Interesting facts about trains and railways. Interesting facts about trains (15 photos) Amazing facts about the railway

Trains are one of the most popular forms of transport. Every day they carry over a million passengers around the world. But at the same time, few people know that many interesting facts are associated with trains.

1. Abandoned station

In New York there is a subway station, City Hall, passing which, the train slows down without stopping or opening the doors. This beautiful station was opened in 1904 on a new metro line, but closed in 1945 due to low passenger traffic and unsafe use. But today train number 6 passes through this station very slowly every day so that passengers can admire its luxurious interior.

2. From kamikaze planes to high-speed trains

During World War II, the Japanese used special aircraft designed by the designer Mika Tadanao to attack American warships. Thanks to an optimized streamlined shape, they picketed at great speed, hitting the target with lightning speed. But after realizing how many pilots died because of his kamikaze planes, Miki Tadanao focused on more peaceful projects. Using his knowledge, he helped create the first generation of bullet trains. During a test run in 1963, they reached a speed of 256 km / h. Today's bullet trains can reach speeds of over 600 km / h.

3. Steam versus horse

In 1830, a railroad was built between Baltimore and Ohio, along which horses and carts ply. Peter Cooper suggested using a steam engine instead of horses. To implement this idea, Peter designed and built a small steam locomotive, "Tom Thumb" - "Thumb Boy". His test was very successful. After that, Peter Cooper decided to put on a steam versus horse demonstration race.

At the beginning of the race, the horse had the advantage, since the steam locomotive needed time to accelerate, but having reached a speed of 29 km / h, it easily overtook the horse. However, after a while, the locomotive's drive belt slipped off, it slowed down, and the horse came to the finish line first. But, nevertheless, the superiority of the steam locomotive was obvious, and soon trains with steam locomotives began to ply on the railway.

4. Hogwarts Express

The world of Harry Potter is filled with magic, and, of course, we all would like to see it in reality. And some traces of that world still remain in our lives. Arriving in Scotland, you can ride the very express train on which students, including Harry Potter, got to Hogwarts, the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Trains with those same red wagons still run along the picturesque West Highland route. They drive along the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, and outside the windows flashed the same wonderful scenery as in the Harry Potter movie.

5. American Civil War

Steam locomotives were widely used to transport passengers and goods. But, starting in 1861, during the civil war, soldiers and military equipment were also transported on them. In September 1863, the Allies brought 20,000 soldiers to the front using trains that covered 1,900 km in 11 days. Unfortunately, in the future, widely used railways became the target of multiple terrorist attacks.

6. "Horsepower"

The unit of measurement for horsepower has been in use for hundreds of years. But what is this unit and where does it come from? James Watt suggested using steam power instead of horses in breweries. Observing horses, Watt noticed that a horse could move a weight of 14.774 kg to a distance of 0.3 m in 1 minute. Having rounded off 14.774 kg to 15 kg, he introduced the unit of measurement for horsepower. By comparing horse and steam engine performance with this unit, Watt convinced brewers to replace horses with steam, and the efficiency of the brewing process increased significantly as a result. And the term "horsepower" has been widely used since that time.

7.Presidential funeral train

George Pullman drew attention to the fact that train carriages are not very convenient for night travel and decided to improve them. In partnership with his close friend, Benjamin Field, he formed a company to develop comfortable railroad cars, and six years later the company produced two such cars, Springfield and Pioneer. In 1865, after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, his body had to be transported by train to Springfield. All along the route, in dozens of cities, there were grieving people. Lincoln's widow, seeing all this, upon arrival in Chicago, fainted from nervous exhaustion. Pullman, in order to make it easier for her to endure the rest of the way, offered to use his car "Pioneer". The convenience of this car was appreciated, and since then all trains have been equipped with sleeping cars.

8. Time zones

How to determine the time on the territory of a large country, in different parts of which daylight hours are asynchronous. For these purposes, time zones were invented. In 1883, representatives of the US railroad companies met to negotiate a Convention for Determining Common Time. On November 18, at 12 noon, a telegraph signal was sent from the American observatory, according to which all railway stations adjusted their clocks. In 1918, the US Congress officially approved nine time zones in the country.

9. Railway fever

After steam locomotives began to be used in America, there was a need for large-scale construction of railways. In 1830, when the first steam locomotive was tested, the length of railroad tracks in the United States was 37 km. By 1861, it reached 48,000 km, between 1890 and 1900, another 64,000 km was added, and by 1916 the length of railways in the United States (402,000 km) exceeded the distance from the Earth to the Moon. By 1930, the length of the roads was 692,000 km. Later, with the advent of cars, the construction of railways began to decline.

10. Exactly on schedule

All trains in Japan run on time, and a delay of even one minute is very rare. The Japanese have achieved this by taking the training of train drivers seriously and severely punishing them for being late. In case of delay, passengers at the station are apologized over the speakerphone, and a document is issued confirming the delay of the train with an indication of the reason. Passengers can present this official document to their employer if they have problems due to being late for work.

And in continuation of the theme, the story about.

Interesting fact number 1

Annually 1,300,000,000 passengers use rail in Russia. That is, every resident of Russia uses the train 9 times a year. However, this figure is far from the limit. In the USSR, there were 15 train journeys for each person.

Interesting fact number 2

The longest railway is the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has a length of about 9,300 kilometers.

Interesting fact number 3

The middle station of the Transsib is called “Half”. The distance from it to Moscow and Vladivostok is the same.

Interesting fact number 4

The first railway was opened between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the first three days of transportation were carried out free of charge. Simply no one wanted to ride such an unknown thing as a train.

Interesting fact number 5

If you want to work at Russian Railways, go to the railway institute in Krasnoyarsk.

Interesting fact number 6

In France, it is forbidden to kiss at train stations, as this often became the reason for train delays. The law has been in effect for 100 years, and still no one has canceled it.

Interesting fact number 7

Railroad It is known that trackmen who check the serviceability of train wheels have a keen ear for music. After all, they have to identify wheel defects by changing the tone of the knock.

Interesting fact number 8

On one of the trains that travels in western Peru, conductors provide oxygen cushions to their passengers. The fact is that the train travels on the highest railway in the world, which is located at an altitude of about three kilometers.

Interesting fact number 9

Once, in the United States, in the state of Ohio, a train collided with a steamer. Lake Ohio overflowed its shores at that moment, and the railway sank into a meter-long water column. The machinist, however, still decided to drive across the river, well, his path was blocked by a steamer.

Interesting fact number 10

In Bavaria, in 1910, an order was issued on behalf of the local authorities, which prohibited the drinking of beer for train drivers and stokers during stops.

Interesting fact number 11

In Argentina, you can take a ride on the famous “Patagonia - Express” train, which at one time survived the robbery of the century. Tourists who decide to ride this train will not only be able to enjoy the scenery outside the window, but also involuntarily take part in a planned performance that imitates a real train robbery.

Interesting fact number 12

In Argentina, you can now take a tour on the legendary Patagonia Express train, which was restored especially for tourists. In addition to the impressions of the surrounding landscapes, passengers can, without their consent, become participants in the carefully planned "Train Robbery" action.

Interesting fact number 13

For several years there was a railway route "Paris-Venice", where a special "Train of Love" was running. A special service was organized in the compartment of such a train. The passengers had at their disposal a TV set, a shower cubicle, and a special sleeping bunk for two persons.

Interesting fact number 14

Once in Switzerland, a train tour was organized, where all the high society of Swiss society was located: officials, honorary citizens, politicians, etc. For this occasion, the entire train was made up of restaurant cars. However, the organizers of this celebration did not take into account the fact that there is no toilet in the restaurant cars in Switzerland. As a result, when the train reached its destination, passengers jumped out of the carriages, surprising all the citizens who had gathered to meet the guests of honor.

1. Two lengths of the equator.

The total length of railway lines owned by Russian Railways is 85.2 thousand km. If all the available rails of Russian Railways were to be laid out along the equator, then it would be enough for two laps and a little more would be left. Moreover, one of these two circles was electrified and electric trains and electric locomotives could walk on it. The second circle would remain exclusively for diesel locomotives that smoke the sky from a chimney. The length of the electrified lines is 42.9 thousand km.

2. Russian railways consume up to 6% of all electricity generated in the country, or 44 billion kWh per year, and 10% of diesel fuel.

3. High-speed trains are the pride of Russian Railways. Their photos are printed on posters and in booklets, banners with their advertisements hang everywhere on the company's website. Today, Russian Railways has five trains, which are called high-speed trains. Two of them - "Sapsan" and "Nevsky Express" - run between Moscow and St. Petersburg, between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod run "Sapsan", "Burevestnik" (twin brother of "Nevsky Express") and "Lastochka". And from St. Petersburg to Helsinki "Allegro" goes. The fastest of them are Sapsans and Allegro, in some places they travel up to 220 km / h.

4. The longest train route is Kharkov - Vladivostok (No. 053), the distance is 9722 km (in the opposite direction - 9715 km).

The longest direct routes are 10,267 km: Moscow  Pyongyang via Khabarovsk (direct car to train No. 001/002 Moscow Vladivostok) and Kiev → Vladivostok (direct car to train No. 053 Kharkov  Vladivostok).

5. The railway line rises to the highest point on the Transsib between the stations Turgutui and Yablonovaya. The train moves here at an altitude of 1040 meters. The second highest altitude is occupied by the Kizha station, which is to the west of Petrovsky Zavod, which is more than 900 meters high. And in the third place of the high-rise pedestal is Andrianovskiy pass, which is located to the west of Lake Baikal. Its height reaches 900 meters.

6. The coldest place on the railway is on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway between the villages of Mogocha and Skovorodino. Interestingly, this site is not the most northerly in terms of geography, but the coldest in terms of climate. This place can be called a real pole of cold, as the temperature in winter here sometimes drops to - 62 degrees. It is difficult to imagine how a railway was once laid in the permafrost zone.

7. Annually 1,300,000,000 passengers use rail in Russia. That is, every resident of Russia uses the train 9 times a year. However, this figure is far from the limit. In the USSR, there were 15 train journeys for each person.

8. The Trans-Siberian Railway is considered the longest railway not only in Russia, but throughout the world. The length of this railway from Nakhodka to Moscow is 9438 kilometers. There are 97 major stations on this road.

9. The middle station of the Transsib is called “Half”. The distance from it to Moscow and Vladivostok is the same.

10. Before the revolution in Russia, there was the Main Society of Russian Railways of the same name, formed on January 26, 1857 in accordance with the imperial decree of Alexander II. The founders of the society were Russian, Polish, English and French bankers. The capital of the company was 275 million rubles in silver. The first chairman of the Board of Management of the society was Baron Pyotr Kazimirovich Meyendorff, and the chief director was Karl Caldignon, the chief inspector of bridges and roads in France.

1. A railway is an ordinary thing for a modern person. Few people today have never traveled by train or long-distance train.

2. Traveling by rail is 45 times safer than by road. The risk of getting into an accident on a train is significantly lower than in a car.

3. Today (on average) every Russian travels by rail about 9 times a year. And the total number of guests has long exceeded 1.3 billion people a year.

4.And the first trains in Russia and Europe were available to about 9% of the population of those cities between which rail links were established.

5. The appearance of the steam locomotive at the beginning of the 19th century transformed the world, since from that moment people and goods could move around the world at unprecedented speeds.

6. The first passenger train in the world went on rails at a speed that barely reached the 33 km / h mark. A little later, it was possible to accelerate to 38 and even 42 kilometers per hour.

7. The opening of the Moscow - St. Petersburg railway line has become a real event. But ordinary people were in no hurry to use the innovation. A terrible rumbling thing caused genuine fear.

8. In order to promote rail transport to the masses, it was decided to make travel free. And this measure had an effect. Trains soon ceased to be afraid.

9. But the history of the action was short-lived. It was possible to travel there and back for free only in the first three days after the opening of the corresponding branch of the railway.

MODERN SPEED TRAIN "SAPSAN"

It is a pity that free travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg is in the distant past.

10. In 1830, the first steam-powered American railway from Liverpool to Manchester opened. Decades later, the United States had crossed hundreds of thousands of railroad miles.

11. Today, the descendants of these early railways, including the CSX Railroad, continue to play a key role in American life, transporting millions of freight cars each year.

QINGHAI-TIBETAN SINGLE-WAY RAILWAY

12. Qinghai-Tibet Single Track Railway - the highest road on the planet every year attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world to admire the magical Tibetan landscapes of the "roof of the world" at an altitude of more than 5000 km above sea level.

13. No sea or air company can offer such romance. Of course, such extreme conditions require special trains.

14. The cars are completely sealed, equipped with personal oxygen masks and an oxygen supply system if necessary, and at intermediate and observation stations, passenger cars naturally do not open, because there is nothing to breathe outside of them. The Chinese themselves feel extraordinary pride in their engineering structure and put it on a par with the Great Wall of China.

15. When Englishman Richard Trevithick started his first practical steam locomotive in 1804, its speed was less than 16 kilometers per hour. Today, trains travel 30 times faster on high-speed rail lines.

TRANS-SIBERIAN HIGHWAY

16. Among the domestic railways, the most remarkable was and remains the Trans-Siberian Railway. She has many statuses. For example, this railway is known as the longest in the world. Today it has more than 9400 kilometers of track and represents a whole network of railways between Moscow and the Russian Far East. In addition, the road has branches to all neighboring border countries.

17. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in full force back in 1891, under the personal control of Sergei Witte, who, then the Minister of Finance, clearly understood that Russia simply had to be a strategic partner between the West and the East.

18.In order for the construction of the road and related infrastructure to keep pace with each other, the Russian leadership began construction from the east and west simultaneously, striving inland. To understand the full scale of the project, it is enough to say that only in 2002 the complete electrification of the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed!

19. Having reconstructed some sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the early 2000s, Russia organized the first permanent corridor of large-scale freight traffic between China, Mongolia, Belarus, Poland and Germany, which significantly increased trade turnover and contributed to the further development of the Far East as a strategic region.

20. The original name of the road is the Great Siberian Way. And he is great not because the construction of the road took almost a century, but because the Russian government then deliberately refused Western "help", not wanting to allow the strengthening of the influence of foreign capitalists in the Far East. They built only with OWN forces! And they could! Built!

21. No wonder they say that driving along the Trans-Siberian Railway means seeing half the world. Is it a joke? The famous Photographer Todd Selby, who has come a long way from Paris to Shanghai by rail, claims that this is the real truth: “It's fantastic to wake up every time, look away from the map and try to understand where you are ... It's already the seventh day of the trip, and we are all still in Siberia! Siberia is very large. And Baikal is very big. But this is just a part of great Russia! "

OMSK RAILWAY STATION

22. Transsib is 9438 kilometers, more than 8 days on the way. On the route, the train stops at 97 major stations and passes through many small ones.

23. And there is also half of the way on the Transsib. The station, located exactly in the middle of the railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, is called that. The distance from "Half" to both cities is the same.

24. The Transsib is also considered the coldest railway. Part of it passes through the climatic zone, where -62˚С is the usual temperature. Interestingly, the coldest point of the route does not coincide with the northernmost one.

25. When the first Japanese Shinkansen appeared in 1964 before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, its speed exceeded 209 km per hour. Since then, the maximum speed of these trains has grown steadily. The current world record is 603 kilometers per hour.

RAILWAY IN THAILAND, IN MAEKLONG

26. No less amazing is the Thai railway, which passes through a real market! 60 km west of Bangkok in Maeklong, a food market located right on the railroad tracks quickly folds up its grocery stalls, rolls up awnings and scatters right in front of the trains several times a day.

27. But the most amazing thing is that even at this time the trade does not stop! From the open windows of the train, a coin flies into the merchants, and fish, sweets, fruits and other purchases fly back into the windows. The main thing here is to be able to catch!

28. Although the passengers have a knack for this business after wiping their eyes from the broken tomatoes and the phrase "again did not catch!" After the trains have swept by, the boxes with the remaining vegetables, fish and other goods are returned to the rails and trade becomes more civilized.

29. Japan is no longer alone in high-speed rail: France, China and Germany are also working on trains that can reach extreme speeds.

30.The United States is currently developing plans to build a high-speed rail line that will connect the Californian cities of San Francisco and Anaheim.

RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND

31. The Napier-Gisborne Railroad is unique in that it crosses the main airstrip at Gisborne Airport in New Zealand. It is the only railway in the world where the air traffic control service allows or prohibits trains from crossing the runway to continue their route.

32 Sometimes planes and trains are literally seconds apart! This outlandish "denouement" is almost the first offer to a tourist from New Zealand guides! A locomotive and an airplane racing towards each other is a common sight for Hollywood or Indian films, but not for everyday life!

33. The first freight railway in Russia was only 2 kilometers long. This miracle of science and technology of its time was driven by horse traction!

34. The longest freight trains in the history of the railway traveled to different parts of the world. One transported coal (neither more nor less - 42,000 tons per trip) to Uraliz Ekibastuz back in the Soviet era. The train consisted of 440 carriages. Their total length exceeded 6.5 kilometers.

35. The record was broken in South Africa. Here a train of 660 wagons entered the route. Their total length was 7.3 kilometers. But the experiment, unlike the Soviet one, had no practical meaning. The canvas could not withstand the load, and the railway had to be closed for a long time for repairs.

"TUNNEL OF LOVE" IN UKRAINE

36. "Tunnel of Love" is a picturesque three-kilometer section of the railway located near the village of Klevan in Ukraine. It leads to a fibreboard factory.

37. The train runs here three times a day, supplying wood to the Orzhevsky woodworking plant. It is the train that makes the growing branches of the trees go around the tracks and keeps the tunnel in this state.

38. A beautiful green corridor in sunny summer attracts couples in love, and in autumn and winter photographers who want to capture this beautiful miracle of nature. It is believed that if you, having visited the "Tunnel of Love", make a cherished wish, then it will certainly come true.

BAIKAL-AMUR HIGHWAY

39. The whole country built the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The best youth from all over the Soviet Union came, worked, settled down. Families were created here, they performed real labor feats, discoveries happened.

40.BAM was designed as part of a systemic project for the development of significant natural resources of little-explored areas, along which, in fact, the road was laid.

41. On the way of the BAM, it was planned to build about ten territorial-industrial complexes-giants, but Gorbachev's restructuring, made it possible to complete the construction of only one South Yakutsk coal complex.

42. Then privatization with great hopes handed over to private hands a number of resource deposits, but instead of loading the BAM's capacities and massive development of mineral deposits in the area of ​​the highway "at the exit", only oligarchs with yachts turned out.

43. By the beginning of the 2000s, almost all projects for the development of the Baikal-Amur Mainline zone were suspended under "ideological" pretexts of inexpediency, and the decision of the Soviet leadership to build the BAM was diligently hung with the stigma of erroneousness and futility. Although this project for half a century was considered simply vital for Siberia and the Far East, according to all experts.

44. It is gratifying that the current leadership of the country is seriously aimed at reviving the BAM and the region as a whole. And it is not just words. Recently, the Elginskoye field has been successfully operating, where the first coal was mined in the summer of 2011. An access railway line is being built, connecting it with the main line.

45. The first super-heavy freight trains went along the BAM, allowing to transport 7100 tons instead of the previous weight norm of 4800 tons, which should increase the profitability of transportation several times. This became possible after the commissioning of new powerful two-section locomotives of the 2ES5K Ermak series and diesel locomotives 2TE25A Vityaz. The trains successfully overcome the most difficult part of the route - the Kuznetsov Pass.

46.The railway tracks themselves on the pass were reconstructed and strengthened, the New Kuznetsovsky tunnel was put into operation. Note to critics: “The trains have started, they won't. The pass has been reconstructed, but it will not be sometime. "Ermaki" and "Vityazi" were put into operation, but are not at the design stage. " So a bright future awaits BAM, because a road built with love cannot but live forever!

RAILWAY OF THE COMPANY "BALTIMOR AND OHAYO"

47. In 1827, Baltimore & Ohio became the first American company to be chartered to carry passengers and cargo. The company struggled to create a steam engine that would help overcome rough and uneven terrain and eliminate horse-drawn traction.

48. Inventor Peter Cooper came to the rescue and proposed to design and build just such an engine. On August 28, 1830, Cooper's steam locomotive, named Tom Thumb, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the vicinity of Baltimore, went out to face off against a horse-drawn train. The locomotive immediately pulled ahead, and the leaders of Baltimore and Ohio, impressed by what they saw, decided to switch their railway to steam traction. Soon, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad became one of the most successful railways in the United States.

49. Do you want maximum security guarantees? Choose the branded wagons of the TKS carrier. Their location in the train and modern technical equipment ensure safety and comfort during the trip.

50. Modern high-speed trains are driven by rail at a speed of 320–430 km / h. And experimental innovative trains are capable of accelerating to 603 km / h. And this, as scientists and engineers say, is far from the limit.

photo from open sources

The opening of the Moscow - St. Petersburg railroad was a real event. But simple people were in no hurry to use the innovation. A terrible rumbling thing caused genuine fear. To promote rail transport to the masses, it was decided to make travel free. And this measure had an effect. Trains soon ceased to be afraid.

The only pity is that free travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg is in the distant past. The history of the action was short-lived. It was possible to travel there and back for free only in the first three days after the opening of the corresponding branch of the railway.

The magic of numbers

The first trains in Russia and Europe were available to about 9% of the population of those cities between which rail links were established. Today (on average, of course) every Russian travels by rail about 9 times a year. And the total number of guests has long exceeded 1.3 billion people a year.

Notable Transsib

Among the domestic railways, the most remarkable was and remains the Trans-Siberian Railway. She has many statuses. For example, this railway is known as the longest in the world. The Transsib is 9438 kilometers, more than 8 days on the way. On the route, the train stops at 97 major stations and passes through many small ones.

There is also a half way on the Transsib. The station, located exactly in the middle of the railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, is called that. The distance from "Half" to both cities is the same. The Transsib is also considered the coldest railway. Part of it passes through the climatic zone, where -62˚С is the usual temperature. Noteworthy fact: the coldest point of the route does not coincide with the northernmost one.

Evolution of speed

The first passenger train in the world went on rails at a speed that barely reached 33 km / h. A little later, it was possible to accelerate to 38 and even 42 kilometers per hour. Modern high-speed trains run by rail at a speed of 320–430 km / h. And experimental innovative trains are capable of accelerating to 603 km / h. And this, as scientists and engineers say, is far from the limit.

Freight trains set records too

The first freight railway in Russia was only 2 kilometers long. This miracle of science and technology of its time was set in motion - what do you think? Horse traction!

The longest freight trains in the history of the railroad have traveled to different parts of the world. One transported coal (neither more nor less - 42,000 tons per trip) to Uraliz Ekibastuz back in the Soviet era. The train consisted of 440 carriages. Their total length exceeded 6.5 kilometers.

The record was broken in South Africa. Here a train of 660 wagons entered the route. Their total length was 7.3 km. But the experiment, unlike the Soviet one, had no practical meaning. The canvas could not withstand the load, and the railway had to be closed for a long time for repairs.

Safety first

Afraid to travel by train? Perhaps the following fact will help you change your attitude towards this transport. Traveling by rail is 45 times safer than by road. The risk of getting into an accident on a train is significantly lower than in a car.

Do you want maximum security guarantees? Choose a TCS carrier. Their location in the train and modern technical equipment ensure safety and comfort during the trip.