Exercise 1 Answer the following questions:

1. What do Canadian Railways have at their disposal?

2. What kind of cars is intended for frozen food and dressed meat?

3. Is the four axle wagon used as refrigerator wagon for journeys lasting several days?

4. What wagons do combine the advantages of wide openings of open wagons, and protection?

5. What is a new wagon launched by Greenbrier Europe and DB Cargo, Germany?

6. Where are usually bulky loads transported?

7. How can hoppers be flushed out?

8. Transportation by means of what wagons tends to increase?

9. What are the new tendencies of transportation by tank wagons?

10. What for do we need low-loading wagons?

11. What wagons are used to transport cars?

12. What is the solution of railroad problem?

Exercise 2 Choose the right answer

1. Which is the principal type of transportation used in our country?

a. railway transport , b. air transport, c. sea transport

2. What freight cars are used for transporting bulk freight?

1. special-purpose flat cars, b. box-cars, c. hoppers.

3. Which method is considered to use more efficient when carrying bulk freight?

1. the method of using hatches in the roof,

2. the method of using special shields for sealing doors,

3. the method of using self-sealing doors.

4. What kind of goods can be transported in tank cars?

1. liquid freight, b. bulk freight, c. frozen freight.

5. What place are discharge devices fitted in a tank car?

1. in the car bottom, b. in the car top, on the car side.

6. Where were the first containers used?

1. in the USA, b. France, c. G.B.

Exercise 3 Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word-combination

1. For transporting certain freight our railways use . . .

a. passenger cars

b. carriages

c. special wagons

2. If we want to protect products from weather conditions we use . . .

a. parcel vans

b. box cars

c. restaurant car

3. Double-decker wagons we use for carrying . . .

a. passengers

b. perishable foodstaff

c. motorcars

4. Heavy machinery parts, steel rails, logs and beams are being carried in . . .

a. refrigerator wagons

b. tanker wagons

c. flat cars

5. Perishable foodstuff is carried in . . .

a. refrigerator wagons

b. mechanically refrigerated wagons

c. restaurant cars

6. . . . not only protect the most delicate products but also reduce the cost of transport equipment during loading.

a. self-discharging wagons

b. containers

c. covered wagons with two decks

Exercise 4 Match the following definitions with the appropriate type of wagon

1.These wagons makes them suitable for carrying other goods normally loaded in ordinary covered wagons.	a. wagon for containers
2. such wagons are intended above all to reduce the run empty mileage.	b. wagon for carrying automobiles
3. This type of wagon is used on certain lines or by certain special industries.	c. low loading wagons
4. Such cars are used to carry dry commodities such as potash, cement… .	d. hopper cars
5. Such wagons are used for loades which are not excessively heavy but also may be in excess of the loading gauge.	e. tanker wagons
6. These wagons are fitted with transversal slides on which the containers, which are loaded and unloaded transversely, can slide.	f. self-discharging wagon
	g. ventilated
	h. open wagon

Exercise 5 Discuss with your friends what other types of freight can be transported in the above mentioned special wagons.

Exercise 6 Make up dialogues on the following topics

1. At a car building plant.

2. At a railway station.

3. Between the representatives of different car building plants, discussing the possibilities of improvement of freight transportations and freight wagons fleet.

4. Think about your own topic.

Exercise 7 Translate from Ukrainian into English.

1. Вагони, у який здійснюється контроль за температурою, включають у себе вагони як з охолоджуючою, так і з термальною (підігріваючи) системами.

2. Ці вагони призначені для заморожених продуктів та обробленого м’яса.

3. Відкриті вагони поєднують широкі відкриті частини відкритих вагонів та захист вантажів, що є характерною рисою критих вагонів.

4. Весь корпус саморозвантажувальних вагонів може рухатися або нахилятися.

5. Кожну платформу можна повертати, використовуючи гідравлічні циліндри.

6. Громіздкі вантажі часто навантажують у вагони з високими стінами за допомогою гравітаційних систем.

7. Спеціально сконструйовані хоппери мають подвійні головні люки та випускні отвори для швидкого розвантажування.

8. Нові тенденції бачать у перевезенні зрідженого під тиском газу.

9. Автомобілі – це ти пічний приклад вантажу, який має низьку вагу у порівнянні з місцем, яке він займає.

10. Вирішення залізничної проблеми – це перевезення вантажів у контейнерах.

Exercise 8 Write an annotation to the above given text.

PART 3

My speciality

Do you like to travel? Of course! Especially if you travel in a modern and comfortable sleeping car. Would you like to receive goods in time and without damages? You are welcome! All these and many other things I’ll deal with in my future work.

It’s not a secret that railway transport plays a very important part in the development, both political and economical, of any country because it carries the greater part of freight and passenger traffic.

The railway system of our country is very complicated and I will do my best to become a highly qualified specialist and to keep the system working.

But it will be in the future and now I study at the Ukrainian State Academy of Railway Transport. It was founded in 1930 as the Kharkov Institute of Railway Transport Engineers and trains specialists for the railway transport. These specialists work at locomotive and car depots, at transport machinery plants, at car-building works, at designing institutes, at railway higher educational establishments as well.

I study at the Mechanical Department. The whole course of studies allows to train skilled railway mechanical engineers.

After graduating from the Academy I’ll deal with designing, constructing and repairing passenger and freight cars. All these cars have different structure. But irrespectively of their use they have many common elements – such as: a body, a frame, a bogie, running gears, draft gears, buffers and breaks.

A big railway system needs many varied types of carriages and wagons.

The passenger rolling stock consists of modern all-metal coaches of different types: first and second class carriages with four berths, first class two-berth carriages, interregional type of carriages equipped with soft reclining seats, comfortable carriages for international traffic and driving carriages for electric and diesel-powered trains. There is also a fleet of restaurant cars, parcel vans and metro cars for urban transportation.

Designing passenger vehicles the engineers try to obtain maximum comfort for passengers (increase in running speed, reduced vibration and noise) and considerable improvements in ventilation and interior.

The railway system of our country is equipped and being constantly supplied with new high-capacity, multiple-wheel freight cars. These cars with automatic coupling and automatic breaks ensured high-speed haulage of heavy trains.

The freight rolling stock consists of box-cars, open box-cars, flat-cars and many other different kinds of special wagons.

Box cars are employed to transport products requiring protection from weather. Open box cars are employed to transport materials that do not require weather protection. Flat cars are used to carry heavy machinery parts, steel rails, logs and beams.

Special wagons are intended for transportation certain kinds of freight. There are various types of such wagons, namely: self-discharging wagons for freight in bulk, bucket wagons for carrying bitumen, wagons for heavy and bulky loads, covered wagons with two decks used to carry livestock, double-decker wagons for carrying motorcars, the mechanically refrigerated wagons intended for carrying frozen goods and refrigerator wagons for carrying perishable foodstuffs.

There are also open-top hopper cars suitable for transporting special goods which are not affected by atmosphere conditions, covered-top hopper cars used to transport granular materials requiring weather protection and tanker wagons for carrying different kinds of liquid freight, petroleum products, cement, liquefied gas.

The solution of railroad problem which has given the most positive results is the transportation of freight in containers.

Generally they can be loaded on ordinary flat wagons but there is a special category of containers which require specially adapted wagons. Containers not only protect the most delicate products but also reduce the cost of transport equipment during loading.

The most important task facing railway transport industry in the field of car building is to improve the structure of rolling stock, to organize the production of specialized railway cars and cars for electrified trains.

To cope with all these problems and tasks our railways need highly qualified engineers.