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In rail transport, a train is a vehicle or (more frequently) a string of vehicles capable of being moved along a continuous line of rails or other guideway for the purpose of conveying freight or passengers between points on a predetermined route. The train may be hauled or propelled by one or more vehicles designed exclusively for that purpose (locomotives) or may be driven by a number of motors incorporated in all or several of the vehicles (multiple units).

As of 2018^[update], there are approximately 1,052,000 kilometres (654,000 mi) of railway track in use worldwide. (World Bank (via Archive.org))

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Selected article of the week

The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile (10 km) rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England. It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to help in the transport of goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national railway network. Lobbying from residents of the nearby town of Brill led to the line's extension to Brill and conversion to passenger use in early 1872. Two locomotives were bought for the line, but as it had been designed and built with horses in mind services were very slow; trains travelled at an average speed of only 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h). In 1883, the Duke of Buckingham announced plans to upgrade the route to main line railway standards and extend the line to Oxford, creating a through route from Aylesbury to Oxford. In 1888 a cheaper scheme was proposed, in which the line would be built to a lower standard and wind around hills to avoid tunneling. In anticipation of this, the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad. Although the existing line was upgraded in 1894, the extension to Oxford was never built. Instead, the operation of the Brill Tramway was taken over by London's Metropolitan Railway, and Brill became one of their two north-western termini. The line was rebuilt a second time in 1910, and more advanced locomotives were introduced, allowing trains to run faster. The population of the area remained low, and the primary source of income remained goods traffic to and from surrounding farms. Between 1899 and 1910 many other railway lines were built in the area, providing more direct services to London and the north of England. Facing competition from these new lines and the increase in motorised road transport, the Brill Tramway went into severe financial decline. The Brill Tramway became a part of the London Underground, despite being over 40 miles (65 km) from London and not being underground. In 1935 all services on the Brill Tramway were withdrawn, and the line was closed. The infrastructure of the route was dismantled and sold shortly afterwards. Very little trace of the Brill Tramway remains, other than the former junction station at Quainton Road, now the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

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Shay locomotive number 10 of the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, a tourist railroad near Yosemite National Park in California, takes on water for he day's operations in 2008.

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Did you know...

...that the opening ceremonies of the Galway to Clifden railway were very sparsely attended because the event date was a strict church holiday and was reserved for attending church services?
...that following heavy damage to the Galveston Island Trolley track and cars from Hurricane Ike in 2008, substitute service with replica buses was operated until service resumed in October 2021?
...that although the former Santa Fe Railway's Galesburg station was demolished after regular passenger service to the station ended in 1996, the site is still used if derailments cause trains to use the Chillicothe Subdivision instead of the Mendota Subdivision?
...that the Fuzhou–Xiamen railway, which opened in 2010, was so heavily used that it reached capacity in 2015, spurring construction on the parallel Fuzhou–Xiamen high-speed railway for CRH passenger train services?

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Selected anniversaries

May 8

1821 – William Henry Vanderbilt, son of Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central system, is born (d. 1885).
1842 – A passenger train traveling between Paris and Versailles derails near Moudon and catches fire, killing 55 people.
1915 – Schwyzer Strassenbahnen (SStB) opens connecting Ibach, Baden-Württemberg, and Brunnen Schifflände, Switzerland.
1926 – A. Philip Randolph (pictured) organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

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Train News

Santa Fe No. 2926 at Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 24, 2021 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe No. 2926, a 4-8-4 steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944, moves under its own power for the first time since Christmas Eve of 1953, after nearly twenty-two years of being rebuilt by volunteers. The locomotive will be put into mainline excursion service. (NMSL&RHS, Trains Magazine on Facebook)
Big Boy No. 4012 at Steamtown National Historic Site
May 5, 2021 – Steamtown National Historic Site completes thorough cosmetic overhaul on Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy No. 4012, which is moved back on static display before National Train Day. (NEPA Scene)
The derailed Taroko Express trainset, as seen from outside the entrance to the tunnel
April 2, 2021 – 2021 Hualien train derailment – A Taroko Express train operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) derails at the north entrance of Qingshui Tunnel in Heren Section, Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan, killing 49 people and injuring at least 200 others. North of Hualien City a construction truck had fallen down a slope onto the tracks. The eight-carriage train derailed after colliding with the truck, and then came to a rest in the tunnel, with severe damage and many casualties. (Bloomberg, CNN, CNA, New York Times, Financial Times)

The preserved C&O 1309 at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in October 2009

December 31, 2020 – Following a complete restoration, Chesapeake and Ohio 1309, a 2-6-6-2 Mallet locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1949, the last steam locomotive built by Baldwin for the North American market, is operated under its own power for test runs. When returned to service on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, it will be the largest steam locomotive in regular scheduled service in the United States and take 2-8-0 No. 734’s place as the largest active steam locomotive in the state of Maryland. (Trains.com Newswire)

An Avelia Liberty train on a test run in Delaware in May 2020

September 28, 2020 – Amtrak operates a test run using one of the 28 new Avelia Liberty trains manufactured by Alstom along the full length of the Northeast Corridor to Boston South Station. Previous test runs had occurred from Washington, D.C., only as far north as New Jersey and Delaware. Barring any problems, the trains are expected to enter regular service on the route in 2021. (Universal Hub)

Berryessa/North San José station on the first day of service

June 13, 2020 – The Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley BART extension opened its stations in Milpitas and North San Jose. (San Jose Spotlight, SF Gate)

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General images

The following are images from various train-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1This cab car includes a horn (top), a bell (top right), headlights (above the door), classification lights (red lights on side), and ditch lights (white lights on side). (from Train)
Image 2A China Railways HXD1D electric locomotive in China (from Locomotive)
Image 3The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power. (from Train)
Image 4Trains carrying hazardous materials display information identifying their cargo and hazards. This tank car carrying chlorine displays, among other markings, a U.S. DOT placard showing a UN number that identifies the hazardous substance. (from Train)
Image 5A German DB Class V 200 diesel-hydraulic locomotive at Technikmuseum, Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 6A gas turbine locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (from Train)
Image 7A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London (from Railroad car)
Image 8A London Underground battery-electric locomotive at West Ham station used for hauling engineers' trains (from Locomotive)
Image 9A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina, Italy, 1901 (from Locomotive)
Image 10Stockton and Darlington special inaugural train 1825: six wagons of coal, directors coach, then people in wagons (from Train)
Image 11Yard for Amtrak equipment, located next to the Los Angeles River. The two tracks on the left are the mainline. (from Rail yard)
Image 12A Union Pacific freight train; high clearances enable double-stacked containers to be carried in well cars. (from Train)
Image 13Most derailments, such as this one in Switzerland, are minor and do not cause injuries or damage. (from Train)
Image 14Inside a modern-day car from Finland (from Railroad car)
Image 15The New Orleans Streetcar System is one of the oldest in the world. (from Train)
Image 16The Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen pioneered high speed rail service. (from Train)
Image 17Garratt locomotives in Zimbabwe (from Train)
Image 18A wooden toy train set from Swedish manufacturer Brio (from Train)
Image 19A number of maintenance vehicles at work on Metro-North Railroad (from Train)
Image 20British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s (from Railroad car)
Image 21China operates an extensive high speed rail network. (from Train)
Image 22Union Pacific 18, a gas turbine-electric locomotive preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum (from Locomotive)
Image 23A passenger car of the China Railway, 2011 (from Railroad car)
Image 24A large Amtrak and Metra coach yard just south of Chicago Union Station. About 25 percent of all rail traffic in the United States travels through the Chicago area. (from Rail yard)
Image 25Baltimore & Ohio electric engine, 1895 (from Locomotive)
Image 26Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, 1877, Art Institute of Chicago (from Train)
Image 27This map of Cedar Hill Yard in Connecticut shows a variety of different facilities, including receiving yards, departure yards, classification yards, and a repair yard. (from Rail yard)
Image 28Variety of rolling stock in rail yard (from Rolling stock)
Image 29An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London (from Railroad car)
Image 30Pacific National diesel locomotives in Australia showing three body types, cab unit (front), hood unit (middle) and box cab (rear) (from Locomotive)
Image 31An early Diesel-mechanical locomotive at the North Alabama Railroad Museum (from Locomotive)
Image 32A preserved armored train (from Train)
Image 33Typical American extended vision caboose (from Railroad car)
Image 34A Victorian Railways R class steam locomotive in Australia (from Locomotive)
Image 35Southern Railway (UK) 20002 was equipped with both pantograph and contact shoes (from Locomotive)
Image 36Soviet RT-23 Molodets ICBM launch train, in the St Petersburg museum (from Railroad car)
Image 37Various types of railroad cars in a classification yard in the United States (from Train)
Image 38A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926 (from Railroad car)
Image 39A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom (from Railroad car)
Image 40The 1902 Maudslay Petrol Locomotive (from Locomotive)
Image 41A narrow gauge battery-electric locomotive used for mining (from Locomotive)
Image 42Armored train Hurban located in Zvolen, Slovakia (from Railroad car)
Image 43Second-class compartment of a China Railways CRH1A-A train (from Train)
Image 44A narrow gauge train in Austria (from Train)
Image 45World's first useful diesel locomotive (a diesel-electric locomotive) for long distances SŽD Eel2, 1924 in Kyiv (from Locomotive)
Image 46A coach yard in Shanghai, China (from Rail yard)
Image 47US-style railroad truck (bogie) with journal bearings (from Train)
Image 48Bombardier ALP-45DP at the Innotrans convention in Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 49Werner von Siemens experimental DC electric train, 1879 (from Locomotive)
Image 50Electric train on Djursholmsbanan in Stockholm in the 1890s. (from Train)
Image 51The "hump" of a hump yard. Railcars travel past retarders, which control their speed, and are directed onto tracks to be assembled into new trains. The control tower operates the retarders. (from Rail yard)
Image 52Workington stabling point in 1981, with locomotives from Classes 25, 40 and 47 parked between duties. (from Rail yard)
Image 53A Tokyo Monorail train (from Train)
Image 54The 1887 Daimler draisine (from Locomotive)
Image 55Škoda Artic light rail train near the cathedral in Tampere, Finland (from Train)
Image 56The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam. (from Train)