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In rail transport, a train consists of several connected rail vehicles that are capable of being moved together along a guideway to transport freight or passengers from one place to another along a planned route. The guideway usually consists of conventional rail, but may be monorail or maglev. Propulsion for the train may come from a variety of sources, but often from a locomotive or self-propelled multiple unit.
There are various types of train designed for particular purposes, see rail transport operations.
A train can consist of a combination of a locomotive and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit (or occasionally a single powered coach, called a railcar). Trains can also be hauled by horses, pulled by a cable, or run downhill by gravity.
Special kinds of trains running on corresponding special 'railways' are atmospheric railways, monorails, high-speed railways, maglev, rubber-tired underground, funicular and cog railwayA cog railway or rack-and-pinion railway is a mountain railway with a special centre rack rail mounted in the middle of the sleepers between the regular rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels that mesh into this rack rail . This then alls.
A passenger train may consist of one or several locomotives, and one or more coaches. Alternatively, a train may consist entirely of passenger carrying coaches, some or all of which are powered as a " multiple unit".
Freight train s comprise wagons or trucks rather than carriages, though some parcel and mail trains (especially Travelling Post Office s) are outwardly more like passenger trains.A train hauled by two locomotives is said to be "double headed".
Trains can also be mixed, hauling both passengers and freight, see e.g. Transportation in MauritaniaRailways ''total 704 km (single track, standard gauge); owned and operated by government mining company S. one of the world's longest trains runs here, up to 2. 5 km long, with more than 200 wagons mainly transporting iron ore, and some carriages for pass. Such mixed trains have become rare in many countries.
Special trains are also used for trackThe word track can mean more than one thing. It can mean a railroad track (see rail tracks), or a trail, informal road or pathway, or a distinct section of a sound recording, such as a gramophone record or compact disc, a circular segment of a hard disk o maintenance.
A single uncoupled rail vehicle is not technically a train, but is usually referred to as such for signalling reasons.
The first trains were rope-hauled or pulled by horses, but from the early 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended, almost all were powered by steam engines. From the 1920s onwards they began to be replaced by diesel (and some petrol) and electric-hauled trains. Most countries had replaced steam trains for day-to-day use, by the 1970s. A few countries, most notably the People's Republic of China where coal is in cheap and plentiful supply, still use steam trains, but this is being gradually phased out. Historical steam trains still run in many other countries, for the leisure and enthusiast market.
Modern locomotives and powered coaches may have a diesel engine and/or electric motors. On the most common form of diesel train, the diesel engine drives a generator which provides power for electric motors which turn the wheels (diesel-electric), or in some cases the power from the diesel engine is transferred to the wheels by hydraulic means (diesel-hydraulic). Mechanical transmission, like that in an automobile, is used on a few trains, and shunting engines (switchers). However diesel powered trains are expensive to run. Where a railway line has sufficient traffic to justify the expense, it may be electrified, to allow the running of electric powered trains, which are cheap to run, and have higher performance than diesel trains.
For straight electric trains the power to run the electric motors is generated at a power station and supplied to the train by some form of distribution system. There are two common means of doing this, current may be supplied to the train by overhead wires, or by a third rail system. Funiculars do not have an engine within the vehicle, but are pulled on a cable by a motor in the station.
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