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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

Fairfax Harrison (full name Reginald Fairfax Harrison: March 13, 1869 – February 2, 1938) was an American lawyer, businessman, and writer. The son of the secretary to the Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Harrison studied law at Yale University and Columbia University before becoming a lawyer for the Southern Railway Company in 1896. By 1906 he was Southern's vice-president of finance, and in 1907 helped secure funding to keep the company solvent. In 1913 he was elected president of Southern, where he instituted a number of reforms in the way the company operated. By 1916, under Harrison's leadership, the Southern had expanded to an 8,000-mile (13,000 km) network across 13 states, its greatest extent until the 1950s. Following the United States' entry into World War I the federal government took control of the railroads in December 1917, running them through the United States Railroad Administration, on which Harrison served. An economic boom after the war helped the company to expand its operations. Harrison worked to improve the railroad's public relations and to upgrade the locomotive stock by introducing more powerful engines. Another of his concerns was to increase the amount of railroad track and to extend the area serviced by the railway. Harrison struggled to keep the railroad afloat during the Great Depression, but by 1936 Southern was once again showing a profit. Harrison retired in 1937, intending to focus on his hobby of writing about historical subjects including the roots of the American Thoroughbred horse, but he died three months later in February 1938.

Recently selected: Vestgrensa (station) - Tryvandshøiden (station) - Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn Line

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Selected image of the week

Four BNSF Railway GE C44-9W locomotives haul a mixed freight train along the Columbia River, between Kennewick and Wishram, Washington, in July 2011.

Recently selected: Berlin S-Bahn Christmas Train - Serbian Railways class 412 - Russian VL20 class

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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

October 19

Timetable from Bradshaw's 1850 edition

1839 – George Bradshaw publishes the world's first railway timetable (1850 timetable pictured) in Manchester, England.
1878 – Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II, designer of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Thomas Viaduct (still in use today), dies (b. 1806).
1897 – George Pullman, American inventor and industrialist, founder of the Pullman Company, dies (b. 1831).
1992 – H. Reid, prominent railroad photographer and historian, dies (b. 1925).

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Train News

April 30, 2026 – American railroad companies Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern amend their plan for a merger. The plan involves connecting existing networks as well as adding new routes. (Railway-News)
April 30, 2026 – German company Siemens Mobility signs a 200-train contract with Swiss Federal Railways. The contract, which was awarded in November 2025, was until recently contested by Siemens’ competitor Stadler. (Railway Gazette)
April 26, 2026 – 2026 Bekasi train crash – The train Argo Bromo Anggrek collides with a Commuterline train near Jakarta, Indonesia. The crash left 16 people dead, all from the rear car of the Commuterline, and an additional 91 people injured. This happened after a separate train collided with a taxi earlier that day. (BBC, Reuters )

April 26, 2026 – In Mexico, tracks are opened for Tren Felipe Ángeles, a rail link that connects Felipe Ángeles International Airport with Mexico City. (Railway Gazette)

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General images

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

Image 1The first useful diesel locomotive (a diesel–electric) for long distances, the SŽD Eel2, 1924 in Kyiv (from Locomotive)
Image 2A narrow-gauge battery–electric locomotive used for mining (from Locomotive)
Image 3Garratt locomotives in Zimbabwe (from Train)
Image 4China operates an extensive high speed rail network. (from Train)
Image 5A Tokyo Monorail train (from Train)
Image 6US-style railroad truck (bogie) with journal bearings (from Train)
Image 7Stockton and Darlington special inaugural train 1825: six wagons of coal, directors coach, then people in wagons. (from Train)
Image 8A China Railways HXD1D electric locomotive in China (from Locomotive)
Image 9A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom (from Railroad car)
Image 10Soviet RT-23 Molodets ICBM launch train, in the St Petersburg museum (from Railroad car)
Image 11The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam. (from Train)
Image 12A wooden toy train set from Swedish manufacturer Brio (from Train)
Image 13British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s (from Railroad car)
Image 14The "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 15The 1887 Daimler draisine (from Locomotive)
Image 16Inside a modern-day car from Finland (from Railroad car)
Image 17Armored train Hurban located in Zvolen, Slovakia (from Railroad car)
Image 18A narrow gauge train in Austria (from Train)
Image 19Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, 1877, Art Institute of Chicago (from Train)
Image 20The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power. (from Train)
Image 21Trains 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 22An Indian locomotive class WDM-3A diesel locomotive in India (from Locomotive)
Image 23A coach yard in Shanghai, China (from Rail yard)
Image 24This GO Transit Bombardier BiLevel 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 25A Victorian Railways R class steam locomotive in Australia (from Locomotive)
Image 26The New Orleans Streetcar System is the oldest in the world. (from Train)
Image 27Bombardier ALP-45DP, at the Innotrans convention in Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 28A 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 29Typical American extended vision caboose (from Railroad car)
Image 30Baltimore & Ohio electric engine, 1895 (from Locomotive)
Image 31Workington stabling point in 1981, with locomotives from Classes 25, 40 and 47 parked between duties. (from Rail yard)
Image 32Restored clerestory cars on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin (from Railroad car)
Image 33TGV Lacroix first class interior (from Train)
Image 34A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London (from Railroad car)
Image 35Southern Railway (UK) 20002 was equipped with both a pantograph and contact shoes. (from Locomotive)
Image 36Werner von Siemens experimental DC electric train, 1879 (from Locomotive)
Image 37A preserved armored train (from Train)
Image 38RegioCitadis light rail train in Zoetermeer (the Netherlands). (from Train)
Image 39A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina, Italy, 1901 (from Locomotive)
Image 40A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926 (from Railroad car)
Image 41Yard for Amtrak equipment, located next to the Los Angeles River. The two tracks on the left are the mainline. (from Rail yard)
Image 42A Union Pacific freight train; high clearances enable double-stacked containers to be carried in well cars. (from Train)
Image 43A number of maintenance vehicles at work on Metro-North Railroad (from Train)
Image 44A gas turbine locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (from Train)
Image 45Schedule of train departure times in Indonesia stations (from Train)
Image 46Most derailments, such as this one in Switzerland, are minor and do not cause injuries or damage. (from Train)
Image 47Various types of railroad cars in a classification yard in the United States (from Train)
Image 48The Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen pioneered high speed rail service (from Train)
Image 49This 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 50A London Underground battery–electric locomotive used for hauling engineers' trains, at West Ham station (from Locomotive)