Types of trains. Train history

Trains are one of the most important modes of transport in the world. Millions of passengers travel by rail every day, and it doesn’t surprise anyone that you can buy a train ticket on the site without leaving your home and board the train simply by presenting the conductor with an electronic ticket (boarding pass) on paper (A4 format) or screen mobile device and passenger identification document (electronic registration). Often, just a passport is enough.

Although trains appeared much earlier than automobile and especially aviation transport, in fact, the emergence of railway communication is a recent matter. Even 200 years ago, no one could have imagined that soon people would be able to comfortably travel any distance without the help of horses. The same applies to freight and mail delivery: only railways were able to create a unified transport system in the vast territories of America, Europe, Russia, which significantly influenced the development of the economy. So, when and where was the very first train in the world created, and what was its speed?

The prototype of a modern train

The prototype of the train, very primitive, can be called trolleys, which began to be used in the XVIII century in Europe. Between certain points, for example, a mine and a village, wooden beams (beds) were laid, which performed the role of modern rails. Trolleys moved by horses or ... people paced back and forth along them. At the end of the 18th century, single trolleys began to be interconnected by iron rings in order to increase transport efficiency. These short trains of several loaded trolleys, transported on wooden rails with the help of horses, became the prototype of those trains that are used in our time.

Russia is not much behind England. The first freight train with locomotive traction was launched in 1834, and already in 1837 the Tsarskoye Selo railway was built and opened, along which passenger trains ran at a speed of 33 km / h. The honor of creating the first Russian steam locomotive belongs to the Cherepanov brothers.

First steam train

In 1804, the English engineer and inventor Richard Treytwick demonstrated to the curious spectators the first steam locomotive. This design was a cylindrical steam boiler, to which a tender was attached (a cart with coal and a place for a stoker) and one car in which people could ride. The first steam locomotive did not cause much interest among the owners of mines and mines, which Treytwick wanted to interest. Perhaps, in fact, his ingenious invention was ahead of his time, as is often the case. The high cost of materials for the manufacture of rails, the need to create all the details of a steam locomotive manually, the lack of funds and qualified helpers - all these negative factors led to the fact that in 1811 Treytvik abandoned his work.

First freight train

Using Treytvik's drawings and developments, many European engineers began to actively create and improve various types of steam locomotives. Since 1814, several models have been constructed (Blucher, Puffing Billy, Killingworth, etc.), which were successfully operated by the owners of large mines and mines. The first freight trains could carry about 30-40 tons of cargo and reached speeds of up to 6-8 km / h.

First main train

On September 19, 1825, the first train run by its creator George Stephenson passed the first public railway between Darlington and Stockton. The train consisted of a locomotive "Movement", 12 freight cars with flour and coal and 22 cars with passengers. The mass of the train, along with the cargo and passengers, was 90 tons, its speed in various sections was from 10 to 24 km / h. For comparison: today the speed of passenger trains is on average 50 km / h, and high-speed trains such as Sapsan - 250 km / h. In 1830, the Liverpool-Manchester Highway was opened in England. On the opening day, the first passenger train passed through it, which included a postal car - also the first in the world.

The history of the invention of the engine has many controversial points. It is known that the first attempts to create self-propelled steam vehicles were a cart on a wooden frame. It was driven by a simple steam boiler and an engine with vertical cylinders, thanks to which the wheels rotated. Despite the fact that Joseph Kunho is considered the author of the first cars, he did not have to put his invention on the rails.

Richard Trevitik

The first person to invent the steam engine was Richard Trevitick, an engineer from England, who in 1801 first thought up the design of new steam boilers - light and practical, and then patented the world's first steam engine “Puffing Devil”. A distinctive feature of this model was its good technical characteristics, but its production was discontinued due to the lack of steel from which the rails had to be made, because the cast iron rails simply could not cope with the huge weight of the vehicle and caved in.

After 7 years, Trevitik developed a more advanced machine design that can move at speeds up to 30 km / h. The name “Catch Me Who Can” was not given to this model by chance: whole competitions were held in London in the speed of a car with horses.

Followers of Trevitik

The first locomotives in the world were heavy, and could not always move on too smooth rails. Therefore, the inventors after Trevitik sought to come up with various means that would improve the adhesion of wheels to rails. So, in 1811, William Burton built a new steam engine with three pairs of wheels. The innovation of his approach was the cogs with which the middle wheels were equipped. They were needed to grip the teeth of the rail laid along the tracks. Of course, the tool moved along the rails smoothly, but created such a noise that it had to be abandoned, and the teeth replaced with levers on hinges. However, this decision also did not take root.

Another version of the locomotive was created by the mechanic Forster and the blacksmith Hackworth - their car was called "Puffing Billy", due to the loud noise when the steam was released. The design turned out to be successful, since most of the elements were recreated by analogy with the first Trevitik model.

In 1813, the Blucher steam locomotive was invented by George Stephenson. True, he had to work hard to make his vehicle perfect, and it only became perfect by 1816, when the third version was released, capable of carrying trains weighing up to 50 tons, at a speed of 10 km / h.

Cherepanovs

While steam locomotives were already starting to travel around the world, in Russia people were moving between cities on horseback stagecoaches. The history of steam locomotive construction in our country began with Efim and Miron Cherepanovs, the creators of the first Russian steam locomotive. Already in 1830, they began to work on their machine. The “steamboat dilijan” —that's what the Cherepanovs called their creation — was ready in 1834. The “Iron Miracle”, frightening those around it, moved along cast-iron rails, was designed to transport ore, and reached speeds of up to 15 km / h.

The Cherepanovs were the first to create a steam locomotive in Russia, but their car was not in demand, and most models were purchased abroad. By 1880, the number of steam units in our country increased significantly, although their production occupied only a third of the market. But it is believed that it was our engineers who were able to destroy the British monopoly on their production. The era of steam locomotives lasted until the 50s of the XX century, and the created vehicles were operated back in the 70s. Today you can see the first steam engines only in museums.

Who is who in the world of discoveries and inventions Sitnikov Vitaliy Pavlovich

Who invented the train?

In ancient times, in antiquity, man invented rails. Already in Assyria and Babylon 4000 years ago there were carts with two or four wheels that traveled on rails. But they could only move in one direction. In order for such a trolley to turn right or left, it was necessary to shift the rails.

Only after 1,500 years, at the beginning of a new era, a new type of rails appeared. These were long, polished tree trunks, mounted on perpendicular sleepers. They were used to move particularly heavy loads. Already in the XVI century, trolleys for mines moving along a rail were invented.

The Englishman Richard Trevitik was the first who guessed to adapt the steam engine for movement on rails. This happened in 1804.

The car was called a locomotive and could drag 5 wagons with 70 passengers and carry 5 tons of coal. Such a train went on cast-iron rails manufactured at a factory in Wales.

At first, the rails were wooden. Then they began to make them from iron and cast iron. This increased the service life of the rails and ensured the safety of passengers.

Of course, the first locomotive was still very technically imperfect. Its speed reached only 8 kilometers per hour (4.9 miles per hour). But in 1816, J. Stephenson created a more advanced locomotive.

In 1825, the first railway line connected Darlington with Stockton. Coal was transported along it. In 1830, a line was built between Manchester and Liverpool, which was intended for the transport of goods and passengers.

The Rocket locomotive created by Stephenson has reached 47 kilometers (29 miles) per hour on this line!

In the XIX century, England began to intensively develop rail transport. Already in 1833, all coal mined in the country was transported by rail. After 2 years in England there were 720 railway lines equipped with steam locomotives. Note that in Europe, the first line connected Brussels and Malin in 1835. The first Dutch train connected Amsterdam with Harlem in 1839.

Since then, rail transport has developed rapidly and now occupies a leading position in the world. The railway transported several times more cargo than all other modes of transport.

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Sit down at train, high chat, maybe at Prague, maybe at Viden. (Piccardian third)

Trains are so much in this word, especially right now, in the summer, when the long-awaited time for vacations has arrived and something inside is pulling somewhere south, closer to the sea, beaches and the warm sun. Therefore, it is not at all surprising to observe huge queues at the railway ticket offices; people are massively buying train tickets to the Crimea. Whatever you say, trains are perhaps the most comfortable way to travel, and certainly the safest. So yes, trains are the safest means of transportation in the world, the number of accidents involving trains is minimal (which cannot be said about vehicles, which, on the contrary, are the most dangerous). And trains are just a wonderful place to talk with different interesting random fellow travelers, (sometimes philosophical discussions for life sound in cars) it’s great to travel trains as a fun friendly company with whom it’s no less fun to sing songs, play different games, and etc .. In a word - trains, so that we could only do without them, but how did it all begin and where did they come from?

So, the first prototypes of the oldest trains appeared at the end of the 15th century and had absolutely nothing to do with rail transport. In those days, the word “train” was simply understood as a series of interconnected wagons driven by a single pulling force — it could be a horse, or an ox, or some other representative of large (and sometimes cattle) cattle. Some inventive inhabitants of the time used such cart trains for military purposes as fortifications. In particular, our Ukrainian Cossacks were very fond of this, and they necessarily took several such linked cart trains with them on military campaigns, and in which case created a fortified camp from them, a real mobile fortress on wheels.

Take seats according to the purchased tickets, broads! It’s just that the Cossacks didn’t have much cavalry, so they had to fight on foot, firing opponents from firearms. And since the quality of those weapons made us wish for the best, there was a high probability that the enemy cavalry would be chopped into cabbage while the Cossack reloaded the musket, so the train carts became for them just a lifesaver, and an integral element of the military tactics of our glorious ancestors. There is even historical evidence that once 50 Cossacks in such a fortress from carts successfully repelled the attack of 500 Turkish horsemen.

But back to the trains, the word acquired a new meaning at the end of the 17th century, it was at that time that the first trolleys appeared, which were an open small wagon designed to transport various goods. Horses were used as draft power. The trolleys moved along a special wooden road, in fact it was a prototype of the first railway. Times went ahead and progress did not stand still, the railways improved and already in 1804 the English inventor and engineer Richard Trevtik was constructing the first train in the world (already in its modern sense) and a locomotive (“locomotive” means - to budge). The horses breathed a sigh of relief.

That's what he looked like.

They hooked only one passenger carriage to the first train and started it in a circle, for the entertainment of the noble London public. The train itself was playfully nicknamed "Catch me if you can" - "Catch me if you can."

But only after seven years, the British realized that trains are cool. And already in 1811, trains began to be actively built and railways laid. First, only in England, and then the English example is adopted by other countries, and now grandmother Europe is laid with iron rails, along which trains smoke cheerfully.

A small lyrical digression: In general, the development of trains and railways had a huge impact on the development of an entire human civilization, and the railways themselves gradually turned into the blood vessels of human civilization, especially its economy. Even in various strategic computer games (there are economic strategies like Civilization 5), there will be no progress without the competent construction of railways.

The ceremonial arrival of the train on the Tsarkoselsky railway, the first in Russia, built in 1837.

Already then there was a separation of trains into passenger and freight, in general the first freight train with locomotive traction appeared in 1820, he was carrying coal from the English Hatton mine to the town of Sunderland. Of course, the trains in those days were different from the current ones, had a steam engine and smoked so oo-yoy, and by modern standards they were turtles, because the maximum speed of the first trains was a maximum of 40 km. in hour. To move the train into the engine room stove, coal had to be constantly thrown. It’s only for the environment that such trains were certainly not very useful, although then nature was not yet so ravaged as in our “ultra progressive” times.

During the first world, civil and second world wars, trains began to be actively used again for military purposes, the so-called armored trains appeared - steel mastodons were stuffed with all kinds of tools.

Somehow it turns out that many human inventions conceived first for peaceful purposes were then used for all kinds of military pieces.

But already at the beginning of the 20th century, with the invention of electricity, the first electric locomotives appeared, the trains moved with the help of the magical power of electric current and no longer smoked like those steam locomotives.

The first electric locomotives, photo from the 20s, the 20th century.

This is the story of trains that have traveled a long evolutionary path from carts, through 19th century retro steaming trains to such modern beauties.

In conclusion, a good song from the Piccardian Third group - “Sit down at the train”.

Depending on speed, Russian modern passenger trains are divided into three categories: passenger, fast and high-speed (there are still high-speed ones, but we will combine them with the third group). In addition, fast trains vary in comfort: there are branded and conventional. What is the difference? In the time that you spend on the road, and in the cost of a ticket for rail transport.

High-speed and high-speed trains

High-speed trains are "", "Swallows", "Allegro", "", etc. The list is gradually updated.

At each moment of movement, their speed is not less than 140 km / h, and the average route speed, taking into account the stops, is not less than 85 km / h.
In practice, this means that a high-speed train can get from one city to another 2-3 times faster than others. Say, a fast train runs from St. Petersburg to Moscow for 7-11 hours, and a fast one takes about 4 hours.

Fast trains

Most of the Russian trains are fast. They must run at an average speed of at least 50 km / h (including parking). At the same time, the fast train should be at least 5 km / h faster than the fastest passenger traveling along this route. In fact, now they are trying to start up most of the trains as fast, often by reducing the number and time of stops.

The main difference between a fast train and a passenger train (in addition to travel time) is slightly higher, but rather slightly (by 10-15%). From high-speed - several times.
It is the fast trains that try to set at the most convenient time of departure and arrival.
For comfort, fast and non-branded.

Branded trains

Named trains differ from the rest in comfort.

New cars.
Dry closets with liquid soap, paper towels, disposable toilet seats and other necessary accessories.
As a rule, there is air conditioning (but it is worth remembering that it can break).
Better linens and towels, on the upper shelves of linen already bedded.
The best conductors, a significantly higher level of service.
Restaurant car with a wide selection of dishes. You can order food delivered to your compartment.
Trains are accompanied by security.

Passenger train

Passenger trains include all trains with a route speed of less than 50 km / h. They are the cheapest, make more stops and each stop is longer than fast trains. Sometimes this option is more convenient. For example, so that there is enough time on the road for sleep. The composition may include both old and new cars, depending on availability. It is impossible to predict this, but since the Russian Railways systematically updates the trains, you should not be afraid.