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Monday 5 November 2018

Train

A train is set of connected vehicles on a railway. They contain the prime mover (either locomotive or motor unit) plus a number of coaches or carriages (for passengers) or cars or wagons (for freight). 

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The word "train" comes from the Old French trahiner, derived from the Latin trahere meaning "to pull" or "to draw".

The first train was designed by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick. It took its first run on the track at the Pen-y-darren ironworks in South Wales on February 21, 1804. The Penydarren locomotive managed to haul five wagons carrying 70 passengers and ten tons of iron for nine miles, reaching speeds of five miles (8 kms) per hour. On completion of the journey, Trevithick's iron mill-owning sponsor collected over £1,000 on a wager with a skeptical business rival. 

A replica of Trevithick's engine at Swansea's National Waterfront Museum Chris55

To popularize his ideas, Trevithick built a circular railway in Euston, London. Well-off spectators paid a shilling to speed past their astonished colleagues at an incredible 12 milers per hour. 

The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all the time, was built between Liverpool and Manchester in England in 1830.

Peter Cooper was an engineer and manufacturer who designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb. Although it lost a famous race with a horse-drawn train in 1830, Cooper helped advance the spread of railroads.

Wikipedia Commons

The first revenue trains in the United States begin service in 1830 on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, both in Maryland.

Britain's first express commuter train run between London and Brighton in 1841 taking 105 minutes to complete the 59-mile journey. 

Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to travel by train on June 13, 1842. The engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel accompanied her on the inaugural royal train journey, from Slough to Paddington.

The first passenger train in India ran between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Thane on April 16, 1853. The 14-carriage train was hauled by three steam locomotives and ran for about 34 kilometers (21 miles) between these two cities carrying 400 people.

The Battle of Vienna in Virginia was a minor engagement between Union and Confederate forces on June 17, 1861, during the early days of the American Civil War. It involved one of the earliest military movements of troops by train in the world.


British trains were first given toilets, but just in the sleeping cars in 1873. 

In the 1880s, American trains featured Ladies' Lavatories, Gentlemens' Lavatories, and Immigrants' Lavatories.

Railroad competition had become so great in America by the late 19th century that the best food possible was served on dining cars regardless of cost. The Baltimore & Ohio became famous for its terrapin stew and Chesapeake Bay seafood, while the Santa Fe railroad was noted for its broiled sage hen, Mexican quail, and prairie chicken. Meals usually could be purchased for one dollar.

Two years after Werner von Siemens presented the first electric passenger train at the Berlin industrial exhibition, the world's first electric tramway went into service on May 16, 1881. The 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long line started at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station on the Anhalt Railway line. It ran on already existing tracks that had been used for building the Prussian military academy (Hauptkadettenanstalt) at Lichterfelde West.

Lichterfelde tram, 1882

Britain's first main line electric train, operated by Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, started running between Liverpool and Southport in 1904. 

The high-speed line between Japan's two biggest cities Tokyo and Osaka was inaugurated on October 1, 1964; the famous Shinkansen 'bullet train' (named for its shape) could reach a speed of 210 kmph (130 mph). 

The distinctive nose of the Shinkansen 500 bullet train prevents sonic booms whenever it exits a tunnel. It was discovered when scientists studied the shape of a kingfisher's beak to learn how it hit the water at high speed

Tōkaidō Shinkansen made its first service in 1964.By DRAGONBALLXYZ

A powerful new "bullet train" service was launched in Japan in 1997, achieving the world's fastest average speed on a commercial run of 151.4 miles an hour.

France’s TGV, which began running in 1981, debuted with a top speed of 270 km/h  (168 mph) that dwarfed the Shinkansen’s 210 km/h. The country's intercity rail service established France as the leader in high-speed train technology. 

In 2007 a French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line set an official new world speed record for a commercial train on steel wheels. It achieved a speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on April 3, 2007 at kilometer point 191 near the village of Le Chemin, between the Meuse and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations. 

The world record for the maximum speed attained by a passenger train is held by Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series, which achieved 603 km/h (375 mph) on a 42.8 km magnetic-levitation track on April 21, 2015. Picture below shows a JR Central L0 series 5-car maglev train undergoing test-running on the Yamanashi Test Track

By Saruno Hirobano - Own work, 

The Japanese Bullet Train is cleaned in just seven minutes and prepared for the next passengers so that including disembarking and boarding, the train stops for only 12 minutes. 

In over five decades and 10 billion passengers, the Japanese bullet train has never had a single passenger fatality caused by a derailment or collision.

Source Daily Telegraph Right Now June 12, 2004

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