What is the difference between a modern train and a 1870's train?

Answer 1

Interesting question.
Other than the locomotive power, which is a huge difference, the air brake system was still reasonably new and primitive.
In the 1870's I doubt if many trains even were equipped and the brakemen had to position themselves along the top of the train and be able to manually aply the brakes from top of the car, then hop over to the top of the next car and spin a wheel to apply the brkaes on it.
Stopping and slowing was slow and those jobs as you might guess were very dangerous.
The cars at that time were connected by a "link and pin" system instead of the modern "knuckle" system, a switchman had to go inbetween cars and physically connect them.
When my Dad started railroading in the 1940's, he said there was not one "old timer" there that had worked with the older style couplers that had not lost at least a part of a finger or more.
Trains were much smaller and slower because of the limitations of the brakes and couplers.
Almost all cars had wooden bodies, were about 30 to 40 feet long.
There were no signal systems in place but that is a differenct in track technology and not the train itself.
Cabs on steamers were hot in the summer, cold in the winter, noisy, rough riding, had very limited visibility due to the fact that the cab was at the rear of the locomotive and the engineer had to look out the side window and could only see the track directly in front of him on right hand curves.

Answer 2

In the UK - as everyone has said the trains were steam hauled, rather than diesel or electric powered. They would have been much, much slower. The carriage would likely have been a lot less comfortable - and there would have been a great deal of difference between classes. There would have been three - 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and you would not have wanted to travel in the latter. Indeed, the railways didn't wanted to carry the working classes, if they could help it and 3rd class would have only been available on the very slowest trains. There certainly would have been no connections between carriages and probably no connections between one compartment and another. So when you were in, you were in. No chance of walking along to the loo and remember, as I have said, journeys were very slow - we are talking something like 10 or 12 hours to Scotland. It is likely that you would have been locked into your compartment, which would probably have been unheated. Some companies offered foot warmers. Lighting was by gas, and heaven help you if you were caught in an accident as the wooden carriages easily caught fire - that's if they weren't smashed to tiny pieces.Service of food on board was still in the future, so no buffet or restaurant cars. You might have been able to lean out of the window and buy something from a hawker on a station platform. Some longer distance trains would make a longer, food, stop at a leading station on the journey. There would have been mad scramble for food from the station café - they were notorious for poor food. For example, all Great Western trains had to stop for at least ten minutes at Swindon as the company had unwisely entered into a contract with a catering company serving the station which provided for that to happen.

Incidentally, in the UK, by the 1870s signalling systems were in place, though in some cases rather primitive ones which did make the journey safer than when trains were hand signalled by 'bobbies' as in the very early days of railways.

Answer 3

Accident survivability.

In the 1870's, passengers were seldom merely maimed in a derailment or a collision. The one's killed on impact were the lucky ones. The others were trapped in the extensive pile of scrap wood created by the event as the coal burning heating stoves in each car lit the pyre.

These horrors are largely a thing of the past, owing to improvement in safety devices, including air brakes, as Rango pointed out. But, when the unthinkable does happen, there is multiple and tragic loss of life, as one would expect in any type of mass transit system, including aircraft.

The trains of 1870 were not the "palace" cars that followed not long after this era. Creature comforts were few.

Answer 4

1870's trains used coal burning steam engines, driving iron wheels on a narrow track. Modern trains fly through the air.

Answer 5

Olden Trains

Answer 6

in the 1870s, there were many more stations, branch lines etc, so in a way you could get to more places that you can now on the trains

Answer 7

Modern trains usually are deisel-electric, while the older ones were usually steam (using coal, wood, etc.)

Answer 8

These Days it is :-

Good Afternoon

We are sorry to announce that the 11:02 to Newastle has been cancelled.

Those days they were more reliable!!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

to be perfectly honest PUDDY THEY WERE LESS STATIONS AND LINES IN 1870

Answer 10

there are so many differences to number but i must tell you there are a lot of electronics and mechanicals so that no one can itemize along with human knowlege of railroading