View source for History of rail transport

{{Short description|Description of rail transport modernisation}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

 [[File:Blenkinsop's rack locomotive, 1812 (British Railway Locomotives 1803-1853).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The British ''[[Salamanca (locomotive)|Salamanca]]'' locomotive, 1812]]
{{Trainstopics}}

The '''history of rail transport''' began before the beginning of the common era. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and  power used.<ref>Christian Wolmar, ''Blood, iron, and gold: How the railroads transformed the world'' (Public Affairs, 2011).</ref>

== Ancient systems ==
{{See also|Historic roads and trails}}
The [[Post Track]], a prehistoric [[causeway]] in the valley of the [[River Brue]] in the [[Somerset Levels]], England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3838 BCE,<ref>{{cite web|title=Sweet Track|url=http://www.selrc.org.uk/maplocation.php?location_id=47|publisher=Severn Estuary Levers Research Committee|access-date=30 September 2016}}</ref> making it some 30 years older than the [[Sweet Track]] from the same area.<ref name="hill-cotttingham">{{cite book |last1=Brunning |first1=Richard |editor1-first=Pat |editor1-last=Hill-Cottingham |editor2-first=Derek|editor2-last=Briggs|editor3-first=Richard|editor3-last=Brunning|editor4-first=Andy|editor4-last=King|editor5-first=Graham|editor5-last=Rix|title=The Somerset Wetlands: An ever changing environment |year=2006 |publisher=Somerset Books |location=Wellington, Somerset  |isbn= 978-0-86183-432-7 |pages=40–41  |chapter=A window on the past – The prehistoric archaeology of the Somerset Moors }}</ref> Various sections have been designated as [[scheduled monument]]s.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=Sections of the Sweet Track, the Post Track and associated remains 500m north east of Moorgate Farm|num=1014438|access-date=30 September 2016}}</ref>

Evidence indicates that there was a {{convert|6| to |8.5|km||adj=mid|-long}} ''[[Diolkos]]'' paved trackway, which transported boats across the [[Isthmus of Corinth]] in [[Greece]] from around 600 BCE.<ref name="Cook, R. M. (1979), 152">Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'', vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152–155 (152)</ref><ref name="Lewis, M. J. T. (2001), 11">Lewis, M. J. T., [http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf "Railways in the Greek and Roman world"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083013/http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf |date=21 July 2011 }}, in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), ''Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference'' (2001), pp. 8–19 (11)</ref> Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in [[limestone]], which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century CE.<ref name="Lewis, M. J. T. (2001), 11" /> Paved trackways were also later built in [[Roman Egypt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|1961|pp=134 & 137}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|1961|p=134f.}}</ref>

== Pre-steam ==
{{See also|Funicular|Wagonway|Tramway (industrial)|Plateway}}

=== Wooden rails introduced ===
[[File:Reiszug, Hohensalzburg.jpg|thumb|upright|Salzburg's [[Reisszug]], as it appears today]]

In 1515, [[Matthäus Lang|Cardinal Matthäus Lang]] wrote a description of the [[Reisszug]], a [[funicular]] railway at the [[Hohensalzburg Fortress]] in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a [[hemp]] haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a [[treadwheel]].<ref name=fm1>{{cite web |title=Der Reiszug: Part 1 – Presentation |publisher=Funimag |url=http://www.funimag.com/funimag10/RESZUG01.HTM |access-date=22 April 2009}}</ref> The line still exists and remains operational, although in updated form. It may be the oldest operational railway.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kriechbaum |first=Reinhard |date=15 May 2004 |title=Die große Reise auf den Berg |language=de |work=der Tagespost |url=http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916 |access-date=22 April 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120628225245/http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916 |archive-date=28 June 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Mining cart.jpg|thumb|left|[[Minecart]] shown in ''[[De Re Metallica]]'' (1556). The guide pin fits in a groove between two wooden planks.]]
[[Wagonway]]s (or [[Tramway (industrial)|tramway]]s), with wooden rails and horse-drawn traffic, are known to have been used in the 1550s to facilitate transportation of ore tubs to and from mines. They soon became popular in Europe and an example of their operation was illustrated by [[Georgius Agricola]] (see image) in his 1556 work ''[[De re metallica]]''.<ref name="Georgius Agricola 1913 p. 156">Georgius Agricola (trans Hoover), ''[[De re metallica]]'' (1913), p. 156.</ref> This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons ''Hunde'' (meaning "dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.<ref name="Lee 1943 16">{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Charles E. |year=1943 |title=The Evolution of Railways |edition=2 |work=Railway Gazette|location=London |oclc=1591369 |page=16}}</ref> There are many references to wagonways in central Europe in the 16th century.<ref>Lewis, ''Early wooden railways'', pp. 8–10.</ref>

A wagonway was introduced to England by [[German mines at Caldbeck|German miners]] at [[Caldbeck]], [[Cumbria]], possibly in the 1560s.<ref name="Warren Allison 2010 pp. 52">Warren Allison, Samuel Murphy and Richard Smith, ''An Early Railway in the German Mines of Caldbeck'' in G. Boyes (ed.), ''Early Railways 4: Papers from the 4th International Early Railways Conference 2008'' (Six Martlets, Sudbury, 2010), pp. 52–69.</ref> This underground wagonway is the earliest known evidence for the use of tracked transport in the Britain.<ref name="Allison_&_Murphy">{{cite journal |last1=Allison |first1=Warren |last2=Murphy |first2=Samuel |title=The German Mines of Caldbeck and the Discovery of and Early Primitive Wagonway |journal=Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society |date=2013 |volume=10 |pages=35–54 |doi=10.5284/1064112}}</ref> A wagonway was built at [[Prescot]], near [[Liverpool]], sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away.<ref name="Jones 2012 5">{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Mark |title=Lancashire Railways – The History of Steam |publisher=Countryside Books |location=Newbury |date=2012 |page=5 |isbn=978-1-84674-298-9}}</ref> The [[Wollaton Wagonway]], completed in 1604 by [[Huntingdon Beaumont]], was the earliest British railway, excluding systems using a guided pin.<ref name="Gerhold">{{cite journal |last1=Gerhold |first1=Dorian |title=Shropshire's earliest railways reconsidered |journal=Journal of Railway and Canal Historical Society |date=2024 |volume=41 |issue=6 |pages=343–354 }}</ref>  It ran from [[Strelley, Nottingham|Strelley]] to [[Wollaton]] near [[Nottingham]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/huntingdon-beaumonts-wollaton-to-strelley-waggonway/ |title=Huntingdon Beaumont's Wollaton to Strelley Waggonway |date=30 July 2013 |publisher=Nottingham Hidden History |access-date=23 August 2017}}</ref> Several funicular railways were set up at [[Broseley]] in [[Shropshire]] from October 1605.<ref name="Gerhold"/> Another line, constructed in April 1606,<ref name="Gerhold"/> carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the [[river Severn]] to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns.<ref>Peter King, ''The First Shropshire Railways'' in G. Boyes (ed.), ''Early Railways 4: Papers from the 4th International Early Railways Conference 2008'' (Six Martlets, Sudbury, 2010), pp. 70–84.</ref>

The [[Middleton Railway]] in [[Leeds]], which was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in America was built in [[Lewiston, New York]].<ref name=Porter>{{cite book | last=Porter |first=Peter |title=Landmarks of the Niagara Frontier |publisher=The Author |year=1914 | isbn=0-665-78347-7}}</ref>

=== Metal rails introduced ===
[[File:Little Eaton Tramway Replica Wagon small.jpg|thumb|left|A replica of a "Little Eaton Tramway" wagon. The tracks are plateways.]]
[[File:National museum of Karelia (1).jpg|thumb|left|Cast-iron rails of the [[Onega Tractor Plant|Alexandrovsky plant]] railway in Russia. 1788.]]
The introduction of steam engines for powering blast air to [[blast furnace]]s led to a large increase in British iron production after the mid-1750s.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Metallurgy, Second Edition |last=Tylecote |first=R. F.|year= 1992 |publisher=Maney Publishing, for the Institute of Materials |location=London |isbn=978-0901462886}}</ref>{{rp|123–25}}

In the late 1760s, the [[Coalbrookdale]] Company began to fix plates of [[cast iron]] to the upper surface of wooden rails, which increased their durability and load-bearing ability. At first only [[balloon loop]]s could be used for turning wagons, but later, movable points were introduced that allowed [[passing loop]]s to be created.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vaughan, A. |year=1997 |title=Railwaymen, Politics and Money |location=London |publisher=John Murray |isbn=0-7195-5746-1}}</ref>

A system was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates{{snd}} these became known as [[plateway]]s. [[John Curr]], a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed.{{who|date=September 2018}} The plate rail was taken up by [[Benjamin Outram]] for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his [[Butterley Company|Butterley ironworks]]. In 1803, [[William Jessop]] opened the [[Surrey Iron Railway]], a double track plateway, sometimes erroneously cited as world's first public railway, in south London.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stephensonloco.fsbusiness.co.uk/surreyiron.htm |title=Surrey Iron Railway 200th – 26th July 2003 |publisher=Stephenson Locomotive Society |work=Early Railways |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512032233/http://www.stephensonloco.fsbusiness.co.uk/surreyiron.htm |archive-date=12 May 2009}}</ref>

In 1789, [[William Jessop]] had introduced a form of all-iron [[edge rail (edgeways)|edge rail]] and flanged wheels for an extension to the [[Charnwood Forest Canal]] at [[Nanpantan]], [[Loughborough]], [[Leicestershire]]. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge-rails. Jessop became a partner in the Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was the [[Lake Lock Rail Road]] in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers.

These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became the standard for railways.

[[File:Cromford and High Peak Railway cast-iron fishbelly rail.png|thumb|Cast-iron fishbelly edge rail manufactured by Outram at the [[Butterley Company]] ironworks for the [[Cromford and High Peak Railway]] (1831). These are smooth edgerails for wheels with flanges.]]
Cast iron was not a satisfactory material for rails because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron rail, invented by [[John Birkinshaw]] in 1820, solved these problems. [[Wrought iron]] (usually simply referred to as "iron") was a [[Ductility|ductile]] material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But wrought iron was expensive to produce until [[Henry Cort]] patented the [[puddling (metallurgy)|puddling process]] in 1784. In 1783, Cort also patented the [[rolling (metalworking)|rolling process]], which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering.<ref>{{cite book |last=Landes |first=David. S. |year=1969 |title=The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present |location=Cambridge, New York |publisher=Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge |isbn= 0-521-09418-6|pages=91}}</ref> These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and iron rails. The next important development in iron production was [[hot blast]] developed by [[James Beaumont Neilson]] (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of [[coke (fuel)]] or charcoal needed to produce [[pig iron]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Landes|1969|p=92}}</ref> Wrought iron was a soft material that contained slag or ''dross''. The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they typically lasted less than 10 years in use, and sometimes as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails.

The introduction of the [[Bessemer process]], enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to the era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron.<ref name="Wells1891">{{cite book|title=Recent Economic Changes and Their Effect on Production and Distribution of Wealth and Well-Being of Society|last=Wells |first=David A.|year=1891 |publisher= D. Appleton and Co.|location= New York|isbn= 0-543-72474-3 |url= https://archive.org/details/recenteconomicc01wellgoog}}</ref><ref name="Grubler1990">{{cite book | last1 = Grübler | first1 = Arnulf | title = The Rise and Fall of Infrastructures: Dynamics of Evolution and Technological Change in Transport | year = 1990|publisher=Physica-Verlag|location= Heidelberg and New York | url = http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/XB-90-704.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History |last=Fogel |first=Robert W. |year=1964 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore and London |isbn=0-8018-1148-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/railroadsamerica00foge }}</ref> Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads.<ref>{{cite book |title=Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics |last=Rosenberg |first=Nathan |year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, New York |isbn=0-521-27367-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 60]  |url=https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/60 }}</ref> The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The [[open hearth furnace]] began to replace the Bessemer process near the end of 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. According to Ozyuksel, the rails were one of the major initiators of the expansion of the [[steel industry]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Özyüksel |first=Murat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdSLDwAAQBAJ&q=The+hejaz+and+the+ottoman+railway |title=The Hejaz Railway and the Ottoman Empire: Modernity, Industrialisation and Ottoman Decline |date=2014-10-22 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85773-743-4 |pages=16 |language=en}}</ref> 600,000 people across the globe worked in the rail industry in 1907.<ref name=":0" />

== Steam power introduced ==
{{See also|Steam locomotive}}

[[James Watt]], a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, greatly improved the [[steam engine]] of [[Thomas Newcomen]], hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a [[reciprocating engine]] in 1769, capable of powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a variety of machinery, it was a large [[stationary engine]]. It could not be otherwise: the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder; this required a separate [[Condenser (heat transfer)|condenser]] and an [[air pump]]. Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that might be used to power a vehicle and he patented a design for a [[steam locomotive]] in 1784. His employee [[William Murdoch]] produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year.<ref>{{cite book
 | last =Gordon
 | first =W.J.
 | title =Our Home Railways, volume one
 | publisher =Frederick Warne and Co
 | year =1910
 | location =London
 | pages =7–9
 }}</ref>

[[File:TrevithicksEngine.jpg|thumb|A replica of Trevithick's engine at the [[National Waterfront Museum]], Swansea]]
The first full-scale working railway [[steam locomotive]] was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by [[Richard Trevithick]], a British engineer born in [[Cornwall]]. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large [[flywheel]] to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21st February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the [[Penydarren]] ironworks, near [[Merthyr Tydfil]] in [[South Wales]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco/|title=Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive|work=National Museum Wales|access-date=3 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415125004/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/trevithic_loco|archive-date=15 April 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title = Steam train anniversary begins
| url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3509961.stm
| publisher = BBC
| access-date = 13 June 2009
| quote = A south Wales town has begun months of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of the steam locomotive. Merthyr Tydfil was the location where, on 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick took the world into the railway age when he set one of his high-pressure steam engines on a local iron master's tram rails
| date=21 February 2004}}</ref> Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon a piece of circular rail track in [[Bloomsbury]], London, the ''[[Catch Me Who Can]]'', but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |page=12}}</ref>

The first commercially successful steam locomotive was [[Matthew Murray]]'s [[rack railway|rack]] locomotive ''[[Salamanca (locomotive)|Salamanca]]'' built for the [[Middleton Railway]] in [[Leeds]] in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive was not heavy enough to break the [[edge rail (edgeways)|edge-rails]] track and solved the problem of [[Rail adhesion|adhesion]] by a [[cog-wheel]] using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first [[rack railway]].

This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive ''[[Puffing Billy (locomotive)|Puffing Billy]]'' built by [[Blackett of Wylam|Christopher Blackett]] and [[William Hedley]] for the [[Wylam]] Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by [[Rail adhesion|adhesion]] only. This was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. ''Puffing Billy'' is now on display in the [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]] in London, making it the oldest locomotive in existence.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |pages=20–22}}</ref>

[[File:Locomotion No. 1..jpg|thumb|The original [[Locomotion No 1|''Locomotion'']] at [[Darlington Railway Centre and Museum]] in northern England]]
In 1814, [[George Stephenson]], inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the [[Killingworth]] [[Coal mining|colliery]] where he worked to allow him to build a [[Steam engine|steam-powered]] machine. Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive ''[[Blücher (locomotive)|Blücher]]'', also a successful [[flange]]d-wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825, he built the locomotive ''[[Locomotion No 1|Locomotion]]'' for the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] in the North East of England, which became the first public steam railway in the world, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive ''[[Stephenson's Rocket|Rocket]]'', which entered in and won the [[Rainhill Trials]]. This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe.<ref name="Ellis">{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |last=Ellis |first=Hamilton |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968}}</ref>{{RP|24–30}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways |author=Hamilton Ellis |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |year=1968 |pages=24–30}}</ref> The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all the time, was [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]], built in 1830. The world's first and historical train journey was between Liverpool and Manchester in England on 15th September 1830.

Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century.

== Electric power introduced ==
{{See also|Electric locomotive|Railway electrification system|Light rail}}

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|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>

Early experimentation with railway electrification was undertaken by the Ukrainian engineer [[Fyodor Pirotsky]]. In 1875, he had electrically powered railway cars run on [[Miller's line]], between [[Sestroretsk]] and [[Beloostrov]]. During September 1880, in St. Petersburg, Pirotsky put into operation an electric tram he had converted from a double-decker [[horse tramway]].<ref>C.N. Pyrgidis, ''Railway Transportation Systems: Design, Construction and Operation''. CRC Press, 2016, p. 156</ref><ref>Ye. N. Petrova. ''St. Petersburg in Focus: Photographers of the turn of the century; in Celebration of the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg.''  Palace edition, 2003, p. 12</ref><ref>Gunieri, M. (2020) "Electric tramways of the 19th century."  ''IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine''.  '''14''' (1) pp. 71–77</ref> Although Pirotsky's own tram project was taken no further, his experiment and work in the field did stimulate interest in electric trams globally. [[Carl Heinrich von Siemens|Carl von Siemens]] met with Pirotsky and studied exhibits of his work carefully. The Siemens brothers (Carl and Werner) began commercial production of their own design of electric trams soon after, in 1881.<ref>{{cite news| last1=Kolomnov |first1=Korney  |url=http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/nn/show/379/33668/ |title=Откуда Есть Пошёл Трамвай |trans-title=Where the Tram Came From |work=Zerkalo Nedeli |date=8 February 2002 |access-date=30 January 2022|issue=4|volume=379 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030630094106/http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/nn/show/379/33668/ |archive-date=30 June 2003 |language=ru }}</ref>
[[File:First electric tram- Siemens 1881 in Lichterfelde.jpg|thumb|left|Lichterfelde tram, 1882]]
[[Werner von Siemens]] demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. One of the world's first electric tram lines, [[Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway]], opened in [[Lichterfelde (Berlin)|Lichterfelde]] near [[Berlin]], Germany, in 1881. It was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 Volt 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 [[United States|US]] 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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108045132/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/richmond.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 January 2007|title=Richmond Union Passenger Railway|publisher=[[IEEE|IEEE History Center]]|access-date=18 January 2008}}</ref>

[[File:B-and-O electric.jpg|thumb|right|Baltimore & Ohio electric engine]]

The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile stretch 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.

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 280&nbsp;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.<ref>Heilmann evaluated both AC and DC electric transmission for his locomotives, but eventually settled on a design based on [[Thomas Edison]]'s DC system{{snd}} Duffy (2003), pp. 39–41</ref> 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 Evian-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 LLC|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}}</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><ref>{{cite book|author=C.W. Kreidel|title=Organ für die fortschritte des eisenbahnwesens in technischer beziehung|year=1904|page=315}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift: Beihefte, Volumes 11-23|page=163|publisher=VDE Verlag|year=1904}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=L'Eclairage électrique, Volume 48|page=554|year=1906}}</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 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 just a short stretch. The 106&nbsp;km [[Ferrovia della Valtellina]] line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|pp=120–121}}<ref name="Patent Office" /> The electrical system was three-phase at 3&nbsp;kV 15&nbsp;Hz. In 1918,<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael C|last= Duffy|title=Electric Railways 1880–1990|publisher=[[Institution of Engineering and Technology (professional society)|IET]]|year=2003|page=137|isbn=978-0-85296-805-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpFEm3aqz_MC&pg=PA137}}</ref> 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 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 Europe and many other parts of the world.{{sfnp|Duffy|2003|p=273}}

== Diesel power introduced ==
{{See also|Diesel locomotive|Dieselisation#Rail transport}}
[[File:Priestmann Oil Engine - Fig 150 p461 The Steam engine and gas and oil engines John Perry.PNG|thumb|Diagram of Priestman Oil Engine from ''The Steam engine and gas and oil engines'' (1900) by John Perry]]

Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by [[William Dent Priestman]], which was examined by [[Sir William Thomson]] in 1888 who described it as a "Priestmans' petroleum engine" mounted upon a truck which is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes.".<ref>{{citation|magazine= The Engineer| date = 24 April 1956| page = 254| title = Motive power for British Railways|url = http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/5/56/Er19560824.pdf| volume =202}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=William |title=Priestmans' petroleum engine: Reports by Sir Wm. Thomson, Boverton Redwood, Sir Samuel Canning, Messrs H. Alabaster, GATEHOUSE & Co |journal=The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review |date=4 May 1888 |volume=22 |issue=545 |page=474 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_electrical-review_1888-05-04_22_545/page/474/mode/2up |access-date=30 January 2022 |publisher=St. John Patrick Publishers|quote =A small double cylinder engine has been mounted upon a truck, which is worked on a temporary line of rails, in order to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes, on tramways |language=en}}</ref> In 1894, a {{convert|20|hp|kW|abbr=on}} two axle machine built by [[Priestman Brothers]] was used on the [[Hull Docks]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Shunting Locomotives for Liverpool Docks|journal = Diesel Railway Traction|volume = 17|publisher= Railway Gazette|year= 1963|page=25| quote=In one sense a dock authority was the earliest user of an oil-engined locomotive, for it was at the Hull docks of the North Eastern Railway that the Priestman locomotive put in its short period of service in 1894}}</ref>

In 1906, [[Rudolf Diesel]], [[Adolf Klose]] and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer [[Gebrüder Sulzer]] founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the [[Winterthur–Romanshorn railway]] in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success.{{sfn|Churella|1998|p=12}} The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883&nbsp;kW with a maximum speed of 100&nbsp;km/h.<ref>{{cite book | last = Glatte | first = Wolfgang | title = Deutsches Lok-Archiv: Diesellokomotiven 4. Auflage| publisher = Transpress| year =1993| location =Berlin| isbn =3-344-70767-1 }}
</ref> Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through the mid-1920s.

[[File:Limousin2010RVT01.jpg|thumb|left|[[Switzerland|Swiss]] & [[Germany|German]] co-production: world's first functional diesel–electric railcar 1914]]
A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when [[Hermann Lemp]], a [[General Electric]] electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable [[direct current]] electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp).<ref>Lemp, Hermann. US Patent No. 1,154,785, filed 8 April 1914, and issued 28 September 1915. ''Accessed via Google Patent Search at: [https://patents.google.com/patent/US1154785 US Patent #1,154,785] on 8 February 2007.''</ref> Lemp's design used a single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the [[prototype]] for all [[diesel–electric locomotive]] control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the ''Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen'' ([[Royal Saxon State Railways]]) by [[Waggonfabrik Rastatt]] with electric equipment from [[Brown, Boveri & Cie]] and diesel engines from [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[Sulzer (manufacturer)|Sulzer AG]]. They were classified as {{ill|Sächsischer DET 1–2|de|lt=DET 1 and DET 2}}. The first regular use of diesel–electric locomotives was in [[Switcher|switching]] (shunter) applications. General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in the 1930s (the famous "[[44-tonner]]" switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929.

In 1929, the [[Canadian National Railways]] became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse.{{sfn|Pinkepank|1973|p=409}}

== High-speed rail ==
{{See also|High-speed rail}}

[[File:Shinkansen type 0 Hikari 19890506a.jpg|thumb|A Japanese 0-Series [[Shinkansen]], introduced in 1964, triggered the intercity train travel boom.]]
The first electrified [[high-speed rail]] [[0 Series Shinkansen|Tōkaidō Shinkansen (series 0)]] was introduced in 1964 between [[Tokyo]] and [[Osaka]] in Japan. Since then [[high-speed rail]] transport, functioning at speeds up and above 300&nbsp;km/h (186.4&nbsp;mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, [[Taiwan]], the People's Republic of China, the [[United Kingdom]], [[South Korea]], [[Scandinavia]], [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]], and [[Indonesia]]. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines.{{Citation needed|reason=If this is correct, it's a strong argument in favor of building more high speed rail lines. It would help to have quantitative estimates of the magnitude of this effect including as a function of distance with credible sources for those estimates. For example, could similar effects be obtained from high speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the distances are 60 percent more than between [[London]], [[Paris]] and Brussels?|date=December 2013}}

High-speed trains normally operate on [[standard gauge]] tracks of [[continuously welded rail]] on [[Grade separation|grade-separated]] [[Right-of-way (transportation)|right-of-way]] that incorporates a large [[Minimum railway curve radius|turning radius]] in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service.

== Hydrogen power introduced ==

[[Alstom Coradia Lint]] [[hydrail|hydrogen-powered train]] entered service in [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]] in 2018.

== History by country ==
=== Europe ===
[[File:First-railway-Europe-country.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|First railway line by country]]
In recent years deregulation has been a major topic across Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/23249935.2021.1885521 | title=European railway deregulation: An overview of market organization and capacity allocation | year=2021 | last1=Ait Ali | first1=Abderrahman | last2=Eliasson | first2=Jonas | journal=Transportmetrica A: Transport Science | volume=18 | issue=3 | pages=594–618 | s2cid=233964993 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>Smith, Andrew SJ, Valerio Benedetto, and Chris Nash. "The impact of economic regulation on the efficiency of European railway systems." ''Journal of Transport Economics and Policy'' (JTEP) 52.2 (2018): 113-136 [http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/21307/1/Valerio%20Benedetto%20-%20The%20Impact%20of%20Economic%20Regulation%20on%20the.pdf online].</ref><ref>Fitzová, Hana. "European railway reforms and efficiency: Review of evidence in the literature." ''Review of economic perspectives'' 17.2 (2017): 103+ [https://sciendo.com/abstract/journals/revecp/17/2/article-p103.xml online]</ref>

==== Albania ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Albania}}

==== Austria ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Austria}}

==== Belarus ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Belarus}}

==== Belgium ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Belgium}}
Belgium took the lead in the [[Industrial Revolution]] on the Continent starting in the 1820s. It provided an ideal model for showing the value of the railways for speeding the industrial revolution. After splitting from the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands|Netherlands]] in 1830, the new country decided to stimulate industry. It planned and funded a simple cross-shaped system that connected the major cities, ports and mining areas and linked to neighboring countries. Unusually, the Belgian state became a major contributor to early rail development and championed the creation of a national network with no duplication of lines. Belgium thus became the railway center of the region.

The system was built along British lines, often with British engineers doing the planning. Profits were low but the infrastructure necessary for rapid industrial growth was put in place.<ref>Patrick O'Brien, ''Railways and the economic development of Western Europe, 1830–1914'' (1983) ch 7</ref> The first railway in Belgium, running from northern [[Brussels]] to [[Mechelen]], was completed in May 1835.

==== Britain ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Great Britain}}
[[File:GBR rail passengers by year 1830-2023.png|upright=1.35|thumb|Rail Passengers in Great Britain from 1829 to 2021, showing the rapid rise in passenger numbers in the 19th century]]

===== Early developments =====
The earliest railway in Britain was a [[wagonway]] system; a horse drawn wooden rail system, used by German miners at [[Caldbeck]], [[Cumbria]], England, perhaps from the 1560s.<ref name="Warren Allison 2010 pp. 52"/> A wagonway was built at [[Prescot]], near [[Liverpool]], sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away.<ref name="Jones 2012 5"/> On 26 July 1803, Jessop opened the [[Surrey Iron Railway]], south of London erroneously considered first railway in Britain, also a horse-drawn one. It was not a railway in the modern sense of the word, as it functioned like a [[Toll road|turnpike road]]. There were no official services, as anyone could bring a vehicle on the railway by paying a toll.

The oldest railway in continuous use is the [[Tanfield Railway]] in County Durham, England. This began life in 1725 as a wooden waggonway worked with horse power and developed by private coal owners and included the construction of the [[Causey Arch]], the world's oldest purpose built railway bridge. By the mid 19th century it had converted to standard gauge track and steam locomotive power. It continues in operation as a heritage line. The [[Middleton Railway]] in [[Leeds]], opened in 1758, is also still in use as a heritage line and began using steam locomotive power in 1812 before reverting to horsepower and then upgrading to standard gauge. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in [[Lewiston, New York]].<ref name=Porter/>
The first passenger [[Horsecar]] or [[tram]], [[Swansea and Mumbles Railway]] was opened between [[Swansea]] and [[Mumbles]] in [[Wales]] in 1807.<ref name="Early Days of Mumbles Railway">{{cite web| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wales/south_west_wales| title=Early Days of Mumbles Railway| date=15 February 2007| publisher=BBC| access-date=19 September 2007}}</ref> Horse remained preferable mode for tram transport even after arrival of steam engines, well till the end of 19th century. The major reason was that the horse-cars were clean as compared to steam driven trams which caused smoke in city streets.

In 1812, [[Oliver Evans]], an American engineer and inventor, published his vision of what steam railways could become, with cities and towns linked by a network of long-distance railways plied by speedy locomotives, greatly speeding up personal travel and goods transport. Evans specified that there should be separate sets of parallel tracks for trains going in different directions. However, conditions in the infant United States did not enable his vision to take hold. This vision had its counterpart in Britain, where it proved to be far more influential. [[William James (railway promoter)|William James]], a rich and influential surveyor and land agent, was inspired by the development of the steam locomotive to suggest a national network of railways. It seems likely<ref name="Macnair">{{cite book|author=Macnair, Miles|title=William James (1771–1837): the man who discovered George Stephenson|publisher=[[Railway and Canal Historical Society]]|location=Oxford|year=2007|isbn=978-0-901461-54-4}}</ref> that in 1808 James attended the demonstration running of [[Richard Trevithick]]'s [[steam locomotive]] ''[[Catch me who can]]'' in London; certainly at this time he began to consider the long-term development of this means of transport. He proposed a number of projects that later came to fruition and is credited with carrying out a survey of the [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]]. Unfortunately he became bankrupt and his schemes were taken over by George Stephenson and others. However, he is credited by many historians with the title of "Father of the Railway".<ref name="Macnair"/>

It was not until 1825, that the success of the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] in [[County Durham]], England, the world's first public railway to combine locomotive power, malleable iron rails, twin tracks and other innovations such as early signalling, proto-Station buildings and rudimentary timetables in one place It proved to a national and international audience that the railways could be made profitable for passengers and general goods as well as a single commodity such as coal. This railway broke new ground by using rails made of [[rolling mill|rolled]] [[wrought iron]], produced at [[Bedlington Ironworks]] in [[Northumberland]].<ref>A. Pacey, ''Technology in World Civilisation'' (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1990), 135.</ref> Such rails were stronger. This railway linked the coal field of Durham with the towns of [[Darlington]] and the port of [[Stockton-on-Tees]] and was intended to enable local collieries (which were connected to the line by short branches) to transport their coal to the docks. As this would constitute the bulk of the traffic, the company took the important step of offering to haul the colliery wagons or chaldrons by locomotive power, something that required a scheduled or timetabled service of trains. However, the line also functioned as a toll railway, on which private horse-drawn wagons could be carried. This hybrid of a system (which also included, at one stage, a horse-drawn passenger traffic when sufficient locomotives weren't available) could not last and within a few years, traffic was restricted to timetabled trains. (However, the tradition of private owned wagons continued on railways in Britain until the 1960s.). The S&DRs chief engineer [[Timothy Hackworth]] under the guidance of its principal funder [[Edward Pease (railway pioneer)|Edward Pease]], hosted visiting engineers from the US, Prussia and France and shared experience and learning on how to build and run a railway so that by 1830 railways were being built in several locations across the UK, USA and Europe. Trained engineers and workers from the S&DR went on to help develop several other lines elsewhere including the Liverpool and Manchester of 1830, the next step forward in railway development.

[[File:Planet replica.jpg|thumb|A replica of the ''Planet'', which ran on the [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]] from 1830]]
The success of the Stockton and Darlington encouraged the rich investors in the rapidly industrialising [[North West of England]] to embark upon a project to link the rich cotton manufacturing town of [[Manchester]] with the thriving port of [[Liverpool]]. The [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]] was the first modern railway, in that both the goods and passenger traffic were operated by scheduled or timetabled locomotive hauled trains. When it was built, there was serious doubt that locomotives could maintain a regular service over the distance involved. A widely reported competition was held in 1829 called the [[Rainhill Trials]], to find the most suitable [[steam engine]] to haul the trains. A number of locomotives were entered, including ''[[Novelty (locomotive)|Novelty]]'', ''[[Perseverance (Rainhill Trials)|Perseverance]]'' and ''[[Sans Pareil]]''. The winner was [[Stephenson's Rocket]], which steamed better because of its [[Fire-tube boiler|multi-tubular boiler]] (suggested by [[Henry Booth]], a director of the railway company).

The promoters were mainly interested in goods traffic, but after the line opened on 15 September 1830, they were surprised to find that passenger traffic was just as remunerative. The success of the Liverpool and Manchester railway added to the influence of the S&DR in the development of railways elsewhere in Britain and abroad. The company hosted many visiting deputations from other railway projects and many railwaymen received their early training and experience upon this line. The Liverpool and Manchester line was, however, only {{convert|35|mi|km|0}} long. The world's first trunk line can be said to be the [[Grand Junction Railway]], opening in 1837 and linking a midpoint on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with [[Birmingham]], via [[Crewe]], [[Stafford]] and [[Wolverhampton]].

===== Further development =====
The earliest locomotives in revenue service were small four-wheeled ones similar to the Rocket. However, the inclined cylinders caused the engine to rock, so they first became horizontal and then, in his "Planet" design, were mounted inside the frames. While this improved stability, the "crank axles" were extremely prone to breakage. Greater speed was achieved by larger driving wheels at expense of a tendency for wheel slip when starting. Greater tractive effort was obtained by smaller wheels coupled together, but speed was limited by the fragility of the cast-iron connecting rods. Hence, from the beginning, there was a distinction between the light fast passenger locomotive and the slower more powerful goods engine. [[Edward Bury and Company|Edward Bury]], in particular, refined this design and the so-called [[Bury Bar Frame locomotive|"Bury Pattern"]] was popular for a number of years, particularly on the [[London and Birmingham Railway|London and Birmingham]].

Meanwhile, by 1840, Stephenson had produced larger, more stable, engines in the form of the [[2-2-2]] [[Patentee locomotive|"Patentee"]] and six-coupled goods engines. Locomotives were travelling longer distances and being worked more extensively. The [[North Midland Railway]] expressed their concern to [[Robert Stephenson]] who was, at that time, their general manager, about the effect of heat on their fireboxes. After some experiments, he patented his so-called [[Long Boiler locomotive|Long Boiler design]]. These became a new standard and similar designs were produced by other manufacturers, particularly [[Sharp Brothers]] whose engines became known affectionately as "Sharpies".

The longer wheelbase for the longer boiler produced problems in cornering. For his six-coupled engines, Stephenson removed the flanges from the centre pair of wheels. For his express engines, he shifted the trailing wheel to the front in the [[4-2-0]] formation, as in his "Great A". There were other problems: the firebox was restricted in size or had to be mounted behind the wheels; and for improved stability most engineers believed that the centre of gravity should be kept low.

The most extreme outcome of this was the [[Crampton locomotive]] which mounted the driving wheels behind the firebox and could be made very large in diameter. These achieved the hitherto unheard of speed of {{convert|70|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} but were very prone to wheelslip. With their long wheelbase, they were unsuccessful on [[Great Britain|Britain]]'s winding tracks, but became popular in the US and France, where the popular expression became ''prendre le Crampton''.

John Gray of the [[London and Brighton Railway]] disbelieved the necessity for a low centre of gravity and produced a series of locomotives that were much admired by [[David Joy (engineer)|David Joy]] who developed the design at the firm of [[E. B. Wilson and Company]] to produce the [[2-2-2]] [[Jenny Lind locomotive]], one of the most successful passenger locomotives of its day. Meanwhile, the Stephenson [[0-6-0]] Long Boiler locomotive with inside cylinders became the archetypal goods engine.

{| class="wikitable floatright" style="text-align:right;"
|+ Growth of British railways<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/railways/expans.htm |title=The Peel Web: Railway expansion|access-date=15 February 2011}}</ref>
! Year !! Total miles
|-
| 1830
| 98
|-
| 1835
| 338
|-
| 1840
| 1,498
|-
| 1845
| 2,441
|-
| 1850
| 6,621
|-
| 1855
| 8,280
|-
| 1860
| 10,433
|}

===== Expanding network =====
Railways quickly became essential to the swift movement of goods and labour that was needed for [[industrialization]]. In the beginning, [[canal]]s were in competition with the railways, but the railways quickly gained ground as [[Steam engine|steam]] and rail technology improved and railways were built in places where canals were not practical.

By the 1850s, many steam-powered railways had reached the fringes of built-up London. But the new companies were not permitted to demolish enough property to penetrate the city or the West End, so passengers had to disembark at [[London Paddington station|Paddington]], [[Euston railway station|Euston]], [[London King's Cross railway station|King's Cross]], [[Fenchurch Street railway station|Fenchurch Street]], [[Charing Cross railway station|Charing Cross]], [[London Waterloo railway station|Waterloo]] or [[London Victoria station|Victoria]] and then make their own way by [[hackney carriage]] or on foot into the centre, thereby massively increasing [[Traffic congestion|congestion]] in the city. A [[Metropolitan Railway]] was built underground to connect several of these separate railway terminals and was the world's first "Metro".

===== Social and economic consequences =====
The railways changed British society in numerous and complex ways. Although recent attempts to measure the economic significance of the railways have suggested that their overall contribution to the growth of GDP was more modest than an earlier generation of historians sometimes assumed, it is nonetheless clear that the railways had a sizeable impact in many spheres of economic activity. The building of railways and locomotives, for example, called for large quantities of heavy materials and thus provided a significant stimulus or 'backward linkage', to the coal-mining, iron-production, engineering and construction industries.

They also helped to reduce transaction costs, which in turn lowered the costs of goods: the distribution and sale of perishable goods such as meat, milk, fish and vegetables were transformed by the emergence of the railways, giving rise not only to cheaper produce in the shops but also to far greater variety in people's diets.

Finally, by improving personal mobility the railways were a significant force for social change. Rail transport had originally been conceived as a way of moving coal and industrial goods but the railway operators quickly realised the potential market for railway travel, leading to an extremely rapid expansion in passenger services. The number of railway passengers trebled in just eight years between 1842 and 1850: traffic volumes roughly doubled in the 1850s and then doubled again in the 1860s.<ref>{{cite web|last=Griffin|first=Emma|title=Patterns of Industrialisation|url=https://www.academia.edu/840198|access-date=5 February 2013}}</ref>

As the historian Derek Aldcroft has noted, "in terms of mobility and choice they added a new dimension to everyday life".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Aldcroft |first1=Derek |editor1-last=Digby |editor1-first=Anne |title=New directions in economic and social history|chapter=The Railway Age|pages=64–82 |date=1992 |publisher=Macmillan |location=Basingstoke, London |isbn=9780333568095 |volume=II}}</ref>

==== Bulgaria ====
The [[Ruse, Bulgaria|Ruse]] – [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]] was the first railway line in the modern [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] territory, and also in the former [[Ottoman Empire]]. It was started in 1864 by the Turkish government, by commissioning for it an English company managed by [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]], a politician, and the Barkley brothers, civil engineers. The line, which was 223&nbsp;km long, was opened in 1866.

==== Czech Republic ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in the Czech Republic}}

==== Denmark ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Denmark}}

==== Estonia ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Estonia}}

==== Finland ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Finland}}

==== France ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in France}}

[[File:Fete de Calais - Benediction du Chemin de Fer 1848.jpg|thumb|Catholic priests bless a railway engine in [[Calais]], 1848]]

In France, railways were first operated by private coal companies the first legal agreement to build a railway was given in 1823 and the line (from [[Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux Railway|Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux]]) was operated in 1827. Much of the equipment was imported from Britain but this stimulated machinery makers, which soon created a national heavy industry. Trains became a national medium for the modernization of backward regions and a leading advocate of this approach was the poet-politician [[Alphonse de Lamartine]]. One writer hoped that railways might improve the lot of "populations two or three centuries behind their fellows" and eliminate "the savage instincts born of isolation and misery." Consequently, France built a centralized system that radiated from Paris (plus lines that cut east to west in the south). This design was intended to achieve political and cultural goals rather than maximize efficiency.

After some consolidation, six companies controlled monopolies of their regions, subject to close control by the government in terms of fares, finances and even minute technical details. The central government department of Ponts et Chaussées [bridges and roads] brought in British engineers and workers, handled much of the construction work, provided engineering expertise and planning, land acquisition and construction of permanent infrastructure such as the track bed, bridges and tunnels. It also subsidized militarily necessary lines along the German border, which was considered necessary for the national defense. Private operating companies provided management, hired labor, laid the tracks and built and operated stations. They purchased and maintained the rolling stock—6,000 locomotives were in operation in 1880, which averaged 51,600 passengers a year or 21,200 tons of freight.

[[File:France1860railways.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Development of the network up to 1860]]

Although starting the whole system at once was politically expedient, it delayed completion and forced even more reliance on temporary experts brought in from Britain. Financing was also a problem. The solution was a narrow base of funding through the Rothschilds and the closed circles of the Bourse in Paris, so France did not develop the same kind of national stock exchange that flourished in London and New York. The system did help modernize the parts of rural France it reached and help to develop many local industrial centers, mostly in the North (coal and iron mines) and in the East (textiles and heavy industry). Critics such as [[Émile Zola]] complained that it never overcame the corruption of the political system, but rather contributed to it.

The railways probably helped the industrial revolution in France by facilitating a national market for raw materials, wines, cheeses and imported and exported manufactured products. In ''The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833–1914'', published in 1915, Edwin A. Pratt wrote, "the French railways … attained a remarkable degree of success. … It was estimated that the 75,966 men and 4,469 horses transported by rail from Paris to [[Mediterranean Sea|the Mediterranean]] or to the frontiers of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]] between 20 and 30 April April [during the 1859 [[Second Italian War of Independence]]] would have taken sixty days to make the journey by road. … This… was about twice as fast as the best achievement recorded up to that time on the German railways.<ref>Pratt, Edwin, A., ''The rise of rail-power in war and conquest, 1833–1914'', J. B. Lippincott company, 1915, 405 p.</ref> " Yet the goals set by the French for their railway system were moralistic, political and military rather than economic. As a result, the freight trains were shorter and less heavily loaded than those in such rapidly industrializing nations such as Britain, Belgium or Germany. Other infrastructure needs in rural France, such as better roads and canals, were neglected because of the expense of the railways, so it seems likely that there were net negative effects in areas not served by the trains.<ref>Patrick O’Brien, ''Railways and the Economic Development of Western Europe, 1830–1914'' (1983)</ref>

==== Germany ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Germany}}
An operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by [[Georgius Agricola]] in his work ''[[De re metallica]]''.<ref name="Georgius Agricola 1913 p. 156"/> This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons ''Hunde'' ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.<ref name="Lee 1943 16"/> This system became very popular across Europe.

[[File:Friedrich List und die erste grosse Eisenbahn 2.jpg|thumb|[[Friedrich List]]'s concept for a German railway net from 1833]]
The takeoff stage of economic development came with the railroad revolution in the 1840s, which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers, increased the demand for engineers, architects and skilled machinists and stimulated investments in coal and iron.<ref>Colleen A. Dunlavy, ''Politics and Industrialization: Early Railroads in the United States and Prussia'' (1994)</ref> Political disunity of three dozen states and a pervasive conservatism made it difficult to build railways in the 1830s. However, by the 1840s, trunk lines did link the major cities; each German state was responsible for the lines within its own borders. Economist [[Friedrich List]] summed up the advantages to be derived from the development of the railway system in 1841:

# As a means of national defence, it facilitates the concentration, distribution and direction of the army.
# It is a means to the improvement of the culture of the nation. It brings talent, knowledge and skill of every kind readily to market.
# It secures the community against dearth and famine and against excessive fluctuation in the prices of the necessaries of life.
# It promotes the spirit of the nation, as it has a tendency to destroy the Philistine spirit arising from isolation and provincial prejudice and vanity. It binds nations by ligaments and promotes an interchange of food and of commodities, thus making it feel to be a unit. The iron rails become a nerve system, which, on the one hand, strengthens public opinion, and, on the other hand, strengthens the power of the state for police and governmental purposes.<ref>List quoted in John J. Lalor, ed. ''Cyclopædia of Political Science'' (1881) 3:118; see Nipperdey (1996) p.&nbsp;165</ref>

Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight a day and forged ahead of France.<ref>{{cite book | first=Allan |last=Mitchell | title=Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815–1914 | year=2000}}</ref>

==== Greece ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Greece}}

==== Hungary ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Hungary}}

==== Italy ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Italy}}
[[File:Fergola, Salvatore The Inauguration of the Naples - Portici Railway, 1840.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|The inauguration of the [[Naples–Portici railway]] on 3 October 1839, the first Italian railway line]]

[[Railway]]s were introduced in Italy  when it was still a divided country. The first line to be built on the peninsula was the [[Naples–Portici railway line|Naples–Portici line]], in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]], which was {{convert|7.640|km|abbr=on}} long and was inaugurated on 3 October 1839, nine years after the world's first "modern" inter-city railway, the [[Liverpool and Manchester Railway]]. During the first phase of development, it was operated by a locomotive derived by the British ''Planet'', that served the Royal convoy that traveled between the capital city of Naples and the summer residence at [[Royal Palace of Portici]]. Soon after, the line lost its exclusive nature and was rapidly expanded toward [[Salerno]] and [[Nola]], serving both public transportation and freight needs.

The following year the firm Holzhammer of [[Bolzano]] was granted the "Imperial-Royal privilege" to build the [[Milan–Monza railway line|Milano–Monza line]] ({{convert|12|km|abbr=on}}), the second railway built in Italy, in the then [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]], a part of the [[Austrian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fondazionefs.it/content/fondazionefs/it/focus-tematici/2021/3/17/le-ferrovie-nell-unita-d-italia---cronologia-storica-1839-1861.html|title=Le ferrovie nell'Unità d'Italia. Cronologia storica 1839-1861|website=Fondazione FS|access-date=2023-10-03}}</ref> On request of the Milanese and Venetian industries, but also for the already clear military importance, construction of the [[Milan–Venice railway|Milan–Venice line]] was begun. In 1842 the [[Padua]]-[[Mestre]] stretch of {{convert|32|km|abbr=on}} was inaugurated, followed in 1846 by the Milan-[[Treviglio]] ({{convert|32|km|abbr=on}}) and Padua-[[Vicenza]] ({{convert|30|km|abbr=on}}), as well as the bridge spanning the lagoon of Venice.
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| header    = Rail network in Italy 1861-1870
| width     = 220
| image1    = Italia ferrovie 1861.03.17.png
| caption1  = Network as of 17 March 1861, at the creation of the unified [[unification of Italy|Kingdom of Italy]]
| image2    = Italia ferrovie 1870 09 20.png
| caption2  = Network as of 20 September 1870, when the [[Papal States]] was annexed to Italy
}}

In the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]] (comprising [[Piedmont]], [[Liguria]] and Sardinia), King [[Charles Albert of Sardinia|Charles Albert]] ordered on 18 July 1844 the construction of the [[Turin–Genoa railway]], which was inaugurated on 18 December 1853.<ref>{{citation|first=Alessandro |last=Tuzza | title=Chronological overview of the opening of railway lines from 1839 to 31 December 1926|publisher= Trenidicarta.it |url=http://www.trenidicarta.it/aperture.html |language=Italian |accessdate=17 January 2010}}</ref> This was followed by the opening of other sections which connected with [[France]], [[Switzerland]] and Lombardy–Venetia. A [[locomotive]] factory was also founded in Genoa, in order to avoid the English monopoly in the field. This became the modern [[Gio. Ansaldo & C.|Ansaldo]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anget.it/comunicazione/editoriali/ferrovieri/articolo2.html|title=Le ferrovie negli Stati Preunitari|access-date=2023-10-03}}</ref>

In [[Tuscany]], the [[Duke of Lucca]] signed the concession for the [[Lucca–Pisa railway]], while, in 1845, the [[Duchy of Parma]] began the construction of two lines towards [[Piacenza]] and [[Modena]]. In the [[Papal States]], [[Pope Gregory XVI]] opposed railways but [[Pope Pius IX]] took a more liberal view.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kalla-Bishop |first1=P. M. |title=Italian railways |date=1971 |publisher=David & Charles |location=Newton Abbot |isbn=0715351680 |page=27}}</ref> Some lines were begun in 1846 under Pius IX with the [[Rome and Frascati Rail Road]] then the [[Rome and Civitavecchia Rail Road]].

In the course of the [[Italian unification|Wars of Italian Independence]] railways proved to be instrumental in the defeat of Charles Albert's army at {{interlanguage link|Siege of Peschiera|it|Assedio di Peschiera|lt=Peschiera}}, as well as in the Austrian defeats at [[battle of Palestro|Palestro]] and [[Battle of Magenta|Magenta]]: in the latter French troops were able to reach the battlefield quickly thanks to the new means of transport and established a defence line right on the [[Track ballast|ballast]] of the line.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arete-consulenzafilosofica.it/didattica/SCHEDA%20DI%20STORIA%20II%20guerra%20di%20indipendenza.pdf|title=La seconda guerra d'indipendenza|access-date=2023-10-03}}</ref>

At the creation of the [[unification of Italy|unified Kingdom of Italy]] (17 March 1861), railways in the country were the following:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vanderbilt.edu/olli/class-materials/Kingdom_of_Italy_Part1.pdf|title=The Kingdom of Italy: Unity or Disparity, 1860-1945|access-date=4 October 2023|publisher=Vanderbilt University|page=45}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|Piedmont||{{convert|850|km|abbr=on}}
|-
|Lombardy–Venetia||{{convert|522|km|abbr=on}}
|-
|Tuscany||{{convert|257|km|abbr=on}}
|-
|Papal State||{{convert|317|km|abbr=on}} (year 1870)
|-
|Kingdom of the Two Sicilies||{{convert|128|km|abbr=on}}
|}
[[File:640 004-St. Gera.jpg|thumb|An Italian [[FS Class 640 II|FS 640]] steam locomotive]]
for a total of {{convert|2064|km|abbr=on}} active railways.
Lines in the Papal States were still under construction, whilst [[Sicily]] had its first, short railway only in 1863 ([[Palermo]]-[[Bagheria]]). In 1870 the last remnant of the Papal States was also annexed to Italy: it comprised the railway connection from Rome to [[Frascati]], [[Civitavecchia]], [[Terni]] and [[Cassino]] (through [[Velletri]]). In 1872 there were in Italy about {{convert|7000|km|abbr=on}} of railways.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anget.it/comunicazione/editoriali/ferrovieri/articolo3.html|title=1861. Nasce il Regno d'Italia|access-date=4 October 2023|language=it}}</ref> After unification, construction of new lines was boosted: in 1875, with the completion of the section [[Orte]]-[[Orvieto]], the direct [[Florence–Rome railway|Florence–Rome line]] was completed, reducing the travel time of the former route passing through [[Foligno]]-Terontola.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.trenidicarta.it/aperture.html|title= Prospetto cronologico dei tratti di ferrovia aperti all'esercizio dal 1839 al 31 dicembre 1926|publisher= Ufficio Centrale di Statistica delle Ferrovie dello Stato|date = 1927|access-date = 11 May 2023}}</ref> As of 2011, the [[Rail transport in Italy|Italian railway system]] is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of [[Italy]], with a total length of {{convert|24227|km|abbr=on}}.<ref name=rete_rfi>{{Cite web|title=La rete oggi|url=http://www.rfi.it/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=25bc8c3e13e0a110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD|publisher=RFI Rete Ferroviaria Italiana|access-date=15 November 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111204091124/http://www.rfi.it/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=25bc8c3e13e0a110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD|archive-date=4 December 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Etr500.JPG|thumb|An Italian [[ETR 500]] train running on the [[Florence–Rome high-speed railway|Florence–Rome high-speed line]] near [[Arezzo]], [[Italy]], the first high-speed railway opened in Europe.<ref name="europa"/>]]

In the 1960s, the FS started an innovative project for [[high speed trains]]. [[FS Class E.444|E.444]] locomotives were the first standard locomotives able to reach {{convert|200|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}}, while an [[FS Class ALe 601|ALe 601]] [[Electrical Multiple Unit|EMU]] reached a speed of {{convert|240|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}} during a test. Other EMUs, such as the [[ETR 220]], [[ETR 250]] and [[ETR 300]] were also updated for speeds up to {{convert|200|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}}. The braking systems of cars were updated to fit the increased travelling speeds.

On 25 June 1970, construction of the [[Florence–Rome high-speed railway|Florence–Rome ''Direttissima'']] was started. The line was the first high-speed line opened in Europe when more than half of it opened on 24 February 1977.<ref name="europa">{{Cite web |title=Special report: A European high-speed rail network |url=https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/high-speed-rail-19-2018/en/ |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=op.europa.eu |language=en-GB}}</ref> This included the {{convert|5.375|km|abbr=on}} bridge over the [[Paglia (river)|Paglia river]], then the longest in Europe. However, the project was completed only in the early 1990s.

==== Latvia ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Latvia}}

==== Lithuania ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Lithuania}}

==== Luxembourg ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Luxembourg}}

==== Montenegro ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Montenegro}}

==== Netherlands ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in the Netherlands}}
Rail transport in the Netherlands is generally considered to have begun on 20 September 1839 when the first train, drawn by the locomotive ''[[Arend (locomotive)|De Arend]]'', successfully made the 16&nbsp;km trip from [[Amsterdam]] to [[Haarlem]]. However, the first plan for a railroad in the Netherlands was launched only shortly after the first railroad opened in Britain.

The history of rail transport in the Netherlands can be described in six eras:

* the period up to 1839{{snd}} the first plans were made for a railroad,
* 1840–1860{{snd}} railroads experienced their early expansion,
* 1860–1890{{snd}} the government started ordering the construction of new lines,
* 1890–1938{{snd}} the different railroads were consolidated into two large railroads,
* 1938–1992{{snd}} [[Nederlandse Spoorwegen]] was granted a [[Government-granted monopoly|monopoly]] on rail transport, and
* 1992 to present{{snd}} the Nederlandse Spoorwegen [[Liberalization|lost its monopoly]].

==== Norway ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Norway}}

==== Poland ====
{{main|History of rail transport in Poland}}
Poland restored its own independence as the [[Second Polish Republic]] in 1918 from the [[German Empire|German]], [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian]] Empires.
First Polish locomotive [[PKP class Ok22|Ok22]] (100&nbsp;km/h) started operating in 1923.
Imported electric locomotives [[English Electric EL.100]] (100&nbsp;km/h) were in use in Warsaw since 1936. 
New Polish locomotive [[PKP class Pm36|Pm36]]-1 (140&nbsp;km/h) was shown at the [[Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne|International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life]] in Paris in 1937.
New Polish electric locomotive [[PKP class EP09|EP09]] (160&nbsp;km/h) was designed in 1977 and started regular operation linking Warsaw and Kraków in 1987.
On 14 December 2014 PKP Intercity New [[Pendolino]] trains by Alstom under the name 'Express Intercity Premium' began operating on the [[Grodzisk Mazowiecki–Zawiercie railway|CMK line]] (224&nbsp;km line from Kraków and Katowice to Warsaw) with trains reaching 200&nbsp;km/h (124&nbsp;mph) as a regularly scheduled operation.

==== Portugal ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Portugal}}

==== Russia ====
[[File:Map of russian railroads 1916.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Russian railroads in 1916]]
[[File:Russia railroads by year.jpg|thumb|Russian railroads construction by year 1837–1989]]
{{Main|History of rail transport in Russia}}

In the early 1830s, the Russian father and son inventors the Cherepanovs built [[Cherepanov steam locomotive|the first Russian steam locomotive]]. The first railway line was built in Russia in 1837 between Saint-Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. It was 27&nbsp;km long and linked the Imperial Palaces at Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk. The track gauge was {{convert|6|ft|m|abbr=off}}. Russia was in need of big transportation systems and geographically suited to railroads, with long flat stretches of land and comparatively simple land acquisition. It was hampered, however, by its outmoded political situation and a shortage of capital. Foreign initiative and capital were required. It was the Americans who brought the technology of railway construction to Russia.{{Citation needed|reason=This contradicts with «History of rail transport in Russia#Russian Empire (1837–1917)», where American influence is not mentioned.|date=January 2019}} In 1842, planning began for the building of Russia's first important railway; it linked Moscow and St Petersburg.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Mowbray Haywood|title=Russia Enters the Railway Age, 1842–1855|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7tPAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=East European Monographs|page=9ff|isbn=9780880333900}}</ref>

==== Slovakia ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Slovakia}}

==== Slovenia ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Slovenia}}

==== Spain ====
[[File:Map of the portuguese and spanish railways.jpg|thumb|Map of railways of the Iberian peninsula (1921)]]
{{Main|History of rail transport in Spain}}
Cuba, then a Spanish colony, built its first rail line in 1837. The history of rail transport in [[peninsular Spain]] begins in 1848 with the construction of a railway line between Barcelona and [[Mataró]]. In 1852, the first narrow gauge line was built. In 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864, the Madrid-[[Irun]] line had been opened and the French border was reached.

==== Sweden ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Sweden}}

==== Switzerland ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Switzerland}}

==== Ukraine ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Ukraine}}

=== North America ===
==== Canada ====
{{Further|History of rail transport in Canada}}

[[File:Grand Trunk Railway Station, Montreal.jpg|thumb|Grand Trunk's [[Bonaventure Station (1887–1952)|Bonaventure Station]], Montreal, 1900s]]

The earliest railway in Canada was a wooden railway reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at [[Louisburg, Nova Scotia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Canada's Earliest Railway Lines |last=Brown |first=Robert R. |date=October 1949 |journal=[[Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin]] |issue=78  |pages=49–63 |jstor=43517553}}</ref>
The first Canadian railway, the [[Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad]], was opened in 1836 outside of [[Montreal]], a seasonal portage railway to connect river traffic. It was followed by the Albion Railway in [[Stellarton, Nova Scotia]] in 1840, a collier railway connecting coal mines to a seaport. In [[History of Canada|Canada]], the national government strongly supported railway construction for political goals. First it wanted to knit the far-flung provinces together and second, it wanted to maximize trade inside Canada and minimize trade with the United States, to avoid becoming an economic satellite. The [[Grand Trunk Railway]] of Canada linked Toronto and Montreal in 1853, then opened a line to Portland, Maine (which was ice-free) and lines to Michigan and Chicago. By 1870 it was the longest railway in the world. The Intercolonial line, finished in 1876, linked the Maritimes to [[Quebec]] and [[Ontario]], tying them to the new Confederation.

Anglo entrepreneurs in [[Montreal]] sought direct lines into the US and shunned connections with the Maritimes, with a goal of competing with American railroad lines heading west to the Pacific. [[Joseph Howe]], [[Charles Tupper]] and other Nova Scotia leaders used the rhetoric of a "civilizing mission" centered on their British heritage, because Atlantic-centered railway projects promised to make Halifax the eastern terminus of an intercolonial railway system tied to London. [[Leonard Tilley]], New Brunswick's most ardent railway promoter, championed the cause of "economic progress," stressing that Atlantic Canadians needed to pursue the most cost-effective transportation connections possible if they wanted to expand their influence beyond local markets. Advocating an intercolonial connection to Canada and a western extension into larger American markets in Maine and beyond, New Brunswick entrepreneurs promoted ties to the United States first, connections with Halifax second and routes into central Canada last. Thus metropolitan rivalries between Montreal, Halifax and Saint John led Canada to build more railway lines per capita than any other industrializing nation, even though it lacked capital resources and had too little freight and passenger traffic to allow the systems to turn a profit.<ref>A.A. den Otter, ''The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America'' (1997)</ref>

Den Otter (1997) challenges popular assumptions that Canada built transcontinental railways because it feared the annexationist schemes of aggressive Americans. Instead Canada overbuilt railroads because it hoped to compete with, even overtake Americans in the race for continental riches. It downplayed the more realistic Maritimes-based London-oriented connections and turned to utopian prospects for the farmlands and minerals of the west. The result was closer ties between north and south, symbolized by the Grand Trunk's expansion into the American Midwest. These economic links promoted trade, commerce and the flow of ideas between the two countries, integrating Canada into a North American economy and culture by 1880. About 700,000 Canadians migrated to the US in the late 19th century.<ref>Den Otten (1997); Bill Waiser, ''Saskatchewan: A New History'' (2005) p. 63</ref> The Canadian Pacific, paralleling the American border, opened a vital link to British Canada and stimulated settlement of the Prairies. The CP was affiliated with [[James J. Hill]]'s American railways and opened even more connections to the South. The connections were two-way, as thousands of American moved to the Prairies after their own frontier had closed.

Two additional transcontinental lines were built to the west coast—three in all—but that was far more than the traffic would bear, making the system simply too expensive. One after another, the federal government was forced to take over the lines and cover their deficits. In 1923, the government merged the Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern and National Transcontinental lines into the new the Canadian National Railways system. Since most of the equipment was imported from Britain or the US and most of the products carried were from farms, mines or forests, there was little stimulation to domestic manufacturing. On the other hand, the railways were essential to the growth of the wheat regions in the Prairies and to the expansion of coal mining, lumbering and paper making. Improvements to the St. Lawrence waterway system continued apace and many short lines were built to river ports.<ref>M. L. Bladen, "Construction of Railways in Canada to the Year 1885", ''Contributions to Canadian Economics'' vol. 5 (1932), pp. 43–60; [https://www.jstor.org/stable/136530 in JSTOR]; Bladen, "Construction of Railways in Canada Part II: From 1885 to 1931", ''Contributions to Canadian Economics'' vol. 7 (1934), pp. 61–107; [https://www.jstor.org/stable/136554 in JSTOR]</ref>

==== United States ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in the United States}}
[[File:69workmen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The [[First transcontinental railroad]] was completed in 1869.]]

===== Overview =====
Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the [[Northeastern United States|North-east]] 1810–1850 to the settlement of the West 1850–1890. The American railroad mania began with the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] in 1828 and flourished until the [[Panic of 1873]] bankrupted many companies and temporarily ended growth.

Railroads not only increased the speed of transport, they also dramatically lowered its cost.  For example, the [[first transcontinental railroad]] resulted in passengers and freight being able to cross the country in a matter of days instead of months and at one tenth the cost of stagecoach or wagon transport.  With economical transportation in the West (which had been referred to as the "Great American Desert") now farming, ranching and mining could be done at a profit.  As a result, railroads transformed the country, particularly the West (which had few navigable rivers).<ref>"Building the Transcontinental Railroad," ''Digital History'' website (https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtlD=2&psid=3147).  Retrieved February 27, 2024.</ref><ref>Athearn, Robert G.  ''Rebel of the Rockies: A History of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad,'' pp. 4-5, 16-25, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1962.</ref><ref>Beebe, Lucius and Clegg, Charles.  ''Narrow Gauge in the Rockies,'' p. 31, Howell-North, Berkeley, California, 1958.</ref><ref>Davidson, James West, et al.  ''American Nation: Independence Through 1914,'' p. 304, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2000.  {{ISBN|0-13-434888-5}}.</ref><ref>Blum, John M. et al.  ''The National Experience: A History of the United States,'' pp. 298-9, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, New York, 1963.</ref>

Although the South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the [[Confederate railroads in the American Civil War|Civil War]]. The North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily settled Midwestern [[Corn Belt]], over 80 percent of farms were within 10 miles of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs and cattle to national and international markets. A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on [[Wall Street]] and oriented to railway bonds, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. State and local governments often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them.

The system was largely built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic and automobiles (and later airplanes) to devour the passenger traffic. The use of diesel electric locomotives (after 1940) made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road and in repair shops.

===== Mileage =====
Route mileage peaked at {{convert|254,000|mi|km}} in 1916 and fell to {{convert|140,000|mi|km}} in 2009.<ref>Bureau of the Census, ''Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970'' (1976) table Q398; ''Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012.'' Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2011; pp. 1064, 1068.</ref>

In 1830, there were about {{convert|75|mi|km}} of railroad track, in short lines linked to coal and granite mines.<ref>{{cite book|author=Henry V. Poor |title= Railroads and Canals of the United States of America |pages=85, 415}}</ref>). After this, railroad lines grew rapidly. Ten years later, in 1840, the railways had grown to {{convert|2800|mi|km}}. By 1860, on the eve of civil war, the length had reached {{convert|29000|mi|km}}, mostly in the North. The South had much less trackage and it was geared to moving cotton short distances to river or ocean ports. The Southern railroads were destroyed during the war but were soon rebuilt. By 1890, the national system was virtually complete with {{convert|164000|mi|km}}.<ref>{{cite book|author=United States Census Bureau |title= Report on the Agencies of Transportation in the United States at Tenth Census 1880 |pages=308–9}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
|-
! style="text-align:center;" colspan=0 | Railroad Accumulated Mileage by Region
|-
!
! 1830
! 1840
! 1850
! 1860
! 1870
! 1880
! 1890
|-
| style="text-align:left" | ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT
| 29.80
| 513.34
| 2,595.57
| 3,644.24
| 4,326.73
| 5,888.09
| 6,718.19
|-
| style="text-align:left" | NY, PA, OH, MI, IN, MD, DE, NJ, DC
| &nbsp;
| 1,483.76
| 3,740.36
| 11,927.21
| 18,291.93
| 28,154.73
| 40,825.60
|-
| style="text-align:left" | VA, WV, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, NC, SC
| 10.00
| 737.33
| 2,082.07
| 7,907.79
| 10,609.60
| 14,458.33
| 27,833.15
|-
| style="text-align:left" | IL, IA, WI, MO, MN<br />
| &nbsp;
| <br />
| 46.48
| 4,951.47
| 11,030.85
| 22,212.98
| 35,579.80
|-
| style="text-align:left" | LA, AR & OK (Indian) Territory<br />
| &nbsp;
| 20.75<br />
| 107.00
| 250.23
| 331.23
| 1,621.11
| 5,153.91
|-
| style="text-align:left" | (Terr.)ND/SD, NM, WY, MT, ID, UT, AZ, WA<br />(States)NE, KS, TX, CO, CA, NV, OR<br />
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 238.85
| 4,577.99
| 15,466.18
| 47,451.47
|-
| style="text-align:left" | TOTAL USA
| 39.80
| 2,755.18
| 8,571.48
| 28,919.79
| 49,168.33
| 87,801.42
| 163,562.12
|}<ref>{{cite book |author=United States Census Bureau |title= Report on Transportation Business in the United States at the Eleventh Census 1890 |page=4}}</ref>

In 1869, the symbolically important [[Transcontinental railroad#United States|transcontinental railroad]] was completed in the United States with the driving of a golden spike (near the city of [[Ogden, Utah|Ogden]]).

=== Latin America ===
[[File:HistoricalRailMapMexico.jpg|thumb|Map of first Mexican rail line between Veracruz and Mexico City]]
[[File:MetlacBridgeKahlo-2.jpg|thumb|left|Mexican railway bridge, an example of engineering that overcame geographical barriers and allowed efficient movement of goods and people.]]

In Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries railways were critical elements in the early stages of modernization of the [[Latin American economy]], especially in linking agricultural regions to export-oriented seaports.<ref>Summerhill, 2005</ref> After 1870 Latin American governments encouraged further rail development through generous concessions that included government subsidies for construction. Railway construction is the subject of considerable scholarship, examining the economic, political, and social impacts of railroads. Railways transformed many regions of Latin America beginning in the late nineteenth century. "Increasing exports of primary commodities, rising imports of capital goods, the expansion of activities drawing directly and indirectly on overseas investment, the rising share of manufacturing in output, and a generalized increase in the pace and scope of economic activity were all tied closely to the timing and character of the region's infrastructural development."<ref>William R. Summerhill, "The Development of Infrastructure" in ''The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America, vol. 2: The Long Twentieth Century'', Victor Bulmer-Thomas, John H. Coatsworth, and Roberto Cortés Conde, eds. New York: Cambridge University Press 2006, p. 293.</ref>

Rates of railway line construction were not uniform, but by 1870 railway line construction was underway, with Cuba leading with the largest railway track in service (1,295&nbsp;km), followed by Chile (797&nbsp;km), Brazil (744&nbsp;km), Argentina (732&nbsp;km), Peru (669&nbsp;km), and Mexico (417&nbsp;km). By 1900, Argentina (16,563&nbsp;km), Brazil (15,316&nbsp;km) and Mexico (13,615&nbsp;km) were the leaders in length of track in service, and Peru, which had been an early leader in railway construction, had stagnated (1,790&nbsp;km).<ref>Summerhill, "The Development of Infrastructure", Table 8.1. Length of railway track service by country 1870–1930, p. 302.</ref> In Mexico, growing nationalistic fervor led the government to bring the bulk of the nation's railroads under national control in 1909, with a new government corporation, [[Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México]] (FNM), that exercised control of the main trunk rail lines through a majority of share ownership.<ref>Coatsworth, 1979</ref>

=== Asia ===

==== India ====
{{Main|Rail transport in India#History}}
[[File:India railways1909a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The 1909 map of railways in India]]

The first proposals for railways in [[India]] were made in [[Madras]] in 1832.<ref name="irfca.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.irfca.org/docs/history/india-first-railways.html|title=[IRFCA] India's First Railways|website=www.irfca.org}}</ref> The first train in India ran from [[Red Hills, Chennai|Red Hills]] to [[Chintadripet]] bridge in [[Madras]] in 1837. It was called ''Red Hill Railway''. It was hauled by a [[rotary steam engine]] locomotive manufactured by William Avery. It was built by Sir [[Arthur Cotton]]. It was primarily used for transporting granite stones for road building work in Madras.<ref name="irfca.org"/> In 1845, a railway was built at [[Dowleswaram]] in [[Rajahmundry]]. It was called ''Godavari Dam Construction Railway''. It was also built by Arthur Cotton. It was used to supply stones for construction of a dam over [[Godavari]].<ref name="irfca.org"/>

On 8 May 1845, [[Madras Railway]] was incorporated. In the same year, the [[East India Railway]] company was incorporated. On 1 August 1849, [[Great Indian Peninsular Railway]] (GIPR) was incorporated. In 1851, a railway was built in [[Roorkee]]. It was called ''Solani Aqueduct Railway''. It was hauled by steam locomotive Thomason, named after a British officer-in-charge. It was used for transporting construction materials for building of [[aqueduct (bridge)|aqueduct]] over Solani river.<ref name="irfca.org"/> In 1852, the "Madras Guaranteed Railway Company" was incorporated.

The first passenger train in [[India]] ran between [[Bombay]] ([[Bori Bunder railway station|Bori Bunder]]) and [[Thane]] on 16 April 1853. The 14-carriage train was hauled by three steam locomotives: Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. It ran for about 34 kilometers between these two cities carrying 400 people. The line was built and operated by GIPR.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/164-years-ago-on-this-day-india-s-first-train-ran-from-mumbai-to-thane-275748.html|title=164 Years Ago On This Day, India's First Train Ran From Mumbai To Thane|date=16 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/Indias-1st-train-When-Sahib-Sindh-Sultan-blew-steam/articleshow/19717248.cms|title=India's 1st train: When Sahib, Sindh & Sultan blew steam |work=The Times of India |date=25 April 2013 }}</ref> This railway line was built in {{RailGauge|1676mm|lk=on}} [[broad gauge]], which became the standard for the railways in the country. The first passenger railway train in eastern India ran from [[Howrah]], near [[Calcutta]] to [[Hugli-Chinsura|Hoogly]], for distance of 24 miles, on 15 August 1854. The line was built and operated by EIR.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-hist.html|title=[IRFCA] Indian Railways FAQ: IR History: Early Days – 1|website=www.irfca.org}}</ref> The first passenger train in South India ran from [[Royapuram]] / Veyasarapady ([[Madras]]) to Wallajah Road ([[Arcot]]) on 1 July 1856, for a distance of 60 miles. It was built and operated by Madras Railway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.railnews.in/royapuram-railway-station-legacy-through-the-ages/|title=Legacy of First Railway Station of South India|website=RailNews Media India Ltd}}</ref> On 24 February 1873, the first [[tram]]way (a [[horse-drawn tramway]]) opened in Calcutta between [[Sealdah]] and Armenian Ghat Street, a distance of 3.8&nbsp;km.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.culturebowl.com/kolkatas-trams-a-ride-through-history/|title=Kolkata's trams – A ride through history|date=2 March 2016|access-date=24 July 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729094331/http://www.culturebowl.com/kolkatas-trams-a-ride-through-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Iran ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Iran|Islamic Republic of Iran Railways#History}}
[[Iran]]ian railway history goes back to 1887 when an approximately 20-km long railway between [[Tehran]] and [[Ray, Iran|Ray]] was established. After this time many short railways were constructed but the main railway, [[Trans-Iranian Railway]], was started in 1927 and operated in 1938 by connecting the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea.

==== Japan ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Japan}}

In 1867, in [[Japan]], [[Edo period]] ([[Tokugawa shogunate]]) and its [[feudal system]] was ended, then [[Meiji period]] was entered and the government strived to acquire western culture and technology. In 1872, the first railway in Japan was inaugurated by [[Ministry of Railways (Japan)|Japanese Government Railways (JGR)]], connecting [[Shimbashi]] in [[Tokyo]] and [[Yokohama]]. The first 10 [[steam locomotives]] were ordered to [[Avonside Engine Company|Avonside]], [[Dübs and Company|Dübs]], [[Sharp, Stewart and Company|Sharp Stewart]], [[Vulcan Foundry|Vulcan]] and [[Yorkshire Engine Company|Yorkshire]] companies in [[United Kingdom]]. Subsequently, so many [[locomotives]] and [[railroad cars]] were ordered to [[United Kingdom]], [[United States]] and [[Germany]], before they could be manufactured in Japan. At that time, JGR adopted [[narrow gauge]] (1,067&nbsp;mm) rather than [[standard gauge]] (1,435&nbsp;mm), considering its cost of construction, so still now, narrow gauge has been mostly adopted and called "standard gauge in Japan". In 1874, the second railway connected between [[Osaka]] and [[Kobe]] by JGR. Following them, railways were spread around Japan, [[Hokkaido]], [[Tōhoku region|Tōhoku]], [[Kantō region|Kantō]], [[Chūbu region|Chūbu]], [[Kansai region|Kansai]], [[Chūgoku region|Chūgoku]], [[Shikoku]] and [[Kyushu]] regions by JGR and many private companies. In 1895, the first electric railway, also the first electric street railway was inaugurated by Kyoto Electric Railway in [[Kyoto]], and the first [[trams]] seems to be ordered to [[J. G. Brill Company|J. G. Brill]] in United States. In 1923, the first [[diesel locomotive]] was ordered to [[Deutz AG]] in Germany by Horinouchi Railway Company in [[Shizuoka prefecture]]. In 1927, the first [[rapid transit|subway]] was inaugurated by [[Tokyo Metro]], and connected between [[Ueno]] and [[Asakusa]] in Tokyo, and the electric railroad cars were ordered to [[Nippon Sharyo]] as Class 1000. Then, in 1928, the first diesel railroad car, equipped with diesel engine of [[MAN AG]], was ordered and manufactured by Amemiya Manufacturing, for Nagaoka Railway in [[Niigata prefecture]].
[[File:JR-Maglev-MLX01.JPG|thumb|Japanese Maglev train]]
Viewing the development of locomotive and railroad car technology in Japan, in 1893, the first steam locomotive was manufactured by Kobe works of JGR as [[JGR Class 860]]. Then in 1904, the first electric railroad car seems to be manufactured by [[Iidabashi]] works of Kōbu railway (now [[Chūō Main Line]] of [[East Japan Railway Company|JR East]]) as Class 950. In 1926, the first [[electric locomotive]] was manufactured by [[Hitachi]] as [[JNR Class ED15|JGR Class ED15]]. In 1927, the first diesel locomotive, equipped with diesel engine of Niigata Engineering, was manufactured by Amemiya Manufacturing. By [[World War II]], Japan also suffered catastrophic damage, however they accomplished reconstruction. In 1964, the first electric [[high-speed rail]] in the world, [[Tōkaidō Shinkansen]] (standard gauge) was inaugurated by [[Japanese National Railways|Japanese National Railways (JNR)]], and connected between Tokyo and Osaka. The first high-speed trains were manufactured by [[Kawasaki Heavy Industries]], [[Nippon Sharyo]], [[Hitachi]], [[Kinki Sharyo]] and [[J-TREC|Tokyu Car Corporation]] (now J-TREC), as [[0 Series Shinkansen|Shinkansen 0 Series]]. Today, Electric, battery electric, electric hybrid, electric-diesel, diesel locomotives, railroad cars, high-speed trains, and [[Automated guideway transit|AGTs]] are manufacrured by Hitachi, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo, Kinki Sharyo, J-TREC and [[Mitsubishi Heavy Industries]], and they are running around the world.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

==== Pakistan ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Pakistan}}
It was in 1847 when the first railway was imagined but it was not until 1861 when it came into existence in the form of the railway built from [[Karachi]] to [[Kotri]]. Since then [[Pakistan Railways|rail transport]] is a popular mode of non-independent transport in Pakistan.

==== Turkey ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Turkey}}
[[File:Rail transport map of Turkey in Turkish.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Rail transport map of Turkey]]
Rail technology was introduced to the [[Ottoman Empire]] in [[1850s]],  with the first railway in the empire built in 1854 by the British between [[Cairo]] and [[Alexandria]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://medium.com/@gulerruchan/a-brief-history-of-railways-in-turkey-2edf8d3ebabf | title=A Brief History of Railways in Turkey | date=27 September 2024 }}</ref> In the modern boundaries of Turkey the first railway was inaugerated in 188, departing from [[Smyrna]], modern day [[İzmir|Izmir]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Railways in Turkey |url=https://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/turkey.html |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=www.sinfin.net}}</ref> The British, French and Germans competed in the construction of rail projects in the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="t1">[http://www.tcdd.gov.tr/tcdding/tarihce_ing.htm RAILWAYS POLICIES THROUGHOUT THE 80 YEARS HISTORY OF OUR REPUBLIC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528230122/http://www.tcdd.gov.tr/tcdding/tarihce_ing.htm|date=2010-05-28}} ''www.tcdd.gov.tr''</ref>

=== Africa ===

==== Angola ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Angola}}

==== Botswana ====
{{See also|Rail transport in Botswana#History}}

==== Congo ====
{{Main|Rail transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo|Rail transport in the Republic of the Congo}}

==== East Africa ====
The railway was built from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala, Uganda, and construction was hampered by the presence of man-eating lions.<ref>"The maneaters of Tsavo" by Patterson, J. H., Macmillan, 1952</ref>

==== Egypt ====
{{See also|Egyptian National Railways#History}}

===== 1833–1877 =====
[[Robert Stephenson]] (1803–59) was the engineer of Egypt's first railway

In 1833, [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]] [[Pasha]] considered building a railway between [[Suez]] and [[Cairo]] to improve transit between Europe and India. Muhammad Ali had proceeded to buy the rail when the project was abandoned due to pressure by the French who had an interest in building a canal instead.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Proposed railway from Cairo to the Sea of Suez by [[Charles Cheffins]], 1840s; state carriage by [[Wason Manufacturing Company|Wason Manufacturing]] built for [[Sa'id of Egypt|Sa'id Pasha]] for state functions, included with 161 less ornate railcars sent by the company in 1860

Muhammad Ali died in 1848, and in 1851 his successor [[Abbas I of Egypt|Abbas I]] contracted [[Robert Stephenson]] to build Egypt's first [[standard gauge]] railway. The first section, between [[Alexandria]] on the Mediterranean coast and [[Kafr el-Zayyat]] on the [[Nile Delta#Geography|Rosetta branch of the Nile]] was opened in 1854. This was the first railway in the [[Ottoman Empire]] as well as [[Africa]] and the [[Middle East]]. In the same year Abbas died and was succeeded by [[Sa'id of Egypt|Sa'id Pasha]], in whose reign the section between Kafr el-Zayyat and [[Cairo]] was completed in 1856 followed by an extension from Cairo to [[Suez]] in 1858. This completed the first modern transport link between the Mediterranean and the [[Indian Ocean]], as [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]] did not complete the [[Suez Canal]] until 1869.

==== Namibia (South West Africa) ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Namibia}}
The first railway in the German colony of South West Africa was the {{convert|18|km|mi}}-long line running North-East from [[Walvis Bay]] to connect with the existing road between [[Swakopmund]] and [[Windhoek]]. It was built to {{TrackGauge|2ft6in}} gauge and was opened in 1898.<ref name="TonchiLindeke2012">{{cite book |first1=Victor L. |last1=Tonchi |first2=William A. |last2=Lindeke |first3=John J. |last3=Grotpeter |title=Historical Dictionary of Namibia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VUkGQ6xfYkgC&pg=PA357 |date=31 August 2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7990-4 |pages=357}}</ref>

==== Morocco ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Morocco}}
The Moroccan rail transport was first developed around 1906 and later during the French and Spanish protectorate. It functioned initially as a means to transport natural resources from in-land mines to the harbors. It was also used to move colonial troops.

==== Mozambique ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Mozambique}}

==== South Africa ====
{{See also|Rail transport in South Africa#History}}

==== Sudan ====
{{See also|Rail transport in Sudan#History}}

==== Zambia ====
{{Main|History of rail transport in Zambia}}

==== Zimbabwe ====
{{See also|National Railways of Zimbabwe}}

====Others====
:''See also:''
{{Columns-list|colwidth=25em|style= font-style: italic;|
* [[National Company for Rail Transport#History|Algerian National Rail Transportation Company]]
* [[History of rail transport in Burundi]]
* [[History of rail transport in Cameroon]]
* [[History of rail transport in the Central African Republic]]
* [[History of rail transport in the Comoros]]
* [[History of rail transport in Equatorial Guinea]]
* [[Eritrean Railway]]
* [[Rail transport in Ethiopia#History]]
* [[Rail transport in Ghana]]
* [[Rail transport in Guinea]]
* [[Rail transport in Kenya#History]]
* [[History of rail transport in Lesotho]]
* [[History of rail transport in Liberia]]
* [[Rail transport in Libya#History]]
* [[History of rail transport in Madagascar]]
* [[History of rail transport in Malawi]]
* [[History of rail transport in Mauritania]]
* [[History of rail transport in Mauritius]]
* [[History of rail transport in Rwanda]]
* [[Sierra Leone Government Railway]]
* [[History of rail transport in Tanzania]]
* [[History of rail transport in Togo]]
}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Trains}}
{{div col}}
* [[:Category:Rail transport timelines]]
* [[George Bradshaw]], originator of the railway timetable
* [[History of the railway track]]
* [[History of trams]]
* [[John Blenkinsop]] (1783–1831), inventor
* [[List of years in rail transport]]
* [[Matthias W. Baldwin]] (1795–1866), manufacturer
* [[Mergers and acquisitions in the United States railroad industry]]
* [[Oldest railroads in North America]]
* [[Railway speed record]]
* [[South American Railway Congress]]
* [[Thomas Gray (1788–1848)]], railway advocate, published 1st ed. of ''Observations on a General Iron Railway'', 1820.
* [[Timeline of railway history]]{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|28em}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* Cameron, Rondo E. ''France and the Economic Development of Europe, 1800–1914: Conquests of Peace and Seeds of War'' (1961), pp.&nbsp;304–227 covers France, Spain Russia and others
* {{cite book | last = Churella | first = Albert J. | title = From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry| publisher =[[Princeton University Press]]| year =1998| location =[[Princeton, New Jersey]]| isbn =978-0-691-02776-0}}
* Coatsworth, John H. "Indispensable Railroads in a Backward Economy: The Case of Mexico", ''Journal of Economic History'' (1979) 39#4 pp.&nbsp;939–960 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120337 in JSTOR]
* Duffy, Michael C. ''Electric Railways: 1880-1990'' (2003).
* {{Citation | last = Fraser | first = P. M. | title = The ΔΙΟΛΚΟΣ of Alexandria | journal = [[Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology]] | volume = 47  | pages = 134–138 | year = 1961 | doi = 10.2307/3855873 | jstor = 3855873 }}
* Fremdling, Rainer. "Railroadss and German Economic Growth: A Leading Sector Analysis with a Comparison to the United States and Great Britain", ''Journal of Economic History'' (1977) 37#3 pp.&nbsp;583–604. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2119597 in JSTOR]
* Hadfield, C. and Skempton, A. W. ''William Jessop, Engineer'' (Newton Abbot 1979)
* [[Jenks, Leland H.]] "Railroads as an Economic Force in American Development", ''The Journal of Economic History'', vol. 4, no. 1 (May 1944), 1–20. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2113700 in JSTOR]
* {{cite journal |last=Keys |first=C. M. |date=August 1914 |title=Redrawing The Railroad Map of the World |journal=[[World's Work|The World's Work: A History of Our Time]] |volume=XLIV |issue=2 |pages=414–425 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zegeQtMn9JsC&pg=PA414}} Includes maps of major rail lines on all continents c. 1914
* {{cite book | last1= Lewis | first1=M J T | title=Early Wooden Railways | publisher=Routledge Keegan Paul | place=London | year=1970 }}
* Lewis, M. J. T., [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083013/http://www.sciencenews.gr/docs/diolkos.pdf "Railways in the Greek and Roman world"], in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), ''Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference'' (2001), pp.&nbsp;8–19 (10–15)
* Misa, Thomas J. ''A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925'' (1995) [https://archive.today/20120805234054/http://www.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/1.1_intro.html chapter 1 'Dominance of Rails' online]
* {{cite journal | last1=New | first1=J R. | title=400 years of English railways – Huntingdon Beaumont and the early years | journal=Backtrack |volume=18 |issue=11 | date=November 2004 | pages=660–665 }}
* Nock, O. S. ed. ''Encyclopedia of Railways'' (London, 1977), worldwide coverage, heavily illustrated
* O’Brien, Patrick. ''Railways and the Economic Development of Western Europe, 1830–1914'' (1983)
* O'Brien, Patrick. ''The New Economic History of the Railways'' (Routledge, 2014)
* [[Bijan Omrani|Omrani, Bijan]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=I7USQgAACAAJ Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road] Odyssey Publications, 2010 {{ISBN|962-217-811-1}}
* Otte, Thomas G. and Keith Neilson, eds. ''Railways and International Politics: Paths of Empire, 1848–1945'' (Routledge, 2012) 11 essays by leading scholars
* {{cite book |title=The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide |last=Pinkepank |first=Jerry A. |year=1973 |publisher=Kalmbach Books |location=Milwaukee WI |isbn=978-0-89024-026-7 }}
* Riley, C. J. ''The Encyclopedia of Trains & Locomotives'' (2002)
* Savage, Christopher and T. C. Barker. ''Economic History of Transport in Britain'' (Routledge, 2012)
* Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. ''The railway journey: the industrialization of time and space in the nineteenth century'' (Univ of California Press, 2014)
* {{cite book|author=Skelton, Oscar D.|title=The Railway Builders|publisher=Glasgow, Brook, & Company, Toronto|year=1916}}
* Stover, John. ''American Railways'' (2nd ed 1997)
* {{cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Thomas Curtis |date=June 1888 |title=The Building of a Railway |journal=Scribner's Magazine |volume=III |issue=6 |pages=642–670 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VdFEmTaneHwC&pg=PA642}} Includes numerous c. 1880 diagrams and illustrations
* [[Jack Simmons (historian)|Jack Simmons]] and Gordon Biddle (editors). ''The Oxford Companion to British Railway History: From 1603 to the 1990s'' (2nd ed 1999)
* Stover, John. ''The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads'' (2001)
* Summerhill, William R. "Big Social Savings in a Small Laggard Economy: Railroad-Led Growth in Brazil", ''Journal of Economic History'' (2005) 65#1 pp.&nbsp;72–102 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3875043 in JSTOR]
* Wolmar, Christian. ''On the wrong line: How ideology and incompetence wrecked Britain's railways'' (Kemsing Publishing, 2005).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''Fire and steam: a new history of the railways in Britain'' (Atlantic Books, 2009).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''Engines of war: how wars were won & lost on the railways'' (PublicAffairs, 2010).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''Blood, iron, and gold: How the railroads transformed the world'' (Public Affairs, 2011).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''The great railroad revolution: The history of trains in America'' (PublicAffairs, 2012).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''The Iron Road: The Illustrated History of Railways'' (Dorling Kindersley, 2014).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''To the Edge of the World: The Story of the Trans-Siberian Express, the World's Greatest Railroad'' (PublicAffairs, 2014).
* Wolmar, Christian. ''Railways and the Raj: How the age of steam transformed India'' (Atlantic Books, 2017).

=== Historiography ===
{{Further|Christian Wolmar}}
* Hurd II, John and Ian J. Kerr, eds. ''India's railway history: a research handbook'' (Brill, 2012)
* Lee, Robert. "A Fractious Federation: Patterns in Australian Railway Historiography." ''Mobility in History''(2013) 4#1 pp.&nbsp;149–158
* McDonald, Kate. "Asymmetrical Integration: Lessons from a Railway Empire." ''Technology and Culture'' (2015) 56#1 pp.&nbsp;115–149
* Pathak, Dev N. "Marian Aguiar, Tracking Modernity: India’s Railway and the Culture of Mobility." ''South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies'' (2012) 35#4 pp.&nbsp;900–901
* Salerno, Elena. "The Historiography of Railways in Argentina: Between Foreign Investment, Nationalism and Liberalism." ''Mobility in History'' (2014) 5#1 pp.&nbsp;105–120
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.americanhistoryprojects.com/downloads/railroad.htm WWW Guide to "Railroad History" 2016]
* [http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/d8523.htm John H. White, Jr. Reference Collection, 1880s–1990] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150805041910/http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/d8523.htm |date=5 August 2015 }}). Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
* [http://www.nrhs.com/about National Railway Historical Society] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418175737/http://www.nrhs.com/about |date=18 April 2019 }})
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=VdKN4UZ57qAC&pg=PA4 ''Foreign Railways of the World: Containing in One Volume, the Names of Officers, Length, Capital,...'' (1884)]
* [http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5385284 "How the Railroad is Modernising Asia"], ''The Advertiser'', Adelaide, S. Australia, 22 March 1913. N.B.: The article is approx. 1,500 words, covering approx. a dozen Asian countries.

{{Africa in topic|History of rail transport in}}
{{Americas in topic|History of rail transport in}}
{{Asia in topic|History of rail transport in}}
{{History of rail transport in Europe}}
{{History of rail transport in Oceania}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of rail transport| ]]
[[Category:History of technology|Rail transport]]