Digital Dérive: Looking into the Uninterested
We’re all aware of trains and other modes of rail transport but I’ve never given much thought to the inner workings of the railway system beyond how they were established in the United States and late night infomercials trying to sell DVDs to train enthusiasts. Rail transport is used for transferring both travelers and materials or goods. Most often the vehicles used have wheels of some sort and follow along tracks. There are variations among types of track systems just as there are variations on types of trains. The vehicles are powered by locomotives which either work off a railway electrification system or diesel engines. It is one of the safer methods of travel compared to others. It is extremely efficient for carrying a large quantity of passengers as well as cargo. Railway travel has proven to very energy efficient as well and more and more focused and funds are put towards developing even faster, safer, and capable rail systems. Electric trains on average are 20 times more efficient than cars for transportation of passengers alone.
The oldest known manual railways date as far back as the 6th century BC in Corinth, Greece. The next leap we’re aware of comes in the mid 16th century in Germany with horse-powered funiculars (cable railway and inclined elevator helped by cable traction when taking on steep slopes) and wagonways. Modern rail transport came to be in early 19th century Europe with the development of steam locomotives making the railway system in Great Britain the oldest in the entire world. The famous Locomotion №1 was the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line. Railways not only changed travel for passengers but reduced the cost of shipping goods making them an economic game changer on many different fronts. The world’s first underground railway came out of London in 1863 and it wasn’t until the 1880s that we saw electrified trains introduced.
In the 1940s, most non-electric railways began replacing steam locomotives with diesel-electric locomotives — a process that would not be almost completed until the 2000s. In the 1960s, we began to see electrified high-speed railway systems introduced in Japan followed by other countries soon after. Most train systems are now trying to shift from diesel-electric to fully electric citing environmental concerns as the main driving force. Switzerland it seems is the first to have completely switched to electric in its railway network.
In all, this was pretty informative. Choosing wikipedia as the first place to start was a good decision since the site is filled with all sorts of information. Once I started wandering, it lead me to a lot of government sites as well as archival and environmental pages. I tried looking into something I’m not really interested in but some good did come out of it. It is actually pretty intriguing to see how something has and continues to evolve over time in front of our very own eyes. Would I read more into this? No. It did give me a little more of an appreciation of trains though.
