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The DeWitt Clinton as it would have appeared on its inaugural run in 1831. 1831 The DeWitt Clinton locomotive, built by the West Point Foundry in New York for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, made its first test run on July 2, 1831. 1830s–1860s: Enormous railway building booms in the United States.
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the Industrial Revolution in the Northeast (1820s–1850s) to the settlement of the West (1850s–1890s). The American railroad mania began with the founding of the first passenger and freight line in the country ...
The gauge is set by the positioning of the cast-in fixings, so it is not a simple task to re-gauge existing track; it also creates problems with spot replacement of sleepers. Many sleepers were made with the reduced track gauge but 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) standard gauge versions have also been manufactured in more recent times. [27]
1877 – Vacuum brakesare invented in the United States. 1879 – First electric railway demonstrated at the BerlinTrades Fair. 1881 – First public electric tram line, the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, opened in Berlin, Germany. 1881 – One of the first railway lines in the Middle Eastwas built between Tehranand Rayyin Iran.
Jointed track is made using lengths of rail, usually around 20 m (66 ft) long (in the UK) and 39 or 78 ft (12 or 24 m) long (in North America), bolted together using perforated steel plates known as fishplates (UK) or joint bars (North America).
The first American locomotive at Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey, c. 1826 The Canton Viaduct, built in 1834, is still in use today on the Northeast Corridor.. Between 1762 and 1764 a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British Army engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage in Lewiston ...
The introduction of the Bessemer process, enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to the era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. [24] [25] [26] Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. [27]
Charles Lartigue, Lartigue Monorail. Joseph Locke, [3] next to the Stephensons and Brunel, one of the most important English railway pioneers. Thomas Newcomen, [3] first practical static steam engine. Benjamin Outram, [5] civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. Pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.