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In rail transport, a train is a vehicle or (more frequently) a string of vehicles capable of being moved along a continuous line of rails or other guideway for the purpose of conveying freight or passengers between points on a predetermined route. The train may be hauled or propelled by one or more vehicles designed exclusively for that purpose (locomotives) or may be driven by a number of motors incorporated in all or several of the vehicles (multiple units).

As of 2018^[update], there are approximately 1,052,000 kilometres (654,000 mi) of railway track in use worldwide. (World Bank (via Archive.org))

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Selected article of the week

The Cleveland Railway was a railway line in north-east England running from Normanby Jetty on the River Tees, near Middlesbrough, via Normanby and then via Guisborough through the Eston Hills, to Loftus in East Cleveland. It carried minerals from numerous iron ore mines along its route to the River Tees for shipment to Tyneside and elsewhere. The line was jointly proposed by the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway (WHH&R), who provided half its capital, together with various landowners. The WHH&R lay on the north bank of the Tees, to which it had a cross-river connection via a jetty at Normanby. The Cleveland Railway was built as a freight railway and provided no passenger services during its brief existence as an independently owned railway. It was built in a number of stages, bypassing the centre of Guisborough, and opened in November 1861. Its construction was repeatedly held up by disputes with its main rival, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which attempted unsuccessfully to use all means at its disposal to maintain its rail monopoly south of the Tees. However, the Cleveland Railway remained independent only until 1865, when the company and its rivals were bought out by the North Eastern Railway (NER). The new management linked the line with an existing coastal railway via Saltburn, running north of the Eston Hills, and closed the line west of Guisborough in 1873 after only twelve years of service, though part of the line continued in service until 1966 as a freight route for a brickworks and carried passengers to Eston between 1902 and 1929. The NER constructed four passenger stations at the eastern end of the line in the 1870s. These were closed between 1958–1964 along with the section of the line from Guisborough to Brotton, but the easternmost part of the line is still in use today as a mineral railway.

Recently selected: Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway - Bedminster railway station - 7 Subway Extension

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Selected image of the week

The new departure concourse designed by John McAslan at King's Cross station in London, England, opened on March 19, 2012. The fictitious Platform 9¾ is just visible in the lower left corner.

Recently selected: NRZ class 20A Garratt - JŽ 83-173 on Šarganska osmica - Reunification Express

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Did you know...

...that the opening ceremonies of the Galway to Clifden railway were very sparsely attended because the event date was a strict church holiday and was reserved for attending church services?
...that following heavy damage to the Galveston Island Trolley track and cars from Hurricane Ike in 2008, substitute service with replica buses was operated until service resumed in October 2021?
...that although the former Santa Fe Railway's Galesburg station was demolished after regular passenger service to the station ended in 1996, the site is still used if derailments cause trains to use the Chillicothe Subdivision instead of the Mendota Subdivision?
...that the Fuzhou–Xiamen railway, which opened in 2010, was so heavily used that it reached capacity in 2015, spurring construction on the parallel Fuzhou–Xiamen high-speed railway for CRH passenger train services?

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Selected anniversaries

July 30

An Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad train in Illinois

1904 – Buck Crump, president of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited 1955-1964 and 1966, is born (d. 1989).
1968 – The Chicago and North Western Railway acquires the Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway and the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railway.
2002 – The Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad (pictured) takes over operations from the defunct I&M Rail Link in the north central United States.
2003 – Eurostar train number 3313/14 establishes a new speed record in England at 334.7 km/h (208 mph) on the new High Speed 1.

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Train News

April 30, 2026 – American railroad companies Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern amend their plan for a merger. The plan involves connecting existing networks as well as adding new routes. (Railway-News)
April 30, 2026 – German company Siemens Mobility signs a 200-train contract with Swiss Federal Railways. The contract, which was awarded in November 2025, was until recently contested by Siemens’ competitor Stadler. (Railway Gazette)
April 26, 2026 – 2026 Bekasi train crash – The train Argo Bromo Anggrek collides with a Commuterline train near Jakarta, Indonesia. The crash left 16 people dead, all from the rear car of the Commuterline, and an additional 91 people injured. This happened after a separate train collided with a taxi earlier that day. (BBC, Reuters )

April 26, 2026 – In Mexico, tracks are opened for Tren Felipe Ángeles, a rail link that connects Felipe Ángeles International Airport with Mexico City. (Railway Gazette)

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General images

The following are images from various train-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1This map of Cedar Hill Yard in Connecticut shows a variety of different facilities, including receiving yards, departure yards, classification yards, and a repair yard. (from Rail yard)
Image 2Armored train Hurban located in Zvolen, Slovakia (from Railroad car)
Image 3A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London (from Railroad car)
Image 4An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London (from Railroad car)
Image 5The New Orleans Streetcar System is the oldest in the world. (from Train)
Image 6Garratt locomotives in Zimbabwe (from Train)
Image 7The Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen pioneered high speed rail service (from Train)
Image 8Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, 1877, Art Institute of Chicago (from Train)
Image 9A Union Pacific freight train; high clearances enable double-stacked containers to be carried in well cars. (from Train)
Image 10Yard for Amtrak equipment, located next to the Los Angeles River. The two tracks on the left are the mainline. (from Rail yard)
Image 11TGV Lacroix first class interior (from Train)
Image 12Southern Railway (UK) 20002 was equipped with both a pantograph and contact shoes. (from Locomotive)
Image 13A Victorian Railways R class steam locomotive in Australia (from Locomotive)
Image 14A China Railways HXD1D electric locomotive in China (from Locomotive)
Image 15China operates an extensive high speed rail network. (from Train)
Image 16Soviet RT-23 Molodets ICBM launch train, in the St Petersburg museum (from Railroad car)
Image 17The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power. (from Train)
Image 18The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam. (from Train)
Image 19Inside a modern-day car from Finland (from Railroad car)
Image 20Trains carrying hazardous materials display information identifying their cargo and hazards. This tank car carrying chlorine displays, among other markings, a U.S. DOT placard showing a UN number that identifies the hazardous substance. (from Train)
Image 21British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s (from Railroad car)
Image 22A London Underground battery–electric locomotive used for hauling engineers' trains, at West Ham station (from Locomotive)
Image 23A number of maintenance vehicles at work on Metro-North Railroad (from Train)
Image 24The first useful diesel locomotive (a diesel–electric) for long distances, the SŽD Eel2, 1924 in Kyiv (from Locomotive)
Image 25RegioCitadis light rail train in Zoetermeer (the Netherlands). (from Train)
Image 26Schedule of train departure times in Indonesia stations (from Train)
Image 27Stockton and Darlington special inaugural train 1825: six wagons of coal, directors coach, then people in wagons. (from Train)
Image 28A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina, Italy, 1901 (from Locomotive)
Image 29A narrow-gauge battery–electric locomotive used for mining (from Locomotive)
Image 30Typical American extended vision caboose (from Railroad car)
Image 31Various types of railroad cars in a classification yard in the United States (from Train)
Image 32Bombardier ALP-45DP, at the Innotrans convention in Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 33Electric train on Djursholmsbanan in Stockholm in the 1890s. (from Train)
Image 34The ESS 3200 electric locomotive was introduced in 1925 in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. (from Locomotive)
Image 35The "hump" of a hump yard. Railcars travel past retarders, which control their speed, and are directed onto tracks to be assembled into new trains. The control tower operates the retarders. (from Rail yard)
Image 36A gas turbine locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (from Train)
Image 37A wooden toy train set from Swedish manufacturer Brio (from Train)
Image 38US-style railroad truck (bogie) with journal bearings (from Train)
Image 39A preserved armored train (from Train)
Image 40A Tokyo Monorail train (from Train)
Image 41Werner von Siemens experimental DC electric train, 1879 (from Locomotive)
Image 42Restored clerestory cars on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin (from Railroad car)
Image 43A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom (from Railroad car)
Image 44Workington stabling point in 1981, with locomotives from Classes 25, 40 and 47 parked between duties. (from Rail yard)
Image 45A narrow gauge train in Austria (from Train)
Image 46A coach yard in Shanghai, China (from Rail yard)
Image 47A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926 (from Railroad car)
Image 48An Indian locomotive class WDM-3A diesel locomotive in India (from Locomotive)
Image 49This GO train cab car includes a horn (top), a bell (top right), headlights (above the door), classification lights (red lights on side), and ditch lights (white lights on side). (from Train)
Image 50The 1887 Daimler draisine (from Locomotive)