RAILROADS Brittnee Thornock

Early history Roads of rails called Wagonways were

being used in Germany as early as 1550. These simple railed roads consisted of wooden rails over which horse-drawn wagons or carts moved with greater ease than over dirt roads. Wagonways were the beginnings of modern railroads.

The Steam Engine The invention of the steam

engine was critical to the invention of the modern railroad and trains. In 1803, a man named Samuel Homfray decided to fund the development of a steam-powered vehicle to replace the horse-drawn carts on the tramways. Richard Trevithick built that vehicle, the first steam engine tramway locomotive. On February 22, 1804, the locomotive hauled a load of 10 tons of iron, 70 men and five extra wagons, 9 miles. This trip took 2 hours.

Construction of railroads

Surveying, mapping, and construction started on the Baltimore and Ohio in 1830, and fourteen miles of track were opened before the year ended. This roadbed was extended in 1831 to Frederick, Maryland, and, in 1832, to Point of Rocks.

The Union Pacific Railroad Plans and discussion for a transcontinental railroad

linking California to the east date prior to 1853. The necessity for construction of the railroad was

clearly demonstrated during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war, Washington had serious

concern that the military commander of California, Albert Sidney Johnston, might turn California over to the Confederacy.

If such were to have happened the Union had no ability to transport troops to the West. Johnston, however, did not turn California over to the Confederacy.

This new railroad was called the union pacific railroad. Leading from California all the way to NewYork

Advanced railroadsIn the 1960s and early 1970s, considerable interest developed in the possibility of building tracked passenger vehicles that could travel much faster than conventional trains. From the 1970s, interest in an alternative high-speed technology centered on magnetic levitation, or maglev. This vehicle rides on an air cushion created by electromagnetic reaction between an on-board device and another embedded in its guideway.