rack. Most of
3384-875: The British market. Between 1903 and 1909, the McKell Coal and Coke company in Raleigh County, West Virginia, installed 35,000 feet (10,700 m) of Morgan rack/third-rail track in its mines. Between 1905 and 1906, the Mammoth Vein Coal Company installed 8,200 feet (2,500 m) of powered rack in two of its mines in Everist, Iowa , with a maximum grade of 16%. The Donohoe Coke Co. of Greenwald, Pennsylvania had 10,000 feet (3,050 m) of Goodman rack in its mine in 1906. The Morgan system saw limited use on one common carrier railroad in
3478-535: The Morgan rack was not used for third-rail power and the Morgan rack offered interesting possibilities for street railways. The Morgan rack was good for grades of up to 16 percent . The Goodman Equipment Company began marketing the Morgan system for mine railways , and it saw widespread use, particularly where steep grades were encountered underground. By 1907, Goodman had offices in Cardiff, Wales , to serve
3572-663: The North American urban area) and its commuter belt ( couronne ). Americans would find the INSEE definition of the urban area to be similar to their metropolitan area . The largest cities in France, in terms of urban area population (2017), are Paris (12,628,266), Lyon (2,323,221), Marseille (1,760,653), Toulouse (1,360,829), Bordeaux (1,247,977), Lille (1,191,117), Nice (1,006,201), Nantes (972,828), Strasbourg (790,087) and Rennes (733,320). Germany has
3666-672: The Northern and Western ones. Urban areas in Sweden ( tätorter ) are statistically defined localities, totally independent of the administrative subdivision of the country. There are 1,956 such localities in Sweden , with a population ranging from 200 to 1,372,000 inhabitants. In 2013 the United Kingdom 's Office for National Statistics (ONS) published 2011 Built-up Areas – Methodology and Guidance which sets out its definition of
3760-617: The Philippine population lived in urban areas. With an estimated population of 16.3 million, Metro Manila is the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines and the 11th in the world . However, the greater urban area is the 5th largest in the world with a population of 20,654,307 people (2010 estimate). As an island city-state , about 5.6 million people live and work within 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi). With 64 islands and islets , Singapore Island makes up
3854-547: The Strub system is on the Jungfraubahn in Switzerland. Strub is the simplest rack system to maintain and has become increasingly popular. In 1900, E. C. Morgan of Chicago received a patent on a rack railway system that was mechanically similar to the Riggenbach rack, but where the rack was also used as a third rail to power the electric locomotive. Morgan went on to develop heavier locomotives and with J. H. Morgan, turnouts for this system. In 1904, he patented
Vitznau–Rigi railway line - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-617: The Swiss government. Eager to boost tourism in Switzerland, the government commissioned Riggenbach to build a rack railway up Mount Rigi . Following the construction of a prototype locomotive and test track in a quarry near Bern , the Vitznau–Rigi railway opened on 22 May 1871. The Riggenbach system is similar in design to the Marsh system. It uses a ladder rack, formed of steel plates or channels connected by round or square rods at regular intervals. The Riggenbach system suffers from
4042-407: The U.S. are those of Los Angeles , Chicago , Miami , Houston , and Dallas . 80.0 percent of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of an urban area as of the 2020 census. The concept of Urbanized Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau is often used as a more accurate gauge of the size of a city, since in different cities and states the lines between city borders and
4136-565: The United States in the 1950 census, while urban clusters were added in the 2000 census. The distinction between urbanized areas and urban clusters was removed for the 2020 census. Urban areas consist of a densely-settled urban core, plus surrounding developed areas that meet certain density criteria. Since urban areas are composed of census blocks and not cities, counties, or county-equivalents, urban area boundaries may consist of partial areas of these political units. Urban areas are distinguished from rural areas : any area not part of an urban area
4230-653: The United States, the Chicago Tunnel Company , a narrow gauge freight carrier that had one steep grade in the line up to their surface disposal station on the Chicago lakefront. The Lamella system (also known as the Von Roll system) was developed by the Von Roll company after the rolled steel rails used in the Strub system became unavailable. It is formed from a single blade cut in a similar shape to
4324-401: The boiler pressure, leading to a catastrophic failure. On rack systems with extreme gradients, the boiler, cab, and general superstructure of the locomotive are tilted forward relative to the wheels so that they are more or less horizontal when on the steeply graded track. These locomotives often cannot function on level track, and so the entire line, including maintenance shops, must be laid on
4418-402: The boundaries of these towns. This distinction may give a misleading impression in some cases, since some localities with only village status may have acquired larger and denser populations than many many smaller towns with most excessive example of Poznań , most spread urban area of the country with population of the city app. 534 thousand and metropolitan area around 1 million inhabitants. On
4512-621: The capital and largest city of Russia , has a population estimated at 12.4 million residents within the city limits, while over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 20 million residents in the Moscow Metropolitan Area . It is among the world's largest cities , being the most populous city entirely within Europe , the most populous urban area in Europe, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, and also
4606-595: The centre rail, as well as by means of the normal running wheels. The first successful rack railway in the United States was the Mount Washington Cog Railway, developed by Sylvester Marsh . Marsh was issued a U.S. patent for the general idea of a rack railway in September 1861, and in January 1867 for a practical rack where the rack teeth take the form of rollers arranged like the rungs of
4700-486: The concept of the "urban area" used in road safety statistics. This term was first created by Geographer Brian Manning. The last concept is also known as " built-up area in road safety ". According to the definition by the Office for National Statistics , "Built-up areas are defined as land which is 'irreversibly urban in character', meaning that they are characteristic of a town or city. They include areas of built-up land with
4794-403: The construction of turnouts. If the rack is elevated above the running rails, there is no need to interrupt the running rails to allow passage of the driving pinions of the engines. Strub explicitly documented this in his U.S. patent. Strub used a complex set of bell-cranks and push-rods linking the throw-rod for the points to the two throw-rods for the moving rack sections. One break in the rack
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#17327837839274888-404: The degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by the country. The second measure, rate of urbanization, describes the projected average rate of change of the size of the urban population over the given period of time. According to Urbanization by sovereign state article, the world as a whole
4982-426: The distance between each building has to be of less than 50 m, although exceptions are made due to parks, industrial areas, rivers, and similar. Groups of houses less than 400 m from the main body of an urban area are included in the urban area. In Poland , official "urban" population figures simply refer to those localities which have the status of towns ( miasta ). The "rural" population is that of all areas outside
5076-403: The early 1880s, Abt worked to devise an improved rack system that overcame the limitations of the Riggenbach system. In particular, the Riggenbach rack was expensive to manufacture and maintain and the switches were complex. In 1882, Abt designed a new rack using solid bars with vertical teeth machined into them. Two or three of these bars are mounted centrally between the rails, with the teeth of
5170-559: The effects of snow or ice on the rails. Most rack railways are mountain railways , although a few are transit railways or tramways built to overcome a steep gradient in an urban environment. The first cog railway was the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds in West Yorkshire , England, United Kingdom , where the first commercially successful steam locomotive , Salamanca , ran in 1812. This used
5264-563: The extent of irreversible urban development indicated on Ordnance Survey maps. The definition is an extent of at least 20 ha and at least 1,500 census residents. Separate areas are linked if less than 200 m (220 yd) apart. Included are transportation features. The UK has five Urban Areas with a population over a million and a further sixty nine with a population over one hundred thousand . The Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to urban areas as Urban Centres, which it generally defines as population clusters of 1,000 or more people. Australia
5358-403: The globe, a global definition is not possible. European countries define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use , not allowing any gaps of typically more than 200 metres (220 yd), and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries , in addition to land use and density requirements, a requirement that
5452-494: The land area is counted. The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam , The Hague , and Utrecht . The Randstad has a population of 7 million inhabitants and is the 6th largest metropolitan area in Europe. Norway defines urban areas ("tettsteder") similarly to the other Nordic countries . Unlike in Denmark and Sweden,
5546-525: The largest city by land area on the European continent. Saint Petersburg , the cultural capital, is the second-largest city, with a population of roughly 5.4 million inhabitants. Other major urban areas are Yekaterinburg , Novosibirsk , Kazan , Nizhny Novgorod , and Chelyabinsk . Spain is a very highly urbanized country. Madrid is its largest urban area. The Southern and Eastern coasts with Barcelona , Valencia and Málaga are more urbanised than
5640-617: The largest urban area in the country. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific , the country has the highest urbanised population in Southeast Asia, with 100 percent of its population living in an urban area. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is responsible for the urban land-use planning, which designates land use and urban density of the country. The country
5734-422: The major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings. China has more cities with one million or more long-term residents than any other country, including the three global cities of Beijing , Hong Kong, and Shanghai ; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants. The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of
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#17327837839275828-513: The majority of the world's population lived in a city. By that time a high estimate calculated up to 3.5 million square kilometers of land were urban, estimates ranging from 1% of global land area. In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet, of which the global urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted
5922-413: The most common rack system in Switzerland at the time – was limited to a maximum gradient of 1 in 4 (25%). Locher showed that on steeper grade, the Abt system was prone to the driving pinion over-riding the rack, causing potentially catastrophic derailments, as predicted by Dr. Abt. To overcome this problem and allow a rack line up the steep sides of Mt. Pilatus , Locher developed a rack system where
6016-543: The most urbanised nation in South Asia. Furthermore, 50% of Pakistanis live in towns of 5,000 people or more. Karachi is the most populated city in Pakistan closely followed by Lahore according to the 2017 Census . In Bangladesh , there are total 532 urban areas, which are divided into three categories. Those are City Corporation , Municipal Corporation (Pourasova) and Upazila town . Among those urban areas, Dhaka
6110-437: The new term " population centre "; the new term was chosen in order to better reflect the fact that urban vs. rural is not a strict division, but rather a continuum within which several distinct settlement patterns may exist. For example, a community may fit a strictly statistical definition of an urban area, but may not be commonly thought of as "urban" because it has a smaller population, or functions socially and economically as
6204-530: The other hand, the Katowice urban area with numerous large and medium cities covers 1,468 km and has above 2 million people. The metropolitan areas in Poland are the biggest urban zones (e.g. Katowice metropolitan area , Łódź metropolitan area and Szczecin metropolitan area ) and have great impact on the rural surroundings, as it is around Lublin , Radom , Kielce , Tarnów and Białystok . Moscow ,
6298-414: The pinions rotationally offset from each other to match. The use of multiple bars with offset teeth ensures that the pinions on the locomotive driving wheels are constantly engaged with the rack. The Abt system is cheaper to build than the Riggenbach because it requires a lower weight of rack over a given length. However the Riggenbach system exhibits greater wear resistance than the Abt. The first use of
6392-515: The possibility of the pinions riding up and out of the rack. The Riggenbach rack system was invented by Niklaus Riggenbach working at about the same time as, but independently from Marsh. Riggenbach was granted a French patent in 1863 based on a working model which he used to interest potential Swiss backers. During this time, the Swiss Consul to the United States visited Marsh's Mount Washington Cog Railway and reported back with enthusiasm to
6486-724: The problem that its fixed ladder rack is more complex and expensive to build than the other systems. Following the success of the Vitznau–Rigi railway, Riggenbach established the Maschinenfabrik der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Bergbahnen (IGB) – a company that produced rack locomotives to his design. The Abt system was devised by Carl Roman Abt , a Swiss locomotive engineer. Abt worked for Riggenbach at his works in Olten and later at his IGB rack locomotive company. In 1885, he founded his own civil engineering company. During
6580-573: The rack for driving (with the conventional rail wheels undriven) such as the Dolderbahn in Zürich , Štrbské Pleso in Slovakia and the Schynige Platte rack railway instead must switch the rack rail. The Dolderbahn switch works by bending all three rails, an operation that is performed every trip as the two trains pass in the middle. The geometry of the rack system has a large impact on
6674-470: The rack is a flat bar with symmetrical, horizontal teeth. Horizontal pinions with flanges below the rack engage the centrally-mounted bar, both driving the locomotive and keeping it centered on the track. This system provides very stable attachment to the track, also protecting the car from toppling over even under the most severe crosswinds. Such gears are also capable of leading the car, so even flanges on running wheels are optional. The biggest shortcoming of
6768-401: The rack rail solidly. Some locomotives are fitted with automatic brakes that apply if the speed gets too high, preventing runaways. Often there is no coupler between locomotive and train since gravity will always push the passenger car down against the locomotive. Electrically powered vehicles often have electromagnetic track brakes as well. The maximum speed of trains operating on a cog railway
6862-581: The rack railways built from the late 20th century onwards have used the Lamella system. Rack railway switches are as varied as rack railway technologies, for optional rack lines such as the Zentralbahn in Switzerland and the West Coast Wilderness Railway in Tasmania it is convenient to only use switches on sections flat enough for adhesion (for example, on a pass summit). Other systems which rely on
6956-518: The rack system used, lines using rack systems fall into one of two categories depending on whether the rack rail is continuous or not. Lines where the rack rail is continuous, and the cog-drive is used throughout, are described as pure-rack lines. Other lines, which use the cog drive only on the steepest sections and elsewhere operate as a regular railway, are described as rack-and-adhesion lines. On rack-and-adhesion lines, trains are equipped with propulsion and braking systems capable of acting both through
7050-499: The railway was extended to Rigi Kulm (1752 m.a.s.l.). This section is located in the canton of Schwyz, for which the VRB had no concession. The track belonged to the ARB and was leased by the VRB. The line is mostly single track, but the line has been double-track since 1874 from the request stop of Freibergen to Rigi Kaltbad-First. The Rigibahn was only open in the summer in the early years. Winter sports gradually developed and operations in
7144-445: The running rail wheels and the cog wheels, depending on whether the rack rail is present or not. Rack-and-adhesion lines also need to use a system for smoothing the transition from friction to rack traction, with a spring-mounted rack section to bring the pinion teeth gradually into engagement. This was invented by Roman Abt, who also invented the Abt rack system. On pure-rack lines, the train's running rail wheels are only used to carry
7238-564: The station complex in Kaltbad was completely renewed and a second platform track was installed. The station building in Kaltbad was demolished; construction of the new building started in May 2014 and was finished in September 2014. The new Kaltbad station building was inaugurated on 1 March 2015. The railway has the following technical data: Rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway , cog railway , or cogwheel railway )
7332-542: The system is that the standard railway switch is not usable, and a transfer table or other complex device must be used where branching of the track is needed. Following tests, the Locher system was deployed on the Pilatus Railway, which opened in 1889. No other public railway uses the Locher system, although some European coal mines use a similar system on steeply graded underground lines. The Strub rack system
7426-571: The time of independence and has several different causes. The majority of southern Pakistan's population lives along the Indus River . Karachi is its most populous city. In the northern half of the country, most of the population lives in an arc formed by the cities of Lahore , Faisalabad , Rawalpindi , Islamabad , Gujranwala , Sialkot , Gujrat , Jhelum , Sargodha , Sheikhupura , Nowshera , Mardan and Peshawar . During 1990–2008, city dwellers made up 36% of Pakistan's population, making it
7520-424: The train and do not contribute to propulsion or braking, which is exclusively done through the cog wheels. Pure-rack lines have no need of transitioning systems, as the cog wheels remain engaged with the rack rail at all times, but all track, including sidings and depots, must be equipped with rack rail irrespective of gradient. A number of different designs of rack rail and matching cog wheel have been developed over
7614-470: The urban population would occupy 68% of the world population by 2050, with 90% of that growth coming from Africa and Asia. Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. They are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl . Urban areas are also mostly found in the United States , Canada , Brazil , Mexico , Argentina , Chile , Japan and Australia and many other countries where
7708-492: The urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large " floating populations " of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult; the figures below include only long-term residents. In Japan , urbanized areas are defined as contiguous areas of densely inhabited districts (DIDs) using census enumeration districts as units with
7802-435: The urbanization rate is over 80%. Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also satellite cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city, typically by employment ties through commuting , with the urban core city being the primary labor market. The concept of an "urban area" as used in economic statistics should not be confused with
7896-474: The urbanized area of that city are often not the same. For example, the city of Greenville, South Carolina has a city population just over 68,000 and an urbanized area population of around 400,000, while Greensboro, North Carolina has a city population just over 285,000 and an urbanized area population of around 300,000 — meaning that Greenville is actually "larger" for some intents and purposes, but not for others, such as taxation, local elections, etc. In
7990-499: The winter commenced. The narrow-gauge Rigi–Scheidegg railway ( Rigi-Kaltbad-Scheidegg-Bahn , RSB) to Rigi Scheidegg, which was completed in 1875, began in Kaltbad. This railway was closed in 1931 and finally abandoned in 1942. The Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad cable car ( Luftseilbahn Weggis–Rigi Kaltbad , LWRK) from Weggis, also operated by the Rigi Railways, has ended in Kaltbad since 1968. The Vitznau–Rigi Railway (officially called
8084-401: The world's 7.3 billion people that lived in urban areas. The change was driven by a combination of increased total population and increased percent of population living in urban areas. In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion), and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This was the first time that
8178-411: The years. With the exception of some early Morgan and Blenkinsop rack installations, rack systems place the rack rail halfway between the running rails, mounted on the same sleepers or ties as the running rails. John Blenkinsop thought that the friction would be too low from metal wheels on metal rails even on level ground, so he built his steam locomotives for the Middleton Railway in 1812 with
8272-548: Was converted to use the Strub rack system in 1934. The Locher rack system, invented by Eduard Locher , has gear teeth cut in the sides rather than the top of the rail, engaged by two cog wheels on the locomotive. This system allows use on steeper grades than the other systems, whose teeth could jump out of the rack. It is used on the Pilatus Railway . Locher set out to design a rack system that could be used on gradients as steep as 1 in 2 (50%). The Abt system –
8366-444: Was found to be sufficient for railroads operating on level ground. The Fell mountain railway system, developed in the 1860s, is not strictly speaking a rack railway, since there are no cogs with teeth. Rather, this system uses a smooth raised centre rail between the two running rails on steep sections of lines that is gripped on both sides to improve friction. Trains are propelled by wheels or braked by shoes pressed horizontally onto
8460-433: Was invented by Emil Strub in 1896. It uses a rolled flat-bottom rail with rack teeth machined into the head approximately 100 mm (3.9 inches) apart. Safety jaws fitted to the locomotive engage with the underside of the head to prevent derailments and serve as a brake. Strub's U.S. patent, granted in 1898, also includes details of how the rack rail is integrated with the mechanism of a turnout . The best-known use of
8554-742: Was not until 1941 that a turnout was constructed on this line. There were more turnouts built for the line but all were hand operated. In 2003, a new automatic hydraulic turnout was developed and built at the base as a prototype. With the success of the new turnout, more new automatic hydraulic turnouts were built to replace the hand-operated ones. The new turnouts installed on the Mount Washington line in 2007 are essentially transfer tables . The Locher rack also requires transfer tables. Originally almost all cog railways were powered by steam locomotives . The steam locomotive needs to be extensively modified to work effectively in this environment. Unlike
8648-596: Was not until 1990 that a connecting track was built between the ARB and the VRB in Rigi Staffel. This was the beginning of the merger, which was completed in 1992. The VRB switched to electric traction in 1937 and an overhead line was erected on the Vitznau–Rigi Kulm line. The traverser in Freibergen was replaced by a rack railway set of points in 1959; the same occurred in Kaltbad in 1961. These sets of points were replaced by new systems in 2000 and 2012. In 2012,
8742-581: Was opened on 21 May 1871 as the Rigibahn and the first mountain railway in Europe. The first rack railway of Europe had already been opened in the quarry of Ostermundigen in 1870. The quarry was officially opened for marketing reasons only in October 1871. The Vitznau–Rigi Railway was built by the engineers Niklaus Riggenbach , Ferdinand Adolf Naeff and Olivier Zschokke. At first it ran only from Vitznau (439 metres above sea level) via Kaltbad (1453 m.a.s.l.) to Rigi Staffelhöhe (1550 m.a.s.l.). On 27 June 1873,
8836-466: Was required to select between the two routes, and a second break was required where the rack rails cross the running rails. Turnouts for the Morgan Rack system were similar, with the rack elevated above the running rails. Most of the Morgan turnout patents included movable rack sections to avoid breaks in the rack, but because all Morgan locomotives had two linked drive pinions, there was no need for
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