Where is the world’s longest railway line?
Travelling by train is a common experience, enjoyed by most
of us. But travelling for more than one or two days is quite tiring. The
world’s longest railway line is the Trans-Siberian Railroad, in the Soviet Union,
which stretches over 5,864 miles from Moscow to the Pacific Ocean. It takes
more than eight days to cover this distance by train!
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| Trans-Siberian Railroad |
The world’s longest subway is in London, stretching more than 255 miles, but only 101 miles of this underground. The New York subway is 231 miles long, but more of it, about 134 miles are underground.
Where was the first
subway built?
The subway or the underground train was built in London in
1863. It was 31/4 miles long and the carriages were pulled by locomotive
running on coal inside the tunnel.
London was the only city in the world with a tube railway until 1891, when another one was built in Glasgow, Scotland. More were built in cities like Moscow, Paris, Boston, New York etc. later. There are now more than 65 cities in the world with railway lines that are at least partly underground.
The earliest subway carriages had no windows. The designers
thought no one would want to look out of a window into a dark tunnel.
The underground trains are known by many names such as THE
TUBE, THE METRO and THE SUBWAYS.
Which is the world’s
largest tunnel?
A tunnel is made to carry traffic, train, or anything useful
from one place to another through its underground passage.
The road tunnel in Austria is about nine miles long. The longest
train tunnel is about 14 miles long. But the longest tunnel in the world is made
for carrying water! This tunnel, which is only 13 1/2 feet wide, carries water
from a reservoir in the Catskill Mountains to New York City a distance of about
105 miles!
Read more: Unknown story of some rare birds in the world
When was the steam locomotive invented?
The steam engine was invented in the 1700s. It was used to
drive pumps. Then a clever engineer saw that the power of steam could be used
to turn wheels, to make a ‘locomotive’.
Richard Trevithick, a Cornish mining engineer, built a
‘horseless carriage’ driven by a steam engine in 1801. It ran on the roads.
Later, in 1804, he made another, which ran on metal rails.
George Stephenson and others took up this idea. Stephenson
built a steam locomotive for the first public railway in 1825. In 1829 he won a
competition for the best engine with his locomotive ‘Rocket’.
This locomotive managed a top speed of 57 kilometres an hour.
Its success started the railway age, and its design was widely copied. The
locomotive was driven by two cylinders powered by steam from a multi-tube
boiler.
In 1830 Stephenson’s locomotives opened the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway. This was the first public railway meant from the start to
be used only by steam trains.
When was the first
public railway opened?
The first public railway in the world was the Stockton and Darlington line in north-east England. It opened in 1825, and its trains were hauled by the first steam railway-locomotive.
The railway had been used to move coal for many years. But the
wagons were horse-drawn. The invention of the steam locomotive brought a
completely new form of transport.
George Stephenson persuaded the owners of the Stockton and
Darlington railway to use his new steam engine instead of horses. He drove the
first passenger coach was called Experiment. It looked like a horse-drawn
carriage, with railway wheels instead of coach wheels.
On the first trains, passengers often sat in open wagons.
Smoke and sparks from the locomotive’s chimney made it an uncomfortable ride.
Which was the first
transcontinental railroad?
In the 1800s settlers headed west across the vast new land of
America. They dreamed of a railroad across the continent. In 1869 that dream
came true.
Railways began to be built in America soon after the start of
the railway age. The first public steam railroad in the U.S.A. was opened in
1830.
The first U.S. railroads were short, joining the towns of the
eastern states. Crossing the Wild West was a far more difficult task. Work on
the transcontinental railroad began in 1863. The Union Pacific headed west from
Iowa, while the Central Pacific started laying track eastwards from California.
The railroads had to cross rivers, deserts, mountains, swamps
and ravines. Often hostile Indians fought to stop the ‘iron horse’ from crossing
their hunting grounds.
The photograph shows the two tracks meeting in Utah, in 1869.
The completed railroad was 2775 kilometres long. New towns sprang up beside the
track. Trains carried settlers west to California, and eastwards to the big
cities.
When were diesel
locomotives first used?
The diesel engine was invented by the German engineer Rudolf
Diesel in 1894. It is a form of internal combustion engine that burns less
fuel than other types of engines. In 1932 the German railways started using diesel
locomotives. By the 1950s diesels were common on other railways, especially in
the U.S.A.
The largest diesel locomotives haul heavy trains on the U.S.
railroads. Often several engines are needed to pull one train. The diesel
engine is usually connected to an electricity generator, which produces
electric power to work the motors turning the wheels of the locomotive.
Diesel locomotives can reach speeds of over 200 kilometres an
hour, but the world’s fastest trains are electric (up to 330 kilometres an hour).
Electric trains, which take current from the rails or overhead wires, are
common. However, diesel stills the rails in North America.