{"id":1986,"date":"2015-05-08T10:07:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T15:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=1986"},"modified":"2015-05-08T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T15:07:11","slug":"i-hear-the-train-a-comin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/i-hear-the-train-a-comin\/","title":{"rendered":"I Hear the Train a Comin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hallidie<\/a>For more than two centuries, trains have traversed the American landscape altering\u00a0how and where\u00a0people live and work. This is why,\u00a0in 2008, Amtrak<\/a>\u00a0created National Train Day to be celebrated on the Saturday closet to May 10th, the anniversary of the pounding of the Golden Spike<\/a> in Promontory, Utah which marked the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0locomotive was built in 1804 by a Cornish inventor named Richard Trevithick. It\u00a0was powered by steam.\u00a0A steam locomotive burns fuel, usually coal. The heat then passes though tubes inside\u00a0a large water-filled boiler creating steam. The steam then passes through\u00a0high-pressure tubes to cylinders which engage\u00a0piston rods connected to the locomotive’s\u00a0wheels, thus driving the train.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

The steam engine\u00a0remained popular until the early 1900s when\u00a0diesel and electric\u00a0began replacing it. A German mechanical engineer, Rudolf Diesel, invented the\u00a0diesel-powered locomotive. A diesel engine operates when a cylinder piston squeezes and heats air trapped inside; at the top of the stroke, the system injects oil; the air and oil mixture burns and drives the piston down which turns a\u00a0crankshaft connected to\u00a0a generator making eletricity for storage in large batteries. The wheels are powered by motors that draw from the batteries. 2<\/sup><\/p>\n

On January 17, 1871, Andrew Smith Hallidie, an American engineer and inventor, was granted a\u00a0patent for\u00a0an “improvement in endless wire ropeways” which\u00a0became the basis for the first cable car system.3<\/sup> Soon, however, electricity changed city transportation.\u00a0In 1897,\u00a0Boston opened an electric\u00a0subway system. New York City soon followed in 1904. The all-electric\u00a0locomotive requires either\u00a0an overhead pickup or a third-rail\u00a0carrying a\u00a0high-voltage of electricity to power the engine. Electric trains are easier and cheaper to maintain and last longer than diesels.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Now coming down the track are\u00a0hybrid trains which use a battery to store energy temporarily\u00a0for when the train is idling or stationary; “bullet trains” which run on steel rails at accelerated\u00a0speeds; magnetic levitation trains which hover above rails suspended by powerful magnets; and the futuristic\u00a0Hyperloop<\/a>,\u00a0Elon Musk’s\u00a0vision for\u00a0transporting people in high speed capsules through a series of tubes.<\/p>\n