Travelling by train railways – past and present

Exercise 1. Read the text and make sure you know the words in bold.

The history of the railway began way back in 1765 when James Watt built the first steam engine which didn't actually move but was used in a coal mine.

The first movable steam engine was invented by Richard Trevithick in 1804. Four years later he presented a second locomotive called “Catch me who can” which pulled a carriage and was capable of transporting passengers.

In 1814 another Englishman called William Hadley proved that railways were a viable proposition with his locomotive "Puffing Billy", at present housed in the British Science Museum.

The big name in British railways was, however, George Stephenson who won the Rainhill Locomotive Trials in 1829 with his famous "Rocket" engine and established, one year later, the first railway line between Liverpool and Manchester.

The English were, in fact, the pioneers of the railway system, proof of which remains today in the fact that all railway tracks in Europe still have the same width as the British and all trains travel on the left.

From the 1920s onwards steam locomotives began to be replaced by less labour intensive and cleaner (but more expensive) diesel locomotives and electric locomotives, while at about the same time self-propelled multiple unit vehicles of either power system became much more common in passenger service. Most countries had replaced steam trains for day-to-day use by the 1970s. Historical steam trains still run in many countries, for the leisure and enthusiast market.

Today British Rail (BritRail) operates a service of 16,000 trains a day serving over 2.000 stations. The entire country is crisscrossed with railway lines and the trains run frequently. The trains are heavily used and the train operators take pains to run on time. Much intercity traffic goes by rail as the country is relatively small so that rail schedules are often better than air schedules and the trains leave much more often than flights. Further, most railway stations are right downtown and most airports are way out in the country. Traffic is so heavy that the stations near London see a train movement every couple of minutes and there are up to 12 parallel tracks for considerable distances.

British rail offers the following passenger services:

• Intercity - The high-speed express trains between major towns and cities

• Network SouthEast - London commuter and long-distance trains

• Regional Railways - Slow services in England and Wales

• Scotrail - Passenger services within Scotland

• Eurostar - International trains from London to Paris/Brussels

Exercise 2. Fill in the gaps with the following words.

wagons, sleeping, commuter, long-distance, passenger, freight, trucks, dining /restaurant, double deck, parcel and mail, inter-city, local

TYPES OF TRAINS.

A _____ train may consist of a locomotive and carriages. _____ trains comprise _____ or _____ rather than carriages, though some _____ trains are outwardly more like passenger trains.

_____ trains, sometimes crossing several countries, may have a _____ car; they may also have _____ cars, but not in the case of high-speed trains, these arrive at their destination before the night falls and are in competition with airplanes in speed.

For trains connecting cities, we can distinguish _____ trains, which do not halt at small stations, and trains that serve all stations, usually known as _____ trains or "stoppers".

For shorter distances many cities have networks of _____ trains, serving the city and its suburbs. Some carriages may be laid out to have more standing room than seats, or to facilitate the carrying of prams, cycles or wheelchairs. _____ high speed and sleeper trains are becoming more common in Europe.

Exercise 3. Divide the words from the list below into the following categories:

• different kinds of vehicle • people working with it

• parts of vehicle • associated facilities

passenger train, waiting-room, porter, sleeping-car, engine-driver, freight train, compartment, guard, buffet, express, restaurant-car, ticket collector, ticket office, local train, guard's van, pullman

Exercise 4. Read the newspaper article and speak on the latest fit of the British railway industry.