How do trains work?

Question

How do trains work?

Answer 1

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Answer 2

Ha to Derail, yep, just tied up. LOL

Our train worked quite well thank you, didnt fall off the rail or nuttin.  :-)

Answer 3

why, all the live-long day, of course!

Do you mean how are they propelled? Some use electric motors, others internal combustion piston engines, or turbine engines, one train, the Turbo-train, made by United Aircraft, even used a jet turbine engine to power the passenger train to speeds over 100 mph in the early '70s. It never caught on, as it was born into a hostile political transportation environment of automobiles and truckers, and never was able to compete effectively, and was retired in the early '80s or before. Anyway, most modern diesel engines use diesel motors to power an electric generator to power electric motors on the powered trucks ( electric power supplies constant torque, something the trains need to work well at all ), is the basic operating principle employed today.

- The Gremlin Guy -

Answer 4

That's a huge question that contains many topics for exploration; also, you don't tell us how much detail you want or what specific areas of concern you need information about.

Do you mean "how are railroads designed?" or "how are trains propelled?" or "what connects the cars in a train?" or "what keeps a train on the track?" or "how do railroads make money?" or any of 50 other questions?

Please either clarify your question, or hit the library (learning resource center).  The librarian can help you find what you need.

Answer 5

there are lights that tell them to go or to stop

and there are people that change the track to the next stop it needs to go

Answer 6

Well, I'm going to go on the premise that you mean locomotives, more specifically. The sound of any locomotive is that of a large internal combustion engine. But the locomotive is actually powered by electricity. The electricity comes from a generator located behind the locomotive's crew cab. It's about half the size of a Volkswagon Bug. Basically, a generator creates electricity by spinning. Just as the generator/alternator does under the hood of a car. But the electrical output and size of the generator in a locomotive requires a lot of power. And the diesel engine provides this. The engine is large enough that during construction, the engine is one of the first items set on the bare frame, and the rest of the locomotive is built around it. The more demand for electricity, the faster the diesel engine must spin the generator. All that electricity is carried by cables to, what are called, traction motors. These are simply large electric motors located between the wheels at each axle of the locomotive. It is the traction motors that provide power to the wheels for pulling trains. The whole system is quite simple and works very efficiently. An automobile requires at least 60 horsepower per ton to operate the way we expect it to. Because a train is steel wheels on steel rails, it has a very low friction and resistance rate, and a train can travel on only 4 horsepower per ton.  In addition to the diesel engine turning the generator, it also turns a large air compressor. The compressed air is used for the braking function of the train.