Railway Equipment
A railway sand tower helped locomotives find grip when steel met steel
Sanding equipment reveals another side of locomotive servicing: maintaining grip between steel wheels and rails. Read the structures as a working system.
RAILWAYS · HISTORY · DISCOVERY
Follow the line. Find the story.
Explore railway history through maps, museum objects and the places that connect them, from Montana to rail networks around the world.
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Notes from the railway archive
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Railway Engineering
How a track pan once supplied water to a moving steam train
Track pans let specially equipped steam trains collect water while moving. Explore the equipment, the operating problem and the evidence to seek in archives.
Railway Equipment
A railway derail protects a boundary by deliberately leaving the rail
A railway derail is a protective device rather than an ordinary junction. Learn how to recognise its purpose in a museum record without disturbing railway equipment.
Railway Technology
A railway wye turns a locomotive through three connected legs
A railway wye can reverse a locomotive’s direction through connected tracks. Trace the movement on an old plan before mistaking it for an ordinary junction.
Railway Technology
A funicular railway balances cars through a cable
Learn how a cable-linked funicular differs from a rack railway, and which details to look for when interpreting a photograph of a steep route.
Locomotive Technology
What a superheater changed inside a steam locomotive
A locomotive superheater gives steam another passage through hot gases before the cylinders. Follow the route to understand its role beside the boiler.