Design of powered rail vehicles and locomotives

Spiryagin, M ORCiD: 0000-0003-1197-898X; Wolfs, PJ ORCiD: 0000-0001-7048-1231; Wu, Q ORCiD: 0000-0001-9407-5617The history of rail transport development is directly linked with the advent of powered rail vehicles and locomotives and improvements of their designs and their manufacturing. The first locomotive building process can be dated to 1801, with the construction of a high-pressure steam road locomotive, known as the ‘Puffing Devil’, which had been designed by British inventor Richard Trevithick. Within a few years, an era of steam trams and locomotives commenced, which was only to itself be challenged at the beginning of twentieth century when the first modern competitors of steam locomotives were beginning to appear. By the middle of the twentieth century, all industrialised countries had begun the transition to new, advanced forms of traction, which fully replaced steam locomotives in passenger and freight operations with electric and diesel-powered rail vehicles and locomotives. This chapter provides an introduction to the classification of powered rail vehicles/locomotives and focuses on existing modern designs of their components. It also discusses details of their practical application for vehicle system dynamics studies