railroad

Table of Contents

Introduction
Cars
- Freight cars
- Passenger cars
  - Brake systems
  - Automatic body tilting
  - Cars for daytime service
  - Cars for overnight travel
Railroad track and roadway
- Location and construction
- Rail
  - Rail fittings
  - Sleepers (crossties)
  - Track maintenance
- Auxiliary plant
  - Bridges
  - Buildings
  - Tunnels
Railroad operations and control
- Communications
  - Radio
  - Computers
- Signaling
  - Types of signals
  - Automated systems
  - Interlocking and routing
- The marshaling yard
Intermodal freight vehicles and systems
- Development
- Operations
- Passenger intermodals
Railroad history
- Source in inland water transport
- Early European railroads
  - The Stockton and Darlington Railway
  - The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
  - Characteristics of British railroads
  - The railroad in continental Europe
- Early American railroads
  - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
  - Boston railroads
  - The South Carolina Railroad
- North American railroads in the late 19th and 20th centuries
  - American railroads
    - Expansion into the interior
    - The transcontinental railroad
    - Advances in traction systems
    - Railway company mergers
  - Canadian railroads
Modern railways
- Diesel-electric locomotion and electronic systems
- Growth in developing countries
- High-speed passenger lines
  - Japan
  - Western Europe
  - South Korea, Taiwan, and China
  - North America
- Maglev

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

high-speed train

De Witt Clinton locomotive

Learn about the American railroad history and the California State Railroad Museum

How Chinese immigrants built the Transcontinental Railroad

Countess of Dufferin locomotive

Andrew Onderdonk's railroad labourers

Gotthard Base Tunnel

Gotthard Base Tunnel

For Students

A bullet train at a station in Zürich.

railroad summary

Read Next

Abstract vector hi speed internet technology background

History of Technology Timeline

The exterior of the Victoria terminus railway station, Mumbai, India. (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, UNESCO World Heritage site)

5 Transit Stations Worth Seeing

Discover

Aurochs. Bos primigenius. Skeleton. Extinct animal. Skeleton of an Aurochs, an extinct wild ox.

6 Animals We Ate Into Extinction

NBA Lakers Celtics Finals Kevin Garnett shooting.

10 Great Sports Rivalries

Periodical Cicada, Adult, Magicicada spp. Requires 17 years to complete development. Nymph splits its skin, and transforms into an adult. Feeds on sap of tree roots. Northern Illinois Brood. This brood is the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere

Why Do Some Cicadas Appear Only Every 17 Years?

Aspirin pills.

7 Drugs that Changed the World

Dancers at a Cinco de Mayo festival at the Mission District, San Francisco, California. (Photo dated 2019.) holidays

Is Cinco de Mayo Mexico's Independence Day?

Close up of praying mantis walking on stone ground against a blurred background in Japan

6 Animals That Eat Their Mates

Amendments 1-10 to the Constitution of the United States constitute what is known as the Bill of Rights on an American flag.

What Is the Emoluments Clause?

railroad: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	railway

Photos and Videos

high-speed train

De Witt Clinton locomotive

Countess of Dufferin locomotive

Andrew Onderdonk's railroad labourers

Gotthard Base Tunnel

Gotthard Base Tunnel

bridge on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad

Hungary: railway station

Learn about the American railroad history and the California State Railroad Museum

How Chinese immigrants built the Transcontinental Railroad

Take a ride along France's ecologically convenient TGV high-speed railroad from city to city

How Tokyo ensures its trains are safe and on time

Exploring Tokyo's busiest railway station

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

personal rapid transit funicular railroad interurban railroad Rolling Highway railroad track transcontinental rail line train commuter railroad mountain railroad automated guideway transit bridge canals and inland waterways road dam water supply system aqueduct waste disposal crane gate excavating machine

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Henry B. Plant

American industrialist

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

president of United States

Daniel H. Burnham.

Daniel Burnham

American architect

Robert M. La Follette

Robert M. La Follette

United States senator

Dalhousie, detail of an oil painting by Sir John Watson-Gordon, 1847; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie

governor-general of India

Sergey Yulyevich Witte

Sergey Yulyevich, Count Witte

prime minister of Russia

J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan

American financier

George Stephenson

George Stephenson

British inventor

Savva Mamontov

Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist

Thomas Nast: “This is a White Man's Government”

Jay Gould

American financier

Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs

American social and labor leader

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

British engineer

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt

American industrialist and philanthropist [1794–1877]

Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage

American railroad foreman

Ben Tillman

Ben Tillman

American politician

Panama Canal: Miraflores Locks

John Frank Stevens

American engineer

Russell Sage

American financier

Jervis, John Bloomfield: Stourbridge Lion

John Bloomfield Jervis

American engineer

William Henry Vanderbilt, engraving

William Henry Vanderbilt

American industrialist and philanthropist

Jacob H. Schiff

American financier

List

The exterior of the Victoria terminus railway station, Mumbai, India. (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, UNESCO World Heritage site)

5 Transit Stations Worth Seeing