Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
The earliest evidence of a railway found thus far was the 6 kilometers (4 mi) Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Corinth isthmus in Greece during the 6th century BC. Trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos ran for over 1300 years, until 900 AD.
Source: Wikipedia
Wagonways or tramways are thought to have developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, utilising primitive wooden rails. Such an operation was illustrated in 1556 by Georgius Agricola.
Source: Wikipedia
James Watt (19 January 1736 – 19 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improved steam engine transformed the Newcomen engine, which had hardly changed for fifty years, into a source of power that transformed the world of work, and was the key innovation that brought forth the Industrial Revolution. The importance of the invention can hardly be overstated - it gave us the modern world^
Source: Wikipedia
Murder on the Orient Express (1974): directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman. Tagline: The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder. Plot outline: In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.
Source: IMDb
The railroad carrying the largest number of passengers is the East Japan Railway Company, which in 1989 carried 14,660,000 passengers daily. Among articles lost in 1989 were 377,712 umbrellas, 141,200 clothing items, 143,761 books and stationery items, 4,359 accessories and 89,799 purses.
Source: Guinness World Records
A railroad switch is a mechanical installation enabling trains to be guided from one track to another. In the UK and Commonwealth countries, railroad switches are known as (sets of) points. In technical usage switches are also called turnouts. The switch as we know it was patented by Charles Fox in 1832.
Source: Wikipedia
Blue train by Johnny Cash
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Thomas is a fictional anthropomorphic tank locomotive created by the Rev. W. V. Awdry in his Railway Series books, made into the British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and its American spinoff Shining Time Station. In his first appearance in the television series he was described as follows:
"Thomas is a tank engine who lives at a big station on the Island of Sodor. He's a cheeky little engine with 6 small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome" (narrator Ringo Starr)
Source: Wikipedia
Freight train (cocktail)
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The following are all train-related puns (an amusing use of a word or phrase which has several meanings or which sounds like another word):
If you drive a train, you can't afford to lose track.
Those who steal trains must have a loco-motive.
On the old trains the engineer had a lot of esteem.
A railroad engineer must be sure not to loose his train of thought, or he might go down the wrong track.
Source: http://punoftheday.com/
Stamboul Train (1932) is a novel by author Graham Greene. A thriller set on an Orient Express train, it was renamed Orient Express when it was published in the United States. The novel is one of a number of works which the author classed as an "entertainment" so as to distinguish them from his more literary works. In 1974, Greene wrote: "In Stamboul Train for the first and last time in my life I deliberately set out to write a book to please, one which with luck might be made into a film. The devil looks after his own and I succeeded in both aims"
Source: Wikipedia
On 26 July 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway in south London - arguably, the world's first public railway, albeit a horse-drawn one.
Source: Wikipedia
Railway termini. . . are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return. (E. M. Forster)
The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before. (G. K. Chesterton)
Source: Creative Quotations
The world’s longest and heaviest freight train on record, with the largest number of cars recorded, made a run on the 3 ft. 6 in. (1.0668 metres) gauge Sishen-Saldanha railroad in South Africa on 26-27 August 1989. the train consisted of 660 cars each loaded to 105 tons (106.68 tonnes) gross, a tank car and a caboose, move by nine 50 kV electric and seven diesel-electric locomotives distributed along the train. The train was 4.5 miles (7.24 kms) long and weighed 77,720 tons (78 967 tonnes) excluding locomotives. It travelled a distance of 535 miles (860.999 kms) in 22 hours 40 minutes.
Source: Guinness World Records
Most countries in 24 hours. The greatest number of countries travelled through entirely y train in 24 hours is 10, by Aaron Kitchen on 16-17 February 1987. His route started in Yugoslavia and continued through Austria, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, arriving in Germany 22 hours and 42 minutes later.
Source: Guinness World Records
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