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Trains are an evolution of wheeled wagons running on stone wagonways, the earliest of which were built by Babylon circa 2,200 BCE. Starting in the 1500s, wagonways were introduced to haul material from mines; from the 1790s, stronger iron rails were introduced. Following early developments in the second half of the 1700s, in 1804 a steam locomotive built by British inventor Richard Trevithick powered the first ever steam train. Outside of coal mines, where fuel was readily available, steam locomotives remained untried until the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. British engineer George Stephenson ran a steam locomotive named Locomotion No. 1 on this 40-kilometer 25-mile long line, hauling over 400 passengers at up to 13 kilometers per hour (8 mph). The success of this locomotive, and Stephenson's Rocket in 1829, convinced many of the value in steam locomotives, and within a decade the stock market bubble known as "Railway Mania" started across the United Kingdom.
The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power.
News of the success of steam locomotives quickly reached the United States, where the first steam railroad opened in 1829. American railroad pioneers soon started manufacturing their own locomotives, designed to handle the sharper curves and rougher track typical of the country's railroads. The other nations of Europe also took note of British railroad developments, and most countries on the continent constructed and opened their first railroads in the 1830s and 1840s, following the first run of a steam train in France in late 1829. In the 1850s, trains continued to expand across Europe, with many influenced by or purchases of American locomotive designs. Other European countries pursued their own distinct designs. Around the world, steam locomotives grew larger and more powerful throughout the rest of the century as technology advanced.
Trains first entered service in South America, Africa, and Asia through construction by imperial powers, which starting in the 1840s built railroads to solidify control of their colonies and transport cargo for export. In Japan, which was never colonized, railroads first arrived in the early 1870s. By 1900, railroads were operating on every continent besides uninhabited Antarctica.
New technologies
Electric train on Djursholmsbanan in Stockholm in the 1890s.
Even as steam locomotive technology continued to improve, inventors in Germany started work on alternative methods for powering trains. Werner von Siemens built the first train powered by electricity in 1879, and went on to pioneer electric trams. Another German inventor, Rudolf Diesel, constructed the first diesel engine in the 1890s, though the potential of his invention to power trains was not realized until decades later. Between 1897 and 1903, tests of experimental electric locomotives on the Royal Prussian Military Railway in Germany demonstrated they were viable, setting speed records in excess of 160 kilometers per hour 100 mph.
The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam.
Early gas powered doodlebug self-propelled railcars entered service on railroads in the first decade of the 1900s. Experimentation with diesel and gas power continued, culminating in the German Flying Hamburger in 1933, and the influential American EMD FT in 1939. These successful diesel locomotives showed that diesel power was superior to steam, due to lower costs, ease of maintenance, and better reliability. Meanwhile, Italy developed an extensive network of electric trains during the first decades of the 20th century, driven by that country's lack of significant coal reserves.
Dieselization and increased competition
World War II brought great destruction to existing railroads across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Following the war's conclusion in 1945, nations which had suffered extensive damage to their railroad networks took the opportunity provided by Marshall Plan funds or economic assistance from the USSR and Comecon, for nations behind the Iron Curtain and advances in technology to convert their trains to diesel or electric power. France, Russia, Switzerland, and Japan were leaders in adopting widespread electrified railroads, while other nations focused primarily on dieselization. By 1980, the majority of the world's steam locomotives had been retired, though they continued to be used in parts of Africa and Asia, along with a few holdouts in Europe and South America. China was the last country to fully dieselize, due to its abundant coal reserves; steam locomotives were used to haul mainline trains as late as 2005 in Inner Mongolia.
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