The History of Trains in America.   The first steam locomotive designed to haul both passengers and freight was built in England in 1829. A year later, on Christmas Day 1830, America’s first passenger train began running. The United States had only 23 miles of railroad track then, but rail travel caught on and new track was quickly built throughout the eastern half of the country.   Use the encyclopedia to find out who invented the steam engine and who invented the steam locomotive. What other modes (kinds) of transportation used a steam engine? As rail travel became more and more important, President Abraham Lincoln authorized the construction of a Transcontinental Railroad. To build rail all the way across the country, the Central Pacific Railroad built rail east from Sacramento, California, and the Union Pacific Railroad built west from Omaha, Nebraska. The two rail lines were connected with a golden spike in Ogden, Utah in May, 1869.   By 1916, the United State’s railway system included 255,000 miles of track. Goods and people moved all over the country by rail. By the 1950s and 1960s, the use of rail declined as trucks and automobiles became more popular. But, over the last several decades, trains have begun to become more popular: the invention of the stack-train has made shipping goods by train more efficient than ever, and passengers are rediscovering the romance of traveling by train. Today’s rail system consists of 155,000 miles of track. It is mostly used to move freight.   Moving Freight by Train.   In the 1800s and during most of the twentieth century, everything shipped by train had to be loaded by hand: grain, flour, farm machinery, livestock, furniture, automobiles, and other goods were all loaded onto box cars, flat cars, or gondola cars and then removed by hand at their destination.   Trains could certainly move cargo quicker and easier than horse-drawn wagon or early trucks. But, as we’ve learned about shipping cargo by sea, hand-loading cargo can cause a lot of problems.   What kind of problems do you think you would have if you had to hand-load all cargo onto a train? Hint: Check out the trade topic “Why are Containers Used?” in this website! After World War II, the rail industry changed with the rest of the shipping industry and began to use containers to ship freight. Containers only had to be loaded once. Then, they could be moved easily from ship to truck to train, meaning that cargo could be moved quickly and safely across the ocean and then, from the port to its destination anywhere in the country.   To make train travel even quicker, shipping companies like APL built what are called “intermodal terminals.” At an intermodal terminal, train tracks run right to the docks so that a container can be unloaded from a ship and put directly on a train. This is much quicker than loading the container onto a truck and then driving it across town to a railroad.   The invention of the stack-train — which allowed each train car to carry two containers “piggybacked” on top of each other — made trains even better at moving cargo. Now trains could carry double the amount of cargo.   Today, moving freight by rail is very different from the early days of rail. Railroad companies use computer-aided dispatch systems to figure out which containers to move where. Businesses arrange for shipment and then track their goods by e-mail. And, there are many people like John Chasteen from Interstate Distributor Company, who help businesses move their goods between ships, trucks and trains as quickly as possible.   Rail is an important link in the business of moving goods. It’s changed a lot over the last hundred years and is ready for a hundred more.   Where do trains stop in your city? Can you learn what they carry to businesses and stores near you?   Home Journey Log Trade Topics People Profiles Index Ask the Eagle