What is the evolution of the locomotive?

Question

I need to create a timeline of an inention and i chose the train, but if anyone can find the evolution of another invention please help.

Answer 1

Evolution started with an upright steam boiler system, and a very low speed. Steam trains quickly evolved in America, taking on many different variations and uses, many unique to their industries, from mining to logging to mountain "narrow gauge". Very few were "standard", even engines built by the same company often made improvements over the last few built, so very few were ever the same, and many built to a railroad's specific specifications. Up thru around 1920's, steam was king. However, change was coming. The first diesel-electrics came on the scene, due to improvement in the diesel and internal combustion engines. Electrification for all-electric use also came into limited uses even earlier, mostly around major cities and their tunnels where smoke could affixiate passengers and crew alike, so cleaner power was desired. The big change came after WWII, when more powerful diesel-electrics were created to compete with steam, with some powerful incentives - the engine builders  decided to build to a STANDARD, not the railroad's whims or specs,  so every part was the same on each engine, which meant fewer parts stocked, and absolutely interchangeable. Another thing was that with electric conversion power, you could put 2, 3, 4 or more engines together, and control their individual power so they all pulled in unison, something steam engines could NOT do efficiently. Steam engines also "pulled" on the track due to their piston action on the wheels, whereas diesel-electrics had great torque at slow speeds, and didn't yank the track the way big steam engines did, which made for more roadway maintence costs. They could also run a bigger diesel engine compared to a steam engine on smaller lines, due to the traction application of the electric motor torque. Also, a huge reduction in manpower was required for diesel operation, and they didn't take 30 minutes to warm up a boiler like a steam engine, you hit the key, and took off. All these factors played into the death of the steam engine. Others, like passenger dislike of coal dust on their clothes ( passengers often got coated due to the exhaust stack smoke with passenger windows open - no AC in those days! ), cinders setting fires in farmer fields, and other hazards. It was a dirty environment to ride a train back then. The diesels changed all that. It was resisted, naturally, and some amazing steam engines were developed to counter it, including a steam turbine engine of the C&O system...but it was to no avail. The irresistible case of lower operating costs,operational flexibility,  plus outside influences like a coal strike or 2, less overhead for manpower and parts, cleaner operation, etc. all sped the steam engine's demise from 1949 thru the 1960's, when most all railroads had switched to mainly diesel, with a few holdouts in Virginia with the coal hauling and coal usage for freight only....but finally steam passed away. From the '60's on in the USA, diesel was king, and has not been displaced. A few experiments with a jet-engine powered train engine, and other turbine engines, were tried, but most not put into service for long. Only the turbine-powered UA ( United Aircraft ) "tadpole" passenger train of the early '70's saw useage in the Washington, DC area used by Amtrak, and VIA in Canada as well.  After that, diesels quietly and efficiently have been the mainstay of railroad service, with a few electrics around here and there. A few new light rail passenger services are being tried now, some with gas-power, some diesel, some electric. But sadly, nothing revolutionary.  High-speed trains are non-existent in the USA due to the need to redo all the tracks necessary for safe high-speed operation, and the costs are extremely high, so it has only been tried in limited areas.  But, history suggests invention and innovation will happen, so we'll have to wait. The Steam engine lasted well over 100 years, so it may take as long to replace the diesel engine....

- The Gremlin Guy - small scale train enthusiast

Answer 2

There are those that claim locomotives were created, and not evolved.

But the current evolution theory goes somethign like this, Lightning struck some promordial mud in a swamp near Altoona Pennsylvania, and a small lionel engine crawled out of the mud. First it lived in treetop railroads, then eventually it's tail fell off and it started running around on tiny steel rails no bigger than wire.

Eventually the age of dinosaurs happened, and those huge smoke billowing steam locomotives roamed the earth until a giant meteor struck the corporate boardrooms and almost overnight the age of the magnificent steamasaurus rex was over.

The age of mammalian diesels came about almost immediatly afterward.

If only the dispatchers would have evolved along the same lines but Darwin missed a few things.

alas . . . . . . . .

I am assuming others will actually give reasonable answers and this is my day not to think.

Answer 3

Kay,

How much information do you need?  The common steam locomotive in use on railroads dates back to 1804 by inventors Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian for the narrow gauge Penydarren tramway in Wales.  

It's first use in America was on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad dubbed the Tom Thumb (the one that lost its race to a horse but proved its worth nonetheless).  

The diesel-electric locomotive, which would replace the steam locomotive, has been around in one shape or form since the mid-1920s when the American Locomotive Company (Alco) joined with General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand to produce a 300 hp, 60-ton model in 1924 that would be purchased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, followed by the B&O. The B&O also has the distinction of being the first railroad in the country to purchase a diesel-electric passenger locomotive in 1935 from EMC (B&O #50).

Answer 4

"en·gine    Ã¢Â€Â“noun

1. a machine for converting thermal energy into mechanical energy or power to produce force and motion."  

Now that we have defined out terms, the first steam engine was built by Heron of Alexandria almost 2,000 years ago.  Some disagreement on this point, but 1st century, around 75 - 90 A.D.

It was a device that used thermal energy (steam from boiling water in a closed system) that ran up two tubes, one on either side of a sphere.  The tubes supported the sphere, as well as piping steam into it.

There were two "L" shaped pieces of tube that exhausted the steam from the sphere.  At right angles to the sphere, same direction on opposing sides, this created a stream of hot gas (steam) and the pressure was sufficient to make the sphere rotate on its horizontal axis, and at considerable speed.

Bingo !  Thermal to mechanical energy as the first steam engine is born...   So, start your timeline there and use all the good information in the excellent answers above.

But, Heron's stroke of genius was never taken as more than a novelty.  Just think.  If Heron had only taken the next step and applied a practical use for this mechanical energy, as was done much later with stationary steam engines (Cornish Pump was phenominal for its day) and steam locomotives, the Industrial Revolution would have occurred 1800 years before it did!  How different would our world be today?

You can make a lot of money betting on the answer to this question !

Anyone wanna bet on when the first train ran?  Heh, heh, heh....

Answer 5

OK, here's a selection off the top of my head;

1804; first locomotive built and operated by Richard Trevithick at Pen-y-Darren, Wales;

1825; first public, passenger carrying railway opened by George Stephenson between Stockton & Darlington in NE England;

1829; Rainhill Trials. George Stephenson's 'Rocket' wins and sets world speed record of 30mph;

1840; first broad gauge (7' 0.25") locomotive built for the Great Western Railway;

1863; first London Underground railway using steam locomotives;

1869; first transcontinental line, the Union Pacific Railroad, completed in the USA when 2 locomotives approach each other at Promontory Point, Utah and a bottle of wine is passed between them

1890; first electric Underground railway in London;

1904; 'City of Truro' locomotive of the GWR sets 100mph speed record;

1938; steam locomotive 'Mallard' sets world rail speed record of 126mph;

1947; first British main line diesel locomotives introduced, London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS);

1955; French electric locomotives BB9004 and CC7107 set new rail speed record of 205mph;

1964; Japanese 'Bullet Train' introduced;

1987;the current world diesel traction record of 148 mph (238 km/h) was set by an HST (British High Speed diesel Train) set on November 1, 1987

21st century: Maglev trains break new ground in speed records