How a Locomotive Pulls a Train : A Cutaway Guide to Steam Engines, Diesel Giants and High-Speed Trains
Overview
How can one engine pull a train more than a mile long?
The locomotive is the engine at the front. It turns fire, fuel or electricity into enough push to move a whole line of heavy cars. This book opens one up, part by part, and follows the power all the way from the engine to the wheels.
Big cutaway diagrams show:
- how fire, water and steam push pistons and rods to turn the giant wheels of a steam engine
- how a diesel locomotive makes its own electricity and sends it to a motor on every axle
- how cone-shaped wheels steer the train by themselves, with no steering wheel at all
- how air brakes stop a long train, and how sand helps the wheels grip a slippery rail
- how signals and switches keep trains apart and guide them onto the right track
Travel from horse-drawn wagons and the little Rocket of 1829 to electric locomotives, a Japanese bullet train with a nose shaped like a kingfisher's beak, and maglev trains that float on magnets. Then meet three famous machines: the giant Big Boy steam engine, the longest freight train on record and the first bullet train.
Inside you'll find:
- nearly 30 illustrations, with numbered parts that point to the pages that explain them
- Fact Bolts packed with real numbers
- a hands-on activity: make a wheelset from two paper cups and watch it steer itself
- a parts quiz, big questions and answers, and a glossary of 28 train words
For curious readers ages 7 to 10 who love trains, big machines and finding out how things work. Book 2 in the Giant Machine Cutaways series.
This item is Non-Returnable
Customers Also Bought
Details
- ISBN-13: 9798164585945
- ISBN-10: 9798164585945
- Publisher: Independently Published
- Publish Date: October 2026
- Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.13 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.41 pounds
- Page Count: 50
Related Categories
