Railway Protection Research Articles

Influence of lithodynamics of coastal area on the safety of railway operation on the Tuapse-Adler section of the North Caucasus Railway

The present paper considers the railroad bed on the Tuapse-Adler section of the North Caucasus Railway (Black Sea coast) in terms of its protection from wave scouring. Aim. To evaluate the influence of coastal lithodynamics on the safety of the railway operation on the section under consideration. The paper describes lithodynamic processes in the sea coastal zone and demonstrates the influence of coastal protection structures produced on lithodynamics in general and on adjacent sections, as exemplified by a specific section of the coast (1907–1910 km). The study involves a retrospective analysis of the step-by-step construction of trapping structures, and sea groins without full-fledged dumping of beach-forming material into the inter-groin compartments. The investigation and analysis of satellite images of 1907–1910 km coast within the Vodopadny-Lazarevskoye section indicate that lithodynamic processes remained unconsidered during the intensive construction of bank protection structures, which led to the beach erosion and the emergency condition of the seawalls along 1909–1910 km section. The paper provides recommendations for considering lithodynamic processes in the construction of railway protection structures, thereby increasing the safety of the railway operation.

Research on the Protection Scheme of a High-Speed Railway Crossing 1000 KV Ultra-High Voltage Transmission Line

The high-speed railway project and the ultra-high-voltage transmission project represent two crucial components of China’s “new infrastructure”. As the construction of these two projects progresses rapidly, it is inevitable that instances of intersections will occur. Extreme conditions may cause damage to ultra-high voltage transmission cables. When a high-speed train passes by an ultra-high voltage transmission line, it poses a serious safety hazard. To address this issue, engineering examples were utilized to examine the protection structure scheme, protection distance, protection load, and construction procedures when a high-speed railway intersects a 1000 KV ultra-high voltage transmission line. A shed structure form and construction method for the electric power protection were proposed to ensure the safe operation of the high-speed railway while also achieving the safe and rapid construction of the high-speed railway protection structure in the safety zone of the approaching 1000 kV ultra-high voltage transmission line. The results indicated that the protection of high-speed railway crossings and 1000 kV ultra-high voltage transmission lines primarily focuses on line-break protection. The concrete shed structure with a straight wall and a flat roof was designed to meet the requirements of high-speed railway crossings. The line-break protection method enables the construction of an automatic warning protection corridor and a complete movable trolley quickly and safely within the safety zone near the transmission line. The implementation effect is, therefore, positive. It can be used as a reference point for other projects of a similar nature.

Advances in superhydrophobic material research: from preparation to electrified railway protection.

Freezing is a serious problem that affects the power, transport, and transmission industries and is a major concern for the national economy and safety. Currently, several engineering de-icing methods, such as thermal, mechanical, and chemical de-icing, have shown problems related to energy consumption, efficiency, and the environment. Superhydrophobic materials have high droplet contact and roll angles, which can reduce the droplet residence and ice adhesion on their surfaces and have unique advantages in the self-cleaning and anti-icing fields. This paper introduces the development of infiltration theory and superhydrophobic materials and their principles of anti-icing and de-icing. Herein, the preparation and coating methods of superhydrophobic materials in applications are summarised, the performance and lifetime issues of superhydrophobic materials in applications are clarified, and the research progress on superhydrophobic materials in different fields is reviewed. Prospects for the application of superhydrophobic materials in electrified railways are also presented. A feasibility study was conducted to solve some of the existing problems of electrified railways, providing a theoretical basis for the development of electrified railways.

Vojska NKVD SSSR, istrebitel'nye batal'ony organov UNKVD i miliciya v oborone Voronezha v 1942 – yanvare 1943 g.

The article examines the activities and role of units of the NKVD troops of the USSR in the defense of Voronezh during the Great Patriotic War. In the defense of the city, units and divisions of the NKVD - internal troops, border troops, convoy troops, railway protection troops, as well as fighter battalions of the NKVD bodies in the Voronezh region and the Voronezh militia played a key role.

Deaths in railways and role of forensic medicine

Deaths in the railway premises, tracks, train and other railway related properties are often accidental, suicidal and may at times homicidal in nature. To identify the cause of death and timely disbursement of justice to victims and their aggrieved families is the primary motive of the police, forensic services and the judicial system. The establishment of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government railway police (GRP) is for the protection of railway property and handling crime happening in it. Involvement of local police, forensic.There is a sharp decline in crime happening in railway properties in India (RPF shows a great decline in the number of cases since 2018 (1094684) to 2019 (949695). Government railway police (GRP) also reported Cases (Registered by GRP (IPC+SLL) which show sharp decline in crime since 2018 (107092) in 2019 (99381) but still there is great scope of integrating the existing law enforcing agencies along with forensic medicine in reducing the crime further in railways.

Calculation-theoretical justification of the compensation grouting parameters for the metropolitan railway protection from sedimentary deformations

An increase in the volume and scale of underground space development, including the construction of metropolitan railway facilities in large cities, is accompanied by a significant impact on the surrounding urban development, which requires the development and implementation of a set of special measures to protect buildings and structures from excess deformations. At the same time, numerous above-ground and underground structures are involved in the area of influence of the construction, including existing metropolitan railway facilities, as well as residential buildings and above-ground transport facilities. Сurrently, one of the most effective methods that provide reliable facilities protection from sedimentary deformations is the compensation grouting method. The article outlines the theoretical foundations for the use of compensation grouting technology to protect buildings and structures from excess sedimentary deformations during the construction of transport infrastructure facilities in dense urban areas. A mathematical model has been developed that corresponds to the actual geometry of the computational area of the metropolitan railway lobby with a soil base, the actual physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials of its structures, and the soil mass. The article presents the computer modeling results, with its help determined volumes, pressure, sequence, and injection sites. Based on calculated data, the duration of the special solution compensatory injection was determined to maintain a stable position of the foundations of the metropolitan railway escalator tunnels by forming the calculated stress-strain state of the soil mass at the ground slab base of the structure to provide a given preventive lift, the dependences of the lift deformations on pressure and the grouting volumes of special mixtures were established. Based on the obtained data, a procedure was developed for the production of work to maintain the planned-altitude position of metropolitan railway facilities at all construction stages and operation of the multifunctional complex.

Comparative evaluation of concrete sand-control fences used for railway protection in strong wind areas

Concrete-plate fences have been widely adopted for windblown sand control and mitigation along railways. However, the inclination angles of inserting the concrete plate with respect to the vertical direction, i.e., straight or obliquely inserted concrete plates (SIP or OIP), significantly influence the efficiency of sand-control. This study performs a comparative evaluation of the SIP and OIP sand-control fences using wind tunnel testing and field monitoring data collected from the Lanzhou–Wulumuqi High-Speed Railway Project. The results show that the fence’s ability to reduce the wind speed and the sand-retaining efficiency gradually weakens with the increasing wind speed. Compared with the SIP fence, the OIP fence has a better wind speed reduction capability, stronger ability to capture fine particles below the top of the fence; it is more efficient for sand-retaining and induces stronger eddy intensity. Generally, the wind tunnel test and field monitoring results are consistent, whereas wind tunnel tests incline to overestimate wind speed reduction and sand-control efficiency. The study also finds that the aeolian sand accumulated around the fence can weaken the protection efficiency, and hence cleaning the aeolian sand accumulated around the fence should be done periodically to ensure the designed functions.

Forced Labor of the Population under the Nazi Occupation of 1941–1944 (Based on the Materials of the Border Territory of Belarus and the North-West of Russia)

The article investigates features of forced labor in the border territory of Belarus and the North-West of Russia during Nazi occupation of 1941–1944. The Wehrmacht used forced labor both in Germany by hijacking Soviet citizens there, and in industrial enterprises and in agriculture of the occupied territories. The civilian population was involved in the performance of certain work in favor of the occupation authorities. Peasants, in addition to traditional agricultural work and payment of in-kind taxes, were often forcibly involved in performing horse — drawn duties, peat and logging, railway protection, and mine clearance. Citizens were actively used by the occupying authorities to construct defensive structures and to work at industrial enterprises. Refusal to work was punishable by a fine, deprivation of ration cards, corporal punishment, and sentencing to a labor camp or shooting. Forced to work in enterprises, institutions, and agriculture, the population received meager wages and food rations, and the vast majority of workers lived below the poverty line. A special place among the crimes of Nazism in the territory of the North-West of Russia and Belarus, where the occupation went on the longest, is occupied by the forcible deportation of the population to Germany. From some settlements, the occupation authorities sent entire local populations to Germany without regard to age, health, or family circumstances. To provide the Nazi economy with labor, the occupation authorities paid considerable attention to propaganda among the population and the organization of recruitment campaigns. However, this did not contribute to raising the number of volunteers; instead, local residents in the occupied regions sabotaged the orders of the German-fascist command.

Challenges in Construction of Secant Bored Piles in Sandy Soil and Within a Railway Protection Zone

The continuing growth of population density in urban areas around the world has placed greater emphasis on the utilisation and development of underground space to meet the increasing demands of the city. Due to limited land space available in downtown areas, many cities in the world are also embarking on integration of major construction projects of metro infrastructure, commercial developments and residential estates, etc., to meet the growing demand of infrastructure In land-scarce Singapore, the development of a comprehensive and well-integrated public transport network is important to achieve a people-centric, world-class transport system. To enhance the connectivity of a rail network, interchange stations and underground linkways are constructed to connect the various lines so that transfers between mass rapid transit (MRT) lines can be seamless. Hence, it is becoming more challenging to construct a new MRT line in the vicinity of existing MRT lines without impacting the operations of existing MRT lines. The prime aim of this study is to present the ways to overcome the challenges in construction of secant bored piles (SBPs) above the existing underground MRT linkway (15 m below ground) and adjacent to the existing underground MRT East West Line station. The paper presents four different techniques applied to construct the SBP wall in the sandy soil since the conventional method of construction was not applicable to the site condition. The new techniques were successful as the SBP wall was constructed while keeping the vibrations and movement to the existing MRT structures within the allowable limits. From this venture, it can be concluded that it is possible to install SBPs in sandy soils without any significant impact on adjacent structures and construction timeline. The experience gained from this endeavour will be invaluable and can serve as lessons learnt for SBP works in the densely populated area and in the vicinity of existing sensitive structures which is increasingly becoming unavoidable.

Improving the methods of monitoring and automation and mathematical modelling of railway protection

Thee paper analyzes the electric traction network and its features. The article shows that the use of one type of protection creates dead zones. To ensure reliability of the protection system, along with the maximum pulse protection system, digital terminal should be used.

The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China by Xiaowei Zheng

Reviewed by: The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China by Xiaowei Zheng Peter J. Carroll Xiaowei Zheng. The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018. 358 pp. $90.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper). That the Railroad Rights Recovery movement helped trigger the 1911 Revolution and that the New Policies (1901–1911) are ripe for reconsideration as a period of formidable Qing state resurgence are verities of modern Chinese historiography. Nonetheless, scholarly analysis of these areas has often been macroscopic, not always connecting the high-flown rhetoric of constitutionalism, revolution, and statism with the nitty-gritty of local political and economic advantage. Xiaowei Zheng’s superb book advances significantly our understanding of both these subjects, effectively linking universal political aspirations to parochial interests and ambitions through a focused examination of factional maneuvering, discursive battles, and bloodshed over state and popular rights in late Qing Sichuan. In particular, she elucidates how the Railroad Rights Recovery movement—or, rather, concerns regarding the administration and ultimate ownership of railroads and the dispensation of their economic benefits—catalyzed the articulation of contending perspectives regarding popular and state rights and powers. She demonstrates the centrality of socioeconomic interest and rights to notions of national and provincial citizenship and of state vs. popular power and legitimacy. As such, Zheng’s study contributes to several important areas of historiography and is in conversation with keystones of scholarship such as Ralph Huenemann on the Railroad Rights Recovery movement, Li Hsiao-t’i on popular enlightenment societies, Chang Hao on intellectual transformation, and Min Tu-ki and Peter Zarrow on state administration and ideology.1 It also complements province-centered studies of the 1911 Revolution by Mary Rankin and Joseph Esherick by providing a granular look at the advent and immediate fate of the revolution in Sichuan.2 Yet Zheng’s ultimate subject is far grander: in sum, she provides a clear and compelling narrative of the advent of modern politics in China. The first chapter characterizes nineteenth-century Qing Sichuan provincial administration and notions of political legitimacy as the status quo ante, in contrast to the wholesale transformation effected by the rise of popular self-determination and sovereignty, political rights, and anti-Qing activism, which are detailed in the subsequent seven chapters. Throughout the study, Sichuan’s perceived isolation—the product of its distance from Beijing and the North China civilizational heartland, its economic and social backwardness in comparison with the littoral zone, and its southwestern, border location—is invoked by historical actors to underscore the remarkably radical and inclusive nature of the popular railway protection movement and the consequent contestation and rejection of Qing imperial power. Few would have imagined it, but the first dramatic and consequential provincewide revolution involving modern nationalism, rights, and citizenship broke out in marginal, tradition-bound Sichuan, not in Zhejiang, Guangdong, or Hubei. Zheng traces reformist currents that promoted the power and rule of the monarch vs. those of the people, along with the emergence of constitutionalism, in the 1890s and 1900s. She then focuses on the appropriation and development of these ideas in Sichuan, highlighting the actions of figures such as Pu Dianjun (蒲殿俊 1875–1934), the leading constitutionalist and chair of the Provincial Assembly whose influence on Sichuan was later compared to that of Lenin and Trotsky on Soviet Russia. Despite being dispatched by [End Page E-10] the state to study law in Japan, Pu, like many cultivated to direct state-led reform, became a champion of popular power, initially in conjunction with the Qing and finally against it. His transformation was partly driven by his support of the Sichuan Railway Protection Association. Escalating conflicts regarding foreign loans and the potential nationalization of commercially owned lines moved Pu first to accuse the state of violating both the commercial code and constitutional principles, then to adjure it and endorse revolution. Acting Governor-General Zhao Erfeng (趙爾豐 1845–1911) initially cooperated with railroad rights activists but earned their enmity by enacting the Qing Court’s increasingly stringent demands for control over railroads and by deploying troops against people protesting railroad policy (which had led to the detention of Pu, whose release...

Taxation, Trust, and Government Debt: State-Elite Relations in Sichuan, 1850–1911

This article explores the shifting relationship between the state and the rural elites in Sichuan during the last decades of the Qing dynasty through the lens of taxation and public debt by using a creditor-debtor model as a theoretical framework. Sichuan’s unique rewarded land tax surcharge, called the “Contribution” and levied since 1864, established a relationship of symbolic and economic indebtedness of the imperial and local state to the taxpayer. Western-inspired reforms after 1898 directly attacked the symbolic and economic bonds established by the Contribution. The Railway Rent Share tax shifted the creditor-debtor relationship from the state to the public Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company by making individual taxpayers into shareholders. When Beijing eventually banned what it saw as a privatization of taxation and decided to nationalize the railway company, this ignited the Railway Protection Movement, which precipitated the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan.

The Prosaic and Provincial History of an Epic Revolution

ABSTRACTLi Jieren’s (1891–1962) novel sequence Ripple on Stagnant Water (sishui weilan 1935), Before the Tempest (baofeng yuqian 1936) and Great Waves (da bo 1937) recounts the last days of the Qing Empire (1644–1911) in Chengdu, the capital of its frontier Sichuan province. In a double-layered narrative, it recreates, on the one hand, the affective and social transformations of a provincial city following the ‘New Policies’ of a dying empire and, on the other, the great agitations leading to the riots of the Sichuan Railway Protection Movement (1911), which launched the revolution that ended China’s imperial history. This essay studies Li’s structural juxtaposition of epic events with prosaic details of a fin-de-siècle life world. It suggests that, in the search for the narrative possibilities of the ‘historical real’ of a seminal event, Li’s novel cycle inscribes monumental revolution in the process of a communal world change and, in this way, opens up a new direction for the development of the modern Chinese novel. His prosaic vision and narrative of an epic event in spatial-descriptive form demonstrates an original conceptual and formal possibility that is all the more significant because of its loss in the second half of the twentieth century.

Political chess and vernacular discursive strategies: A study of the late Qing Sichuan Railway Protection Movement

ABSTRACTInterdisciplinary literary and historical studies of late Qing vernacular are rare, and the vernacular texts of the Sichuan Railway Protection Movement have been overlooked by academics. This paper focuses on this topic, arguing that the discursive strategies in such texts revolved around the movement's aim of “breaking the agreement and protecting the railway,” and primarily included discourses on constitutionalism, financial interests, patriotism, cultural order, and the late emperor, as well the ideas of “ridding the emperor of evil ministers,” borrowed from traditional Chinese political discourses, and “national subjugation,” within the context of the national crisis. None of these discourses were “anti-Manchu” or “revolutionary,” yet they were able to mobilize the people of Sichuan to devote themselves to the Railway Protection Movement, as well as attracting the “sympathetic understanding” of high-ranking Sichuan officials, such as Wang Renwen 王人文 and Zhao Erfeng 赵尔丰, thus lending discursive power to the railway protection camp in its game of political chess with the Qing court. Meanwhile, the government's weak discursive power was an important factor in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty by the revolutionary tide triggered by the Sichuan Railway Protection Movement. The discursive strategies in vernacular texts on railway protection (including the particularly strategic discourse on the late emperor) spread, transformed, and were reborn to varying degrees over the course of history.

Editorial

Editorial Kristin Stapleton Zhao Erfeng and Sheng Xuanhuai were two larger-than-life political actors in the last decade of Qing rule. After their deaths in the 1910s, they continued to figure in Chinese politics and culture. In this issue of Twentieth-Century China, Joohee Suh analyzes biographies of Zhao published in the early years of the Republic, exploring various interpretations of his role as conqueror of the Western border regions and adversary of the Sichuan railway protection movement. The lack of a consensus on the significance of the 1911 Revolution is apparent, she argues, in the different assessments of Zhao’s place in history. Qiliang He examines the extravagant funeral procession of Sheng Xuanhuai in Shanghai in 1917, detailing the negotiations that resulted in the particular procession route and discussing the motivations of those who participated, including more than a million spectators. He argues that such public spectacles created a shared experience that bound diverse immigrant communities together as city people. One of Sheng Xuanhuai’s successors as a leader of industry, Liu Hongsheng, is a central figure in The Lius of Shanghai, 1 in which Sherman Cochran and Andrew Hsieh mined family letters to trace interpersonal relationships and cultural change. In his article in this issue, Micah Muscolino takes a close look at neglected aspects of Liu Hongsheng’s business career. In particular, Muscolino shows how Liu managed different business ventures so that they supported one another, using by-products from his coal operations as fuel and raw material for factories in other sectors. Through his study of the Liu business empire, Muscolino uncovers the history of China’s transition to an economy based on fossil fuels. Conceptions of childhood in a China at war are the subject of Xu Lanjun’s contribution to this issue. She sheds light on children’s traveling troupes that formed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, examining the educational philosophy that inspired them, as well as their role in wartime propaganda. Vulnerable children, including refugees and orphans, gained symbolic importance during the national crisis, and Xu discusses how educators and activists encouraged children to think of themselves as part of the resistance struggle. Three recent books are reviewed in this issue: Parks Coble’s work on Chinese wartime journalism in the 1930s and 1940s, Joan Judge’s analysis of visual and written representations of women in Shanghai’s Women’s Eastern Times (Funü shibao) during the first decade of the Republic, and Shellen Xiao Wu’s study of the evolution of mining engineering and the integration of China’s coal resources into the world economy. [End Page 109] Footnotes 1. Sherman Cochran and Andrew Hsieh, The Lius of Shanghai (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). Copyright © 2016 Twentieth-Century China

INVESTIGATION OF INNER SHEAR RESISTANCE OF GEOGRIDS BUILT UNDER GRANULAR PROTECTION LAYERS AND RAILWAY BALLAST

Purpose. Using adequate granular materials and layer structures in the railway super- and substructure is able to stabilise railway track geometry. For this purpose special behaviour of above materials has to be determined, e.g. inner shear resistance. Inner shear resistance of granular media with and without geogrid reinforcement in different depths is not known yet. Methodology. The author developed a special laboratory method to measure and define inner shear resistance of granular materials, it is called «multi-level shear box test». This method is adequate to determine inner shear resistance (pushing force) vs. depth (distance from the «zero» surface). Two different granular materials: andesite railway ballast (31.5/63 mm) and andesite railway protection layer material (0/56 mm), and seven different types of geogrids (GG1…GG7) were used during the tests. Findings. Values of inner shear resistance functions of andesite railway ballast without geogrid reinforcement and reinforced with different types of geogrids and andesite granular protection layer in function of the vertical distance from the geogrid plane were determined with multi-layer shear box tests when the material aggregation is uncompacted and compacted. Only the compacted sample was tested in case of the 0/56 mm protection layer. Cubic polynomial regression functions fitted on the mean values of the measurements are described graphically. Determination coefficients with values of R2>0.97 were resulted in all the cases of regression functions. Based on the polynomial regression functions fitted on the mean values of the test results, three increasing factors were determined in function of the distance measured from the geogrid. Increasing factor «A», «B» and «D». Originality. Multi-level shear box test, developed by the author, is certified unequivocally adequate for determining inner shear resistance of reinforced and unreinforced granular materials, e.g. railway ballast, protection layer. Practical value. The paper formulated the requirements of using geogrid-reinforced railway ballast and protection layer material to stabilise railway track geometry, e.g. dewatering, draining, separation, minimum ballast depth, and suggested geogrid types from investigated ones.

Development over London Underground tunnels: No. 1 Grafton Street

This paper describes a case history associated with the design of a building scheme at a site in Mayfair, London situated directly above the existing London Underground's Victoria Line tunnels. It confirms how this important constraint of the presence of the tunnels, influenced the design and how the railway protection measures were agreed and implemented. It explains the development of the feasibility scheme, the detailed design of a raft foundation solution, the retained façade scheme and the requirement to limit settlement, thus restricting the effect on the existing tunnels. It shows that predictions of heave due to demolition, and settlement due to construction, were assessed as realistic and compared favourably against actual monitoring results obtained during the works. The paper suggests ‘best practice' when achieving railway protection measures for building structure design and provides recommendations for future projects above existing tunnels.

CONFIGURING A CONSTITUTIONAL STATE: OFFICIALS AND ASSEMBLYMEN AT THE 1909 SICHUAN PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY MEETING

This article examines two potential configurations of the constitutional state at the time of Constitutional Reform. One was from Sichuan Governor-General Zhao Erxun, who claimed that “all political power belongs to the state.” The other was from the Sichuan assemblymen, who were inarticulate at first, but, when the meeting closed one and a half months later, firmly announced that “there would be no taxation without supervision.” Both views emerged during the 1909 Provincial Assembly meeting in Sichuan; via rounds of debates over forty-two bills, the differences between them gained sharp articulation as a clash of divergent political principles. There emerged not only a reaction of elite bitterness toward high-handed state policies but also a repertoire of political skills now in the practiced hands of an expanding circle of political leaders. The Sichuan Provincial Assembly meeting was a staging area for the revolutionary activism of the Railway Protection Movement two years later as well as for the deve...

Application of Electronic Horizontal Beam and Remote Automatic Monitoring System in the Railway Protection Projects

The paper will introduce the composition and its working principle of the electronic horizontal beam and the remote automatic monitoring system. Subsequently, the author will illustrate specific project to elaborate the monitoring function of the system when people try to control railway track deformation. When tunnel shield crosses under railway, the system can carry on real-time processing, data analysis and then feedback these information to the construction party so as to guide the construction to ensure the security and stability of the railway. This system is applied in the Shanghai subway 9th line crossing project which crosses Shanghai-Hangzhou special railway. With the system, the normal operation of the railway is safeguarded in the process of crossing.

Simulation of Transient Skin Effect of DC Railway System Based on MATLAB/Simulink

This paper presents a technique for simulation of transient skin effect of the dc railway system based on MATLAB/Simulink. The classic calculation of skin effect based on frequency domain is not suitable for time-domain simulation. The aim of this paper is to develop a time-domain calculation method which can be realized in MATLAB/Simulink. Through the analysis of the step series algorithm, results are applied to the calculation of frequency voltage signal and compared with skin effect impedance of frequency. Accurate simulation of the transient skin effect produces accurate modeling of the remote fault current. This is important for the dc railway protection researchers to develop techniques for discriminating remote short-circuit currents from locomotive starting currents.