Editing Rail transport (section)

===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}}