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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 London Necropolis Railway was a railway line opened in November 1854 by the London Necropolis Company (LNC), to carry cadavers and mourners between London and the LNC's newly opened Brookwood Cemetery 23 miles (37 km) southwest of London in Brookwood, Surrey. At the time the largest cemetery in the world, Brookwood Cemetery was designed to be large enough to accommodate all the deaths in London for centuries to come, and the LNC hoped to gain a monopoly on London's burial industry. The cemetery had intentionally been built far enough from London so as never to be affected by urban growth, and was dependent on the recently invented railway to connect it to the city. The railway mostly ran along the existing tracks of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), but had its own branches from the main line at both London and Brookwood. Trains carried coffins and passengers from a dedicated station in Waterloo, London, onto the LSWR tracks. On reaching the cemetery, the trains reversed down a dedicated branch line to two stations in the cemetery, one for the burial of Anglicans and one for Nonconformists (non-Anglicans) and those who did not want a Church of England funeral. The station waiting rooms and the compartments of the train, both for living and for dead passengers, were partitioned by both religion and class to prevent both mourners and cadavers from different social backgrounds from mixing. As well as the regular funeral traffic, the London Necropolis Railway was also used to transport large numbers of exhumed bodies during the mass removal of a number of London graveyards to Brookwood. The company failed to gain a monopoly of the burial industry, and the scheme was not as successful as its promoters had hoped. While they had planned to carry between 10,000 and 50,000 bodies per year, in 1941 after 87 years of operation only slightly over 200,000 burials had been conducted in Brookwood Cemetery. On the night of 16–17 April 1941 the London terminus was badly damaged in an air raid and was rendered unusable. Although the LNC continued to operate occasional funeral services from Waterloo station to Brookwood railway station immediately north of the cemetery, the London Necropolis Railway was never used again.

Recently selected: Elizabethtown (Amtrak station) - Oslo Metro rolling stock - Frank Pick

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The underside of a freight train in Germany in 2009. Many components of the train's braking system are visible.

Recently selected: Swiss freight train - Santa on a platform in Finland - Interlocking tower at Gare de Laon

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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

September 25

1866 – George W. Richardson of the Troy and Boston Railroad is awarded a U.S. patent for a steam locomotive pop safety valve.
1868 – The Big Four group of financiers in California purchases the Southern Pacific Railroad.
1913 – Herbert William Garratt, English steam locomotive builder and inventor of the Garratt locomotive type (pictured), dies (b. 1864).
2003 - Canadian National Railway sells most of its Turcot Yard in Montreal to the Quebec Department of Transport for $17.8 million.

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