Factors Affecting The Minimum Curve Radius
Minimum curve radii for railroads are governed by the speed operated and by the mechanical ability of the rolling stock to adjust to the curvature. In North America, equipment for unlimited interchange between railroad companies are built to accommodate 350-foot (106.7 m) radius (16 degrees 26 minutes) or sharper, but normally 410-foot (125.0 m) radius (14 degrees) is used as a minimum, as some freight cars are handled by special agreement between railroads that cannot take the sharper curvature. For handling of long freight trains, a minimum 717-foot (218.5 m) radius (8 degrees) is preferred.
The sharpest curves tend to be on the narrowest of narrow gauge railways, where almost everything is proportionately smaller.
Read more about this topic: Minimum Railway Curve Radius
Famous quotes containing the words factors, affecting, minimum and/or curve:
“Girls tend to attribute their failures to factors such as lack of ability, while boys tend to attribute failure to specific factors, including teachers’ attitudes. Moreover, girls avoid situations in which failure is likely, whereas boys approach such situations as a challenge, indicating that failure differentially affects self-esteem.”
—Michael Lewis (late–20th-century)
“It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our peace and safety, which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce in matters affecting them, that a shorter water way between our eastern and western seaboards should be dominated by any European government, that we may confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by any friendly power.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“After decades of unappreciated drudgery, American women just don’t do housework any more—that is, beyond the minimum that is required in order to clear a path from the bedroom to the front door so they can get off to work in the mourning.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)