The birth of the railways as we know them today can be traced to 1825. In that year George Stephenson built the world's first public railway, the Stockton and Darlington line, in northern England. He also built steam locomotives to run on it, beginning a revolution in transport that spread like wildfire throughout the world.
Goodbye to Steam
The age of steam on the railways lasted in most countries until the 1950s. Since then steam locomotives have been replaced by diesel and electric locomotives. Steam locomotives were magnificent machines and exciting to watch. But they were very inefficient, dirty and noisy.
The modern diesel and electric locomotives, on the other hand, are efficient, clean and quiet. They can also accelerate more quickly and have a higher top speed. The fastest diesel is British Rail's High Speed Train, which holds the world diesel record of 143 mph.
A French electric TGV (Train รก Grand Vitesse) holds the absolute rail speed record, with a speed of no less then 236 mph. The TGVs now run on the Paris to Lyons line, specially built flat and straight for maximum speed. The other outstanding high-speed railway, the Shinkansen in Japan, also runs on specially built track
In Canada, Italy, Spain a Britain railway engineers are experimenting with tilting body designs to allow high speeds on existing curved track.
