All Railway Gazette International articles in August 2004
All articles published this month.
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News
Swedish testing
INTERFLEET Technology is carrying out testing of Alstom X40 and X60 trains being supplied to Sweden.During June three weeks of dynamic testing were carried out on X40 double-deck EMUs for SJ inter-regional services, using instrumented wheelsets with accelerometers to assess the behaviour of a moving train. ’We go all over ...
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News
SNCF turns to Verse
FRENCH National Railways has recently bought a Vortok International Verse unit for non-destructive measuring of the neutral temperature of rails.Verse allows the stress-free temperature to be measured to an accuracy of
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News
Sidetrack
CAPTION: To raise between A$700m and A$1bn for refurbishing run-down parts of the rail network in New South Wales, State Transport Minister Michael Costa, who also holds the Forestry portfolio, has persuaded his government colleagues to sell off state-owned forestry reserves. Around 230000ha stretching from Lithgow and Oberon to the ...
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Steam sell-out
DELAYED briefly pending the clarification of Sachsen state legislation on railway privatisation and open access, the sale of German Railway’s last steam-operated line was completed in mid-June.On July 21 DB handed over responsibility for the 750mm gauge L
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Risalpur roll-out
PAKISTAN’S Minister of Railways Ghous Bux Maher visited Risalpur Locomotive Factory on June 11 to attend the roll-out of the first diesel locomotive assembled at the plant under a technology transfer agreement signed with China’s Dalian Locomotive Works in 2001.Pakistan Railways ordered 44 locomotives of 3500hp and 25 locomotives of ...
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News
Record traffic prompts restrictions
HAMMERED by unprecedented demand, Union Pacific has taken the drastic step of imposing restrictions on traffic in critical corridors through Iowa and Illinois, in parts of California and at key terminals.During the peak traffic period from mid-July to early November, intermodal and other shipments will be subject to an allocation ...
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Market
Argentina: The federal government and Ferrovías have signed an agreement to purchase 17 two-car DMUs from Portuguese Railways for 9·6m pesos, to be deployed on the metre-gauge Belgrano Norte commuter route from Buenos Aires to Villa Rosa. The first six trainsets are due to arrive in Argentina by the end ...
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Researchers making waves
A TECHNIQUE for faster ultrasonic inspection of rails using low-frequency Rayleigh waves was described in a paper presented to the Railway Engineering conference in London on July 6 (p61).University of Warwick physicists Dr Steve Dixon, Dr Rachel Edwards and John Reed are generating the wide-band Rayleigh waves using pairs of ...
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Sprinter makes slow progress
ON JULY 15 the board of California’s North County Transit District voted to award the main construction contract for the Sprinter diesel light rail line between Oceanside and Escondido, but at the same time increased the project’s budget by $24m and formally delayed the launch of the half-hourly service by ...
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Madrid places mammoth orders
ON JUNE 23 the Madrid regional government announced ’the largest rolling stock contract in the history of the metro’, which will see a total of 698 cars supplied at a cost of €1·04bn. In addition to 52 wide-profile Series 9000 trainsets that AnsaldoBreda is supplying for €392m (RG 7.04 p393), ...
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Letter from InnoTrans
35 countries represented in BerlinInnoTrans strengthens its presence in the international market From the 21st to the 24th September 2004, the leading firms from the world’s railway industry will be displaying their latest products and services at the Berlin trade fair ground. With foreign companies accounting for 45% of exhibitors, ...
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News
Las Vegas monorail inaugurated
REVENUE SERVICE on the fully-automated Las Vegas Monorail began at 08.00 on July 15, after a formal opening the previous day and a night of partying at the seven stations.The 6·4 km line serves the hotels and casinos on the east side of the famed Strip from the Sahara to ...
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News
Reaching heights of safety
ACCESS to the roofs and ends of rolling stock has been improved at Trenitalia’s Foggia and Foligno depots with the installation of Mover 50B self-propelled gantries from Ricci. Mover 50B gives safe access to the full length of a carriage or locomotive, eliminating the need to use ladders to reach ...
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NZ infrastructure handed over
NEW ZEALAND's rail infrastructure returned to government ownership at 23.57 on June 30, following tense negotiations between the Treasury and Australian logistics group Toll Holdings. The 4128 km of track was bought back for the same symbolic NZ$1 as it was sold to Tranz Rail in 1993, with the government ...
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Steel grades
Sir - In the article ’Winning the RCF battle on the production line’ (RG 7.04 p411), the caption to the photograph of the rail on p411 includes a technical error in that rail grades 400 and 900 are the wrong way round. It should read ’grade 400 (right) and grade ...
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News
Metropolitano goes to law
BUENOS AIRES suburban operator Metropolitano has mounted a legal challenge to the federal government’s attempt to revoke its concession to operate the San Martín commuter route between Buenos Aires and Pilar.Neither Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime nor Gustavo Simeonof, Head of the Contract Analysis & Renegotiation Unit, appeared at a hearing ...