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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

Acton Town is a London Underground station in the south-west corner of Acton of the London Borough of Ealing, west London. The station is served by the District and Piccadilly lines and is in Travelcard Zone 3. Acton Town station was opened as Mill Hill Park on 1 July 1879 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line). It remained as a terminus until on 1 May 1883 and 23 June 1903 the DR opened two branches from Acton Town to Hounslow Town and Park Royal & Twyford Abbey respectively. On 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly line was extended to Acton Town. The original brick-built station was built in 1879 and in February 1910 the station building was reconstructed. On 1 March 1910 the station was given its present name. In 1931 and 1932 the station was rebuilt again in preparation for transferring the Uxbridge branch service from the District line to the Piccadilly line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European geometric style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass.

Recently selected: Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway - Broadway Limited - Bristol Parkway railway station

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Selected image of the week

A pair of SQM "Boxcabs", numbers 603 and 607, haul empty nitrate hoppers from Tocopilla to Barriles, Chile, in July 2013.

Recently selected: Union Pacific freight train - Ukrainian Railways EMUs - East African Railways 59 class

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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

September 13

CB&CNSR freight train northbound on the Abercrombie spur in 2003

1865 – Algernon S. Buford becomes president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad.
1872 – The first section of the planned railroad connection between Varciorova and Roman, Romania, opens, connecting Piteşti, Bucharest, Galaţi and Roman.
1875 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building westward from Kansas, reaches Las Animas, Colorado.
2004 – The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (pictured) files its second application to abandon most of its trackage on Cape Breton.

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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 1Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, by Claude Monet, 1877, Art Institute of Chicago (from Train)
Image 2The New Orleans Streetcar System is the oldest in the world. (from Train)
Image 3Electric train on Djursholmsbanan in Stockholm in the 1890s. (from Train)
Image 4An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London (from Railroad car)
Image 5A gas turbine locomotive operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (from Train)
Image 6Typical American extended vision caboose (from Railroad car)
Image 7China operates an extensive high speed rail network. (from Train)
Image 8The first useful diesel locomotive (a diesel–electric) for long distances, the SŽD Eel2, 1924 in Kyiv (from Locomotive)
Image 9An Indian locomotive class WDM-3A diesel locomotive in India (from Locomotive)
Image 10A China Railways HXD1D electric locomotive in China (from Locomotive)
Image 11The "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 12US-style railroad truck (bogie) with journal bearings (from Train)
Image 13A wooden toy train set from Swedish manufacturer Brio (from Train)
Image 14A large Amtrak and Metra coach yard just south of Chicago Union Station. About 25 percent of all rail traffic in the United States travels through the Chicago area. (from Rail yard)
Image 15A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926 (from Railroad car)
Image 16Workington stabling point in 1981, with locomotives from Classes 25, 40 and 47 parked between duties. (from Rail yard)
Image 17A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom (from Railroad car)
Image 18A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London (from Railroad car)
Image 19Inside a modern-day car from Finland (from Railroad car)
Image 20Soviet RT-23 Molodets ICBM launch train, in the St Petersburg museum (from Railroad car)
Image 21A coach yard in Shanghai, China (from Rail yard)
Image 22A Tokyo Monorail train (from Train)
Image 23Garratt locomotives in Zimbabwe (from Train)
Image 24Various types of railroad cars in a classification yard in the United States (from Train)
Image 25Restored clerestory cars on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin (from Railroad car)
Image 26Schedule of train departure times in Indonesia stations (from Train)
Image 27Baltimore & Ohio electric engine, 1895 (from Locomotive)
Image 28A Union Pacific freight train; high clearances enable double-stacked containers to be carried in well cars. (from Train)
Image 29RegioCitadis light rail train in Zoetermeer (the Netherlands). (from Train)
Image 30Werner von Siemens experimental DC electric train, 1879 (from Locomotive)
Image 31Stockton and Darlington special inaugural train 1825: six wagons of coal, directors coach, then people in wagons. (from Train)
Image 32The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives represented the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology and power. (from Train)
Image 33Southern Railway (UK) 20002 was equipped with both a pantograph and contact shoes. (from Locomotive)
Image 34Bombardier ALP-45DP, at the Innotrans convention in Berlin (from Locomotive)
Image 35This 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 36TGV Lacroix first class interior (from Train)
Image 37Yard for Amtrak equipment, located next to the Los Angeles River. The two tracks on the left are the mainline. (from Rail yard)
Image 38A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina, Italy, 1901 (from Locomotive)
Image 39Armored train Hurban located in Zvolen, Slovakia (from Railroad car)
Image 40Trains 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 41The EMD FT set the stage for diesel locomotives to take over from steam. (from Train)
Image 42A Victorian Railways R class steam locomotive in Australia (from Locomotive)
Image 43A number of maintenance vehicles at work on Metro-North Railroad (from Train)
Image 44A London Underground battery–electric locomotive used for hauling engineers' trains, at West Ham station (from Locomotive)
Image 45The ESS 3200 electric locomotive was introduced in 1925 in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. (from Locomotive)
Image 46British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s (from Railroad car)
Image 47The 1887 Daimler draisine (from Locomotive)
Image 48A narrow-gauge battery–electric locomotive used for mining (from Locomotive)
Image 49The Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen pioneered high speed rail service (from Train)
Image 50A narrow gauge train in Austria (from Train)