railways, history of

railways, history of The advent of railways brought together the technology of the steam-engine, developed in the early 18th century, and the horse- or human-powered wagon-ways used in mining since the 16th century. The British engineer Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) was the first to build a steam locomotive to run on such wagon-ways (1804); other steam-locomotive pioneers, also British, were John Blenkinsop (1783–1831), William Hedley (1779–1843), and George Stephenson (1781–1848). Early locomotives were handicapped by the weakness of the available railway track: it was not until technical advances were made in track construction that the railway became truly practical.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825) was the first to carry both freight and passengers. In 1830 it was followed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the line that heralded the beginning of the railway era using Stephenson's Rocket as locomotive. There followed a period of rapid expansion and development of railways throughout the world. By 1847, 250,000 navvies were employed in railway construction in the UK, and in the USA, where railroad companies were the main agents of westward expansion, nearly 34,000 km (21,100 miles) of railway were constructed between 1850 and 1860. By the end of the century railway networks covered Europe, the USA, Canada, and parts of imperial Russia. In Europe cheap and easy travel helped to break down provincial differences, while in Switzerland and the Mediterranean the holiday industry steadily developed. Railways were important for both sides in the American Civil War, for moving troops and supplies. The first electric locomotive was demonstrated in Berlin in 1879. Electric traction was commercially applied first on suburban and metropolitan lines, but was quickly adopted for underground railways. One of the earliest users of electric locomotives on mainline routes was Italy, where a line was opened in 1902.

The railways proved strategically important on all fronts in World War I. After the war many railway companies grouped together as national railway systems or large geographical concerns. In the late 1930s the steam locomotive reached its zenith, but electric locomotives were already in widespread use in Europe and Scandinavia, and main-line diesel locomotives were coming into service in the USA. In this period road and air transport began to challenge the railways.

Following World War II there was a period of reconstruction: new steam locomotives were introduced in the UK and mainland Europe, and new diesels were also under test. Steam locomotive production ended in the USA in the 1950s, and in Europe in the 1960s, and, as the competition from roads increased, there were major cutbacks in the rail network. In Japan in 1964, the high-speed shinkansen or ‘bullet’ trains began operation, running on specially developed track at speeds of up to 210 km/h (130 mph). At around the same period experiments began using ground guidance-systems other than conventional track.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, railway construction worldwide started to grow again, though in developed countries few new lines were built. In Europe, notably in France and more recently Germany, other high-speed trains have been developed. There has also been a considerable investment in commuter trains and light railway rapid-transit systems to ease congestion on roads and pollution. A new development in Jakarta, Indonesia, is the Aeromovel, a light, engineless train powered by compressed air blown through a duct below the track. New underground railways have been built in some of the newer large cities (for example, the Metro in Mexico City), while in China the railway network is growing at a rate of some 1000 km (600 miles) per year. The Channel Tunnel rail link between England and France began to operate in 1994. Following a model adopted by Sweden in the early 1990s, Britain privatized its rail network in the mid-1990s.