History of rail transport
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The history of rail transport began before the beginning of the common era. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.[1]
Ancient systems
The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels, England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3838 BCE,[2] making it some 30 years older than the Sweet Track from the same area.[3] Various sections have been designated as scheduled monuments.[4]
Evidence indicates that there was a 6-to-8.5-kilometre long (3.7 to 5.3 mi) Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BCE.[5][6] Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century CE.[6] Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt.[7][8]
Pre-steam
Wooden rails introduced
In 1515,
Wagonways (or tramways), with wooden rails and horse-drawn traffic, are known to have been used in the 1550s to facilitate transportation of ore tubs to and from mines. They soon became popular in Europe and an example of their operation was illustrated by Georgius Agricola (see image) in his 1556 work De re metallica.[11] This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.[12] There are many references to wagonways in central Europe in the 16th century.[13]
A wagonway was introduced to England by German miners at Caldbeck, Cumbria, possibly in the 1560s.[14] A wagonway was built at Prescot, near Liverpool, sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away.[15] A funicular railway was made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the river Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns.[16] The Wollaton Wagonway, completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont, has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham.[17]
The Middleton Railway in Leeds, which was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in America was built in Lewiston, New York.[18]
Metal rails introduced
The introduction of steam engines for powering blast air to blast furnaces led to a large increase in British iron production after the mid-1750s.[19]: 123–25
In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of wooden rails, which increased their durability and load-bearing ability. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning wagons, but later, movable points were introduced that allowed passing loops to be created.[20]
A system was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates – these became known as plateways. John Curr, a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed.[who?] The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks. In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway, a double track plateway, sometimes erroneously cited as world's first public railway, in south London.[21]
In 1789,
These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became the standard for railways.
Cast iron was not a satisfactory material for rails because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron rail, invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, solved these problems. Wrought iron (usually simply referred to as "iron") was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But wrought iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented the puddling process in 1784. In 1783, Cort also patented the rolling process, which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering.[22] These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and iron rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron.[23] Wrought iron was a soft material that contained slag or dross. The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they typically lasted less than 10 years in use, and sometimes as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails.
The introduction of the Bessemer process, enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to the era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron.[24][25][26] Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads.[27] The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near the end of 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways.
Steam power introduced
James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, greatly improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine in 1769, capable of powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a variety of machinery, it was a large stationary engine. It could not be otherwise: the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder; this required a separate condenser and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that might be used to power a vehicle and he patented a design for a steam locomotive in 1784. His employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year.[28]
The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a British engineer born in Cornwall. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.[29][30] Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon a piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury, London, the Catch Me Who Can, but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use.[31]
The first commercially successful steam locomotive was
This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive
In 1814,
Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century.
Electric power introduced
The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist
Early experimentation with railway electrification was undertaken by the Ukrainian engineer
The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile stretch of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting the main portion of the B&O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown.
Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s, most street railways were electrified.
The first practical
In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Evian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898.[45][46][47][48][49]
In 1896, Oerlikon installed the first commercial example of the system on the
Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than just a short stretch. The 106 km Ferrovia della Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works.[50][51] The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918,[52] Kandó invented and developed the rotary phase converter, enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high voltage national networks.[51]
An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at 50 Hz, and established it as a standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz (now also called industrial frequency) was adopted as standard for main lines across the world.[53]
Diesel power introduced
Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by
In 1906,
A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when
In 1929, the
High-speed rail
The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen (series 0) was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up and above 300 km/h (186.4 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines.[citation needed]
High-speed trains normally operate on
Hydrogen power introduced
History by country
Europe
In recent years deregulation has been a major topic across Europe.[61][62][63]
Belgium
Belgium took the lead in the Industrial Revolution on the Continent starting in the 1820s. It provided an ideal model for showing the value of the railways for speeding the industrial revolution. After splitting from the Netherlands in 1830, the new country decided to stimulate industry. It planned and funded a simple cross-shaped system that connected the major cities, ports and mining areas and linked to neighboring countries. Unusually, the Belgian state became a major contributor to early rail development and championed the creation of a national network with no duplication of lines. Belgium thus became the railway center of the region.
The system was built along British lines, often with British engineers doing the planning. Profits were low but the infrastructure necessary for rapid industrial growth was put in place.[64] The first railway in Belgium, running from northern Brussels to Mechelen, was completed in May 1835.
Britain
Early developments
The earliest railway in Britain was a wagonway system; a horse drawn wooden rail system, used by German miners at Caldbeck, Cumbria, England, perhaps from the 1560s.[14] A wagonway was built at Prescot, near Liverpool, sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away.[15] On 26 July 1803, Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway, south of London erroneously considered first railway in Britain, also a horse-drawn one. It was not a railway in the modern sense of the word, as it functioned like a turnpike road. There were no official services, as anyone could bring a vehicle on the railway by paying a toll.
The oldest railway in continuous use is the Tanfield Railway in County Durham, England. This began life in 1725 as a wooden waggonway worked with horse power and developed by private coal owners and included the construction of the Causey Arch, the world's oldest purpose built railway bridge. By the mid 19th century it had converted to standard gauge track and steam locomotive power. It continues in operation as a heritage line. The Middleton Railway in Leeds, opened in 1758, is also still in use as a heritage line and began using steam locomotive power in 1812 before reverting to horsepower and then upgrading to standard gauge. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York.[18] The first passenger Horsecar or tram, Swansea and Mumbles Railway was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807.[65] Horse remained preferable mode for tram transport even after arrival of steam engines, well till the end of 19th century. The major reason was that the horse-cars were clean as compared to steam driven trams which caused smoke in city streets.
In 1812,
It was not until 1825, that the success of the
The success of the Stockton and Darlington encouraged the rich investors in the rapidly industrialising
The promoters were mainly interested in goods traffic, but after the line opened on 15 September 1830, they were surprised to find that passenger traffic was just as remunerative. The success of the Liverpool and Manchester railway added to the influence of the S&DR in the development of railways elsewhere in Britain and abroad. The company hosted many visiting deputations from other railway projects and many railwaymen received their early training and experience upon this line. The Liverpool and Manchester line was, however, only 35 miles (56 km) long. The world's first trunk line can be said to be the Grand Junction Railway, opening in 1837 and linking a midpoint on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with Birmingham, via Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton.
Further development
The earliest locomotives in revenue service were small four-wheeled ones similar to the Rocket. However, the inclined cylinders caused the engine to rock, so they first became horizontal and then, in his "Planet" design, were mounted inside the frames. While this improved stability, the "crank axles" were extremely prone to breakage. Greater speed was achieved by larger driving wheels at expense of a tendency for wheel slip when starting. Greater tractive effort was obtained by smaller wheels coupled together, but speed was limited by the fragility of the cast iron connecting rods. Hence, from the beginning, there was a distinction between the light fast passenger locomotive and the slower more powerful goods engine.
Meanwhile, by 1840, Stephenson had produced larger, more stable, engines in the form of the
The longer wheelbase for the longer boiler produced problems in cornering. For his six-coupled engines, Stephenson removed the flanges from the centre pair of wheels. For his express engines, he shifted the trailing wheel to the front in the 4-2-0 formation, as in his "Great A". There were other problems: the firebox was restricted in size or had to be mounted behind the wheels; and for improved stability most engineers believed that the centre of gravity should be kept low.
The most extreme outcome of this was the Crampton locomotive which mounted the driving wheels behind the firebox and could be made very large in diameter. These achieved the hitherto unheard of speed of 70 mph (110 km/h) but were very prone to wheelslip. With their long wheelbase, they were unsuccessful on Britain's winding tracks, but became popular in the US and France, where the popular expression became prendre le Crampton.
John Gray of the
Year | Total miles |
---|---|
1830 | 98 |
1835 | 338 |
1840 | 1,498 |
1845 | 2,441 |
1850 | 6,621 |
1855 | 8,280 |
1860 | 10,433 |
Expanding network
Railways quickly became essential to the swift movement of goods and labour that was needed for
By the 1850s, many steam-powered railways had reached the fringes of built-up London. But the new companies were not permitted to demolish enough property to penetrate the city or the West End, so passengers had to disembark at
Social and economic consequences
The railways changed British society in numerous and complex ways. Although recent attempts to measure the economic significance of the railways have suggested that their overall contribution to the growth of GDP was more modest than an earlier generation of historians sometimes assumed, it is nonetheless clear that the railways had a sizeable impact in many spheres of economic activity. The building of railways and locomotives, for example, called for large quantities of heavy materials and thus provided a significant stimulus or 'backward linkage', to the coal-mining, iron-production, engineering and construction industries.
They also helped to reduce transaction costs, which in turn lowered the costs of goods: the distribution and sale of perishable goods such as meat, milk, fish and vegetables were transformed by the emergence of the railways, giving rise not only to cheaper produce in the shops but also to far greater variety in people's diets.
Finally, by improving personal mobility the railways were a significant force for social change. Rail transport had originally been conceived as a way of moving coal and industrial goods but the railway operators quickly realised the potential market for railway travel, leading to an extremely rapid expansion in passenger services. The number of railway passengers trebled in just eight years between 1842 and 1850: traffic volumes roughly doubled in the 1850s and then doubled again in the 1860s.[69]
As the historian Derek Aldcroft has noted, "in terms of mobility and choice they added a new dimension to everyday life".[70]
Bulgaria
The Ruse – Varna was the first railway line in the modern Bulgarian territory, and also in the former Ottoman Empire. It was started in 1864 by the Turkish government, by commissioning for it an English company managed by William Gladstone, a politician, and the Barkley brothers, civil engineers. The line, which was 223 km long, was opened in 1866.
France
In France, railways were first operated by private coal companies the first legal agreement to build a railway was given in 1823 and the line (from
After some consolidation, six companies controlled monopolies of their regions, subject to close control by the government in terms of fares, finances and even minute technical details. The central government department of Ponts et Chaussées [bridges and roads] brought in British engineers and workers, handled much of the construction work, provided engineering expertise and planning, land acquisition and construction of permanent infrastructure such as the track bed, bridges and tunnels. It also subsidized militarily necessary lines along the German border, which was considered necessary for the national defense. Private operating companies provided management, hired labor, laid the tracks and built and operated stations. They purchased and maintained the rolling stock—6,000 locomotives were in operation in 1880, which averaged 51,600 passengers a year or 21,200 tons of freight.
Although starting the whole system at once was politically expedient, it delayed completion and forced even more reliance on temporary experts brought in from Britain. Financing was also a problem. The solution was a narrow base of funding through the Rothschilds and the closed circles of the Bourse in Paris, so France did not develop the same kind of national stock exchange that flourished in London and New York. The system did help modernize the parts of rural France it reached and help to develop many local industrial centers, mostly in the North (coal and iron mines) and in the East (textiles and heavy industry). Critics such as Émile Zola complained that it never overcame the corruption of the political system, but rather contributed to it.
The railways probably helped the industrial revolution in France by facilitating a national market for raw materials, wines, cheeses and imported and exported manufactured products. In The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833–1914, published in 1915, Edwin A. Pratt wrote, "the French railways … attained a remarkable degree of success. … It was estimated that the 75,966 men and 4,469 horses transported by rail from Paris to the Mediterranean or to the frontiers of the Kingdom of Sardinia between 20 and 30 April April [during the 1859 Second Italian War of Independence] would have taken sixty days to make the journey by road. … This… was about twice as fast as the best achievement recorded up to that time on the German railways.[71] " Yet the goals set by the French for their railway system were moralistic, political and military rather than economic. As a result, the freight trains were shorter and less heavily loaded than those in such rapidly industrializing nations such as Britain, Belgium or Germany. Other infrastructure needs in rural France, such as better roads and canals, were neglected because of the expense of the railways, so it seems likely that there were net negative effects in areas not served by the trains.[72]
Germany
An operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica.[11] This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.[12] This system became very popular across Europe.
The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the 1840s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron.[73] Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Economist Friedrich List summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:
- As a means of national defence, it facilitates the concentration, distribution and direction of the army.
- It is a means to the improvement of the culture of the nation. It brings talent, knowledge and skill of every kind readily to market.
- It secures the community against dearth and famine and against excessive fluctuation in the prices of the necessaries of life.
- It promotes the spirit of the nation, as it has a tendency to destroy the Philistine spirit arising from isolation and provincial prejudice and vanity. It binds nations by ligaments and promotes an interchange of food and of commodities, thus making it feel to be a unit. The iron rails become a nerve system, which, on the one hand, strengthens public opinion, and, on the other hand, strengthens the power of the state for police and governmental purposes.[74]
Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight a day and forged ahead of France.[75]
Italy
The following year the firm Holzhammer of
In the Kingdom of Sardinia (comprising Piedmont, Liguria and Sardinia), King Charles Albert ordered on 18 July 1844 the construction of the Turin–Genoa railway, which was inaugurated on 18 December 1853.[77] This was followed by the opening of other sections which connected with France, Switzerland and Lombardy–Venetia. A locomotive factory was also founded in Genoa, in order to avoid the English monopoly in the field. This became the modern Ansaldo.[78]
In
In the course of the
At the creation of the unified Kingdom of Italy (17 March 1861), railways in the country were the following:[81]
Piedmont | 850 km (530 mi) |
Lombardy–Venetia | 522 km (324 mi) |
Tuscany | 257 km (160 mi) |
Papal State | 317 km (197 mi) (year 1870) |
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies | 128 km (80 mi) |
for a total of 2,064 km (1,283 mi) active railways. Lines in the Papal States were still under construction, whilst Sicily had its first, short railway only in 1863 (Palermo-Bagheria). In 1870 the last remnant of the Papal States was also annexed to Italy: it comprised the railway connection from Rome to Frascati, Civitavecchia, Terni and Cassino (through Velletri). In 1872 there were in Italy about 7,000 km (4,300 mi) of railways.[82] After unification, construction of new lines was boosted: in 1875, with the completion of the section Orte-Orvieto, the direct Florence–Rome line was completed, reducing the travel time of the former route passing through Foligno-Terontola.[83] As of 2011, the Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of 24,227 km (15,054 mi).[84]
Netherlands
Rail transport in the Netherlands is generally considered to have begun on 20 September 1839 when the first train, drawn by the locomotive . However, the first plan for a railroad in the Netherlands was launched only shortly after the first railroad opened in Britain.
The history of rail transport in the Netherlands can be described in six eras:
- the period up to 1839 – the first plans were made for a railroad,
- 1840–1860 – railroads experienced their early expansion,
- 1860–1890 – the government started ordering the construction of new lines,
- 1890–1938 – the different railroads were consolidated into two large railroads,
- 1938–1992 – Nederlandse Spoorwegen was granted a monopoly on rail transport, and
- 1992 to present – the Nederlandse Spoorwegen lost its monopoly.
Poland
Poland restored its own independence as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. First Polish locomotive Ok22 (100 km/h) started operating in 1923. Imported electric locomotives English Electric EL.100 (100 km/h) were in use in Warsaw since 1936. New Polish locomotive Pm36-1 (140 km/h) was shown at the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in Paris in 1937. New Polish electric locomotive EP09 (160 km/h) was designed in 1977 and started regular operation linking Warsaw and Kraków in 1987. On 14 December 2014 PKP Intercity New Pendolino trains by Alstom under the name 'Express Intercity Premium' began operating on the CMK line (224 km line from Kraków and Katowice to Warsaw) with trains reaching 200 km/h (124 mph) as a regularly scheduled operation.
Russia
In the early 1830s, the Russian father and son inventors the Cherepanovs built the first Russian steam locomotive. The first railway line was built in Russia in 1837 between Saint-Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. It was 27 km long and linked the Imperial Palaces at Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk. The track gauge was 6 feet (1.8 metres). Russia was in need of big transportation systems and geographically suited to railroads, with long flat stretches of land and comparatively simple land acquisition. It was hampered, however, by its outmoded political situation and a shortage of capital. Foreign initiative and capital were required. It was the Americans who brought the technology of railway construction to Russia.[citation needed] In 1842, planning began for the building of Russia's first important railway; it linked Moscow and St Petersburg.[85]
Spain
Cuba, then a Spanish colony, built its first rail line in 1837. The history of rail transport in peninsular Spain begins in 1848 with the construction of a railway line between Barcelona and Mataró. In 1852, the first narrow gauge line was built. In 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864, the Madrid-Irun line had been opened and the French border was reached.
North America
Canada
The earliest railway in Canada was a wooden railway reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at
Anglo entrepreneurs in
Den Otter (1997) challenges popular assumptions that Canada built transcontinental railways because it feared the annexationist schemes of aggressive Americans. Instead Canada overbuilt railroads because it hoped to compete with, even overtake Americans in the race for continental riches. It downplayed the more realistic Maritimes-based London-oriented connections and turned to utopian prospects for the farmlands and minerals of the west. The result was closer ties between north and south, symbolized by the Grand Trunk's expansion into the American Midwest. These economic links promoted trade, commerce and the flow of ideas between the two countries, integrating Canada into a North American economy and culture by 1880. About 700,000 Canadians migrated to the US in the late 19th century.[88] The Canadian Pacific, paralleling the American border, opened a vital link to British Canada and stimulated settlement of the Prairies. The CP was affiliated with James J. Hill's American railways and opened even more connections to the South. The connections were two-way, as thousands of American moved to the Prairies after their own frontier had closed.
Two additional transcontinental lines were built to the west coast—three in all—but that was far more than the traffic would bear, making the system simply too expensive. One after another, the federal government was forced to take over the lines and cover their deficits. In 1923, the government merged the Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern and National Transcontinental lines into the new the Canadian National Railways system. Since most of the equipment was imported from Britain or the US and most of the products carried were from farms, mines or forests, there was little stimulation to domestic manufacturing. On the other hand, the railways were essential to the growth of the wheat regions in the Prairies and to the expansion of coal mining, lumbering and paper making. Improvements to the St. Lawrence waterway system continued apace and many short lines were built to river ports.[89]
United States
Overview
Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the
Railroads not only increased the speed of transport, they also dramatically lowered its cost. For example, the first transcontinental railroad resulted in passengers and freight being able to cross the country in a matter of days instead of months and at one tenth the cost of stagecoach or wagon transport. With economical transportation in the West (which had been referred to as the "Great American Desert") now farming, ranching and mining could be done at a profit. As a result, railroads transformed the country, particularly the West (which had few navigable rivers).[90][91][92][93][94]
Although the South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the Civil War. The North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily settled Midwestern Corn Belt, over 80 percent of farms were within 10 miles of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs and cattle to national and international markets. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway bonds, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. State and local governments often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them.
The system was largely built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic and automobiles (and later airplanes) to devour the passenger traffic. The use of diesel electric locomotives (after 1940) made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road and in repair shops.
Mileage
Route mileage peaked at 254,000 miles (409,000 km) in 1916 and fell to 140,000 miles (230,000 km) in 2009.[95]
In 1830, there were about 75 miles (121 km) of railroad track, in short lines linked to coal and granite mines.[96]). After this, railroad lines grew rapidly. Ten years later, in 1840, the railways had grown to 2,800 miles (4,500 km). By 1860, on the eve of civil war, the length had reached 29,000 miles (47,000 km), mostly in the North. The South had much less trackage and it was geared to moving cotton short distances to river or ocean ports. The Southern railroads were destroyed during the war but were soon rebuilt. By 1890, the national system was virtually complete with 164,000 miles (264,000 km).[97]
Railroad Accumulated Mileage by Region | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1830 | 1840 | 1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890 | |
ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT | 29.80 | 513.34 | 2,595.57 | 3,644.24 | 4,326.73 | 5,888.09 | 6,718.19 |
NY, PA, OH, MI, IN, MD, DE, NJ, DC | 1,483.76 | 3,740.36 | 11,927.21 | 18,291.93 | 28,154.73 | 40,825.60 | |
VA, WV, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, NC, SC | 10.00 | 737.33 | 2,082.07 | 7,907.79 | 10,609.60 | 14,458.33 | 27,833.15 |
IL, IA, WI, MO, MN |
46.48 | 4,951.47 | 11,030.85 | 22,212.98 | 35,579.80 | ||
LA, AR & OK (Indian) Territory |
20.75 |
107.00 | 250.23 | 331.23 | 1,621.11 | 5,153.91 | |
(Terr.)ND/SD, NM, WY, MT, ID, UT, AZ, WA (States)NE, KS, TX, CO, CA, NV, OR |
238.85 | 4,577.99 | 15,466.18 | 47,451.47 | |||
TOTAL USA | 39.80 | 2,755.18 | 8,571.48 | 28,919.79 | 49,168.33 | 87,801.42 | 163,562.12 |
In 1869, the symbolically important transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States with the driving of a golden spike (near the city of Ogden).
Latin America
In Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries railways were critical elements in the early stages of modernization of the Latin American economy, especially in linking agricultural regions to export-oriented seaports.[99] After 1870 Latin American governments encouraged further rail development through generous concessions that included government subsidies for construction. Railway construction is the subject of considerable scholarship, examining the economic, political, and social impacts of railroads. Railways transformed many regions of Latin America beginning in the late nineteenth century. "Increasing exports of primary commodities, rising imports of capital goods, the expansion of activities drawing directly and indirectly on overseas investment, the rising share of manufacturing in output, and a generalized increase in the pace and scope of economic activity were all tied closely to the timing and character of the region's infrastructural development."[100]
Rates of railway line construction were not uniform, but by 1870 railway line construction was underway, with Cuba leading with the largest railway track in service (1,295 km), followed by Chile (797 km), Brazil (744 km), Argentina (732 km), Peru (669 km), and Mexico (417 km). By 1900, Argentina (16,563 km), Brazil (15,316 km) and Mexico (13,615 km) were the leaders in length of track in service, and Peru, which had been an early leader in railway construction, had stagnated (1,790 km).[101] In Mexico, growing nationalistic fervor led the government to bring the bulk of the nation's railroads under national control in 1909, with a new government corporation, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM), that exercised control of the main trunk rail lines through a majority of share ownership.[102]
Asia
India
The first proposals for railways in
On 8 May 1845,
The first passenger train in
Iran
Iranian railway history goes back to 1887 when an approximately 20-km long railway between Tehran and Ray was established. After this time many short railways were constructed but the main railway, Trans-Iranian Railway, was started in 1927 and operated in 1938 by connecting the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea.
Japan
In 1867, in
Viewing the development of locomotive and railroad car technology in Japan, in 1893, the first steam locomotive was manufactured by Kobe works of JGR as
Pakistan
It was in 1847 when the first railway was imagined but it was not until 1861 when it came into existence in the form of the railway built from Karachi to Kotri. Since then rail transport is a popular mode of non-independent transport in Pakistan.
Africa
Angola
Botswana
Congo
East Africa
The railway was built from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala, Uganda, and construction was hampered by the presence of man-eating lions.[109]
Egypt
1833–1877
Robert Stephenson (1803–59) was the engineer of Egypt's first railway
In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha considered building a railway between Suez and Cairo to improve transit between Europe and India. Muhammad Ali had proceeded to buy the rail when the project was abandoned due to pressure by the French who had an interest in building a canal instead.[citation needed]
Proposed railway from Cairo to the Sea of Suez by
Muhammad Ali died in 1848, and in 1851 his successor
Namibia (South West Africa)
The first railway in the German colony of South West Africa was the 18 kilometres (11 mi)-long line running North-East from Walvis Bay to connect with the existing road between Swakopmund and Windhoek. It was built to 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge and was opened in 1898.[110]
Morocco
The Moroccan rail transport was first developed around 1906 and later during the French and Spanish protectorate. It functioned initially as a means to transport natural resources from in-land mines to the harbors. It was also used to move colonial troops.
Mozambique
South Africa
Sudan
Zambia
Zimbabwe
See also
- Algerian National Rail Transportation Company
- History of rail transport in Burundi
- History of rail transport in Cameroon
- History of rail transport in the Central African Republic
- History of rail transport in the Comoros
- History of rail transport in Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrean Railway
- Rail transport in Ethiopia#History
- Rail transport in Ghana
- Rail transport in Guinea
- Rail transport in Kenya#History
- History of rail transport in Lesotho
- History of rail transport in Liberia
- Rail transport in Libya#History
- History of rail transport in Madagascar
- History of rail transport in Malawi
- History of rail transport in Mauritania
- History of rail transport in Mauritius
- History of rail transport in Rwanda
- Sierra Leone Government Railway
- History of rail transport in Tanzania
- History of rail transport in Togo
See also
- Category:Rail transport timelines
- George Bradshaw, originator of the railway timetable
- Historical sizes of railroads in North America
- John Blenkinsop (1783–1831), inventor
- Matthias W. Baldwin (1795–1866), manufacturer
- List of years in rail transport
- Oldest railroads in North America
- History of the railway track
- Railway speed record
- South American Railway Congress
- Thomas Gray (1788–1848), railway advocate, published 1st ed. of Observations on a General Iron Railway, 1820.
- Timeline of railway history
- History of trams
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Bibliography
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- Summerhill, William R. "Big Social Savings in a Small Laggard Economy: Railroad-Led Growth in Brazil", Journal of Economic History (2005) 65#1 pp. 72–102 in JSTOR
- Wolmar, Christian. On the wrong line: How ideology and incompetence wrecked Britain's railways (Kemsing Publishing, 2005).
- Wolmar, Christian. Fire and steam: a new history of the railways in Britain (Atlantic Books, 2009).
- Wolmar, Christian. Engines of war: how wars were won & lost on the railways (PublicAffairs, 2010).
- Wolmar, Christian. Blood, iron, and gold: How the railroads transformed the world (Public Affairs, 2011).
- Wolmar, Christian. The great railroad revolution: The history of trains in America (PublicAffairs, 2012).
- Wolmar, Christian. The Iron Road: The Illustrated History of Railways (Dorling Kindersley, 2014).
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Historiography
- Hurd II, John and Ian J. Kerr, eds. India's railway history: a research handbook (Brill, 2012)
- Lee, Robert. "A Fractious Federation: Patterns in Australian Railway Historiography." Mobility in History(2013) 4#1 pp. 149–158
- McDonald, Kate. "Asymmetrical Integration: Lessons from a Railway Empire." Technology and Culture (2015) 56#1 pp. 115–149
- Pathak, Dev N. "Marian Aguiar, Tracking Modernity: India’s Railway and the Culture of Mobility." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (2012) 35#4 pp. 900–901
- Salerno, Elena. "The Historiography of Railways in Argentina: Between Foreign Investment, Nationalism and Liberalism." Mobility in History (2014) 5#1 pp. 105–120
External links
- WWW Guide to "Railroad History" 2016
- John H. White, Jr. Reference Collection, 1880s–1990 Archived 5 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
- National Railway Historical Society Archived 18 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- Foreign Railways of the World: Containing in One Volume, the Names of Officers, Length, Capital,... (1884)
- How the Railroad is Modernising Asia, The Advertiser, Adelaide, S. Australia, 22 March 1913. N.B.: The article is approx. 1,500 words, covering approx. a dozen Asian countries.