I’ve always been a big fan of trains. My first trip (outside of Maysville or the surrounding towns) was by train. May dad had to go to Okmulgee on business and he took my mom and me along as a kind of mini-vacation. It was the first time I ever stayed in a hotel, too — but that’s another story. Okmulgee is only about 150 miles from Maysville, but I was only about 3 or 4 years old and it seemed like we’d traveled to another country. That was my first experience with trains and over the years, I’ve taken a lot of trains in various countries. Taking a long train trip in the U.S. is still on the agenda.
Anyhow, I thought maybe today would be a good time to think, and write about trains….
The train is often listed as one of the most important inventions that humans have come up with. History books give trains the credit for allowing the quicker shipment of both people and goods, and leading to the industrial revolution.
The earliest trains were powered (actually pulled) by horses and then along came steam power and then diesel power — Most/Many more modern trains today are powered by electricity.
I mentioned that the first trains were pulled by horses — when James Watt came along during the development of the steam engine, he invented the word “horsepower” to help sell the new technology. He discovered that prospective buyers couldn’t understand how efficient steam power was, so he used the horsepower measurement because everyone back then knew what horses were capable of.
So steam power dominated the world of trains up until about the 1940s — when diesel came along, it was pretty much the end for steam powered trains. A diesel engine performed more efficiently, propelled the train faster, and didn’t require as much manual labor. By the 1960s, steam trains were almost non-existent.
At one time, trains in the US ran on a very precise schedule — most all train personnel carried a pocket watch that kept extremely good time. That “on-time precision” is pretty much gone today, but in many other countries, trains still run very much on time. China, for instance, measures arrival and departure times in minutes. But I think Japan gets credit for having the most reliable train system — even a delay of a couple of minutes will get you a free voucher and personal apology.
Like most subjects, there’s a few “gee-whiz” facts about trains….
After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, his body was transported by train through 180 cities on the journey back to his home state of Illinois.
Stray dogs in Russia take the train from the suburbs into the city of Moscow each morning to scavenge for food. In the evening, they take the train back to the suburbs — to get a good night’s sleep, I guess.
The first underground railroad was inaugurated in 1863, in London. The Metropolitan was a steam engine system that operated through a series of small tunnels underneath the city. However, the system had problems with ventilation — the smoke from the steam engines caused poor visibility and disastrous breathing conditions.
“The Great Train Robbery” occurred in 1963 — a Royal Mail train traveling from Glasgow, Scotland, to London, England was taken over by 15 men. They got away with £2.6 million — the money was never recovered.
The USA has the most train tracks of any country — 125,000 miles. China is second with 99,000 miles and Russia comes in third (89,000 miles.)
The longest train route that is covered by a single train is the Trans-Siberian Express. The route is from Moscow to Vladivostok — 5,778 miles. The trip takes 6 or 7 days and makes between 74 and 145 stops.
The engineer responsible for designing the Kamikaze planes for Japan during World War II also developed the Shinkansen — the Japanese bullet train.
So trains, early on, became a part of our lives. Agatha Christie once wrote that trains are are wonderful…. to travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact to see life.
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