CORRESPONDENCE. ELECTRICAL RAILWAYS.

On Generalized Random Railways

We consider a random generalized railway defined as a random 3-regular multigraph where some vertices are regarded as switches not allowing traffic between any pair of attached edges. It is shown that the probability that the generalized railway is functioning is linear in the proportion of switches. Thus there is no threshold phenomenon for this property.

Safety Functions in Railways

There are several ways to describe and structure safety rules for railways, and a few examples are given in the report. A tentative holistic framework for describing safety features in relation to safety rules is presented. The approach has been applied on rules needed to regulate the communication between different railway organisations and other parties.

Prospects for Sustainable Railways

Roads, railways, and childhood cancers.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To locate geographical sources of engine exhaust emissions in Great Britain and to link them with the birth addresses of children dying from cancer. To estimate the cancer initiating roles of nearby roads and railways and to measure effective ranges. DESIGN Birth and death addresses of all children born between 1955 and 1980 in Great Britain, and dying from leukaemia or other...

High-speed Railways in Germany

When the railway appeared as a new means of transportation in the first half of the 19th century, its top speed of 30 to 40 km/h was considered dangerous. In Germany, where Adler transported two barrels of beer between Nuremberg and Fürth in 1835 as the first German rail freight, physicians warned people against such perilous adventures and farmers were worried that their cows grazing alongside...