A locomotive is the engine at the front of a train that pulls the other cars along the tracks. It provides the power that moves the whole train.
It comes from Latin “locus” (place) and “motivus” (causing motion), originally meaning “moving from place to place.” The term was shortened from “locomotive engine” in the early days of rail travel.
Early locomotives were so new and loud that some people feared passengers would suffocate or go insane from the speed. Those clattering machines reshaped whole countries by shrinking travel times from weeks to hours.
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