Axle load

The axle load of a wheeled vehicle is the total weight felt by the roadway for all wheels connected to a given axle. Viewed another way, it is the fraction of total vehicle weight resting on a given axle. Axle load is an important design consideration in the engineering of roadways and railways, as both are designed to tolerate a maximum weight-per-axle (axle load); exceeding the maximum rated axle load will cause damage to the roadway or rail tracks.

Railway use

On railways, a given section of track is designed to a maximum axle load. The maximum axle load is related to the strength of the track, which is determined by weight of rails, density of sleepers and fixtures, train speeds, amount of ballast, and strength of bridges. Because track and especially the rails are expensive, it is desirable to optimise the track for a given axle load. If the track is overloaded by trains that are too heavy, it can be destroyed in a short time. It is convenient for the steelworks that rails are made in a limited number of sizes, so that a perfect match of rail weight and axle load is rarely achieved. New rail is often reserved for heavy main line use, which releases good but lighter rail that can be cascaded for lighter duties on branch lines. The lightest rail cascaded from the lightest branch lines may have no railway use other that for structural items such as fenceposts, telegraph posts and for reinforcing concrete. Increase density of sleepers and reduce axle load can help to increase train speeds.

Load

Load may refer to:

Biology and medicine

Music

Truss (unit)

A truss is a tight bundle of hay or straw. It would usually be cuboid, for storage or shipping, and would either be harvested into such bundles or cut from a large rick.

Markets and law

Hay and straw were important commodities in the pre-industrial era. Hay was required as fodder for animals, especially horses, and straw was used for a variety of purposes including bedding. In London, there were established markets for hay at Smithfield, Whitechapel and by the village of Charing, which is still now called the Haymarket. The weight of trusses was regulated by law and statutes were passed in the reigns of William and Mary, George II and George III. The latter act of 1796 established the weights as follows:

In summary then, the standard weights of a truss were:

and 36 trusses made up a load.

Trussing

A detailed description was provided in British Husbandry, sponsored by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,

This done, he measures the cut to be made in the stack, which is decided by the usual size of the trusses — each being as nearly as possible three feet by two and a half, and thick in proportion to the fineness and closeness of the hay; those of the best quality being the thinnest. He then mounts the ladder and cuts perpendicularly through the thatch, as far down as will produce the requisite number of trusses. This he does with a very strong and sharp knife, about thirty inches in length by nearly six in breadth of the blade, and formed as in fig. 2. The handle is however often made short and straight from the blade, but the form above represented allows of more power being exerted by the workman in cutting through the stack, and it is an operation which demands considerable strength.

Load (unit)

The load (Latin: carrus, lit. "cartload"), also known as a fodder, fother, and charrus, was an English unit of weight or mass of various amounts, depending on the era and the substance being measured.

Lead load

The load of lead was 30 fotmals, 175 stone, or 2,100 Merchant pounds (~918.525 kg).

"The Load of Lead doth consist of Thirty Fotmals, and every Fotmal containeth Six Stone, except Two Pound; and every Stone doth consist of Twelve Pound, and every Pound consisteth of the Weight of 25 Shillings,5 whereby the Sum in the Fotmal is Seventy Pound. But the Sum of the Stones in the Load is Eight Times Twenty and Fifteen, and it is proved by Six Times Thirty which is Nine Times Twenty. But of every Fotmal there are abated Two Pound in the foresaid Multiplication, which are Sixty, which make Five Stone. And so there are in the Load Eight Times Twenty and Fifteen as is aforesaid." - Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris

Straw load

The load of hay or straw was 36 trusses or 1,296 pounds (now about 587.8557 kg).