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In rail transport, a train is a vehicle or (more frequently) a string of vehicles capable of being moved along a continuous line of rails or other guideway for the purpose of conveying freight or passengers between points on a predetermined route. The train may be hauled or propelled by one or more vehicles designed exclusively for that purpose (locomotives) or may be driven by a number of motors incorporated in all or several of the vehicles (multiple units).

As of 2018^[update], there are approximately 1,052,000 kilometres (654,000 mi) of railway track in use worldwide. (World Bank (via Archive.org))

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Selected article of the week

The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the U.S. state of Virginia that operated between 1850 and 1868 from Richmond westward for nearly 200 miles (320 km) to Covington. Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the Virginia General Assembly, the railroad began near the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad's line and expanded westward to Orange County, reaching Gordonsville by 1840. In 1849, the Blue Ridge Railroad was chartered to construct a line over the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Louisa Railroad which reached the base of the Blue Ridge in 1852. After a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Louisa Railroad was allowed to expand eastward from a point near Doswell to Richmond. Renamed as the Virginia Central Railroad in 1850, the railroad bypassed the under-construction Blue Ridge Railroad via a temporary track built over Rockfish Gap. This connected the railroad's eastern division with its expanding line across the Blue Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley. Having reached Clifton Forge by 1857, the railroad began operating the completed Blue Ridge Railroad in 1858 and continued preparing for further expansion until the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. As a prime target for Federal raids by Union Cavalry, the railroad faced significant action against it during the war. Although the war left the railroad with only a fraction of its line left operable, the railroad was running over its entire pre-war length by July 1865. After the war, both longtime president Edmund Fontaine and former Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham served as president of the Virginia Central and oversaw its expansion towards Covington. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was formed in 1868 from the merger of the Virginia Central Railroad and the Covington and Ohio Railroad, and had expanded westward to the Ohio River by 1873 after new financing from Collis P. Huntington was recruited. CSX, Amtrak, and the Buckingham Branch Railroad still use portions of the old Virginia Central line for freight and passenger rail service.

Recently selected: Parson Street railway station - Oslo Commuter Rail - Numedal Line

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A Ferrocarriles Argentinos freight train on the metre gauge Salta–Antofagasta railway, which connects northern Argentina and Chile, pauses at Ingeniero Maury station in 1993.

Recently selected: FGC train near Montserrat - BC Rail locomotives - Bulgarian passenger train

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Did you know...

...that the opening ceremonies of the Galway to Clifden railway were very sparsely attended because the event date was a strict church holiday and was reserved for attending church services?
...that following heavy damage to the Galveston Island Trolley track and cars from Hurricane Ike in 2008, substitute service with replica buses was operated until service resumed in October 2021?
...that although the former Santa Fe Railway's Galesburg station was demolished after regular passenger service to the station ended in 1996, the site is still used if derailments cause trains to use the Chillicothe Subdivision instead of the Mendota Subdivision?
...that the Fuzhou–Xiamen railway, which opened in 2010, was so heavily used that it reached capacity in 2015, spurring construction on the parallel Fuzhou–Xiamen high-speed railway for CRH passenger train services?

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Selected anniversaries

November 6

1869 – November 6, 1869, is the official completion date of the Pacific Railroad, as decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1879.
1960 – Canadian Pacific Railway officially operates its last steam locomotive when 4-4-0 number 29 pulls a special train to commemorate the event from Montreal to St. Lin.
1984 – The last passenger train departs from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal.
2004 – Seven people, including the train's driver, Stan Martin, die in the Ufton Nervet rail crash (memorial nameplate pictured) in Berkshire, England.

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Train News

Santa Fe No. 2926 at Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 24, 2021 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe No. 2926, a 4-8-4 steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944, moves under its own power for the first time since Christmas Eve of 1953, after nearly twenty-two years of being rebuilt by volunteers. The locomotive will be put into mainline excursion service. (NMSL&RHS, Trains Magazine on Facebook)
Big Boy No. 4012 at Steamtown National Historic Site
May 5, 2021 – Steamtown National Historic Site completes thorough cosmetic overhaul on Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy No. 4012, which is moved back on static display before National Train Day. (NEPA Scene)
The derailed Taroko Express trainset, as seen from outside the entrance to the tunnel
April 2, 2021 – 2021 Hualien train derailment – A Taroko Express train operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) derails at the north entrance of Qingshui Tunnel in Heren Section, Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan, killing 49 people and injuring at least 200 others. North of Hualien City a construction truck had fallen down a slope onto the tracks. The eight-carriage train derailed after colliding with the truck, and then came to a rest in the tunnel, with severe damage and many casualties. (Bloomberg, CNN, CNA, New York Times, Financial Times)

The preserved C&O 1309 at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in October 2009

December 31, 2020 – Following a complete restoration, Chesapeake and Ohio 1309, a 2-6-6-2 Mallet locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1949, the last steam locomotive built by Baldwin for the North American market, is operated under its own power for test runs. When returned to service on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, it will be the largest steam locomotive in regular scheduled service in the United States and take 2-8-0 No. 734’s place as the largest active steam locomotive in the state of Maryland. (Trains.com Newswire)

An Avelia Liberty train on a test run in Delaware in May 2020

September 28, 2020 – Amtrak operates a test run using one of the 28 new Avelia Liberty trains manufactured by Alstom along the full length of the Northeast Corridor to Boston South Station. Previous test runs had occurred from Washington, D.C., only as far north as New Jersey and Delaware. Barring any problems, the trains are expected to enter regular service on the route in 2021. (Universal Hub)

Berryessa/North San José station on the first day of service

June 13, 2020 – The Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley BART extension opened its stations in Milpitas and North San Jose. (San Jose Spotlight, SF Gate)

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General images

The following are images from various train-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926 (from Railroad car)
Image 2A coach yard in Shanghai, China (from Rail yard)
Image 3A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London (from Railroad car)
Image 4Stockton and Darlington special inaugural train 1825: six wagons of coal, directors coach, then people in wagons. (from Train)
Image 5Typical American extended vision caboose (from Railroad car)
Image 6The "hump" of a hump yard. Railcars travel past retarders, which control their speed, and are directed onto tracks to be assembled into new trains. The control tower operates the retarders. (from Rail yard)
Image 7Armored train Hurban located in Zvolen, Slovakia (from Railroad car)
Image 8This cab car includes a horn (top), a bell (top right), headlights (above the door), classification lights (red lights on side), and ditch lights (white lights on side). (from Train)
Image 9A Tokyo Monorail train (from Train)
Image 10A London Underground battery–electric locomotive at West Ham station used for hauling engineers' trains (from Locomotive)
Image 11Soviet RT-23 Molodets ICBM launch train, in the St Petersburg museum (from Railroad car)
Image 12Werner von Siemens experimental DC electric train, 1879 (from Locomotive)
Image 13A number of maintenance vehicles at work on Metro-North Railroad (from Train)
Image 14A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina, Italy, 1901 (from Locomotive)
Image 15Various types of railroad cars in a classification yard in the United States (from Train)
Image 16Yard for Amtrak equipment, located next to the Los Angeles River. The two tracks on the left are the mainline. (from Rail yard)
Image 17A narrow gauge train in Austria (from Train)
Image 18Workington stabling point in 1981, with locomotives from Classes 25, 40 and 47 parked between duties. (from Rail yard)
Image 19A China Railways HXD1D electric locomotive in China (from Locomotive)
Image 20This map of Cedar Hill Yard in Connecticut shows a variety of different facilities, including receiving yards, departure yards, classification yards, and a repair yard. (from Rail yard)
Image 21World's first useful diesel locomotive (a diesel–electric locomotive) for long distances SŽD Eel2, 1924 in Kyiv (from Locomotive)
Image 22A wooden toy train set from Swedish manufacturer Brio (from Train)
Image 23Southern Railway (UK) 20002 was equipped with both pantograph and contact shoes. (from Locomotive)
Image 24An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London (from Railroad car)
Image 25Škoda Artic light rail train near the cathedral in Tampere, Finland (from Train)
Image 26A large Amtrak and Metra coach yard just south of Chicago Union Station. About 25 percent of all rail traffic in the United States travels through the Chicago area. (from Rail yard)
Image 27Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, 1877, Art Institute of Chicago (from Train)
Image 28Baltimore & Ohio electric engine, 1895 (from Locomotive)
Image 29Variety of rolling stock in rail yard (from Rolling stock)
Image 30The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam. (from Train)
Image 31The 1887 Daimler draisine (from Locomotive)
Image 32US-style railroad truck (bogie) with journal bearings (from Train)
Image 33A Victorian Railways R class steam locomotive in Australia (from Locomotive)
Image 34The Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen pioneered high speed rail service. (from Train)
Image 35The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power. (from Train)
Image 36A gas turbine locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (from Train)
Image 37British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s (from Railroad car)
Image 38Restored clerestory cars on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin (from Railroad car)
Image 39Inside a modern-day car from Finland (from Railroad car)
Image 40Trains carrying hazardous materials display information identifying their cargo and hazards. This tank car carrying chlorine displays, among other markings, a U.S. DOT placard showing a UN number that identifies the hazardous substance. (from Train)
Image 41A Union Pacific freight train; high clearances enable double-stacked containers to be carried in well cars. (from Train)
Image 42A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom (from Railroad car)
Image 43Electric train on Djursholmsbanan in Stockholm in the 1890s. (from Train)
Image 44A preserved armored train (from Train)
Image 45China operates an extensive high speed rail network. (from Train)
Image 46Garratt locomotives in Zimbabwe (from Train)
Image 47A narrow-gauge battery–electric locomotive used for mining (from Locomotive)
Image 48Second-class compartment of a China Railways CRH1A-A train (from Train)
Image 49Bombardier ALP-45DP at the Innotrans convention in Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 50Pacific National diesel locomotives in Australia showing three body types, cab unit (front), hood unit (middle) and box cab (rear) (from Locomotive)
Image 51The New Orleans Streetcar System is one of the oldest in the world. (from Train)
Image 52Most derailments, such as this one in Switzerland, are minor and do not cause injuries or damage. (from Train)