Editing Rail transport (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of rail transport}}

Smooth, durable [[road surface]]s have been made for [[wheeled vehicle]]s since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were [[wagonway]]s or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep the wheels on track.

For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5&nbsp;km long ''[[Diolkos]]'' paved trackway transported boats across the [[Isthmus of Corinth]] in [[Greece]] from around 600&nbsp;BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD.<ref name="Lewis, M. J. T. (2001), 11">{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=M. J. T. |title=Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference |date=2001 |editor-last1=Guy |editor-first1=A. |pages=8–19 |chapter=Railways in the Greek and Roman world |editor-last2=Rees |editor-first2=J. |chapter-url=http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083013/http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2011}}</ref> Paved trackways were also later built in [[Roman Egypt]].<ref>{{cite journal |title = The ΔΙΟΛΚΟΣ of Alexandria |journal = The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|first = P. M.|last = Fraser|volume =47|date = December 1961|pages= 134–138 |doi = 10.2307/3855873|jstor = 3855873}}</ref>

===Pre-steam modern systems===
{{See also|Funicular|Wagonway|Tramway (industrial)|Plateway}}

====Wooden rails introduced====
[[File:Berlin_Technikmuseum_Holzbahn.jpg|thumb|A 16th-century mine-cart, an early example of un-powered rail transport, used man power to operate.]]
In 1515, [[Matthäus Lang|Cardinal Matthäus Lang]] wrote a description of the [[Reisszug]], a [[funicular]] railway at the [[Hohensalzburg Fortress]] in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a [[hemp]] haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a [[treadwheel]].<ref name="fm1">{{cite web |url=http://www.funimag.com/funimag10/RESZUG01.HTM |title=Der Reiszug: Part 1{{Snd}} Presentation |publisher=Funimag |access-date=22 April 2009 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020015136/https://www.funimag.com/funimag10/RESZUG01.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway.<ref>{{cite news |first=Reinhard |last=Kriechbaum |url=http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120628225245/http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 June 2012 |title=Die große Reise auf den Berg |work=der Tagespost |date=15 May 2004 |access-date=22 April 2009 |language=de }}</ref>

Wagonways (or [[tramway (industrial)|tramways]]) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in [[Germany]] in 1556 by [[Georgius Agricola]] in his work [[De re metallica]].<ref>Georgius Agricola (trans Hoover), ''[[De re metallica]]'' (1913), p. 156.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lee |first=Charles E. |title=The Evolution of Railways |edition=2nd |year=1943 |magazine =Railway Gazette|location=London |page=16 |oclc=1591369}}</ref>

There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century.<ref>Lewis, ''Early wooden railways'', pp. 8–10.</ref> Such a transport system was later used by German miners at [[Caldbeck]], [[Cumbria]], England, perhaps from the 1560s.<ref>Warren Allison, Samuel Murphy and Richard Smith, ''An Early Railway in the German Mines of Caldbeck'' in G. Boyes (ed.), ''Early Railways 4: Papers from the 4th International Early Railways Conference 2008'' (Six Martlets, Sudbury, 2010), pp. 52–69.</ref> 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 {{convert|1/2|mi|m|spell=in}} away.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Mark |title=Lancashire Railways{{Snd}} The History of Steam |publisher=Countryside Books |location=Newbury |date=2012 |page=5 |isbn=978-1-84674-298-9}}</ref> A funicular railway was also 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.<ref>Peter King, ''The First Shropshire Railways'' in G. Boyes (ed.), ''Early Railways 4: Papers from the 4th International Early Railways Conference 2008'' (Six Martlets, Sudbury, 2010), pp. 70–84.</ref> The [[Wollaton Wagonway]], completed in 1604 by [[Huntingdon Beaumont]], has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from [[Strelley, Nottingham|Strelley]] to [[Wollaton]] near [[Nottingham]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/huntingdon-beaumonts-wollaton-to-strelley-waggonway/ |title=Huntingdon Beaumont's Wollaton to Strelley Waggonway |publisher=Nottingham Hidden History |access-date=23 August 2017 |date=30 July 2013 |archive-date=27 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127031058/https://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/huntingdon-beaumonts-wollaton-to-strelley-waggonway/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 the Americas was built in [[Lewiston, New York]].<ref name="Porter">{{cite book | last=Porter |first=Peter |title=Landmarks of the Niagara Frontier |publisher=Privately printed |year=1914 | oclc=1044424468}}</ref>

====Metal rails introduced ====
[[File:Little Eaton Tramway Replica Wagon small.jpg|thumb|A replica of a "Little Eaton Tramway" wagon, 1795; the tracks are plateways.]]
[[File:Cromford and High Peak Railway cast-iron fishbelly rail.png|thumb|A cast iron fishbelly edge rail manufactured by Outram at the Butterley Company for the [[Cromford and High Peak Railway]] in 1831; these are smooth edge rails for wheels with flanges.]]
In the late 1760s, the [[Coalbrookdale]] Company began to fix plates of [[cast iron]] to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of [[rail gauge|gauge]] to be used. At first only [[balloon loop]]s could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vaughan, A. |year=1997 |title=Railwaymen, Politics and Money |location=London |publisher=John Murray |isbn=978-0-7195-5746-0}}</ref>

A system was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as [[plateway]]s. [[John Curr]], a [[Sheffield]] colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by [[Benjamin Outram]] for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his [[Butterley Company|Butterley ironworks]]. In 1803, [[William Jessop]] opened the [[Surrey Iron Railway]], a double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.stephensonloco.fsbusiness.co.uk/surreyiron.htm| title=Surrey Iron Railway 200th – 26th July 2003| publisher=Stephenson Locomotive Society| work=Early Railways| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512032233/http://www.stephensonloco.fsbusiness.co.uk/surreyiron.htm| archive-date=12 May 2009}}</ref>

[[William Jessop]] had earlier used a form of all-iron [[edge rail (edgeways)|edge rail]] and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the [[Charnwood Forest Canal]] at [[Nanpantan]], Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in the Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was [[Lake Lock Rail Road]] in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers.

These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became the standard for railways.

Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The [[wrought iron]] invented by [[John Birkinshaw]] in 1820 replaced cast iron. 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 iron was expensive to produce until [[Henry Cort]] patented the [[puddling (metallurgy)|puddling process]] in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the [[rolling (metalworking)|rolling process]], which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present|last=Landes|first= David. S.|year= 1969|publisher =Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
|location= Cambridge, New York|isbn= 978-0-521-09418-4|pages=91}}</ref> These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Landes|1969|pp=92}}</ref> 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 lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the 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.<ref name="Wells1890">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=David A. |year=1890 |title=Recent Economic Changes and Their Effect on Production and Distribution of Wealth and Well-Being of Society |publisher= D. Appleton and Co. |location=New York |oclc=2607599 |url=https://archive.org/details/recenteconomicc01wellgoog}}</ref><ref name="Grubler1990">{{cite book |last=Grübler |first=Arnulf |title=The Rise and Fall of Infrastructures: Dynamics of Evolution and Technological Change in Transport |year=1990 |publisher=Physica-Verlag |location=Heidelberg and New York |url=http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/XB-90-704.pdf |access-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301221205/http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/XB-90-704.pdf |archive-date=1 March 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Fogel |first=Robert W. |year=1964 |title=Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History |publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore and London |oclc=237790 |url=https://archive.org/details/railroadsamerica00foge }}</ref> Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads.<ref>{{cite book |title= Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics |last= Rosenberg |first= Nathan |year= 1982 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge, New York |isbn= 978-0-521-27367-1 |page= [https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 60] |url= https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 }}</ref> 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 the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways.

The first passenger [[horsecar]] or [[tram]], [[Swansea and Mumbles Railway]], was opened between [[Swansea]] and [[Mumbles]] in [[Wales]] in 1807.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/swansea/pages/mumbles_trainanniv.shtml| title=Early Days of Mumbles Railway| date=15 February 2007| publisher=BBC| access-date=19 September 2007| archive-date=27 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327234527/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/swansea/pages/mumbles_trainanniv.shtml| url-status=live}}</ref> Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until the end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets.

===Steam power introduced===
{{See also|Steam locomotive}}
[[File:TrevithicksEngine.jpg|thumb|A replica of Trevithick's steam engine at the [[National Waterfront Museum]] in [[Swansea]], Wales]]
In 1784, [[James Watt]], a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a [[steam locomotive]]. Watt had improved the [[steam engine]] of [[Thomas Newcomen]], hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a [[reciprocating engine]] in 1769 capable of powering a wheel. This was a large [[stationary engine]], powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate [[Condenser (heat transfer)|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, raising the possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee [[William Murdoch]] produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year.<ref>{{cite book
 | last=Gordon
 | first=W. J.
 | year=1910
 | title=Our Home Railways, volume one
 | publisher=Frederick Warne and Co
 | location =London
 | pages =7–9
 }}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco/|title=Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive|work=National Museum Wales|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415125004/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco|archive-date=15 April 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title = Steam train anniversary begins
| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3509961.stm
| publisher = BBC
| access-date = 13 June 2009
| quote = A south Wales town has begun months of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of the steam locomotive. Merthyr Tydfil was the location where, on 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick took the world into the railway age when he set one of his high-pressure steam engines on a local iron master's tram rails
| date = 21 February 2004
| archive-date = 3 June 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200603021117/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3509961.stm
| url-status = live
}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |page=12}}</ref>

The first commercially successful steam locomotive was [[Matthew Murray]]'s [[rack railway|rack]] locomotive ''[[The Salamanca|Salamanca]]'' built for the [[Middleton Railway]] in [[Leeds]] in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive was light enough to not break the [[edge rail (edgeways)|edge-rail]]s track and solved the problem of [[Rail adhesion|adhesion]] by a [[cog-wheel]] using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first [[rack railway]].

This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive ''[[Puffing Billy (locomotive)|Puffing Billy]]'' built by [[Blackett of Wylam|Christopher Blackett]] and [[William Hedley]] for the [[Wylam]] Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by [[Rail adhesion|adhesion]] only. This was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. ''Puffing Billy'' is now on display in the [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]] in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence.<ref>{{Cite web|title='Puffing Billy' locomotive {{!}} Science Museum Group Collection|url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8247941/puffing-billy-locomotive-steam-locomotive|access-date=26 May 2021|website=collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk|language=en|archive-date=19 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519104831/https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8247941/puffing-billy-locomotive-steam-locomotive|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |pages=20–22}}</ref>

In 1814, [[George Stephenson]], inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the [[Killingworth]] [[Coal mining|colliery]] where he worked to allow him to build a [[Steam engine|steam-powered]] machine. Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive ''[[Blücher (locomotive)|Blücher]]'', also a successful [[flange]]d-wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive ''[[Locomotion No 1|Locomotion]]'' for the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in the world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive ''[[Stephenson's Rocket|Rocket]]'', which entered in and won the [[Rainhill Trials]]. This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe.<ref name="Ellis">{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |last=Ellis |first=Hamilton |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968}}</ref>{{RP|24–30}} The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all the time, was [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]], built in 1830.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First in the world: The making of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway |url=https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/making-the-liverpool-and-manchester-railway |access-date=15 April 2022 |website=Science and Industry Museum |language=en |archive-date=2 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200502233609/https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/making-the-liverpool-and-manchester-railway |url-status=live }}</ref>

Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century.

===Electric power introduced===
{{See also|Electric locomotive|Railway electrification system}}

[[File:First electric tram- Siemens 1881 in Lichterfelde.jpg|thumb|right|Lichterfelde tram, 1882]]The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist [[Robert Davidson (inventor)|Robert Davidson]] of [[Aberdeen]] in Scotland, and it was powered by [[galvanic cell]]s (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built a larger locomotive named ''Galvani'', exhibited at the [[Royal Scottish Society of Arts]] Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two [[direct-drive]] [[reluctance motor]]s, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple [[commutator (electric)|commutators]]. It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km|abbr=off|spell=in}}. It was tested on the [[Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway]] in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Day|first1=Lance|last2=McNeil|first2=Ian|title=Biographical dictionary of the history of technology|year=1966|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-06042-4|chapter=Davidson, Robert|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415060424}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=William|title=Our Home Railways|publisher=Frederick Warne and Co|location=London|year=1910|volume=2|page=156|chapter=The Underground Electric}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Renzo Pocaterra, ''Treni'', De Agostini, 2003</ref> By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways.<ref>Jean Denis G.G Lepage, Military Trains and Railways: an illustrated history, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017. Print. pp. 9-11.</ref>

[[Werner von Siemens]] demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, [[Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway]], opened in [[Lichterfelde (Berlin)|Lichterfelde]] near [[Berlin]], Germany, in 1881. It was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an [[Overhead line|overhead wire]] and the line was extended to [[Berlin-Lichterfelde West station]]. The [[Volk's Electric Railway]] opened in 1883 in [[Brighton]], England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, [[Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram]] opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric [[Tram|trolleys]] were pioneered in 1888 on the [[Richmond Union Passenger Railway]], using equipment designed by [[Frank Julian Sprague|Frank J. Sprague]].<ref>
{{cite web|
url=http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/richmond.html|
title=Richmond Union Passenger Railway|
publisher=[[IEEE|IEEE History Center]]|
access-date=18 January 2008|
archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201032737/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/richmond.html|
archive-date=1 December 2008|
url-status=dead}}
</ref>

The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section 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 City|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.

[[File:Baker Street Waterloo Railway platform March 1906.png|thumb|left|Passengers waiting to board a tube train on the [[London Underground]] in the early 1900s (sketch by unknown artist)|alt=Sketch showing about a dozen people standing on an underground railway platform with a train standing at the platform. Several more people are visible inside the train, which has the words "Baker St" visible on its side.]]

The [[London Underground]], the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using a [[fourth rail]] system in 1890 on the [[City and South London Railway]], now part of the [[London Underground]] [[Northern line]]. This was the first major railway to use [[Railway electrification in Great Britain|electric traction]]. The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the [[City of London]], under the [[River Thames]], to [[Stockwell]] in south London.<ref>{{cite news|title=A brief history of the Underground|url=https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/culture-and-heritage/londons-transport-a-history/london-underground/a-brief-history-of-the-underground|publisher=Transport for London.gov.uk|date=15 October 2017|access-date=16 October 2017|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612192039/https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/culture-and-heritage/londons-transport-a-history/london-underground/a-brief-history-of-the-underground|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first practical [[alternating current|AC]] electric locomotive was designed by [[Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown|Charles Brown]], then working for [[Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon|Oerlikon]], Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using [[three-phase electric power|three-phase AC]], between a [[hydroelectricity|hydro-electric plant]] at [[Lauffen am Neckar]] and [[Frankfurt am Main]] West, a distance of {{Cvt|280|km}}. Using experience he had gained while working for [[Heilmann locomotive|Jean Heilmann]] on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that [[AC motor#Three-phase AC synchronous motors|three-phase motors]] had a higher [[power-to-weight ratio]] than [[Direct current|DC]] motors and, because of the absence of a [[Commutator (electric)|commutator]], were simpler to manufacture and maintain.{{efn|Heilmann evaluated both AC and DC electric transmission for his locomotives, but eventually settled on a design based on [[Thomas Edison]]'s DC system.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|pp=39–41}}}} However, they were much larger than the DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor [[bogie]]s: they could only be carried within locomotive bodies.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|p=129}}

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 [[Évian-les-Bains]] (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898.<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew L. Simon|title=Made in Hungary: Hungarian Contributions to Universal Culture |publisher=Simon Publications|year=1998|page=[https://archive.org/details/madeinhungaryhun0000simo/page/264 264]|isbn=978-0-9665734-2-8|url=https://archive.org/details/madeinhungaryhun0000simo|url-access=registration |quote=Evian-les-Bains kando.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Francis S. Wagner|title=Hungarian Contributions to World Civilization|publisher=Alpha Publications|year=1977|page=67|isbn=978-0-912404-04-2}}</ref>

In 1896, Oerlikon installed the first commercial example of the system on the [[Trams in Lugano|Lugano Tramway]]. Each 30-tonne locomotive had two {{convert|110|kW|hp|-1|abbr=on}} motors run by three-phase 750&nbsp;V 40&nbsp;Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide [[Regenerative brake|regenerative braking]], and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with [[Brown, Boveri & Cie|Walter Boveri]]) in 1899 on the 40&nbsp;km [[List of railway electrification systems#Burgdorf-Thun Bahn|Burgdorf–Thun line]], Switzerland.

[[File:Ganz engine Valtellina.jpg|thumb|A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in [[Valtellina]], Italy, 1901]]
Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106&nbsp;km [[Valtellina]] line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|p=120–121}}<ref name="Patent Office" /> The electrical system was three-phase at 3&nbsp;kV 15&nbsp;Hz. In 1918,{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|p=137}} 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&nbsp;Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks.<ref name="Patent Office">{{cite web
|url=http://www.mszh.hu/English/feltalalok/kando.html
|title=Kálmán Kandó (1869–1931)
|author=Hungarian Patent Office
|publisher=mszh.hu
|access-date=10 August 2008
|archive-date=8 October 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008073106/http://www.mszh.hu/English/feltalalok/kando.html
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50&nbsp;Hz, and established it as a standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50&nbsp;Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|p=273}}

=== Diesel power introduced ===
{{See also|Diesel locomotive|Dieselisation#Rail transport}}
[[File:Limousin2010RVT01.jpg|thumb|right|[[Switzerland|Swiss]] & [[Germany|German]] co-production: world's first functional diesel–electric railcar 1914]]
Earliest recorded examples of an [[internal combustion engine]] for railway use included a prototype designed by [[William Dent Priestman]]. [[Sir William Thomson]] examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes."<ref>{{citation| magazine = The Engineer| date = 24 April 1956| page = 254| title = Motive power for British Railways| volume = 202| url = http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/5/56/Er19560824.pdf| access-date = 11 October 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140304150727/http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/5/56/Er19560824.pdf| archive-date = 4 March 2014| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{citation|journal = The Electrical Review| volume =22|page = 474| date= 4 May 1888|title=Priestmans' Petroleum Engine|last=Thomson|first=William|hdl=2027/mdp.39015084630964?urlappend=%3Bseq=494%3Bownerid=13510798902290767-502|via=Haithi Trust|quote = A small double cylinder engine has been mounted upon a truck, which is worked on a temporary line of rails, in order to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes, on tramways}}</ref> In 1894, a {{convert|20|hp|kW|abbr=on}} two axle machine built by [[Priestman Brothers]] was used on the [[Hull Docks]].<ref>{{citation|title= Diesel Railway Traction|volume = 17|year= 1963|page=25| quote=In one sense a dock authority was the earliest user of an oil-engined locomotive, for it was at the Hull docks of the North Eastern Railway that the Priestman locomotive put in its short period of service in 1894}}</ref>

In 1906, [[Rudolf Diesel]], [[Adolf Klose]] and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer [[Gebrüder Sulzer]] founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the [[Winterthur–Romanshorn railway]] in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success.<ref>{{cite book |last=Churella |first=Albert J. |title=From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1998 |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] |isbn=978-0-691-02776-0 |page=12}}</ref> The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883&nbsp;kW with a maximum speed of {{Cvt|100|km/h}}.<ref>{{cite book| last=Glatte| first=Wolfgang| title=Deutsches Lok-Archiv: Diesellokomotiven 4. Auflage| publisher=Transpress| year=1993| location=Berlin| isbn=978-3-344-70767-5}}</ref> Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through the mid-1920s. The [[Soviet Union]] operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the [[Russian locomotive class E el-2|E el-2]]) proved technically viable.<ref>{{cite book |last=Westwood |first=J. N. |date=1982 |title=Soviet Locomotive Technology During Industrialization, 1928—1952 |publisher=Macmillan Press |isbn=978-1-349-05013-0}}</ref>

A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when [[Hermann Lemp]], a [[General Electric]] electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable [[direct current]] electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp).<ref>{{Cite patent|country=US|number=1154785|title=Controlling mechanism for internal-combustion engines|gdate=1915-09-28|invent1=Lemp|inventor1-first=Hermann}}</ref> Lemp's design used a single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the [[prototype]] for all [[diesel–electric locomotive]] control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the ''Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen'' ([[Royal Saxon State Railways]]) by [[Waggonfabrik Rastatt]] with electric equipment from [[Brown, Boveri & Cie]] and diesel engines from [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[Sulzer (manufacturer)|Sulzer AG]]. They were classified as [[Saxon DET 1-2|DET 1 and DET 2]] ([[:de:Sächsischer DET 1–2|de.wiki]]). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were [[switcher locomotive|switcher (shunter) locomotives]]. General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in the 1930s (the famous "[[44-tonner]]" switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929.

In 1929, the [[Canadian National Railways]] became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide |last=Pinkepank |first=Jerry A. |year=1973 |publisher=Kalmbach Books |location=Milwaukee WI |isbn=978-0-89024-026-7 |page=409}}</ref>

===High-speed rail===
{{Main|High-speed rail}}

Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to {{Cvt|200|km/h}} were started before the 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful.

[[File:Shinkansen type 0 Hikari 19890506a.jpg|thumb|0-Series [[Shinkansen]], introduced in 1964, triggered the intercity train travel boom.]]
The first electrified [[high-speed rail]] [[Tōkaidō Shinkansen]] was introduced in 1964 between [[Tokyo]] and [[Osaka]] in Japan. Since then [[high-speed rail]] transport, functioning at speeds up to and above {{Cvt|300|km/h}}, has been built in Japan, Spain, [[TGV|France]], Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, [[Taiwan High Speed Rail|Taiwan]] (Republic of China), the [[High-speed rail in the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], [[Korea Train Express|South Korea]], Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. 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|reason=
If this is correct, it's a strong argument in favor of building more high-speed rail lines. It would help to have quantitative estimates of the magnitude of this effect including as a function of distance with credible sources for those estimates. For example, could similar effects be obtained from high-speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the distances are 60 percent more than between [[London]], [[Paris]] and Brussels?|date=December 2013}}

High-speed trains normally operate on [[standard gauge]] tracks of [[continuously welded rail]] on [[Grade separation|grade-separated]] [[Right-of-way (transportation)|right-of-way]] that incorporates a large [[Minimum railway curve radius|turning radius]] in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service.

===Preservation===
{{See also|Heritage railways}}
Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of [[heritage railway]]s continue to operate as part of [[living history]] to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains.