America's railroads. State railroads through the eyes of a Russian traveler

American railways have rich history and played a very important role in the development of the state. Currently, this transport is not as popular in the country as aviation and automobile types. Many of the trains are more of showpieces. Only romantics and people who are afraid of flying on an airplane travel on them. And the ticket price here is usually not much different from the cost of the flight.

Brief comparison with Russian railways

Railway of Russia and USA is different. If the total length of the domestic highway is 87 thousand kilometers, then for the Americans this figure is 220 thousand kilometers. The track width in Russia is 1520 mm, and in the USA it is 1435 mm, as in Europe. In our country, the industry employs 1.2 million workers, while American highways serve only 180 thousand people. Only the share of the industry’s cargo turnover is approximately the same, which is 40% in both countries.

Origin

History of US railroads began in 1815. Their development looked very promising due to the fact that at that time the country did not have developed cheap and fast land transport. The New Jersey Railroad Company was then founded by Colonel John Stevens. Initially, industrial branches began to be created for transporting goods over short distances, for example, for removing minerals from mines. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which began operations in 1846, was the first company in the industry. Eight years later, its first route was officially launched, connecting Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

First locomotives

If there were no big problems with the construction of the canvas, then the main problem we encountered was first US railroads, began to provide traction. In 1826, the aforementioned John Stevenson designed and built his own steam locomotive. To test his brainchild, the engineer built his own circular track in New Jersey. The testing of the machine was successful. Three years later, Gortario Allen, being the chief engineer of a large shipping company, proposed using a simple English steam locomotive. After successful testing, it began to be used on the line between Carbonvale and Honesdale in Pennsylvania. In 1830, according to the design of the American Peter Cooper, the first locomotive designed for passenger transportation. Over time, it has established itself as a very reliable car.

In the fifties of the nineteenth century, the so-called underground or underground railroad. IN THE USA This is what representatives of a secret society called themselves. It was engaged in facilitating runaway slaves of African descent from the southern states to the north. At the same time, the organization’s activities were in no way connected with transport and transportation. Members of the organization simply used railroad terminology, which had become popular throughout American society.

The beginning of rapid development

It was after the appearance of the first diesel locomotives that they began to actively develop railroads in the USA. In the 19th century the new one was already serious competition for shipping companies. A special impetus to its development was given by several experiments that proved that a steam locomotive is capable of covering a distance approximately three to four times faster than a steamboat.

In 1830, a significant event took place for the American railway transport. Then, between the cities of Ohio and Baltimore in Maryland, the first passenger train. Initially, the public had an extremely negative attitude towards steam locomotives, calling them devilish machines, but over time, it became increasingly clear to most citizens that the future lay behind this transport.

If as of 1840 length of US railroads was 2755 miles, then twenty years later this figure crossed the 30 thousand mile mark. The construction of new routes was greatly facilitated by the development of agriculture. Since farmers worked for the market, they needed transport capable of transporting crops quickly and in large quantities.

Construction of the transcontinental railroad

In 1861, the Civil War broke out between North and South. Despite this, a year after its start, President Abraham Lincoln made a decision according to which it was to be built. It was assumed that the length of the highway would be almost three thousand kilometers. Two companies became contractors: Central Pacific (laid the track from west to east) and Union Pacific Railroad (conducted construction from east to west). The so-called meeting point was supposed to be in the center of the route. Each of the companies sought to be the first to finish their section and win this kind of competition, so the work was not always carried out according to plan. Many officials embezzled funds allocated for construction. If there were settlements, their residents were offered meager sums for land plots. Moreover, in exchange for bribes from the mayors of some cities (they benefited from the presence of the highway), the companies repeatedly changed routes.

About 10 thousand workers from China and another 4 thousand from Ireland were involved in the construction. This was done in order to reduce the cost of work, because the Americans did not agree to work for the amount offered (at best, $1.5 a day). Due to difficult working conditions, many builders died.

As a result, the Union Pacific Railroad company managed to lay 1,749 kilometers of track, while their opponents managed to lay 1,100 kilometers. This subsequently had a beneficial effect on further development"winners", which today have become one of the most powerful railway enterprises in the country. When workers from two contractors met in 1869, a golden nail was driven into the tie, symbolizing the connection between the two oceans.

The effect of the construction of the transcontinental railroad

Many skeptics argue that it then became a useless and senseless undertaking of the president. However, later it played a very significant role for the state, creating a real revolution in the country’s economy and the migration of its residents. In a short period of time, a huge number of Americans moved to the fertile western lands wanting to develop agriculture.

At the end of the nineteenth century, several more branches appeared, directly connecting the two oceans. They were better thought out, and fewer violations were made during construction. The first railroad in the USA, laid from the east to is considered a dark spot in American history. This is not surprising, because the feat of the two companies cannot overshadow the number of workers killed and families left homeless.

Railroad development after the Civil War

The Civil War showed how important and efficient rail transport was in transporting people, food and weapons. It is not surprising that it became a priority in the future. Companies operating in the industry were provided with subsidies even before the start of construction work. In particular, the government allocated from 16 to 48 thousand dollars for each mile of roadway. In addition, the territory for 10 miles on both sides of the route became the property of the companies. It is eloquent that, starting in 1870, over 10 years, 242 thousand square miles of land were distributed to corporations.

From 1865 to 1916 it was produced on a grand scale. Total length During this time, the number of tracks increased from 35 to 254 thousand miles. Moreover, at the beginning of the twentieth century, both passenger and freight transportation in the country was almost entirely carried out by rail.

Reduced role of railways

During the First World War, the railway sector came under the control of the American government. Since that time, the industry gradually began to lose its leading position. In 1920, the railways were returned to private ownership. However, by this time their condition had deteriorated significantly. In combination with the development of technological progress and other types of transport, this began to lead to a gradual decrease in the role of the industry for the state economy.

But there is no need to downplay the importance that the industry played. Firstly, a transport network was created that connected the entire domestic market of the state into a single whole. Secondly, the construction of the railway line contributed to a strong rise in industries such as transport engineering and metallurgy, due to the high demand for rails, cars and locomotives. Be that as it may, if before 1920 the development of railways was called the “golden era”, then we can say with confidence that since that time it has at least ended.

Current state

Few people in the United States travel by rail these days. This is primarily due to the good development of air communications. And the cost of train and plane tickets is often approximately the same. Because of this, it is not surprising that a large share of this industry's revenue comes from freight transportation. US railroad network has a length of more than 220 thousand kilometers. They serve all sectors of the country's economy. Rail transport accounts for about 40% of the national freight turnover.

Companies

All American railroad companies are privately owned. There are almost 600 of them in total. At the same time, the 7 largest of them account for more than half of the cargo turnover in the industry. The state guarantees companies the right to make independent decisions regarding transportation tariffs. At the same time, this process is controlled by a federal body called the Council for ground transport. Privatization of American railroads is irrelevant. Companies are interested in the efficient functioning and coordination of absolutely all systems. This is due to high competition with road transport. Fundamental decisions regarding the activities of railway companies are made by their shareholders. IN Lately the combined revenue of these companies averages about $54 billion per year.

Freight transportation

US railroads can boast of a fairly developed and effective system freight transport. Experts believe that the key to its successful operation is primarily related to their relative freedom from government regulation.

As noted above, about 40% of freight traffic in the country is provided by railway workers. This value has been growing over the past fifteen years. At the same time, in this indicator they are inferior to their main competitor - road transport. In the context of the struggle for clients, companies do their best to focus the attention of potential customers on their economic and environmental advantages. According to their leaders, in the near future this will still improve the current performance.

Classification of freight companies

Carriers that serve, according to the current classification system in the country, are divided into the following classes: first class companies, regional companies, local line operators and S&T carriers.

There are only seven operators classified as first class railway companies. They account for about 67% of cargo turnover, and the average annual income of each exceeds $350 million. Transportation is usually carried out over long distances. Statistics show that 9 out of 10 American railroad workers work for these companies.

Regional companies have average annual revenues of at least $40 million. They typically transport between 350 and 650 miles (within several states). According to the latest data, there are 33 such enterprises operating in the country, and the number of employees of each of them varies within 500 workers.

Local operators operate up to 350 miles and generate revenues of up to $40 million annually. There are 323 firms in this class in the state, which usually transport goods across the territory of one state.

S&T companies do not so much transport cargo as they deal with their transshipment and sorting. In addition, they specialize in delivery within a certain area on the order of a particular carrier. According to the latest data, there are 196 such companies operating in the country, earning several tens of millions of dollars every year.

Passenger Transportation

Rail passenger transport is not very popular in the United States. The fact is that distances between cities are usually very long, and not every person is able to sit in a chair for a day, despite its comfort. It is much faster to travel by plane, the ticket price of which is not so much higher than the cost of a train trip.

In the USA there are two types: short-haul and long distance(night). The first of them uses seated carriages. They operate exclusively during the day. The second type has both sleeping and sitting rooms. In this case, passengers are located on the upper tier, and the lower one is intended for transporting luggage. Night trains serve mainly the western part of the country.

In addition, suburban transportation is also provided to serve passengers. The trains that provide them belong to local operators, who independently form the tariff system.

Completion

US railroads at one time played a revolutionary role in the country's economy. Their appearance contributed to a number of positive changes, as well as the development of many industries and agriculture. The evolution of American railroad transportation before the outbreak of World War I even went down in history as the “Golden Age” of railroads. Be that as it may, the development of technological progress combined with the availability of alternative modes of transport has led to a gradual decrease in the role of the industry.

He also wrote that in Florida they are designing a high-speed line specifically for this locomotive. It will be called "Brightline" and will be the first high-speed private railway in recent US history. The construction of the line is progressing as usual. The tracks are being reconstructed and stations are being built.
And at the Siemens plant in Sacramento, the first train of two diesel locomotives and four cars was assembled. The cars are assembled in the same place as the diesel locomotives, in Sacramento. Now the first train of five is being transported from California to Florida, to its future place of work.

The design of the cars and colors match the name - bright and memorable. As someone said in the comments to this photo on Rail Pictures, well, design has finally gone “from form to function”, and not the other way around.

Although four cars for two fairly powerful diesel locomotives seems to me to be a kind of waste. Some purely American redundancy in the spirit of the Silver Age trains, when three or four motor sections could be attached to a train.

The Brightline will connect the cities of Miami and Orlando, passing through international Airport Orlando. The length of the line will be 390 kilometers. New trains are planned to run at hourly intervals. The planned average speed will be about 130 kilometers per hour. That is, approximately the same as on the only high-speed railway in the United States, the Northeast Corridor. People have already nicknamed these trains in the Japanese style "bullet train".

But I don’t understand why the expressway wasn’t electrified. After all, they could order electric locomotives for it, which are made there at the Siemens plant in Sacramento.
By the way, the Siemens company has been seducing its American partners for some time now by exhibiting in the Sacramento Railway Museum the head car of a train of the same type as the Sapsan. And before, he stood in the square in front of the local California Capitol. The Germans seem to say:
- This is the railway future of California and the entire United States. Just find the money to build the road, and we will make the carriages for you.

This is what the very first American steam-powered passenger train looked like.
On a tip visualhistory

In 1830 in Maryland between cities Baltimore and Ohio The first passenger trains in the United States began operating.
This photograph (taken well after 1830) is a reconstruction of a trial run with the Tom Thumb locomotive.
Speeds ranged from 5 to 18 mph.

The railroad history of the United States dates back to 1815, when Colonel John Stevens received the so-called. railway charter for construction railway company New Jersey Railroad Company, which would later become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. By that time, developed land transport that was both convenient, fast and cheap did not exist. Therefore, the development of railways was a progressive solution.

The first short steam railways for industrial use appeared in the United States in the late 1820s. It was not difficult to build railroad tracks. The situation was much worse with locomotives. Then, in 1826, the same Stevens designed and conducted the first tests of his steam locomotive “Steam Wagon” (which was called “a steam-powered horse carriage” - a steam horse with a cart). To conduct the tests, D. Stevens constructed a circular track on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey. The tests were successful.

Further in 1829, Hortario Allen, as chief engineer of the Delaware & Hudson shipping company, successfully tested a simple, from an engineering point of view, English locomotive, called the Stourbridge Lion, between Honesdale and Carbonvale in Pennsylvania.

These three events (the charter and 2 steam locomotives) served as the starting point for the development of railways in the USA, which fully began in the late 20s of the 19th century.

Unfortunately, the first American steam locomotive has not survived, but in the Baltimore Railroad Museum you can see a similar locomotive from 1832 with the cheerful name “Grasshopper”:

For passenger transport in the same year, the Tom Thumb steam locomotives were designed, built by the American Peter Cooper ( Peter Cooper ) and "The Best Friend Of Charleston", built by the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company at West Point Foudry in New York.

Therefore, railways began to compete directly with shipping.

However, the public considered steam engines to be the “Sons of the Devil” and that traveling on them, other than a “concussion,” would lead to nothing.

In this illustration: "A steam locomotive is like a devil."

But their advantage over steamships was undeniable. A striking example is the experiment, or rather the competition, between a steam locomotive and a steamship. The conditions of the competition were incredibly simple: go a certain way as quickly as possible. For this purpose, a route was chosen between the cities of Cincinnati and St. Louis. The distance by water was 702 miles and was covered by the steamer in 3 days. The locomotive took only 16 hours, and the distance it had to cover was only 339 miles!

Construction of the railway track.

After this event, the intensive development of railways in the United States began: by 1838, 5 out of 6 New England states had railway connections, and the extreme limits of the distribution of the railway network were determined by the borders of the states of Kentucky and Indiana. The development of agriculture led to a rapid increase in the construction of railways. Since farms worked for the market from the very beginning, modern means of communication were necessary to export their products. By 1840, the length of the tracks was already 2,755 miles! And before we start Civil War, in 1860, and altogether, more than 30,000 miles!

Since 1846, one of the largest and oldest railroads in the United States, the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was located in the northeastern part of the United States, began operating. The first route ran between the cities of Philadelphia and Harrisburg, which was completed by 1854.

1869 - first transcontinental road.

Over the 50 years from 1865-1916, the development of railways took on an enormous scale: the railway network increased from 35,000 to 254,000 miles! By 1916, almost 100% of domestic government transportation (passenger and freight) was carried out by rail.

Railroad construction had important consequences for the United States. Firstly, an infrastructure was created that finally linked the domestic market into a single whole. Secondly, railway construction contributed to the rise of metallurgy and transport engineering. This was especially evident when cast iron rails began to be replaced with steel ones. Railway construction placed such a great demand on rails that, despite huge growth metallurgy and high import duties, until the 90s, steel rails were still partially imported from England. An important result of railway construction was the accumulation of capital by joint-stock companies that took out contracts for the construction of transcontinental roads.

Railroad development in the United States by 1916

During World War I, the US federal government took control of the railroad industry. From this point on, we can consider that the Golden Age of railroads in the United States begins to end. By 1920, the railways were again transferred into private hands, but they were returned in a dilapidated state, and were in need of radical reconstruction and significant improvement.
In 1920, the federal government passed the Transportation Act, marking the final step in federal regulation. The “Golden Age” of US railroad construction is over.

Yes, Richardson assured the professor that this was true. He said the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society museum building in Columbus has stairs leading to the basement. On this very staircase, on the lowest platform between the flights, Fitch's steam locomotive stands, collecting dust. After the death of John Fitch himself, it was inherited by his adopted son, who settled in Worthington, Ohio. In the 1850s, interested parties somehow learned that this small working model of a steam locomotive, of significant historical value, was in Worthington, and convinced Fitch's son to donate the model to the museum.

After listening to the young man, the professor became very excited. It seemed as if he would immediately jump off the train to go to Columbus. But he suddenly calmed down and sat down in his place. And then he became very angry, because he remembered that at one time, when he was just starting to collect information about Fitch’s locomotive, he wrote requests about it to many US museums, including the Ohio State Museum. The museum then responded that they knew nothing about him.

John Fitch invented the steam locomotive for the railroad in the 1780s. He even organized a demonstration of his scaled-down, working model in Philadelphia for President George Washington and cabinet officials. His idea was to use a full-size locomotive to haul freight trains across the Allegheny Mountains, where, due to the complete lack of road routes, the United States was then experiencing enormous difficulties in supplying the military operation under the command of Major General Arthur St. Claire against the aggressive Indian tribes of the northwest, actively supported by the British.

The same model of John Fitch from Philadelphia, supposedly built by him
in the late 1780s and early 1790s. The model is currently in the museum
Ohio State Historical Society. Photo from the collection of Robert Richardson

Fitch's little locomotive ran on rails made of wooden beams and was supported by flanged wheels. These flanges were located on the outer edges of the wheels, and not on the inner ones, in contrast to later technical practice in the railway industry. A copper boiler was installed on the frame of the locomotive, and a movable lever mechanism was used to transmit rotational motion to the wheels, working on the “grasshopper’s legs” principle. Fitch also invented the steam pump, a steam dredge for use in and around Philadelphia, and a steamboat, which he tested on the Schuylkil River.

Another inventor showed up, a man named Rumsey, who invented the steamboat around the same time. A dispute arose between Finch and Ramsay over the right of primacy. Each of the two tried to prove their priority. Moreover, both of them were significantly ahead of the now recognized inventor of the steamboat, Robert Fulton. But Fulton later, in his time, took care of gaining fame as the inventor of the steamboat, and since he was married to a representative of one of the richest and most influential families in the United States, he did not have any special problems with this. And the names of two engineers, one of whom really had priority in this epoch-making invention, were consigned to undeserved oblivion.

Fitch's locomotive, despite its more than modest dimensions (two feet long and two feet wide), remains the very first steam locomotive in the world. And it turns out, therefore, that the steam locomotive was invented in America, and not in England, as is commonly believed. But the United States at the end of the 18th century was a distinctly agrarian country. American society at that time had a very negative attitude towards technology and invention. John Fitch was a man far ahead of his time, and his amazing inventions had no chance of recognition and worthy use in the States. They were soon forgotten.

10 years later. Rule, Britannia!

In 1804, an Englishman named Richard Trevithick “reinvented” the steam locomotive.

Steam locomotive by Richard Trevithick. 1804

It's him. There are quite different images of Trevithick's locomotive on the Internet.

Its boiler was made of drawn iron, a firebox was arranged inside, and the products of fuel combustion came out through a chimney located in the same end wall of the boiler as the fire door. The steam cylinder was installed vertically, and its piston was connected to a pair of drive wheels using metal levers through eccentrics. The exhaust steam was removed from the cylinder into the chimney, increasing the draft from the boiler. The pressure in the boiler reached forty pounds per square inch, that is, it was a high-pressure unit. To avoid excess pressure and associated troubles, a safety valve was provided on the locomotive. As operating practice has shown, the locomotive operated reliably and stably, but the possible economic effect from it could not be considered satisfactory, since its power was only sufficient for movement, but not for transporting any significant cargo.

Blenkinsop steam locomotive. 1812

The next relatively successful attempt to build a steam locomotive was made by an English engineer named Blenkinsop in 1812. This machine was equipped with two vertical steam cylinders with a diameter of 203 millimeters each. The connecting rods, driven by the pistons, transmitted rotation to the intermediate gears, which, in turn, rotated two large gears mounted on the same axis and engaged in gear sectors laid on both sides outside the rail bed. One supporting axle was installed in front and behind the drive axle. Thus, this locomotive had six wheels in total.

Steam locomotive "Puffing Billy", built in 1813

Just a year later, the Englishman Blackett created the Puffing Billy locomotive. Its design was very similar to Blenkinsop's, however, unlike it, "Puffing Billy" was driven not by gears, but in the "traditional" way - by engaging the drive wheels with the rails under the influence of weight, just like Richard Trevithick's locomotive and all the locomotives familiar to us.

George Stephenson (1781 - 1848)

And in 1814, another Englishman, George Stephenson, an engineer from the Killingworth coal mine, built his first steam locomotive to transport coal. The locomotive was named Blucher (pronounced "Blucher" in American style) in honor of the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, who played a significant role in the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. It had a horizontally located boiler with a diameter of 863 millimeters and a length of 2.43 meters, two steam cylinders 203 millimeters in diameter with a drive on one of the two axes. The piston stroke was 609 millimeters. The Blooker could pull a train carrying thirty tons of coal. It was the first steam locomotive in world history that was able to transport goods.

This locomotive was structurally little different from its predecessors. But, starting with the next model, and a total of sixteen of them were built over the next five years, Stephenson began to move more and more away from the original design. These modifications and the constant pursuit of improvement ultimately predetermined Stephenson's future success in creating a cost-effective steam locomotive. Already in the second model, the cylinders drove all four wheels, which, in addition, were connected in pairs on each side by separate rods. Later, in subsequent models, the rods connecting the wheels were replaced with chains.

Stephenson's third freight locomotive, named Killingworth. 1816

All Stephenson steam locomotives built from 1814 to 1819 were designed to transport coal at low speeds from mining sites. Despite the fact that they did this job well, for a long time, for a long time, passenger transportation by rail in England was exclusively horse-drawn.

In 1820, Stephenson, by now well-known, was awarded the contract to build an eight-mile railway, also for the transport of coal, between Hetton and Sunderland. The road built by Stephenson was unique in that it skillfully used the features of the local terrain. The part of the route leading down the slopes of the hills was covered by coal cars using their own weight, and steam locomotives were used on the ascent sections of the road. This was the first railway that was completely without horse traction.

In 1821, construction began on the Stockton and Darlington railroad (S&DR). The original plan for operating the road called for the use of horses to transport coal cars along iron rails. But after a meeting with Stephenson, road director Edward Pease agreed to make adjustments to the plan.

Through his great tenacity and faith in the power of steam, Stephenson managed to obtain permission to build three locomotives for the S&DR. Having begun this work in 1822, Stephenson completed the first of the three locomotives in September 1825. At first the locomotive was named Active, but it was soon renamed Locomotion.

Locomotive, built in 1825, crosses one of the first railroad bridges

The length of its boiler was three meters, diameter - 1.21 meters. There were two cylinders, with a diameter of 254 millimeters, installed vertically. The four driving wheels were connected in pairs by side pistons, as on the familiar locomotives of the 20th century. The entire structure weighed six and a half tons and was equipped with a tender to supply the steam engine with coal and water.

The Stockton and Darlington railroad opened on September 27, 1825. Led personally by Stephenson, Locomotive pulled a train loaded with coal weighing eighty tons for nine miles, reaching a speed of 24 miles per hour (approximately 39 km/h) on one section of the route. After this, a specially built passenger carriage called "Experiment" was attached to the locomotive, and the first familiarization tour was organized for the dignitaries present at the opening of the road. The S&DR was the first railway in England and the world to use steam engines instead of horses to transport people and goods. The "cavalry" was dismissed.

Even during the construction of the S&DR, Stephenson noted that even minor climbs greatly slowed down the movement of his locomotives, and on even minor declines the locomotive's primitive brakes became almost completely ineffective. This observation led him to the conclusion that the railway track should, if possible, be laid on flat areas of the landscape, avoiding slopes. He subsequently used this experience in the construction of the Bolton & Leigh Railway (B&LR) and Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&MR), insisting on the construction of a number of overpasses and stone viaducts in difficult terrain to smooth out possible slopes of the tracks.

After only four years, the final and complete superiority of steam over horse-drawn was demonstrated during a public competition held by the L&MR Directorate to ascertain which of the two modes of travel along its newly laid rail route between the two cities would be faster. For the victory, a rather serious reward for those times was announced - five hundred pounds. The company's plan was a success. The competition took place despite attempts by some conservative surrounding landowners and horse-drawn stagecoach companies competing with the railroad to prevent it from taking place. In history they remained under the name Rainhill Trial (Rainhill Trail) after the name of the place between Liverpool and Manchester.

The statement by Stephenson, who was appointed chief engineer, essentially the project manager on the railway side, that he would build a locomotive that would be capable of traveling at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour, caused disbelief and ridicule among everyone around him. But he was confident in his abilities.

Once, when the struggle for holding the competition reached its peak, and the matter came to proceedings in the House of Commons of the British Parliament, during one of the hearings, one of the deputies asked Stephenson a provocative question.
Let’s assume,” said the deputy, “that your car is traveling along the rails at a speed of, say, two and a half or three kilometers per hour, and at this time a cow crosses the road and blocks the car’s path. Wouldn't this be, in some ways, a very delicate situation?
Yes,” the engineer answered without hesitation, “Too delicate.” For a cow.

And when another time someone, clearly hostile to steam engines, asked him whether a steam locomotive along its route would unacceptably frighten people and animals with its chimney, painted bright red, Stephenson, who had a subtle sense of humor , asked a counter question:
How do you think they will understand that it is something to be wary of if the pipe is not painted?

For the competition, which took place in October 1829, Stephenson created the steam locomotive "The Rocket". The name fully justified itself. Stephenson's new locomotive not only defeated all its competitors, both mechanical and live, but was capable of traveling at a record constant speed of forty kilometers per hour for that time. Moreover, two days after the competition, he pulled a weight of thirteen tons at a fantastic speed of fifty kilometers per hour during testing. Stephenson more than fulfilled his promise.

The "Rocket" itself weighed only four and a half tons. It used a boiler with a tubular evaporator system, very similar to that used in modern boilers with tubular evaporators. The length of the boiler was 1.82 meters with a diameter of 1 meter. The steam cylinders were mounted obliquely, and each of the pistons directly rotated one of two large diameter drive wheels. The spent steam was released into the chimney through special exhaust pipes with pointed ends.

The opening ceremony of the L&MR, held on 15 September 1830, was a very significant event in England. It was attended by many prominent statesmen, including the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. Although the day was overshadowed by the death of Liverpool MP William Huskison, who was accidentally hit by a Rocket and crushed to death, the opening of the road received a huge positive response. Stephenson became very famous and began to be bombarded with offers to lead the construction of many railways in Great Britain.

"Rocket" by George Stephenson. 1829

The Rocket was the first truly efficient locomotive to run on rails. Since his success, it was Stephenson who is considered the “father of the steam locomotive”, and his “Rocket” - the first steam locomotive.

There is a statue of Stephenson at the National Railway Museum, York.

And on October 28, 2005 at railway station Chesterfield railway station, which is directly visible from the Tapton House mansion, where the great engineer spent the last ten years of his life, has a monument erected to him. The unveiling ceremony for the bronze statue of George Stephenson included a working, full-size replica of his greatest creation, the Rocket locomotive.

The story of the American "father"

Meanwhile, in 1815, a certain John Stevens (not to be confused with Stephenson!), a wealthy military man with the rank of colonel, as well as an engineer and businessman from the city of Haboken, New Jersey, obtained from his state government the rights to build the first in America railroad. He managed to realize these rights only after ten years and not in the way he would have liked.

Colonel John Stephens (1749 - 1838)

At that time, the United States already had several relatively short horse-drawn railways. The most famous of these are the Beacon Hill Road in Boston, built by Silas Whitney and opened in 1807, as well as the road built in 1809 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, owned by a man named Thomas Leiper. Leiper).

One of the largest railroad museums in the United States, The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, has one rather unusual exhibit.

It looks like both a typical American farm horse-drawn wagon and a self-propelled, mechanically driven carriage. And there is a steam boiler installed on it. This strange machine is a replica of a steam locomotive designed to run on a six hundred and sixty foot circle of rails that was laid on the estate of Colonel Stevens at Haboken.

For your information, the Stevens Institute of Technology, founded in 1870, is now located on the site of this estate. This man is often called "the father of American railroads" these days.

In 1825, John Stevens succeeded in something completely different from what he had set out to achieve. Dreaming of the commercial exploitation of railways and not being able to realize his dream, the colonel built a “funny” road on his estate for one purpose. This was another attempt to somehow contribute to the popularization and development of railroads in Pennsylvania.

"Railroad Fun" at Stevens's estate in Haboken. 1825

Fifteen years earlier, he completely transferred the shipping company he owned to his sons and concentrated all further efforts in the development of land steam transport. Anticipating the grand future of railroads, Stevens invested in their popularization and development. a large number of personal funds and all your energy. In particular, he spent a lot of effort trying to dissuade the then governor New York De Witt Clinton from the construction of a ship canal to Lake Erie. Channels, as Colonel Stevens reasonably argued, relying on own experience owner of a shipping company, could not serve effectively transport routes, especially to supply cities with agricultural products, and this was the most important and main type of cargo transportation at that time. By the beginning of winter, that is, precisely when farmers needed them most, the canals simply froze.

Unable to prevent what he believed was an erroneous decision to build a canal, and lacking sufficient capital to build his own railroad in New Jersey, Stevens turned to the state of Pennsylvania for financing for the construction of such a road. There, at that moment, the issue of building a system of shipping canals on the territory of the state was also considered. The colonel even built a steam locomotive of his own design, which was driven by the engagement of a gear wheel with a gear sector laid along the rails. He chose this design because he wanted to clearly demonstrate that his locomotive was capable of climbing steep hills on rails and mountain slopes, which served as a natural (and insurmountable for water transport) obstacle to the development of transport routes from east coast to the west, inland. But the time had not yet come, either then or in 1825.

Stevens's ideas were nevertheless implemented by the middle of the 19th century. In 1846, the Pennsylvania Rail Road (PRR) became a giant railroad in the United States, absorbing more than six hundred smaller railroad companies and their track infrastructure. The 1846 PRR had a huge network of tracks stretching from the company's headquarters in Philadelphia to New York, Washington, Chicago and St. Louis. Within the state of Pennsylvania, and in some places outside the state, its main lines ran for the most part along the routes predicted by Colonel Stevens. One of them passed through the town of Paradise, where it was joined from the Strasburg Junction station by a short branch of the Strasburg Rail Road, built back in 1832. This line, which still exists today, leads to a very remarkable place, where the aforementioned Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was opened in 1975.

The fact of the creation of this wonderful museum is yet another confirmation of the tremendous role that railroads played in the development of the state, its economy, industry and society as a whole during the century and a half of its existence. Now the museum's exhibition includes more than ninety historical locomotives.

The developed network of railroads during the American Civil War of 1861-65 created a huge advantage for the northerners over the southerners, giving them the ability to quickly transport troops, deliver strategic cargo from production sites to the theater of operations, and quickly supply their army with everything they needed. Thus, the victorious Battle of Gettysburg for the northerners in 1863, according to the recollections of its participants, was preceded by an intense redeployment of troops and military cargo by rail. On the line from Baltimore to Westminster, Maryland, Western Maryland (WM) trains carrying troops, supplies, and ammunition followed almost continuously, one after another. This line was under the direct coordination of Northern military authorities and became the main supply channel for the Army of the Potomac, originally created by Northerners back in 1861 to defend Washington against the advancing forces of the South and winning the Battle of Gettysburg under the command of General George Meade. Prisoners, wounded and dead bodies were also transported by rail for several days after the battle.

Second try. First steps

Returning to the history of the birth of steam locomotives in America, it should be noted that the “fruit was ripe” by the end of the 1820s. The Americans, who a quarter of a century earlier had successfully buried their own invention of the steam locomotive, began purchasing English locomotives. The first steam locomotives to operate on US railroads were built in England for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company (D&HCC) by order of its chief engineer, John Jervice.

1828 Stourbridge Lion steam locomotive

There were only four of them. The first of them, bearing the rather strange name Sturbridge Lyon to our ears, was brought with him from a trip in 1828 by Horatio Allen, a representative of the D&HCC, who was sent to England. "Overseas imports" could travel on what were then wooden rails at speeds of up to ten miles per hour. Upon arrival in the United States, these locomotives were immediately put to work. They transported coal from the mines to the Delaware & Hudson piers on the Pennsylvania Canal for further transportation by water. But pretty soon the company removed all four locomotives from the line, recognizing them as ineffective. Following this, they were dismantled. However, both the D&HCC and other American railroads continued to increasingly send engineers to England for railroad training in the early 1830s.

The practice of the first years of operation of British imported steam locomotives in American conditions showed that they were not as good as could be expected. And in general, being created in a highly technically developed and relatively densely populated country with a small territory, the English railways were completely unsuited in their “engineering ideology” to American realities, primarily geographical ones. The Americans quickly recognized the British system of laying rail beds as overly advanced and too expensive in the conditions of their country with a small number of centers of civilization scattered over a large territory and surrounded by vast undeveloped areas. And soon local engineers developed several of their own, cheaper rail track designs.

Many locomotives purchased in England also underwent numerous successive modifications. The original design included pilot trucks to facilitate the passage of radii, differently designed driver's cabs, and "cowcatchers", which literally translates as "cow grabber". This typically American detail was a wedge-shaped safety grille in the front of the locomotive, designed to throw foreign objects off the tracks, placed far forward at a small angle to the rails. On locomotives they began to use headlights of a completely different design compared to England, as well as many other innovations. All this led to the fact that by the 1850s, American locomotives, even in appearance, were very different from English and any other European ones. And this constructive divergence continued in subsequent periods.

Tom Thumb steam locomotive by Peter Cooper. 1830

The first experimental steam locomotive built entirely in the United States in 1830 was a steam locomotive called Tom Thumb. He traveled on the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad. It was developed by B&O engineer Peter Cooper. The steam lines in his boiler were made from gun barrels. It developed a power of only 1.43 horsepower.

The first American steam locomotive that went into actual operation was created in the same 1830 by the West Point Foundry Association of New York City for the South Carolina Railroad, whose headquarters were located in Charleston. He was given the name Best Friend.

The following year, 1831, the locomotives West Point, South Carolina and De Witt Clinton, named after the very governor of New York whom Colonel Stevens could not convince, were built.

"Atlantic" with two driving axles

"Old Iron" by Matthias Baldwin

In 1832, the Atlantic and Old Ironsides steam locomotives appeared. This piece of hardware is notable in that it was designed by none other than Matthias W. Baldwin, who later founded the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, one of the three greatest US locomotive-building companies of all time. This was the first locomotive of the great locomotive builder.

In the first years of the development of railway transport, almost every small factory, even with a primitive foundry and some kind of mechanical workshops, had the opportunity to build a steam locomotive. And many small businesses built them. The history of one such enterprise, taking into account the personality of its founder and the gigantic contribution that this man and his company made to the development of American railroads, deserves to be discussed in more detail.

Baldwin Locomotive Works (1834 - 1956). 70,500 locomotives in 122 years.

Matthias William Baldwin (1795 - 1866) was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was the third of five children in the family of a successful carriage maker. In 1811, a sixteen-year-old young man began training in jewelry making. In 1817, he took a job with the Fletcher and Gardner company in Philadelphia. And two years later, in 1819, he patented his own original gilding method, which later won universal recognition and became an industry standard.

Statue of Matthias Baldwin in front of Philadelphia City Hall

The interests of the young jeweler were not limited only to the craft. At the very beginning of the 1820s, he became interested in printing and bookbinding. He even opened a small printing workshop in Philadelphia where the printing press was powered (a very significant fact!) by a steam engine of his own design. This steam engine developed significant power for its size and was so successful that Baldwin began to receive commercial orders for the manufacture of such steam engines.

Thus, the History of Baldwin Locomotive Works began in a very modest and ordinary manner in 1825. Baldwin entered into a commercial partnership with a man named David Mason. Together they opened a small mechanical workshop. Soon this workshop gained fame throughout the area for high quality execution of orders.

Just to complete the picture, we note that in 1827 Baldwin married a very distant relative. They subsequently had three children.

It seemed that fate itself was consistently and steadily pushing Baldwin towards locomotive building. In 1831, at the request of the City Museum of Philadelphia, he produced a scaled-down demonstration model of a steam locomotive, the design of which was based on the best examples of machines that took part in the above-mentioned 1829 Rainhill Trial competition in England (and we remember whose design won the victory). Baldwin's model was powerful enough to pull several carriages, each carrying four passengers. The innovation of the design was that the model ran on coal, while all locomotives of that time, without exception, were designed for wood power.

That same year, Baldwin received his first order in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He was invited to advise on the assembly of a locomotive from parts sent from England for New Jersey's first railroad company, Camden & Amboy (C&A). It was his comments made during the inspection of the disassembled locomotive that allowed the Irish engineer Isaac Dripps from Belfast, hired by the company to accompany and assemble the purchased machine, relatively quickly, in just eleven days, without drawings, to assemble the locomotive and then properly install it. tune. In 1832, Baldwin himself had to take on the task of assembling another steam locomotive, which arrived from England in the form of a set of parts, also without drawings, at the request of the Newcastle & Frenchtown Railroad (N&FRR). This locomotive, successfully assembled by Baldwin, was named Delaware.

Then it was the turn of “Old Claptrap”. She was completed and tested on the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad (PG&NRR) in November 1832. Initially, the Zhelezyaka was equipped with one (rear) pair of driving wheels and one (front) pair of auxiliary wheels. Baldwin soon modified the locomotive by adding a second pair of auxiliary wheels at the front. The locomotive weighed just over five tons and its drive wheels were 54 inches (1.37 m) in diameter. The diameter of the working cylinders was 9.5 inches (24 cm), the piston stroke was 18 inches (45.7 cm). The wheel hubs and axles were made of iron castings, the spokes and rims were made of hard wood. Forged bandages with flanges were put on the rims. The "Zhelezyaki" frame was made of wood and extended beyond the track in width.

Once put into operation, the "Old Iron" served for more than twenty years.

Quite a short time after the construction of "Old Iron", Baldwin founded the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which throughout almost its entire history since 1834 remained the undoubted leader and "trendsetter" of the American locomotive building, creating more fundamentally new successful designs than any other locomotive building company. company in the world. Only in the mid-50s of the 20th century, as a result of the loss of a strategic partner in the Westinghouse concern, Baldwin lost the market for diesel locomotives to ALCO and EMD and was forced to go out of business.

Before the death of Matthias Baldwin in 1866, the company managed to produce more than one and a half thousand steam locomotives of various types. By the early 1920s, the fifty-thousandth locomotive was produced. And during the entire existence of Baldwin Locomotive Works, more than 70,500 locomotives came out of its workshops (just think about the number!). Among them, we can especially note such outstanding examples as the Cab Forward 2-8-8-4 and the magnificent high-speed Golden State (GS) 4-8-4 Southern Pacific roads, the famous PRR GG-1 electric locomotives, which served for almost fifty years, as well as the most powerful in the world Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 Allegheny - the last steam locomotives built by the great company.

America for the Americans

As already mentioned, the American locomotive industry followed its own path of further progress through a number of improvements. The boiler began to be installed on the locomotive frame not vertically, but horizontally along, just like the working cylinders. The pistons began to be directly connected to one of the pairs of drive wheels, and this pair - by side pistons - to the second drive axle. The firebox was placed between the wheels for quite a long time and remained narrow because of this. They began to raise it above the wheels by the very end of the 19th century.

A whole series of improvements also took place in the development of wheel designs, later combined into the Whyte Wheel Arrangement Classification system. This basic American classification system for steam locomotives was introduced in the early 20th century. It is named after its author, Frederick Methvan Whyte, a Dutch-American engineer for the New York Central (NYC) railroad (the name is pronounced "Whit" in the Dutch manner). These improvements began with the addition of a front auxiliary bogie, which supported the front of the horizontal boiler and helped the locomotives negotiate radii.

According to the Wheat system, the wheel formula of a locomotive is divided into components according to the number of main groups of wheels and is expressed by a sequence of numbers separated by hyphens. The first number reflects the number of auxiliary wheels on the front bogie (pilot truck), the second - the number of driving wheels (if the locomotive has two groups of driving wheels, then two numbers are included in the formula, separated by a hyphen, according to the number of wheels in each group). The last number in the formula expresses the number of wheels on the rear trailing truck. Since most American locomotives of that time did not have rear bogies, the last number in the wheel formulas of such locomotives was zero. And shunting locomotives in those years were not equipped with front bogies. Accordingly, the first number in their wheel formulas was also zero.

In the standard designs of the first American steam locomotives, the 4-2-0 formula was very popular. Only one wheel on each side of the locomotive was steam driven through pistons. After some time, however, the design underwent further improvements. Another pair of drive wheels was added. The formula for this new type of locomotive took the form 4-4-0. It was this design that became typical of America in the mid-19th century. It is known as the "American type" or "American standard".

4-4-0 "American" 60s - 90s of the 19th century

However, the development of the “typically American” 4-4-0 formula did not stop there. As the need arose to increase the power of locomotives, the designers followed the obvious path and added a third drive axle, thereby creating the 4-6-0 formula and its junior modification 2-6-0. The next logical step was the appearance of steam locomotives with the 2-8-0 formula.

In 1866 (the year of the founder's death), the first copy of a new design steam locomotive was built in the Baldwin Locomotive Works workshops, commissioned by the Lehigh Valley Railway. It was called Consolidation because the Lehigh Valley Road had recently been created by the consolidation of several smaller railroad lines into one company. The newly created locomotive had eight driving wheels and one pair of front auxiliary wheels. There was no rear support trolley. This was the first example of the 2-8-0 formula. Consolidation steam locomotives quickly gained great popularity as heavy freight locomotives needed, for example, for transporting coal.

The following year, 1867, the Baldwin Company produced its first example of another new locomotive with six driving wheels and one front pair of auxiliary wheels. This new locomotive 2-6-0 was named The Great Mogul ("Great Mogul") or simply Mogul, as all locomotives with this formula soon began to be called. They have also become very popular for transporting heavy loads. Although to be fair, it should be mentioned that Baldwin's Mogul was not the very first 4-6-0. The first such locomotive was built by Rogers Locomotive Works four years before Baldwin, around 1863.

Some examples of the 2-6-0 Mogul remained in service until the late 1940s

And in 1897, designers from the same Baldwin company introduced a new type of heavy freight locomotive with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, developed by order of the Japanese Nippon Railway. Not surprisingly, it was called Mikado. This was also facilitated by the extreme popularity of the opera of the same name by Gilbert & Sullivan, "The Mikado", which premiered relatively shortly before the events described - in 1885.

The 2-8-2 formula turned out to be a new word in steam locomotive engineering, since the presence of a rear two-wheeled bogie made it possible to place the firebox not above the drive wheels, but behind them, lengthening and expanding it. This gave a significant increase in power compared to any other previously built steam locomotives.

Since its inception, the Mikado 2-8-2 has been a huge success in the United States, primarily as a freight locomotive. With nearly the same towing capacity as the Consolidation 2-8-0, the Mike, as it was nicknamed, allowed freight trains to be hauled at significantly higher speeds. The design turned out to be so successful that, despite the subsequent appearance of many heavier and more powerful locomotives, the Mikado 2-8-2 remained the most common freight locomotives in the States until the very end of the steam era.

Mikado 2-8-2 PRR No. 520. A typical representative of the class, surviving to this day

During World War II, which for America was primarily a war with Japan, the "enemy" name Mikado was changed to the patriotic name MacArthur in honor of General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded American forces opposing the Japanese in the Pacific.

In the second half of the 19th century, many other types of locomotives were also created in the USA. But the purpose of this material is not to mention “everyone without exception,” but only to note the fundamental stages in the development of steam locomotive building in the United States.

A few words in conclusion

As a conclusion, we can summarize briefly. Until the beginning of the 20th century, as many experts have repeatedly noted, it was possible to increase the power of steam locomotives by simply increasing the size of the boiler and steam cylinders or by increasing the operating pressure in the boiler. With the advent of the 1900s, a new stage in the development of steam locomotive engineering began, when the weight of locomotives increased so much that weight restrictions and axle load limits became relevant. In these new conditions, to achieve a similar effect, the use of much more complex technical solutions was already required. Just as examples of such solutions (in reality there were many more) we can mention steam superheater systems (superheater technology), additional steam drives on rear bogies (booster), systems for preheating water before feeding into the boiler (feedwater heater) and mechanical coal feeders into the firebox (stocker).

An interesting comparison: an 1831 De Witt Clinton three-car locomotive against a 4-6-2 Pacific class locomotive from the 1920s.

If we try to express ourselves figuratively on this topic, we can say that with the advent of the 20th century, the “youth” of the steam locomotive gave way to its “maturity.”

The use of electricity as an energy source for traction of trains was first demonstrated at an industrial exhibition in Berlin in 1879, where a model of an electric railway was presented. A train consisting of a 2.2 kW locomotive and three carriages, each of which could accommodate up to 6 passengers, moved along a section less than 300 m long at a speed of 7 km/h. The creators of the new type of traction were the famous German scientist, inventor and industrialist Ernst Werner von Siemens (Werner von Siemens, 1816-1892) and engineer Halske.

The electric line and train demonstrated at the exhibition instantly became a sensation. Over the course of 4 months, the train transported about 90,000 exhibition visitors. DC electricity with a voltage of 150 V was supplied to the electric locomotive via a contact rail located between the rails; the return wire was the rails along which the train moved. The draft was controlled using a water rheostat.

A copy of the first electric locomotive from Siemens and Halske (1879) in the German Railways Museum. in Nuremberg.
Photo: Oleg Nazarov, 2010.

Swiss engineer Rene Thury (1860-1938) built an experimental mountain rack and pinion road in the suburbs of Montreux in 1884. Movement along the site to the mountain hotel with a slope of 30‰ and a length of 300 m was carried out by a two-axle locomotive, which could also carry 4 passengers.

The first trams

The expansion of the use of electric traction at the first stage encountered serious resistance from officials due to misunderstanding or often unwillingness to change anything.

Because of this mistrust, Ernst Werner von Siemens had to build a demonstration model of an electric tram at his own expense. The world's first permanently operating electric tram line opened in Berlin in the spring of 1881.

In the USA, the appearance of electric traction is associated with the name of the inventor Franklin J. Sparga (1857-1934), who is called in America the “father of electric traction.” In 1880, F. Sparg received a patent for a system for collecting current from a contact wire with a contact wheel on a pantograph, using which in 1887 the first electric tram system in the United States, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, was built in Richmond (Virginia). Here, on February 2, 1888, the ability to smoothly operate tram lines with slopes of up to 10‰ was demonstrated for the first time, which was previously impossible with horse traction.

Electric tram in Richmond (USA) using the Franklin Sparga system. Postcard from 1923.
Source: Wikipedia.

The Russian engineer-inventor Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky (1845-1898) began to conduct experiments using electricity in 1874. In 1875, in St. Petersburg, on a section of the Sestroretsk railway, he conducted experiments with electric cars, for which about one mile of the track was electrified. In his design, the rails were connected to a Graham generator. Both rails were isolated from the ground, one of them was a direct conductor, and the other was a return conductor.

Based on the experiments carried out in 1880, at his own expense he upgraded one city horse-drawn double-decker tram in St. Petersburg to electric traction, and on September 3 an unusual public transport begins to transport residents of St. Petersburg, despite open protests from the owners of horse-drawn trams. A carriage weighing 7 tons could carry up to 40 passengers at a speed of 12-14 km/h. Pirotsky's experiments continued for several days until the end of September 1880, after which he proposed replacing all horse-drawn trams in St. Petersburg with electric trams. Unfortunately, like everything new, the idea of ​​the Russian engineer was treated with distrust; the papers wandered around the offices of officials for a long time , there were no funds available for its implementation for a long time. And only in 1892, when electric trams had already successfully conquered European cities, they appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Engineer F.B. Bespalov, in the brochure “Electric Economic Railway” published in 1894, substantiated the principle of controlling several cars in a coupling from one post - perhaps for the first time in the world. This is a key principle for managing multi-section rolling stock.

The first electric locomotives

For the first time in industrial use, a section of electric railway approximately 2 km long was launched in 1879 at a textile factory in French city Breile.

In the UK, the first line to be electrified at 500 V DC using a contact rail was the 5.6 km underground City & South London Railway, opened in 1890. The company Messrs Mather & Platt and Siemens Bros supplied 16 electric locomotives for it, each equipped with 2 gearless traction motors with a power of 36.7 kW. In fact, it was the world's first subway.

The first section of the main electric railway, 11.2 km long, was opened in 1895 in the USA between Baltimore and Ohio (Baltimore Belt Line) with a catenary voltage of 675 V DC. The line consisted of an open section 6.4 km long and an underground section within the city. Electric locomotives for it were supplied by General Electric.

Europe's first experimental electric locomotive for main lines was created by the Hungarian engineer Kalman Kando in 1894. The electric locomotive was powered by a three-phase high voltage network of 3300 V with a frequency of 15 Hz and was equipped with an asynchronous traction motor. A new electrical machine invented by Kando, a phase shifter, was used as a converter. K. Kando has the same importance for European engineers as F. Sparg for Americans, therefore in European countries K. Kando (1869-1931) is considered the “father of electric traction”.

Electric locomotives designed by K. Cando were used in Italy to organize traffic on a full-fledged railway route (before that they were used only on certain sections of roads). Energy was supplied to the electric locomotive through two contact wires; rails were used as the third phase.

Electric locomotive Kalman Kando (Hungary) for Italy.