Interesting facts about the railway. Interesting facts about railways

For example, the Qinghai-Tibetan single-track railway, the highest road on the planet, attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year to admire the magical Tibetan landscapes of the "roof of the world" at an altitude of more than 5000 km above sea level.

No sea or air company can offer you such romance. Of course, such extreme conditions also require special trains. The cars are completely sealed, equipped with personal oxygen masks and an oxygen supply system if necessary, and at intermediate and observation stations, passenger cars naturally do not open, because there is nothing to breathe outside of them. The Chinese themselves feel extraordinary pride in their engineering structure and put it on a par with the Great Wall of China.

No less amazing is the Thai railway, which passes through a real market! 60 km west of Bangkok in the town of Maeklong, a food market located right on the railroad tracks quickly folds up its food stalls several times a day, rolls up awnings and scatters right in front of the trains.

But the most amazing thing is that even at this time the trade does not stop! From the open windows of the train, money flies into the merchants, and fish, sweets, fruits and other purchases fly back into the windows. The main thing here is to be able to catch! :-) Although, I believe that passengers have a knack for this business after wiping their eyes from the broken tomatoes and the phrase "I didn't catch it again!" return to the rails and trade becomes more civilized :-)

The Napier-Gisborne railroad is unique in that it crosses the main airstrip at Gisborne Airport in New Zealand. It is the only railway in the world where the air traffic control service allows or prohibits trains from crossing the runway to continue their route.

Sometimes planes and trains are literally seconds apart! This outlandish "denouement" is almost the first offer to a tourist from New Zealand guides! Agree, a steam locomotive and an airplane rushing to meet each other is a common sight for Hollywood or Indian films, but not for everyday life!

If you have already found your soul mate or are still just looking, then the railway strongly recommends visiting the beautiful Tunnel of Love, located near the village of Klevan in Ukraine. This scenic 3-kilometer stretch of railroad leads to a fibreboard factory. The train runs here three times a day, supplying wood to the Orzhevsky woodworking plant. It is the train that makes the growing branches of the trees go around the tracks and keeps the tunnel in this state.

The beautiful, sunny summer corridor attracts couples in love, and in autumn and winter photographers who want to capture this wonderful miracle of nature. It is believed that if you, having visited the "Tunnel of Love", make a cherished wish, then it will certainly come true.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world, today it has 9,300 km of tracks and is a whole network of railways between Moscow and the Russian Far East. In addition, the road has branches to all neighboring border countries. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in full force back in 1891, under the personal control of Sergei Witte, who, then the Minister of Finance, clearly understood that Russia simply had to be a strategic partner between the West and the East. In order for the construction of the road and the accompanying infrastructure to keep pace with each other, the Russian leadership began construction from the east and west at the same time, striving inland. To understand the full scale of the project, it is enough to say that only in 2002 its full electrification was completed!

After reconstructing some sections of the road in the early 2000s, Russia organized the first permanent corridor of large-scale freight traffic between China, Mongolia, Belarus, Poland and Germany, which significantly increased trade turnover and contributed to the further development of the Far East as a strategic region.

The original name of the road is the Great Siberian Way. And he is great not because the construction of the road was carried out for almost a whole century, but because the Russian government then deliberately refused Western "help", not wanting to allow the strengthening of the influence of foreign capitalists in the Far East. They built only with OWN forces! And they could! Built!

No wonder they say that driving along the Trans-Siberian Railway means seeing half the world. Is it a joke? The famous photographer Todd Selby, who has come a long way from Paris to Shanghai by rail, claims that this is the real truth: “It's fantastic to wake up every time, look away from the map and try to understand where you are ... The seventh day of travel has come, and we still in Siberia! Siberia is very large. And Baikal is very big. But this is just a part of great Russia! "

If all the previous facts about railways do not provoke any emotion in you, then do not despair. There is still one railway in the world, which people do not get tired of admiring to this day! Well, even if you are an inveterate critic and the word “admire” is not for you, then don’t worry, you will also find a huge “portion” for discussion and condemnation here for yourself. What is this railway? This is BAM!

I would not like to argue with those who claim that BAM is a "dead end" of the Soviet era, that it was built by zeks, that this entire territory of BAM is a huge zone or a camp ... Whatever one may say, this brilliant engineering project is still around today a huge number of tales and legends ... But, nevertheless, for thousands of thousands of BAM residents, this construction remained the happiest and fondest memory. And they speak of him as a bright, romantic, heroic and the best time in their life. And so it was.

The best youth from all over the Soviet Union came, worked, settled down. Families were created here, they performed real labor feats, discoveries happened. BAM was built by the whole country.

« Through passes, rivers and swamps
We will lay the highway for centuries. Any work is not scary for us,
We came here at the call of our hearts! "

BAM was designed as part of a systematic project for the development of significant natural resources of little-explored areas, along which, in fact, the road was laid.

On the way of BAM, it was planned to build about ten territorial-industrial complexes-giants, but very "promising" Gorbachev's perestroika, allowed to complete only oneSouth Yakutsk coal complex. Then, no less "promising" privatization with great hopes handed over a number of resource deposits to private hands, but instead of loading the BAM's capacities and massive development of mineral deposits in the area of ​​the highway "at the exit", only oligarchs with yachts turned out. By the early 2000salmost all projects for the development of the zone of the Baikal-Amur Mainline were suspendedunder the "ideological" pretexts of inexpediency, and the decision of the Soviet leadership to build the BAM was diligently hung with the stigma of erroneousness and hopelessness. How truly "oligarchic" it is to hide behind the sudden "hopelessness" of the project, which for half a century was considered simply vital for Siberia and Far East according to all experts.

The only thing that warms the soul is that the current leadership of the country is seriously aimed at reviving the BAM and the region as a whole. And it is not just words. RecentlyThe Elginskoye field is successfully operating, where the first coal was mined in the summer of 2011. An access railway line is being built, connecting it with the main line. In May of this year, the first freight trains of super-heavy weight went along BAM, allowing to transport 7100 tons instead of the previous weight norm of 4800 tons, which should increase the profitability of transportation several times. This became possible after the commissioning of new powerful two-section locomotives of the 2ES5K Ermak series and diesel locomotives 2TE25A Vityaz. The trains successfully overcome the most difficult section of the route - the Kuznetsov Pass.

The railway tracks themselves on the pass were reconstructed and strengthened, and the New Kuznetsovsky tunnel was put into operation.Note to critics: “Trains have started, they won't. The pass has been reconstructed, but it will not be sometime. "Ermaki" and "Vityazi" were put into operation, but are not at the design stage. "

I am sure that a bright future awaits BAM, because a road built with love cannot but live forever!

In Russia, they started talking about the possibility of the appearance of a railway back in the twenties of the XIX century, when the emperor received information that the railway saves the expenses of the treasury and even increases wealth, as it happens in England (at that time, rails were used to transport coal).

The initial idea was to create a connection between St. Petersburg and Moscow, but the question of the efficiency, and most importantly, the profitability of such an enterprise for investors remained open.
As the proverb says, "if you don't try, you won't know." The commission and all kinds of meetings that were convened to solve the problem did not give a clear and precise answer. As a result, Franz Gerstner, a professor at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute and the builder of the first public railway in Europe, invited in 1834, was offered to build a road that would "link" the suburbs of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk.

In order for the zealots of progress not to lose heart and not think that the necessary road will never be built in St. Petersburg at all, they added that the Moscow-Petersburg line will appear “not until after the end of the road ... the public and shareholders ”.

How money was collected for construction

Speaking about shareholders, it is worth noting that 700 people took part in the purchase of the corresponding securities. Fifteen thousand shares were issued to create capital. The required amount of three million rubles was collected by subscription within six months.

Count Bobrinsky became one of the main sponsors of the railway. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

One of the ardent supporters of the construction was the famous sugar refinery, Count Alexei Alekseevich Bobrinskoy, the son of Major General Aleksey Bobrinsky, born in an extramarital affair between Catherine II and Grigory Orlov. The grandson of the great empress acquired shares for 250 thousand rubles.

Road opening

On November 11, 1837, the road was officially opened. For such a solemn occasion, Nicholas I and his wife were invited.

On the station tracks, a prayer service was served, Gerstner, as a driver, got into the cabin of a steam locomotive and at half past midday the train, under loud exclamations of surprise and approval, moved towards Pavlovsk, where it arrived thirty-five minutes later. The maximum speed of the first steam locomotive was 64 kilometers per hour, but for the sake of the safety of passengers, the amazing car did not show all its strength on the first trip.

Steel horse - steam locomotive

Gerstner personally was the first to travel by rail. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In the newspaper “Vedomosti” that day one could read a note: “It was Saturday, the townspeople flocked to the old regimental church of the Introduction at the Semyonovsky parade ground. They knew that an unusual railway was opening and that "a steel horse carrying many, many carriages at once" would set off for the first time.

However, not everyone was able to see the first train. The commoners were not allowed to go to the station itself, which had been recently erected.

Exactly at 12:30 pm, a tiny locomotive blew a shrill whistle, and eight carriages with a noble audience set off on the St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo route. "

The first days of the road work were trial, travel was free, and the quality, as they say, was at the buyer's risk.

However, there were no dissatisfied: up to fifty people were packed into each of the carriages - people of common origin were given the opportunity to try out a new transport.

Despite the fact that the road had serious tasks, the people considered the invention to be a kind of carousel: fast driving, a breeze blowing in the face, the smell of fields and arable land, and a slight fright at the sound of an oncoming train.

The excitement was monstrous, and the crowds besieging the locomotive were endless.

What did the carriages of that time look like?

The carriages on the train were socially divided. So, the train of eight cars and a steam locomotive, which was built at the Stephenson plant in England and delivered to St. Petersburg by sea, consisted of four classes.

The most luxurious and vividly demonstrating the thickness of the gentleman's wallet, who could afford to buy tickets for it, were the so-called “Berlins” - here the audience could sit better relaxed in an easy chair, and people from the same social stratum sat opposite and on the side. There were eight such cars in total, followed by "stagecoaches" that could accommodate a large number of people and "lines" - open-type carts. Those that had a roof were called "chaos", those that did not have such were called "wagons". The latter had neither heating nor lighting.

In the first years, the fare for first and second class passengers was 2.5 and 1.8 rubles and 80 and 40 kopecks for the third and fourth. It is curious, but, despite the fact that the train was intended not only to cover long distances, but also to keep pace with progress, until 1838 on Sunday and holidays used only horse traction. The steam method has become a kind of symbol of festivities or Sunday rest.

Imperial way

Since 1838, the movement has become regular and then the timetable was finally decided. The first train left at nine o'clock in the morning, and the last one at ten o'clock in the evening. The interval between movements was three or four hours.

Members of the Romanov family and European monarchs also used the railway. Only one train could move along the so-called "Imperial Way". In Pushkin, the train stopped at the "Imperial Pavilion" - the station where the royal family was met.

Movement along the line Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk was opened in May 1838. For the momentous day they built there concert hall, where Johann Strauss himself performed.

Steam locomotive "Elephant" and "Bogatyr"

Locomotives at that time were made at seven factories: in Belgium, England, Germany and the St. Petersburg Leuchtenberg plant. Each steam locomotive had its own name: "Agile", "Arrow", "Bogatyr", "Elephant", "Eagle" and "Lion". However, the romantic attitude towards the steam locomotive soon changed, and habit came to replace the jubilation at the sight of it, and instead of names, the trains got a dry number and a series of letters.

They often went to the Pavlovsky Musical Station just for entertainment. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Despite the initial fear of shareholders not to make a profit from the enterprise, in the first five years, not only all the funds spent on construction, but also what they spent on operation were paid off: the road brought significant income and made it possible to assume that the further construction of new stations would bring a truly fabulous income.

The first steam locomotive became a revelation for Petersburgers: they wrote about it in newspapers, drew posters, candy wrappers dazzled with its image, and in the repertoire of the Alexandrinsky Theater even appeared the vaudeville "A Trip to Tsarskoe Selo", the main character of which was a steam locomotive.

1. The highest-mountain railway in the world is the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which has a rise of 5 kilometers. On this railway, a train travels from individually designed wagons, the specificity of which is carried out in the supply of oxygen, and in addition, each passenger has an oxygen mask for individual use.

2. Thailand has interesting place where railway sleepers with rails laid in the middle of the local market, a train passes every day. Before its passage, a loud warning siren signal is given, after which the sellers in a hurry remove their goods and sheds from the train passage, and after the train passes in the same fast rhythm they put back sheds and their goods, after which trade continues in a calm rhythm. But some vegetables and fruits are still lying at the time when the train is passing, since those near the passage do not interfere with the passage of the train and it does not touch them at all.

3. In Japan, there is one interesting station named Shibuya, where a monument to the most faithful friend of the dog was erected. This faithful dog has been waiting for its owner for 10 years, who once boarded a train and left on it, never returned. Thus, a monument to the dog for his devoted loyalty appeared at Shibuya station.

4. There is the legendary Australian railway, which is 500 kilometers long without a turn, but it is laid on a desert plain. This railway is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

5. The first train that runs without rails was built by the Japanese company Toshiba. High-speed train magnetically levitated has the ability to accelerate to a speed of 517 kilometers per hour.

6. But the maximum speed of the train that traveled by rail was recorded in the United States in the state of New Mexico, it reached 9851 kilometers per hour. This train had an experimental rocket engine.

7. At one time, a Vip train was sent across Switzerland, in which noblemen from the high society of Switzerland gathered. On a solemn occasion, only carriages of restaurants were present on this train. The most annoying thing about these cars was that the organizers forgot about the toilets. Having approached the train to its final station, where quite a few people gathered to meet them, the greeters were stunned by what they saw, how the honorary passengers, after stopping, very quickly rushed from all the doors of the carriages.

A lot of effort, time and Money... At times, great design geniuses went to insane decisions and created ridiculous situations. Curious cases have become frequent in this reformatory activity. And also with the development of high-speed transport, the topic of trains and long-distance travel has become very often mentioned in art - music, films, theatrical performances; and even in politics. Here are the most interesting facts and mentions about railways:

1) Who lives at the bottom of the ocean?

In 1896, an unusual vehicle called Daddy Long Legs, a cross between a tram and a ferry, began to run between the English cities of Brighton and Rottingdean. Laying a railroad overland on this route required many engineering structures, and engineer Magnus Volk suggested laying the rails directly along the seabed - the total length of the track was 4.5 km. The platform with passengers towered above the rails on four supports 7 meters long and had a flag, lifeboat and other maritime attributes, since it was formally considered a vessel. The service was canceled in 1901 when new breakwaters were to be erected near Brighton and the relocation was deemed too costly.

2) When and where did the runaway train travel more than 100 km, accelerating to a speed of 76 km / h?

On May 15, 2001, in Ohio, USA, a railroad brigade was moving a train of 47 cars from one track to another. Due to a technical error, an uncontrolled train called CSX 8888 picked up speed and went to independent travel, during which it accelerated to a speed of 76 km / h. Having traveled more than 100 km, the train was stopped by the driver of the diesel locomotive that caught up with him, who grappled with the last car and applied rheostat braking.

3) What mechanism got its name from the name of the inventor of the prototype bicycle?

The prototype bicycle was designed and patented by the German Baron Karl von Drez in 1818. This mechanism had a wooden frame, metal wheels and a steering wheel, but there were no pedals - in order for it to move, you had to push off the ground with your feet. The surname of the inventor was not fixed in the name of the bicycle, but gave the name to the trolley - a device for moving on rails with mechanical traction.

4) How has Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign influenced the lyrics of the Time Machine?

During Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, many works of art were censored. For example, Andrei Makarevich changed the lyrics in the song "Conversation on the Train": after the line "Carriage disputes - the last thing" instead of "when there is nothing else to drink" he began to sing "and you can't cook porridge out of them."

5) What was the main reason for the transition to a system of time zones in the 19th century?

Until the 19th century, there was no division into time zones, everywhere the time was determined by the Sun. There was no need for time zones, since there was no high-speed transport. The development of railways in England led to unification, because due to the differences in time in each city, it was very difficult to draw up a normal timetable. It was the railway companies that ensured that there was one time zone in Greenwich Mean Time throughout the country. And then gradually the time zone system began to spread throughout the world.

6) Who was the victim of the murderer, whose brother had previously saved the life of the victim's son?

US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at the theater by John Booth in 1865. Shortly before, by coincidence, the latter's brother, Edwin Booth, saved the life of the president's son, Robert Lincoln, on a railway platform.

7) Where did the language barrier train crash happen?

In 2001, a train crash occurred in Belgium, in which 8 people, including both drivers, were killed in a head-on collision of trains. Among other accidents, this one is unique in that its main cause was the language barrier. When the driver of the first train left the station despite the red light of the semaphore, the dispatcher called the next station to warn about it. However, the dispatchers did not understand each other, as one spoke French and the other Dutch. Both of these languages ​​are official in Belgium, and according to the rules of the railway company, staff must know at least one of them.

8) What kind of accident did the Americans arrange in 1896 for the entertainment of the public?

In 1896, one of the American railway companies put on a show - the deliberate collision of two trains at full speed. 40,000 tickets were sold for the "show", and a temporary town was built for the spectators who bought tickets. However, the engineers miscalculated the force of the explosion, and the crowd was not diverted to a safe enough distance, as a result of which three people were killed and several more injured.

9) What were the military armored tires?

It is known that in the wars of the 19th century, the First and Second World Wars, many countries used armored trains. However, in addition to this, they tried to fight with the help of separate combat units - armored rubber. They were almost tanks, but limited in movement only by rails.

10) S series?

From 1910 to 1920, the Y series freight steam locomotives were mass-produced in Russia.

11) Why did the direct railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg have a curved bend in one place?

The Oktyabrskaya railway, which connects Moscow and St. Petersburg, is now a set of straight lines, although there used to be a slight curvilinear bend between Okulovka and Malaya Vishera. There is a legend that when designing the road, Emperor Nicholas I personally drew a straight line between the two capitals, and the bend appeared due to the fact that the pencil went around the finger attached to the ruler.

In fact, there was a difference in altitude in that place, which made it difficult for trains driven by low-power steam locomotives to move. In order not to engage an additional locomotive, a detour was created.

12) Who and where managed to survive and not become disabled after his brain was pierced by an iron bar?

In 1848, an American railroad worker, Phineas Gage, suffered an industrial injury when a metal rod pierced his frontal lobes of the brain, entering through his left cheek and exiting near the crown of the head. Less than an hour later, Gage regained consciousness, and then went to the hospital and, on the way, calmly and calmly talked about the hole in his head. An infection developed in the wound, but the worker recovered and lived for another 12 years. His memory, speech, perception were not disturbed, only his character changed - he became more irritable and lost his inclination to work.

13) What myth of the Soviet era about the film "The Arrival of the Train" is still alive?

Contrary to popular belief (which even got into the Soviet textbook on the history of foreign cinema), the film Arrival of a Train was not shown at the famous first paid film show in Paris in the basement of the Grand Café on Boulevard des Capucines.

14) What was the name of the city where Anna Karenina threw herself under the train?

In the novel by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina threw herself under a train at the Obiralovka station near Moscow. In Soviet times, this settlement became a city and was renamed into Zheleznodorozhny.

15) Who Invented Morse Code?

The Morse code in our usual form was invented not by Morse code, but by the German engineer Gerke. The original Morse code was inconvenient, although it was used on some American railways until the 1960s.

16) Who has more?

An interesting fact is that the gauge of the railway in Russia is 8 centimeters larger than in Europe. There is an epic that when Russian engineers came to the tsar and asked what width to make the track, the same as in Europe or more, he replied: nah ... th more. So they made the track exactly that much wider. The width of the European railway track was adopted long before the invention of the steam locomotive.

17) Whose standard?

The railway track exactly corresponds to the distance between the wheels of the ancient Roman chariots, with which the Romans made conquest campaigns across the territories of modern England and France. The peoples of Europe made their chariots according to Roman models, and this standard was taken into account in the construction of railways.

18) Mail trains under escort

In the first time of the existence of the Nikolaev railway, the mail was especially vigilantly guarded along the entire route. To this end, mail trains were sent under the escort of mounted gendarmes, galloping at full speed along the railway.

19) Rescue benches

On the first Russian railways, third-class carriages were installed in the front of the train, were equipped with rigid benches, but ... did not have a roof, and therefore passengers more often traveled under the benches, where they fled from sparks flying out of a steam locomotive pipe, and the cold.

20) Paradoxical Love

The most paradoxical is the fact that with a small length of Russian railways (only 7 percent of the total number of railways in the world), the Russian Federation accounts for about 35 percent of the global volume of rail freight. These figures are explained by the unusual popularity of railways among Russian businessmen, and this type of transport is preferred by both the owners of large enterprises and individual entrepreneurs in need of transportation of small consignments.
The reason for such love of the Russian people, and indeed of the entire former USSR, for railways is easy to explain, if we recall, at least, the fact that this type of transport is considered the safest. Let the speed of delivery leave much to be desired, but you can always be sure that the cargo will arrive at its destination safe and sound. Indeed, according to statistics, accidents on the railways happen dozens of times less often than on highways, and in every news release, messages about the next plane crash have become a common occurrence. A high level of safety is especially important when transporting valuable and fragile products, and such products make up a considerable part of the total cargo flow today. While the planes are falling, and the roads, as you know, continue to be one of the main problems of the CIS, trains will occupy a leading position in the cargo transportation market. It is no secret that in remote corners of our countries, many roads in the spring-autumn period simply come to an impassable state, so delivery by train remains the only possible option.
An important factor in favor of choosing rail freight is their relatively low cost. A more profitable transport for transporting timber and building materials simply cannot be found. There are also no restrictions on the types of cargo - bulk, liquid, volatile and food - it is possible to transport flour and cement, coal and alcohol. All that the cargo owner needs to do is to choose a suitable container (wagon, gondola car, platform, tank car, refrigerator).
But for all the economic attractiveness and reliability, rail freight transportation has a number of disadvantages.
Firstly, in small towns there are simply no railway stations, so you still have to use by car to deliver cargo to its destination. Secondly, there are a number of difficulties associated with different requirements for transportation technology in different countries... Therefore, international cargo transportation requires knowledge of many nuances and the ability to establish friendly foreign economic relations.
Today, transport companies, in order to ensure maximum comfort for the customer and the recipient of the cargo, develop a logistics scheme for each individual cargo, agree on the features and conditions of transportation, based on the characteristics of the products, and provide clear information about the movement of the train and the time of its arrival at the station.

21) The first mechanical (not manual or horse-drawn) elevator driven by a steam engine, called the "vertical railroad", was installed in the United States in 1850. By the 1880s, large hotels and wealthy buildings in the United States and Europe were equipped with this type of elevator.

22) The secret organization of abolitionists ( social movement, seeking the abolition of slavery), ferrying fugitive blacks from the South to the North.

Such a familiar thing for us is the railway! One of the most reliable and affordable and favorite modes of transport. Bought a train ticket, came to the station. Now no one remembers that when the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow was opened, travel in the first three days was made free precisely because everyone was afraid of this "terrible thing."

On average, each of us becomes a railway passenger 9 times a year. The average number of passengers of Russian Railways per year is 1 billion 300 million.

The most remarkable railway is the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is the longest in the world. From Moscow to Nakhodka - 9438 km and 97 large stations. Walks this route brand train"Russia", which is on the way for 8 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes.

The very middle of the Transsib is called Polovina station. It is the same distance from both Moscow and Vladivostok.

The coldest section of the Transsib is located between the Mogocha and Skovorodino stations. The temperature here reaches -62 degrees. Although geographically, this is not the northernmost point of the highway.

And the most high point, where the Transsib rails are laid, lies at an altitude of 1040 m, between the stations of Turgutui and Yablonovaya. It is 6110 km, Yablonovy Pass.

The longest freight train was 6.5 km long, consisted of 440 wagons and regularly transported 42,000 tons of coal from Ekibastuz to the Urals during the Soviet era. On the other side of the world, in South Africa, in 1989, another record was recorded: a 7.3 km long train, consisting of 660 carriages. True, the experiment was not repeated again. The track could not stand it.

The first railway in Russia was freight, 2 km long. It was built in the Urals, at the Kolyvanovsky plant and it worked on horse-drawn. The first passenger road was Tsarskoye Selo, known to everyone.

The speed of the first passenger trains in the 19th century it was 33 km / h. And the railway workers at that time were a kind of elite: they were treated, as, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century to aviators, or in the 60s - to cosmonauts. Modern trains can reach up to 580 km / h.

The requirements for hiring trackmen during this time have not changed: they must have a good ear for music, since they determine the malfunction of the wheel by changing the tone when it is tapped.

According to statistics, a railway is 45 times safer than a car. For those who are still worried, experts advise to choose carriages in the middle of the train, and in seated carriages - to buy a train ticket for seats against the movement.

Thrill-seekers are invited to Argentina. The legendary Patagonia Express train, specially restored for tourists, runs there. In addition to the vivid impressions of the local landscapes, you can unexpectedly be a participant in an action called "Train Robbery" :)

V South America many surprises. For example, German engineers who surveyed the Isthmus of Panama for the construction of the Trans-American Railway, said that it was unprofitable to make rails from local iron. Gold is a more affordable metal here ...