Earth World learning pack

Types of Trains

See five different ways trains move.

Five source-backed discoveries about steam, diesel-electric, electric, high-speed, and maglev trains.

Discovery 01

Steam Train

The locomotive powered by boiling water

💡 A steam locomotive uses hot steam to push pistons that turn its wheels!

Fuel heats water in a boiler; the expanding steam moves pistons connected to the driving wheels.

Fact 2: Richard Trevithick built the first successful steam locomotive to haul a load on rails in 1804.
Fact 3: Stephenson’s Rocket combined an efficient multi-tube boiler with a blast-pipe exhaust.
Fact 4: Rocket won the Rainhill Trials in 1829 and helped show that steam locomotives could be practical.
Fact 5: Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially recorded at 100 miles per hour.

Discovery 02

A power station on rails

💡 Most diesel locomotives use their diesel engine to make electricity!

The diesel engine turns an alternator or generator, and that electricity powers traction motors connected to the wheels.

Fact 2: Diesel fuel ignites when it is sprayed into very hot compressed air inside the engine.
Fact 3: The traction motors can also act as generators during dynamic braking.
Fact 4: Diesel-electric locomotives can run where tracks have no overhead electric wires.
Fact 5: Modern emissions rules limit pollutants from newly built and remanufactured diesel locomotives.

Discovery 03

Powered from outside the train

💡 Electric trains can collect power from overhead wires!

A roof-mounted arm called a pantograph touches the overhead contact wire and carries electricity into the train.

Fact 2: Some electric railways collect power from an extra rail beside the running rails instead.
Fact 3: Electric traction motors turn electrical energy into motion at the wheels.
Fact 4: Electric trains produce no exhaust at the train itself.
Fact 5: Some electric trains use regenerative braking to send useful electrical energy back into the system.

Discovery 04

Fast rail between cities

💡 High-speed rail is a whole system, not just a fast train!

Special trains work together with suitable track, signalling, power, and carefully controlled operations.

Fact 2: The International Union of Railways uses 250 km/h as the main speed criterion for high-speed rail.
Fact 3: Japan’s Tokaido Shinkansen opened in 1964 between Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.
Fact 4: Tokaido Shinkansen trains operate at up to 285 km/h.
Fact 5: Their long, smooth noses help reduce air resistance and pressure changes at high speed.

Discovery 05

A train lifted by magnets

💡 A maglev train can float above its guideway using magnetic forces!

Maglev means magnetic levitation. Magnets lift, guide, and propel the vehicle without normal steel wheels touching rails at speed.

Fact 2: A linear motor uses changing magnetic attraction and repulsion to pull and push the train forward.
Fact 3: JR Central’s superconducting maglev levitates about 10 centimetres above its guideway.
Fact 4: That train uses rubber wheels at low speed and begins levitating above about 150 km/h.
Fact 5: In 2015 it set a train speed record of 603 km/h on a test run.