The history of railway transport is directly related to the emergence of locomotives and the development of their production.
A locomotive (translated from Latin as “to move”) is a power traction vehicle that belongs to the rolling stock and is designed to move trains or individual cars along the railroad tracks.
Initially, only steam locomotives were called locomotives, and later this name was extended to other types of railway traction vehicles.
The history of locomotive construction began in 1802 with the construction of a steam engine by the English inventor R. Trevithick. The single steam locomotives that were built afterwards were also imperfect. The decisive step in this field of technology belongs to the English inventor J. Stephenson, who built several steam locomotives starting in 1814. In 1825, he created the Locomotion in 1825, the name of which became a common one and later served to name all traction machines in rail transport and, accordingly, the entire industry.
In 1829, Stephenson built the famous Rocket locomotive, and its main elements were used on other locomotives. The peculiarity of locomotive construction was that the structural elements of the locomotive were made almost entirely of ferrous metals. That is why the first factories that built steam locomotives were based on or near metallurgical plants.
Despite significant progress in the development of transportation, scientists are constantly thinking about what the railroad of the future should look like. Most scientists believe that work should be done in two directions: improving existing and creating new types of locomotives. In order to evaluate each new type, one should first of all pay attention to speed and efficiency. The second criteria for the development of progress in transportation should be comfort, safety, reliability, and cargo capacity.