Science and life // Illustrations
The evolution of the famous Shinkansen. On the left is the oldest model from the 1960s, the 0 Series, on the right is one of the newest models, the N700 Series.
The fastest passenger train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev. The digital display in the carriage shows not only the time, but also the speed of the train at the moment.
A candidate for the title of the fastest wheel-rail passenger train in the world is the French AGV. Maximum speed - 360 km/h.
The fastest train in the world is the experimental Japanese JR-Maglev. It was accelerated to 581 km/h.
The rocket car shown in the photograph reached a speed of Mach 8.5. This is the maximum land speed to date.
How close are those “good old days”, when a trip even 100-200 miles was considered an “event” and required a lot of fees and hassle, time and expenses! A trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg, for example, required about a week in each direction. And what a difference it makes now! You buy a ticket in Moscow for a courier train leaving in the evening; After having dinner at the station, you settle down in a comfortable sliding chair, fall asleep in Moscow, and wake up in St. Petersburg. If you travel on a passenger train, then you can travel to St. Petersburg from Moscow in third class, spending only 20 rubles, including the round trip, as well as the cost of food during the ride, cabs in the city and a daily stay in St. Petersburg. The cheapness is amazing.
The speed of movement currently reaches: for freight trains about 20 versts per hour (sometimes less), for ordinary passenger and postal trains 25-30 versts and for courier trains 50-60 versts per hour, i.e. a verst per minute (1 verst = 1066.781 m. - Ed.). But even this terrible speed does not satisfy the engineers of our century. Nobody wants to come to terms with the idea that we have already reached maximum speed - we want to fly through space with the speed of sound, artillery shells, electricity, and finally - light!
The experiments being carried out in this direction are very interesting. It turns out that on existing railways the speed of movement can be increased to a very significant extent. Particularly interesting is the experiment carried out at the end of last year by two American companies, New-York Central and Hudson River Railroad. These experiments gave truly amazing results, and we will give the details.
The train consisted of a locomotive, a tender and three carriages. The locomotive with a tender and fuel and water reserves (6 tons of coal, 16,000 liters of water) weighed 90,800 kilograms (5543 ½ pounds). Three luxury cars (palace-car) weighed 40, 35 and 42 tons, i.e. all three cars - 117 tons, or 7254 pounds, so the whole train weighed about 13,000 pounds.
The top officials boarded the cars: one of Mr. Webb's vice-presidents, the general director and the heads of traction, propulsion and fuel.
It was decided to drive as fast as possible (“at full speed”, as the drivers say). The distance from New York to Albany is 229.936 kilometers (about 229 versts), the train rushed non-stop in two hours 19 minutes 45 seconds, i.e. with an average speed of 98.7 kilometers per hour, and in different places along the way (depending on the slope ) speed fluctuated between 80 and 114 kilometers per hour. It took 3 minutes 28 seconds to replenish the reserves of coal and water in Albany, and the train rushed to the city of Syracuse, the distance from Albany is 238 kilometers. This distance was covered in two hours 26 minutes 15 seconds, i.e. at an average speed of 97.6 kilometers per hour, and at different places along the way the speed ranged from 48 to 109 kilometers per hour. Restocking in Syracuse took 2 ½ minutes. From Syracuse to the next station Fairport is 112 kilometers; it was completed in one hour, 7 minutes, 49 seconds; stop 7 minutes 50 seconds (so long because the steam engine was hot). The last station to Buffalo, 121 kilometers, was covered in one hour 11 minutes 55 seconds.
In general, the line of 702.423 kilometers (almost 702 versts) was covered in seven hours 19 minutes 45 seconds, i.e. at an average speed of 98.9 kilometers (98 versts) per hour (not counting stops).
It’s easy to get an idea of this terrible speed if you say that you can, after drinking tea in the morning in Moscow, have lunch in St. Petersburg, and return to Moscow again by evening tea. It should be noted that the New York-Buffalo line has very large slopes and rises (this is clearly seen from the fact that, with the terrible power of the locomotive in other places, the train moved at a speed of only 48 versts per hour). But the Nikolaevskaya railway is, without a doubt, the best in the world, and here the train could easily make 110 versts per hour, i.e., from Moscow to St. Petersburg the train can travel the whole way in 5 ½ hours.
By what means did they achieve such an outlandish result in America? It’s very simple: by designing carriages and locomotives specifically for this purpose.
The whole train is shown in the engraving, and we will add only a few remarks. The design of cars that could withstand such fast travel is simple, and the whole secret is in the locomotive. This locomotive is 8-wheeled; the two front pairs of wheels are ordinary, but the two rear pairs are of extraordinary diameter (1.475 meters, i.e. about 2 ½ arshins). Then the main feature is that the steam engine is strongly raised and is located above even the rear pair of wheels. Of course, all parts are designed for intense and extraordinary work, and that is why the locomotive with tender weighs so much.
So, on railways you can travel at a speed of about 100 versts per hour. This is faster than birds and hurricanes (hurricanes move at speeds of up to 20 versts, cyclones - up to 50-60 versts per hour; the highest speed of air currents is 150-200 versts per hour).
Will this reach the possible limit, or is even greater speed possible?
With steam traction, engineers do not consider it possible to increase the speed of movement to more than 150 versts per hour. The reasons for this are as follows. With extreme power, locomotives must inevitably be extremely heavy, which is very dangerous for the track, especially for bridges. With steam engines, shocks and shocks are inevitable, because the spool moves back and forth, and in addition, each line of rails shakes unevenly at different points. Thus, an increase in speed of movement is inextricably linked with a decrease in safety.
Is it possible to use other engines?
The answer to this question is given by Mr. Bonneau (engineer, assistant head of traffic on the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean line) and Desrosiers (mining engineer) in a just published special work (Etude sur la traction électrique des trains de chemins de fer, Paris, Baudry et C o). They indicate electric traction, free from any shocks or shocks. Here are their calculations. To achieve a speed of 120 versts per hour, they put out drawings of a locomotive developing a force (via electricity) of 1250 horses; and for a speed of 150 versts you will need a locomotive with 1,700 horsepower. Such locomotives will weigh only 35-40 tons, i.e. 2170-2480 pounds. With no shocks and such a (relatively) low weight, fast driving becomes not only possible, but also safe.
With the rapid advances in electrical engineering, there is no doubt that all this will come true in the not too distant future. What will happen then? We now remember riding on crossroads with an ironic smile. And soon they will talk about our passenger trains with the same smile. Our “new” time will soon be called the “good old time”, when we traveled at a speed of only 30-50 versts per hour! God! our descendants will say: there was a turtle message back then!
But we will be consoled by the fact that in due time the same fate will await them...
Rockets on rails
Nikolai Korzinov.
As schoolchildren, my friends and I were fascinated by automobile speeds. Now we are more interested in train speeds.
The dream of many of us is to live outside the city permanently. But we work in the city and are not ready to spend three hours each way on the road every day. What should I do? Not yet. And in the future, high-speed trains will help us. Then a person living 200 km from Moscow will get from home to the Kremlin in an hour and a half.
The article about trains in the pre-revolutionary “Science and Life” is amazing. Its author, probably the magazine publisher Matvey Nikanorovich Glubokovsky himself, wrote about the railway service of that time: “...You fall asleep in Moscow, and wake up in St. Petersburg.” It turns out that only the appearance of the Sapsan (on December 17, 2009 it made its first commercial flight) finally invigorated the Moscow-St. Petersburg connection. Until recently, the average speed on Russian railways was 47 km/h. For comparison: at the end of the 19th century, trains ran along the St. Petersburg - Moscow route at an average speed of 44 km/h.
Today, a trip on a Sapsan along this route will take less than four hours, and in about the same time a Muscovite will get to Nizhny Novgorod. But the Sapsan, which accelerates to 250 km/h, is just the beginning. Faster trains may be available in the near future. By the way, if not for the “low-speed” Russian railways, “Sapsan” could really become a peregrine falcon. The flight speed of this bird of prey from the falcon family during a dive is more than 320 km/h.
Japan and Europe
What is happening now in Russia happened in Japan back in 1964. Then Tokyo and Osaka were connected by a high-speed route along which the famous Shinkansen train rushed at speeds of up to 210 km/h. In France, high-speed trains appeared only in the early 1980s, but they immediately became the fastest in the world. The first high-speed line there was laid between Paris and Lyon - in 1981, the French TGV train ran along it at a speed of 260 km/h. An interesting fact: the French planned to reach high speed using a gas turbine unit. By 1971, the TGV-001 turbo train was successfully tested, but two years later a fuel crisis occurred. They decided to replace the turbo train with an electric train (the electricity for their operation is produced by local nuclear power plants). By the way, the abbreviation TGV originally stood for turbine grande vitesse (“high-speed turbine”), today T stands for train (“train”).
260 km/h is a “commercial” speed. In experimental races back in 1981, the electric train was accelerated to 380 km/h! The second generation TGV was “pissed off” to 482 km/h (1989), and three years ago the French set another record - 574.8 km/h. As you can see, the “commercial” speed has not increased that much over three decades. An AGV train will soon be put into operation in France, which will travel at speeds of up to 360 km/h. It will become the fastest wheel-rail passenger train in the world. But this is not the limit.
At the pace of Shanghai
For several years now, a maglev train, a magnetic levitation train, has been running between Padong Airport and Shanghai in China. Its maximum speed reaches 450 km/h! It used an electrodynamic suspension on superconducting magnets. There are no rails, the train moves in the channel between the magnets. When accelerating, the maglev lifts off the supporting surface by several centimeters. As a result, only the aerodynamic drag force acts on the levitating composition. During tests in 2003, an experimental Japanese maglev reached a speed of 581 km/h. Thus, the fastest of the traditional trains turned out to be slightly slower than the fastest maglev (see also “Science and Life” No. 4, 2003).
Magnetic levitation trains are predicted to have a bright future, because they can travel faster than traditional vehicles. However, no one is in a hurry to build long routes for maglevs - it is too expensive. Reaching “experimental” speeds is also not yet in sight. The aerodynamic drag force is proportional to the square of the train's speed, and the power required to overcome it is proportional to the cube of the speed. Accordingly, an increase in speed, for example, from 300 to 400 km/h, requires an approximately threefold increase in power! Economically (and environmentally) this is not feasible. 250-400 km/h - this is how we will move in the near future.
Speed and life
Vehicle speed limits are meaningless information in 99% of cases. Today, it's rare that a car is driven to its maximum speed at least once. But the maximum speeds of trains that run in our area are really important information. In solving the dilemma: how to get to another city - by train or by plane? - the choice now depends not only on ticket prices, but also on the speed of the trains. Thus, in the 1980s, high-speed trains in France seriously displaced local airlines. But something else is much more interesting: new speeds on the railway can radically change the very way of life. When high-speed TGVs began running from Paris, apartments on the outskirts of the French capital fell sharply in price. Thousands of Parisians chose to buy a house in the suburbs instead of huddling in a modest apartment in a residential area. Economics and train speed turned out to be tightly linked. But that is not all. According to some experts, it is high-speed trains that will be able to protect residents of megacities from an unenviable future: terrible traffic jams and polluted air.
For example, a group of enthusiasts from the Moscow Architectural Institute, led by Professor Ilya Georgievich Lezhava, as part of the International Architectural Competition, developed a project for the metropolis of 2100. During the work, experts came to the conclusion that the radial-ring metropolis in the 21st century should be replaced by a long city with a linear settlement system. Such a city will be divided into two parts by a high-speed railway. It will be duplicated by an expressway with convenient access without any traffic lights. Office, shopping and entertainment centers will be located in the immediate vicinity of the transport corridor, and further, at a distance of 5-7 km, a residential area will begin. So people will spend a minimum of time traveling, and everyone will be able to live in close proximity to the city center - the transport route. The project of Ilya Lezhava and his like-minded people still lives in the form of design sketches, and not all specialists conducting similar research share the professor’s vision. But Lezhava himself is confident that large linear cities will still be built in our country.
In the meantime, we will get used to the new high-speed trains and hope that Matvey Nikanorovich Glubokovsky’s forecast will still come true. This is his: “Lord! But then there was a turtle message! - since the end of the 19th century, we could attribute “all the way” to many things, for example, to regular mail, but not to trains... But, I think, in ten years, traveling at a speed of 300 km/h, we will remember about those times when, sitting on a train, you could admire the view from the window. And we will smile, realizing that this is not the most important thing...
Land records
You can't take a ride on the fastest train in the world. This is a Japanese experimental JR-Maglev. During tests in 2003, it reached a speed of 581 km/h. However, this is not the land speed limit. In 1997, the British broke the supersonic barrier - pilot Andy Green accelerated the ThrustSSC record car to a speed of 1228 km/h. But even this is not the highest land speed. The current record is 8.5 times greater than the British achievement. It was installed in 2003, when the US military launched a rocket-powered platform along a rail track. The rocket car accelerated to a speed of 10,430 km/h, or Mach 8.5!
In just five years and three and a half billion dollars, China built a highway 1,150 kilometers long, connecting the “Roof of the World” with the main territory of the country.
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Back in the early 1920s, revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, in his programmatic “Plan for the Reconstruction of China,” proposed building about 100,000 kilometers of new railways in the country, including lines on the Tibetan Plateau. For objective reasons, they were able to return to the idea of the “father of the nation” only in the 1950s under Chairman Mao. The railway project to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, was approved by 1960, but its construction was frozen for almost a decade and a half - China had difficulty reaping the benefits of the Great Leap Forward.
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Only in 1974, the construction of the first section of the future highway, from the capital of Qinghai province, Xining, to Golmud, already on the Tibetan Plateau, was resumed. 814 kilometers of railway were built by the army and prisoners in five years, by 1979, but passenger traffic opened here only in 1984.
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Work on the second, high-altitude section to Lhasa was associated with engineering tasks of particular complexity: the builders had to work in conditions of permafrost, lack of oxygen and, moreover, the unique Tibetan ecosystem, the preservation of which was declared a matter of paramount importance by the Chinese Party and government.
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Only at the beginning of the 21st century did the country reach a level of technological readiness that made it possible to begin implementing a large-scale infrastructure project. Moreover, the construction of the railway to Lhasa became a key stage in the development program of Western China, the goal of which is to eliminate the imbalance in the development of the eastern and western regions of the country. Another important, and perhaps the main, task of the PRC government was to strengthen ties between the Tibetan Autonomy, control over which was re-established only in 1950, with the main Chinese territory.
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According to the project approved in 2000 by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the total length of the new railway was to be 1,142 kilometers. On this site, 45 stations were organized, 38 of which were automatic, without maintenance personnel. The Tibetan highway from Golmud rose from an altitude of 2800 meters above sea level to the Tang La Pass (5072 meters) and then descended again to Lhasa (3642 meters).
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8. Golmud station.
9. The final terminal is in Lhasa.
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About 80% of the entire new section (960 kilometers) passed through difficult high mountain areas at an altitude of over 4000 meters above sea level, of which about 550 kilometers were located in the permafrost zone.
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Building a railroad there presented a serious engineering challenge. The fact is that the top layer of permafrost tends to thaw during the short summer period, sometimes turning into an impassable swamp. In this regard, soil movements posed a real threat, which could lead to deformation and destruction of the track. In order to eliminate such a risk, the designers of the Qinghai-Tibet Road developed a special design for its construction, which virtually isolates any impact of the highway on the environment and vice versa.
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The rails were laid on a special embankment of cobblestones covered with a sand layer. In the transverse projection, the embankment was perforated with a through network of pipes to ensure better ventilation, and its slopes were covered with special metal sheets that reflected sunlight and thereby further prevented its heating.
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In some areas, wells filled with liquid nitrogen were also installed. All these measures actually froze the embankment under the road, preventing the heating of the upper layer of permafrost, its thawing and subsequent deformation of the railway track.
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To compensate for elevation changes in the construction areas, a significant part of the highway is laid on overpasses. In total, there are 675 bridges along its 1,142 kilometers, with a total length of 160 kilometers. The supports of these overpasses are essentially piles, the bases of which rest deep in the permafrost, due to which seasonal thawing of the upper layer does not have any effect on the stability of the structure’s structure.
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The gaps between the column supports do not impede the free circulation of air underneath them, which allows minimizing the additional thermal effect from the railway.
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In addition to the technical component, an important advantage of overpass sections is the fact that they do not interfere with the free movement of sometimes unique representatives of the local fauna under the highway. The negative effect of foreign inclusion in the Tibetan ecosystem is thus reduced to a minimum.
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Sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Road, laid on embankments on the surface of the earth, are fenced along their entire length, and special tunnels and bridges are regularly built for the passage of migrating animals.
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After completion of construction, the Tibet Railway set several records for railway construction. 350 kilometers from Golmud at an altitude of 4900 meters above sea level, the highest railway tunnel in the world was built, called Fenghuoshan (Wind Volcano Tunnel).
The Tang-La station on the mountain pass of the same name became the highest railway station in the world. The mountains surrounding it seem more like hills, but this is a deceptive impression. In fact, the three-track Tang La is located at an altitude of 5068 meters, only four meters below the highest point of the entire highway (5072 meters).
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Although trains stop here, it is essentially just a siding on a single-track highway. The station is fully automatic and controlled from Xining, where the central control of the entire road is located. There are no populated areas nearby, which, however, did not stop the Chinese from building a fairly large station here, worthy of a record-breaking station.
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In most cases, the doors of the carriages here do not even open. For an unprepared person, being at such an altitude, where the atmospheric pressure is only about 35-40% of the standard at sea level, poses a certain health risk.
To ensure that passengers enjoy traveling through the high mountainous regions with their stunning scenery, special rolling stock was developed for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The American corporation General Electric designed NJ2 diesel locomotives for the main line, modified for operation in high mountain conditions, with a power of 5100 hp. With. every. The locomotives are capable of reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h with a train of 15 cars. In permafrost zones, their speed is limited to 100 km/h.
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The carriages for road maintenance were built at the Chinese plant of the Canadian concern Bombardier in the amount of 361 units (308 regular and 53 special tourist). All of them are virtually hermetically sealed from the environment; air pressure close to standard is maintained inside.
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Despite this, attacks of mountain sickness caused by a lack of oxygen occurred among passengers. To prevent them, each seat in the carriages is equipped with individual oxygen tubes, similar to hospital ones. Tinted windows of cars with a special coating protect passengers from excess solar radiation, again characteristic of high mountains.
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Standard carriages are divided into three classes that are familiar to us: seated, reserved seat and compartment. In addition, the trains have dining cars.
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The line's capacity is eight pairs of passenger trains per day (not counting freight trains). Currently, Lhasa is connected by regular passenger traffic not only with the neighboring “regional” center of Xining, but also with the country’s largest cities - Beijing and Shanghai. The Beijing-Lhasa Express takes 44 hours to travel. The cost of tickets, depending on the class, ranges from $125 (reserved seat) to $200 (compartment).
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Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway began in 2001. About 20,000 workers, who simultaneously began laying the highway from both end points (Golmud and Lhasa), completed the important task of the party in just five years, spending $3.68 billion. According to official data, no one died, despite long-term work in conditions that were not the most comfortable for this.
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Over the seven years of operation, more than 63 million passengers and 300 million tons of cargo were transported along the road. Annual passenger turnover increased from 6.5 million people in 2006, when the highway was put into operation, to 11 million people in 2012, annual freight turnover increased from 25 million tons in 2006 to 56 million tons in 2012. It is already clear that the new railway has significantly boosted the economic development of Tibet and the neighboring province of Qinghai.
Delivery of goods to Tibet has become significantly cheaper, including energy resources that are especially valuable in mountainous conditions. The tourism industry has also received a new impetus for development, although it is still not possible for anyone who wants to leave, for example, to take a Beijing train to Lhasa. To visit Tibet, the Chinese government still requires a special permit, without which you simply will not be allowed on the train.
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Skeptics consider the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to be just the next stage in the gradual Chinese colonization of a unique autonomous region and a locomotive for the development of its natural resources. Geologists have already discovered deposits of copper, lead and zinc in the highlands of Tibet, raw materials desperately needed by the rapidly growing Chinese industry.
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Environmentalists, of course, fear that the presence of a modern railway in the region will only encourage the Chinese government to quickly develop these deposits with unpredictable consequences for the fragile ecosystem of the region.
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However, so far these are only unconfirmed fears. But it is difficult to deny the popularity of the road among Tibetan residents, who have the opportunity to easily and quickly get to the highly developed eastern regions of the country, and especially among tourists, for whom the highway is a wonderful attraction, created with typically Chinese tenacity, literally moving mountains.
Year. The second section Golmud - Lhasa with a length of 1142 km was built in -. through difficult high mountain areas. At its highest point near Tangla station, the railway rises to a height of 5072 m above sea level.
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Tunnels
- Fenghuoshan Tunnel - the world's highest railway tunnel
Trains and tickets
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The deluxe toilet, train T27/T28 is provided with hot water, the rest are not.
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Dining car.
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On the platform.
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General carriage.
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On the toilet door.
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Diesel locomotives
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Nagchu station.
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Information about altitude, speed, temperature for passengers.
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Dining car with bar.
Providing oxygen
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Oxygen connection under the seats
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Oxygen connection tube
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Oxygen management
Construction
Project evaluation
As People's Daily noted, "Western media have called her the best example of China's spirit of fearlessness."
Gif animation
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Nanshankou Station
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Station Nachitai
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Notes
see also
Links
- , US Embassy report
- The Guardian, 20 September 2005,
- Wired Magazine, July 2006,
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An excerpt characterizing the Qinghai-Tibet Railway
– Are there half princesses here? – Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if now everything was possible, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Maybe the count didn’t call me,” Pierre said as he walked out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.”
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
- Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? - asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his glasses at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu"on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c"est votre pere... peut etre a l"agonie. - She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n"oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wronged against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately loved you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]
Pierre did not understand anything; again it seemed to him even more strongly that all this should be so, and he obediently followed Anna Mikhailovna, who was already opening the door.
The door opened into the front and back. An old servant of the princesses sat in the corner and knitted a stocking. Pierre had never been to this half, did not even imagine the existence of such chambers. Anna Mikhailovna asked the girl who was ahead of them, with a decanter on a tray (calling her sweet and darling) about the health of the princesses and dragged Pierre further along the stone corridor. From the corridor, the first door to the left led to the princesses' living rooms. The maid, with the decanter, in a hurry (as everything was done in a hurry at that moment in this house) did not close the door, and Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna, passing by, involuntarily looked into the room where the eldest princess and Prince Vasily. Seeing those passing by, Prince Vasily made an impatient movement and leaned back; The princess jumped up and with a desperate gesture slammed the door with all her might, closing it.
This gesture was so unlike the princess’s usual calmness, the fear expressed on Prince Vasily’s face was so uncharacteristic of his importance that Pierre stopped, questioningly, through his glasses, looked at his leader.
Anna Mikhailovna did not express surprise, she only smiled slightly and sighed, as if showing that she had expected all this.
“Soyez homme, mon ami, c"est moi qui veillerai a vos interets, [Be a man, my friend, I will look after your interests.] - she said in response to his gaze and walked even faster down the corridor.
Pierre did not understand what the matter was, and even less what veiller a vos interets meant, [to look after your interests,] but he understood that all this should be so. They walked through the corridor into a dimly lit hall adjacent to the count's reception room. It was one of those cold and luxurious rooms that Pierre knew from the front porch. But even in this room, in the middle, there was an empty bathtub and water was spilled on the carpet. A servant and a clerk with a censer came out to meet them on tiptoe, not paying attention to them. They entered a reception room familiar to Pierre with two Italian windows, access to the winter garden, with a large bust and a full-length portrait of Catherine. All the same people, in almost the same positions, sat whispering in the waiting room. Everyone fell silent and looked back at Anna Mikhailovna who had entered, with her tear-stained, pale face, and at the fat, big Pierre, who, with his head down, obediently followed her.
Anna Mikhailovna's face expressed the consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived; She, with the manner of a businesslike St. Petersburg lady, entered the room, not letting Pierre go, even bolder than in the morning. She felt that since she was leading the one whom the dying man wanted to see, her reception was guaranteed. Having quickly glanced at everyone who was in the room, and noticing the count's confessor, she, not only bending over, but suddenly becoming smaller in stature, swam up to the confessor with a shallow amble and respectfully accepted the blessing of one, then another clergyman.
“Thank God we made it,” she said to the clergyman, “all of us, my family, were so afraid.” This young man is the count’s son,” she added more quietly. - A terrible moment!
Having uttered these words, she approached the doctor.
“Cher docteur,” she told him, “ce jeune homme est le fils du comte... y a t il de l"espoir? [This young man is the son of a count... Is there hope?]
The doctor silently, with a quick movement, raised his eyes and shoulders upward. Anna Mikhailovna raised her shoulders and eyes with exactly the same movement, almost closing them, sighed and walked away from the doctor to Pierre. She turned especially respectfully and tenderly sadly to Pierre.
“Ayez confiance en Sa misericorde, [Trust in His mercy,”] she told him, showing him a sofa to sit down to wait for her, she silently walked towards the door that everyone was looking at, and following the barely audible sound of this door, disappeared behind it.
Pierre, having decided to obey his leader in everything, went to the sofa that she showed him. As soon as Anna Mikhailovna disappeared, he noticed that the glances of everyone in the room turned to him with more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that everyone was whispering, pointing at him with their eyes, as if with fear and even servility. He was shown respect that had never been shown before: a lady unknown to him, who was speaking with the clergy, stood up from her seat and invited him to sit down, the adjutant picked up the glove that Pierre had dropped and handed it to him; the doctors fell silent respectfully as he passed them, and stood aside to give him room. Pierre wanted to sit in another place first, so as not to embarrass the lady; he wanted to lift his glove himself and go around the doctors, who were not standing in the road at all; but he suddenly felt that this would be indecent, he felt that this night he was a person who was obliged to perform some terrible ritual expected by everyone, and that therefore he had to accept services from everyone. He silently accepted the glove from the adjutant, sat down in the lady’s place, placing his large hands on his symmetrically extended knees, in the naive pose of an Egyptian statue, and decided to himself that all this should be exactly like this and that he should do this evening in order not to to get lost and not do anything stupid, one should not act according to one’s own considerations, but one must submit oneself completely to the will of those who guided him.
Less than two minutes had passed when Prince Vasily, in his caftan with three stars, majestically, holding his head high, entered the room. He seemed thinner since the morning; his eyes were larger than usual when he looked around the room and saw Pierre. He walked up to him, took his hand (which he had never done before) and pulled it down, as if he wanted to test whether it was holding firmly.
Railways were and are being built everywhere, regardless of the terrain. It is known about the highest and most dangerous highway, about the longest and shortest road.
The most dangerous railway
Many railway lines can be called dangerous, but the most dangerous is the road located in Argentina. Its name is Tren a las Nubes, which translates as “Train to the clouds.” During the journey, the road passes through tunnels, bridges, zigzags, descents and ascents. Tourists traveling along the route, which lasts fifteen hours, experience fear as the carriages literally make their way through the clouds. The train often slows down and slips, which is an additional reason for passengers to worry.Moving along the banks of the canyons, the train crosses them on steel bridges that seem weightless. It ends its journey at an altitude of four thousand meters. The most famous place on the route is the ancient viaduct, built in 1930. During the trip, the train goes through two zigzag climbs, overcomes twenty-nine bridges, twenty-one tunnels and twelve viaducts, and turns three hundred and sixty degrees several times.
Train passengers are on the verge of hysterics during a trip over one of the deepest canyons in Argentina, the depth of which is seventy meters. The train moves across the rickety bridge for an interminable five minutes.
The shortest railway
This year, the Pope allowed everyone to use their own railway. We are talking about a road connecting the station in Rome with the station in the Vatican. This railway was built back in 1934 in order to deliver the Pontiff from the Vatican to Rome. All these years it was available for use only by the current dad. Now, for forty euros, anyone can use it. 
The length of the railway track between stations is only one kilometer, two hundred and seventy meters. It starts behind St. Peter's Basilica and passes several landmarks of the city-state - the Second Vatican Council, the Vatican Gardens, the Sextine Chapel, and numerous museums.
The highest mountain railway
Railroad tracks do not always run across plains. Often their construction is carried out in mountainous areas, over canyons or over the water expanses of the seas. The highest mountain railway is considered to be the one running from the Chinese province of Qinghai to the Autonomous Region of Tibet. Its length is almost two kilometers. 
The highest point of this road is at an altitude of five thousand seventy-two meters. Since at this altitude the atmospheric pressure is up to forty percent of normal, trains on this route are equipped with oxygen masks.
Construction took several decades due to many obstacles - high mountain ranges, thin air, permafrost. Thanks to the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet road, remote provinces received a powerful boost to economic development.
The longest railway in the world
The title of the longest railway in the world is given to the Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian Railway. For many years this road has remained in first place in terms of length. Its length is nine thousand two hundred eighty-eight kilometers. 
The giant highway, passing through the territory of Russia, connects the European part of the continent with the Far East, the Urals, Siberia, and connects ports in the south and west. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was determined by the need for uniform socio-economic development of a huge country.
Construction began in 1891, when the first stone was laid. The end of construction can be considered the year 1904, when a railway connection appeared between Vladivostok and St. Petersburg. Despite the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway, construction work continued for many years, until 1938, when the second track was laid. Not only railways are amazing, but also the trains that run on them. There is a website on the site that mentions underwater, oldest, longest and other interesting trains.
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The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a historic step for Tibet's transport, which ended Tibet's position as one of the most inaccessible areas in China. Traveling to Lhasa by Rail has been selected as one of the Top 10 Activities in China.
Now the train service links to the world Roof and other parts of China. Currently, there are six trains providing to/from Lhasa including Beijing-Lhasa, Shanghai-Lhasa, Guangzhou-Lhasa, Lanzhou/Xian-Lhasa, Chengdu/Chongqing-Lhasa and Xining/Golmud-Lhasa.
Lhasa Railway Station
1,788 kilometers (1,111 miles) from Xining Railway Station, Lhasa Railway Station is the terminus of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The railway is located on the southern bank of the Lhasa River, to an altitude of 3,641 meters (11,946 ft).
Lhasa Railway Station Travel via Lhasaa Railway was put into operation on July 1, 2006. It is the largest railway station on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, with 7 platforms equipped with weather shelters. There are 10 station tracks: 8 arrival and departure tracks and 2 freight tracks.
The main station building measures 340 meters (1,115 ft) long and 60 meters (197 ft) wide, with a total area of 23,600 square meters (254,000 sq ft).
The main part of the station has 5 floors with 4 waiting rooms, including regular waiting rooms, soft seating waiting rooms, VIP waiting rooms and Tibetan style VIP waiting rooms. One of the waiting rooms with soft seats is equipped with an escalator and an infirmary. The station's front area is 60,000 square meters (650,000 sq ft) in area.
It is reported that in order to avoid or reduce passengers' feeling of lack of oxygen and fatigue, the Lhasa railway station will try everything possible to shorten the distance when passengers get to and from the station, and is equipped with elevators. Lhasa Railway Station uses enough solar energy to free up pollution and protect the environment in Lhasa.
Phone number for booking tickets: 9823-985-059 or 9888-036-007
Address: Liuwu Village, Deqing County, Lhasa City.
Traveling via Lhasa Rail Transport
For most tourists visiting China, it is a can't-miss experience to take the train to Lhasa in Tibet, as they can appreciate those unparalleled scenery along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest rated and longest route in the world. Throughout the journey, tourists can appreciate the yaks on the shores of Qinghai Lake, the fantastic crystallization of the salt lake, relatively clear skies, high snow-capped mountains, hidden in the cloud, Salt Lake Qarhan, ice crown, vultures, memoirs of the Potala Palace and the wonder of religious culture.
Tibet is hailed as the roof of the world, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will become famous in the world due to its high rating, thin air, low oxygen content, strong ultraviolet radiation, snowy environment throughout the year and complex climate. An American traveler once said that there would be no train to Lhasa if Mount Kunlun still existed. However, after four years of hard work, a number of rare problems have been overcome. In 2005, the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was completely completed. People would like to call this the sky way, as it stretches to the highest board in the world.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has the world's longest permafrost tunnel with the highest rating in the highest plateau, namely the Fenghuoshan Tunnel, the world's longest permafrost tunnel, namely the Kunlunshan Tunnel, Tanggula Station with the highest rating in the world, and the Lhasa Bridge across river, which is also a feature of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
There are currently seven routes to Lhasa, including Guangzhou-Lhasa, Shanghai-Lhasa, Beijing-Lhasa, Lanzhou-Lhasa, Xining-Lhasa, Chengdu-Lhasa and Chongqing-Lhasa.
Passenger stations include Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuchang, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanjing, Xuzhou, Xi'an, Chengdu, Guangyuan, Baoji, Chongqing, Guang'an, Dazhou, Lanzhou, Xining, Delingha, Golmud, Tuotuohe , Amdo, Nagchu and Damxung.
These trains are mainly air-conditioned express trains and the trains include T264 (T265), T164 (T165), T22 (T23), T222 (T223), T27, K917 and K9802.