Rail Transport: a timeline

The first trains were pulled or pushed by people or animals, and were used in mines to transport coal.

In the early 1800s, steam engines was used in locomotives to pull trains more quickly along smoother, stronger tracks. Trains began to carry passengers.

'The Rocket' is one of the most famous locomotives in the world. It was a steam locomotive built in 1829 and designed by Robert Stephenson. It won a competition to test locomotives for a new passenger train line in England. It travelled at nearly 50 kilometres per hour.

Steam power is made when coal is burned in the fire box in the locomotive, and heats water in the boiler until it turns into steam. The steam is stored in the steam head and then passed through hot pipes to the slide valve. The steam power moves a rod called a piston backwards and forwards. The piston is connected to the driving rod, which turns the wheels.

By the late 1800s, steam powered passenger trains carried people living in the country to cities for work and for pleasure. City people travelled by train to the countryside or the seaside.

On some trains there were carriages with bedrooms, called sleeping cars, and restaurants and bathrooms had been added.

Diesel trains burning oil to produce electricity were introduced in the 1930s.These trains were faster, quieter and cleaner than steam trains, and meant passengers had a more comfortable ride and can carry much heavier loads than steam engines.

The diesel engine was invented by a German engineer, Rudolf Diesel in 1892. The diesel fuel is burned to drive a generator which makes electricity. The electricity is stored in batteries below the locomotive, and the electricity from the batteries runs an electric motor which drives the wheels.

Diesel powered engines are still used today worldwide. Sometimes several diesel locomotives are linked together to haul cargo trains more than a kilometre long.

Electric powered trains were first used in 1879. Power came from overhead cables, or from electricity running through a rail on the track.

One of the fastest passenger trains in the world is a French high-speed electric train, the TGV. It has an electric locomotive at either end and can travel at an average speed of 212 kilometres per hour.

The Maglev train works by magnetic levitation, and has
no wheels. It is pulled along above the metal rails by magnets fitted to both the train and the track. Maglev trains are the fastest passenger-carrying vehicles and have travelled at 400 kilometres per hour.

Read more about maglev trains here:
http://www.howstuffworks.com:80/maglev-train1.htm

Monorails are only used for short distances. They are electric-powered. Some have wheels made of steel, and run on a steel track. Others straddle a central track and are balanced and guided by side panels and rubber guide wheels. The first electric monorail was built in Germany in 1901 and is still running. It hangs from an overhead track.

Read about monorails around the world here
http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Where.html

Light rail vehicles have replaced trains in some places. Light rail vehicles look like two trams joined together. These electric-powered vehicles run on railway lines and stop at stations as well as running along tram lines picking up passengers in the streets. Light rail vehicles are air conditioned and can carry more than 150 people. They have a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour.

Rail transport in Australia
When rail first started in Australia, private companies in the colonies of NSW, Victoria and SA built their own, and in fact each colony, later on each state, had different gauge (the distance between one track and the other) tracks, so that at first the trains weren't able to travel from one state to the next. Passengers had to get off the train they started in, walk across the border and get on another train.

Acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Rail Transport (2007). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

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updated May 2007