How were old train cars heated?

The most common system used equipment made by the Vapor Steam Heating company. Steam locomotives had a ready supply of steam for heating the cars, however diesel locomotives needed to have a steam generator installed in them, and required a water tank to supply water.



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The steam generator used some of the locomotive's diesel fuel supply for combustion. When a steam generator-equipped locomotive was not available for a run, a so-called heating car fitted with one or two steam generators was inserted between the last locomotive in the consist and the rest of the train.

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Initially diesel-hauled passenger trains like the Northerner on the North Island Main Trunk had a separate steam heating van, but later the carriages of long-distance trains like the Overlander used electric heaters supplied by a separate power or combined power-luggage van.

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Early headlights were fueled by oil, though kerosene-fueled headlights were developed as well in the 1850s. The discovery of electricity soon led to experiments with using it to power locomotive lights, with the first-known example, a battery operated light, being tested in Russia in 1874.

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Steam Powered (1920s-1930s)

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Steam locomotives are no longer used to transport passengers or products because electric and diesel locomotives are faster, more efficient, and easier to maintain. The locomotives that are still running are a piece of history dating back to the 1800's that really put into perspective just how far we've come!

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If a steam locomotive runs-out of water while it is operating, either the firebox plug will melt (which is embarrassing for the fireman / driver and expensive to fix), or steam pressure will rise extremely quickly until either more water is supplied, or the boiler explodes.

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Despite fears of what traveling at superfast speeds would do to the human body, trains in the 1850s traveled at 50 mph or more and, somewhat surprisingly at the time, did not cause breathing problems or uncontrollable shaking for their passengers.

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The earliest type of continuous brake was the chain brake which used a chain, running the length of the train, to operate brakes on all vehicles simultaneously. The chain brake was soon superseded by air-operated or vacuum operated brakes.

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On February 21, 1804, British mining engineer, inventor and explorer Richard Trevithick debuted the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive in the Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil. Following that debut, locomotives have been powered by a myriad of fuels, including wood, coal and oil.

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Heavy duck or leather roll-down curtains were the passengers' only protection from the elements. There was no way to heat the stage. Unlike the classic Concord stagecoaches, which could be mired in bad weather, mud wagons—true to their name—could travel over trails and roads during inclement weather.

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Stagecoaches averaged forty miles per day in the summer and twenty-five miles in winter over a fifteen-hour day of travel.

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While modern trains won't litter the tracks with human excrement, the traditional method did just that. This is what was known as a hopper toilet. It could either be a simple hole in the floor (also known as a drop chute toilet) or a full-flush system.

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Where does poop go when you flush it on an Amtrak? Wastewater goes into a holding tank that is emptied at a discharge facility. Railroads are no longer permitted to discharge human waste onto the right of way. Older passenger cars discharged human waste directly onto the tracks.

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In 1870 it took approximately seven days and cost as little as $65 for a ticket on the transcontinental line from New York to San Francisco; $136 for first class in a Pullman sleeping car; $110 for second class; and $65 for a space on a third- or “emigrant”-class bench.

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Faster inter-city trains: 1920–1941 Rail transportation was not high-speed by modern standards but inter-city travel often averaged speeds between 40 and 65 miles per hour (64 and 105 km/h).

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Before the air brake, railroad engineers would stop trains by cutting power, braking their locomotives and using the whistle to signal their brakemen. The brakemen would turn the brakes in one car and jump to the next to set the brakes there, and then to the next, etc.

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