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In Greece, 600 BC, an ancient track named the Diolkos wagonway was used to transport boats across the Corinth isthmus. Ships were placed in carts that rode in grooves in the limestone. This kept the carts on the correct path and reduced friction.
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In 1515 a funicular railways was built in Austria to provide supplies for the Hohensalzburg castle. Funicular means that strong cables, in this case hemp, pulled the cart along the track. This was operated by either human or animal power and is still in use today although it is very much updated.
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By the late 16th century and early 17th century, wooden rails and carts were common in mines all over Europe. They were still pulled by either slaves or animals but allowed greater quantities to be moved at a time.
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In 1768 the first apperence of iron plated rails occured in England. This allowed the gauge (narrowness) of the railes to be chenged.
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In 1769, James Watts patents the first steam engine. Of course, his engine design was very low pressure and not designed with mobility in mind.
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In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in Surrey, England. This is arguable the first public horse drawn railway but definetly the first to have iron plated rails.
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On Febuary 21st, 1804, Richard Trevithick debuted the first steam powered locomotive to run on a track. This is an extremely important day for both steam engines and trains.
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In early 1811, John Blenkinsop designed the first pracital steam-powered locomotive designed for public use. He ran his train, the Salamanca from Middleton Colliery to Leeds .
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On September 27th, 1825, George Spehenson built and tested the Locomotion, the first publically used steam locomotive in the world.
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Technology in locomotives continues to advance in the united states, allowing mass transportation of goods across the country much easier. This played a massive role in the industrial revolution because it increased production capabilities of factories drastically because they could get their raw materials quicker.
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On August 28th, 1830, Peter Cooper built the Tom Thumb, a small steam powered locomotive designed to prove that steam powered trains was a viable method of trarnsporting goods. It ran 13 miles on the Baltimore to Ohio railway track.
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Rober Davidson begins to tinker with the idea of electrical trains but the max speed he was able to reach was 4mph
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In 1857, George Pullman designed the first overnight passenger train ment entirly for transportation. He named it The Pullman Sleeping Car.
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The Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway becomes the first publically available tramway that ran on electrical power. It worked by charging the railes with an electric current that the car tapped into and ran the engine.
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In October, 1883, the Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram became the first to use overhead wires as a means of getting the train's electricity.
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Many cities, both large and small, all around the world used small tramways as a means of transportation. The most recognized being the London Underground.
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Up until this point, all electric trains ran on direct current, but on the 31th of July, 1904, the Stubai Valley Railway in Austria became the first to use alternating current.
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After World War II, steam became an increasingly expensive method of power as it required a large number of people to scoop the coal and clean the ash. While this was happening, the united states improved greatly on their conbustion engine designes and as a result of these two thing, most, if not all, locomotives in the United States began to run on diesel instead.
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A patent was made on the 25th of August, 1959, by a man called G. R. Polgreen. This was a patent for a high tech way for trains to acheive incredible speeds called Mag-Lev. This works by a collision of magnetic fields on the tracks and the train the creats an air cusion for the train to ride on. This design allowed the fastest train speed record ever to be set a almost 400 miles per hour.
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The Shinkasen is the largest network of high-speed "bullet" trains in the world. It spans over all of Japan and the trains reach over 200 miles per hour on a daily basis. And to think that all of this innovaton started wtih just a couple of grooves in some limestone.
