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Trains Quiz

Trains Quiz: The Ghan

Free Train quiz: 100 trivia questions and answers — locomotives, legendary lines & records. Easy to hard, with explained answers. No sign-up.

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What nickname did Native American tribes of the Great Plains give the steam locomotive, impressed by its power and plume of smoke?

From the Peruvian Andes to giant American locomotives, this quiz explores the history and engineering feats of the railway world. A fun way to test your train knowledge.

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This quiz currently has 100 questions, ranging from easy to hard, available in French, English and Spanish when the Spanish translation is available.

Train quiz: trivia questions and answers

Warm up before the quiz with these 20 trivia questions and their explained answers: click a question to reveal the answer.

Easy questions

Which British engineer is nicknamed the "father of railways" for his pioneering role in developing the steam locomotive?

Answer: George Stephenson. George Stephenson designed several of the first working locomotives and helped establish the standard track gauge still used today.

Which is the longest continuous railway line in the world, linking Moscow to Vladivostok over more than 9,000 km?

Answer: The Trans-Siberian Railway. Completed in 1916, the Trans-Siberian Railway runs about 9,289 km between Moscow and Vladivostok, crossing eight time zones.

Which mode of transport did trains largely replace in the 19th century for long-distance passenger travel?

Answer: The horse-drawn stagecoach. Before the rise of the railway, the horse-drawn stagecoach was the main means of overland passenger travel, far slower and more costly.

Which famous open-air "train graveyard", located in Bolivia near the Uyuni salt desert, now attracts tourists?

Answer: The Uyuni train cemetery. Near Uyuni, Bolivia, old locomotives and wagons abandoned in the 20th century rust away in the open desert, now an unusual tourist attraction.

Which Australian train crosses the entire continent from Adelaide to Darwin, running through the central desert for over 2,900 km?

Answer: The Ghan. The Ghan links Adelaide to Darwin across roughly 2,979 km of Australian desert, one of the longest tourist rail journeys in the world.

What nickname did Native American tribes of the Great Plains give the steam locomotive, impressed by its power and plume of smoke?

Answer: The iron horse. Many Native American tribes nicknamed the locomotive the iron horse, struck by its strength and speed compared to that of a real horse.

Which famous American outlaws are known for holding up and robbing trains in the American West?

Answer: Jesse James and Butch Cassidy. Jesse James and Butch Cassidy's gang (the Wild Bunch) are among the most famous outlaws who held up trains carrying gold or silver in the American West.

Which overhead device, strung above the tracks, supplies electricity to most modern electric trains via a pantograph?

Answer: The catenary (overhead line). The catenary is an electric cable suspended above the tracks; the pantograph, mounted on the train's roof, presses against it to draw current.

What is the world speed record for a train running on conventional rails (not maglev), set by a modified TGV set in France in 2007?

Answer: 574.8 km/h. On April 3, 2007, a specially modified TGV set reached 574.8 km/h on a French high-speed line, a record still standing for a conventional-rail train.

Which country opened Al Boraq in 2018, Africa's first high-speed railway, linking Tangier to Casablanca at 320 km/h?

Answer: Morocco. Opened in 2018, Al Boraq links Tangier to Casablanca at a top speed of 320 km/h, making Morocco the first African country with a high-speed line.

Hard questions

Which was the first steam locomotive to actually run, built by Richard Trevithick in 1804?

Answer: The Pen-y-darren locomotive. Built by British engineer Richard Trevithick, the Pen-y-darren locomotive ran in 1804 in Wales, hauling wagons along a mining tramway.

Which two railroad companies built the first American transcontinental railroad, each starting from opposite sides of the country?

Answer: Union Pacific and Central Pacific. Union Pacific built westward from Nebraska while Central Pacific built eastward from California, until they met in 1869.

Which historic railway line, built during the Klondike Gold Rush, links Alaska to the Canadian Yukon across dizzying landscapes?

Answer: The White Pass and Yukon Route. Built between 1898 and 1900 to carry gold prospectors to the Klondike, the White Pass and Yukon Route crosses steep mountain passes.

Which Chinese railway bridge, stretching about 164 km between Beijing and Shanghai, is considered the longest bridge in the world?

Answer: The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge. The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, stretches about 164 km, mostly across paddy fields and wetlands.

Which immigrant community provided most of the workforce that built the most dangerous section of the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada?

Answer: Chinese immigrant workers. Thousands of Chinese workers dug tunnels and laid track across the Sierra Nevada for the Central Pacific Railroad, often in extremely dangerous conditions.

What type of town, often built almost overnight along the railway route to house workers and later cattle drovers, is typical of the 19th-century American West?

Answer: "Boomtowns". Towns such as Abilene or Dodge City sprang up and grew rapidly thanks to the convergence of cattle trails and railway lines, becoming railway "boomtowns".

Which German train, put into service in 2018, is considered the world's first passenger train powered by hydrogen fuel cells?

Answer: The Coradia iLint. The Coradia iLint, developed by Alstom and put into service in Germany in 2018, uses hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity, with no direct CO2 emissions.

Which power supply method, used notably on some metros and commuter trains, feeds current through an extra rail laid at ground level instead of an overhead line?

Answer: The third rail. The third rail, electrically powered and running alongside the running rails, feeds the train without an overhead line, a common solution on some urban networks.

Which national rail network historically has the largest total track mileage in the world, counting all its lines?

Answer: The United States. With about 150,000 km of track, the United States rail network remains, in total cumulative length, the largest in the world, mostly dedicated to freight.

Which country operates the Fuxing Hao, one of the fastest high-speed train fleets in regular commercial service in the world, running up to 350 km/h?

Answer: China. China operates the largest high-speed rail network in the world, with Fuxing Hao trainsets running in regular commercial service at up to 350 km/h.

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