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A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow lower costs of operation, at the price of lower vehicle capacity.
In countries where a single standard gauge is dominant, the term light railway does not imply a narrow gauge railway. Most narrow gauge railways operate as light railways, but not all light railways need be narrow gauge. [lower-roman 1] After Spooner's development of steam haulage for narrow gauge railways, the prevailing view was that the gauge should be tailored according to the traffic: "The nearer the machine is apportioned to the work it has to do the cheaper will that work be done." [1] From the 1890s, it was recognised that cost savings could also be made in the construction and operation of a standard gauge railway: "light axle-loads and low speeds, not gauge, are the first condition of cheap construction and economical working. Gauge is quite a secondary factor." [2] Break of gauge now became an important factor, and there was much concern over whether this would become an additional cost for the transshipment of goods, [3] or whether this was over-emphasised compared to the amount of warehousing and handling needed anyway. [4] The Irish railway system in particular became a good example of a broad gauge main line system with many independent narrow gauge, 3 ft (914 mm), light railway feeder branch lines.
The precise meaning of the term "light railway" varies by geography and context.
In the United States, "light railway" generally refers to an urban or interurban rail system, which historically would correspond to a streetcar network. The distinct term light rail was introduced in the 1970s to describe a form of urban rail public transportation that has a lower capacity and lower speed than a heavy rail or metro system, but which generally operates in exclusive rights-of-way, in contrast with streetcar systems which operate in shared road traffic with automobiles. Urban sprawl combined with higher fuel prices has caused an increase in popularity of these light rail systems in recent decades.
In the United Kingdom "light railway" refers in its strictest sense to a railway built or operated under the 1896 Light Railways Act. [5] That Act, though, gives only a vague description; a better one is found from John Charles MacKay in the same year: [5] [6] "A light railway is one constructed with lighter rails and structures, running at a slower speed, with poorer accommodation for passengers and less facility for freight. It can be worked with less stringent standards of signalling and safety practice. It is a cheap railway and a second class of railway." [5] These terms are not pejorative, they simply recognise that the standards of main-line heavy railways are not needed in all situations. Their great advantage under UK law was that they avoided the need for an expensive act of parliament before each new line; they only required a much simpler Light Railway Order within the terms of the Act. [5]
The term is also used more generally[ dubious ] of any lightly built railway with limited traffic, often controlled locally and running unusual and/or older rolling stock. A light railway is properly distinct from a tramway which operates under differing rules and may share a road. The term "light railway" is generally used in a positive manner.
Perhaps the most well-known caricature of a light railway is the film The Titfield Thunderbolt , made in 1953 as many of the light railways and other small branch lines were being closed. Despite the great public affection for these railways, very few were financially successful. Colonel H.F. Stephens was pivotal in the light railway world, and tried many techniques to make light railways pay, introducing some of the earliest railcars and also experimenting with a rail lorry built out of an old Model T Ford. Nevertheless, most light railways never made much money, and by the 1930s they were being driven out of business by the motor car. Although World War II resulted in a brief increase in the importance of these railways, very few lasted beyond the early 1950s. Those that survive today are generally heritage railways.
The Heart of Wales Line has been operated under a Light Railway Order since 1972, and appears to be the only part of the National Rail (that is, non-heritage) system run as a light railway.
Queensland adopted a narrow gauge of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) in order to make construction of lines lighter and thus cheaper, though this initiated a break-of-gauge with other states. The cost savings were due to light rails, low axleloads and low speeds as much as due to the gauge.
Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia followed suit with the narrow gauge to reduce costs, though South Australia ended up with an inefficient two-gauge system which negated some of the supposed cost savings of the narrow gauge. New South Wales resisted calls to introduce narrow gauge, but did adopt pioneer lines with 30 kg rails to reduce costs without the need for breaks-of-gauge.
There were a significant number of small and isolated mining and timber railway built to a variety of gauges and improvised standards.
There are still a large number of sugar cane tramways built to a common 610 mm (2 ft) gauge, and sharing research and development into advanced features such as concrete sleepers, tamping machines, remotely controlled brake vans, and the like. There is little through traffic with main line railways so that the break-of-gauge is not a problem.
The Iron Knob Railway was legally a "tramway". It operated 2,000 ton ore trams which were heavier than most railways.
Also in Japan, originally, "light railway" refers to a railway built or operated under the Light Railways Act enforced in 1909. The act in Japan also though gives only a vague description, the purpose of the act is for building railways easily with less stringent standards and at low cost.
So the circumstance of light railways in Japan was almost similar in UK or other countries. Many light railways had been built for passengers or as military railway, industrial railway and forest railway in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, Sakhalin and Micronesia that had been colonized by Japan. Some light railways were extinct for the destruction of the World War II, especially in Okinawa. After the war, most of the light railways were driven out of business by the motor car by 1970s. Some of the remains survive for passengers, others have been restored generally as heritage railways.
Taiwanese push car railways used handcars on 762mm gauge rails to transport sugarcanes of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation to the mainline railways of the Taiwan Railway Administration or the processing plants of the Taiwan Sugar Cooperation for further production to turn the sugarcanes to fine sugar.
Many industrial railways were built to light railway standards. These may be of light and small construction, although the wagons carrying molten-steel in a steelworks can be several hundred tonnes in weight.
The Panama Canal construction used a heavy network of 5 ft (1,524 mm) temporary railways in its construction to move vast quantities of soil from the excavations to the dams that were constructed.
Light railways have been used in several wars, especially before the advent of the combustion engine and motor car. These have often connect depots some distance behind the front line with the front lines themselves. Some armies have Divisions of Engineers trained to operate trains. Sometimes they operate a branch line of their own so that they can practise track and bridge building (and demolition) without disturbing trains on the main line.
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
Light rail transit (LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit characterized by a combination of tram and rapid transit features. While its rolling stock is similar to a traditional tram, it operates at a higher capacity and speed, and often on an exclusive right-of-way. In many cities, light rail transit systems more closely resemble, and are therefore indistinguishable from, traditional underground or at-grade subways and heavy-rail metros.
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge broader than the 1,435 mm used by standard-gauge railways.
In rail transport, track gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges exist worldwide, gauge differences often present a barrier to wider operation on railway networks.
A railway track or railroad track, also known as a train track, permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a dependable surface for their wheels to roll upon. Early tracks were constructed with wooden or cast iron rails, and wooden or stone sleepers; since the 1870s, rails have almost universally been made from steel.
In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to carry railway vehicles with wheels matched to two different gauges. Such track is described as dual gauge – achieved either by addition of a third rail, if it will fit, or by two additional rails. Dual-gauge tracks are more expensive to configure with signals and sidings, and to maintain, than two separate single-gauge tracks. It is therefore usual to build dual-gauge or other multi-gauge tracks only when necessitated by lack of space or when tracks of two different gauges meet in marshalling yards or passenger stations. Dual-gauge tracks are by far the most common configuration, but triple-gauge tracks have been built in some situations.
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, leading to passengers having to change trains and freight requiring transloading or transshipping; this can add delays, costs, and inconvenience to travel on such a route.
The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854.
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.
Railways with a railway track gauge of 5 ft first appeared in the United Kingdom and the United States. This gauge became commonly known as Russian gauge, because the government of the Russian Empire chose it in 1843. Former areas of the Empire have inherited this standard. In 1970, Soviet Railways re-defined the gauge as 1,520 mm.
Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent for over 150 years. As of 2022, there are 11,914 kilometres (7,403 mi) of narrow-gauge railways, 18,007 kilometres (11,189 mi) of standard gauge railways and 2,685 kilometres (1,668 mi) of broad gauge railways. In the 19th century, each of the colonies of Australia adopted their own gauges.
The rail network in Queensland, Australia, was the first in the world to adopt 1,067 mm narrow gauge for a main line, and now the second largest narrow gauge network in the world, consists of:
Rail transport in Australia involves a number of narrow-gauge railways. In some states they formed the core statewide network, but in the others they were either a few government branch lines, or privately owned and operated branch lines, often for mining, logging or industrial use.
The Eigiau Tramway might refer to the Eigiau Quarry Tramway or to the Eigiau Reservoir Tramway.
Railway platform height is the built height – above top of rail (ATR) – of passenger platforms at stations. A connected term is train floor height, which refers to the ATR height of the floor of rail vehicles. Worldwide, there are many, frequently incompatible, standards for platform heights and train floor heights. Where raised platforms are in use, train widths must also be compatible, in order to avoid both large gaps between platform and trains and mechanical interference liable to cause equipment damage.
Originally, various track gauges were used in the United States. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in ; others used gauges ranging from 2 ft to 6 ft. As a general rule, southern railroads were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft, while northern railroads that were not standard-gauge tended to be narrow-gauge. The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1863 specified standard gauge.
Wigan Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Wigan, England, between 1901 and 1931. The first tramway service in the town was run by the Wigan Tramways Company, whose horse trams began carrying passengers in 1880. They began replacing horses with steam tram locomotives from 1882, but the company failed in 1890 when a Receiver was appointed to manage it. The Wigan & District Tramways Company took over the system in 1893 and ran it until 1902. Meanwhile, Wigan Corporation were planning their own tramway system, obtaining an authorising Act of Parliament in 1893, and a second one in 1898. This enabled them to build electric tramways, and in 1902, they took over the lines of the Wigan & District Tramways Company.
Asia has many narrow-gauge railways. The railways of Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines are predominantly 1,067 mm narrow gauge. Those in mainland Southeast Asia, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, are predominantly metre gauge. The proposed ASEAN Railway would be standard or dual gauge, using metre- and standard-gauge regional railway networks and linking Singapore through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to China's standard-gauge rail network. In Western Asia, Jordan uses 1,050 mm narrow gauge.
Numerous narrow-gauge railway lines were built in [Oceania, most in 3 ft 6 in, 2 ft 6 in and 2 ft track gauge.