What is the structure of a Railway System?
Before we understand railway systems, lets understand the term “system”. System is a structure composed of various parts which are related to each other. A railway system encompasses many technical and functional components whose interactions with each other are often very complex.
The fundamental component of railway system is infrastructure. Infrastructure forms the framework for other sub-systems. It also determines important factors like track gauge, carrying capacity of the tracks and width of the track etc.
The second most obvious component of a railway system is railway vehicle. Depending on the use, different vehicles are designed and manufactured. Passenger trains have a comparatively low load carrying capacity, but have high starting acceleration. Added to that they also have high running stability and comfort. Freight trains on the other hand have high load carrying capacity with lower acceleration and deceleration.
Railway operations is the third component and is the link between rail vehicles and infrastructure. It comprises all the activities and equipment required for successful running of trains and also guarantees safety, control and monitoring of train movements. Railway operations is a complicated subsystem in itself. I’ll write more about it later.
