A train is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or things. The word “train” comes from the Old French trahiner, which derived from the Latin language trahere meaning “to pull, to draw”. The earliest railways used animals : horses, donkeys, cows or even people to pull loaded wagons along wooden planks or iron rails.

The invention of train is important since trains enabled modern industries to grow bigger with faster pace. It also makes people travel faster and farther with ease. There is no dependency to animals like horse anymore.

The first train was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a British mining engineering and inventor. It was the practical steam locomotive and the speed was about 10 mph. It managed to pull 25 tonnes of iron material and 70 people over the distance of 10 miles. It moved on the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive across the United Kingdom.

The vehicle used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke with a large flywheel to even the piston rod action. Steam locomotives relied upon burning coal to heat water inside a boiler. When the water vaporized, the steam was forced through valves that would push the piston back and forth. The motion of the piston was transferred to the wheels and move the train.

On September 27, 1825 the world’s first public railway was officially opened. It connected collieries near Shildon with Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham. The invention of wrought iron rails made the Britain had the first modern railways in the world.

In 1829, engineer and inventor George Stephenson built the Locomotion No. 1, the world’s first successful passenger train. This led Stephenson and his sons to establish a train business for passengers across the UK, Europe and United States. Stephenson is regarded as the Father of Railways.