User:Colin Douglas Howell/Galleries/Early steam locomotives (before Rainhill)

Important steam locomotives designed before the 1829 Rainhill Trials, a pivotal event in locomotive history.

Trevithick's Coalbrookdale and Penydarren locomotives, 1802-1804

The first railway locomotive was built in 1802 by the Coalbrookdale ironworks based on a design by Richard Trevithick. This locomotive had a single horizontal cylinder embedded in the boiler and driving the wheels via gearing, with a huge flywheel. All four wheels were driven, making it an 0-4-0 in modern terms. It is not known if this locomotive actually ran, or even if it was completed.

In 1804, Trevithick built another locomotive, this time for the Penydarren Ironworks. This was the first railway locomotive known to have run, though it only served as such for a brief period, being mostly used as a stationary engine. Its design may have been similar to the Coalbrookdale machine, but the firebox and smokestack apparently were moved to the opposite end from the piston rod, making firing easier.

Working replicas have been built of both these locomotives.

Drawing of the Coalbrookdale locomotive, the only record of its design.
Working replica of the Coalbrookdale locomotive at the Blists Hill museum. (More photos.)
Working replica of the Penydarren locomotive at the National Railway Museum in 2004. (More replica photos.)

Trevithick's Catch Me Who Can, 1808

Trevithick's final railway locomotive was Catch Me Who Can, built in 1808 for a public exhibition in London. It only ran for a few months. Unlike Trevithick's earlier locomotives, this one had a vertical embedded cylinder which drove only one axle via connecting rods rather than gearing. A working replica has recently been built.

Drawing of Catch Me Who Can from an admission ticket for the exhibition.
Working replica of Catch Me Who Can in 2011.

Murray and Blenkinsop's rack locomotives, 1812

Starting in 1812, Matthew Murray and John Blenkinsop built a series of rack locomotives, the first railway locomotives to be commercially successful. The best known of these is Salamanca, built for the 1812 opening of the Middleton Railway, though it was actually the second such machine to be built. Instead of driving the rail wheels, these locomotives drove a cog which meshed with a rack mounted alongside the track. Since they did not need to apply weight on the rails for traction, they could be light enough to avoid damaging the weak rails then in use while still hauling an impressive load. (All of Trevithick's machines had proved impractical due to rail breakages.) Unlike Trevithick's one-cylinder engines, the Murray-Blenkinsop machines had twin cylinders with offset cranks, allowing them to be started with the wheels in any position. The vertical cylinders were embedded in the boiler along its centerline, a layout followed by many other colliery locomotives. The Murray-Blenkinsop locomotives served well, and one ran as long as twenty years.

An 1829 engraving of Salamanca.
A 1/8-scale model of Salamanca at the National Railway Museum.
The first depiction of a locomotive in art, George Walker's The Collier from 1814, shows a Murray-Blenkinsop rack locomotive.

Hedley's Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly, 1813

In 1813, William Hedley built several locomotives for the Wylam Colliery, including Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly. They were the first commercially successive locomotives to use ordinary adhesion for traction instead of a rack drive. Unlike the Murray-Blenkinsop locomotives, Hedley's locomotives had vertical cylinders mounted to either side of the boiler at one end, driving the wheels via rocking beams and gearing. This became another popular configuration for colliery locomotives.

Originally Hedley's locomotives were built with four wheels all coupled together via gearing (0-4-0 configuration). However, their weight still caused problems for the rails, so in 1815 they were converted to have eight coupled wheels (0-8-0). They ran in this configuration until 1830, when stronger rails were installed on the railway and the locomotives returned to a four-wheel layout. In this form they stayed in service for several decades more, Puffing Billy being retired in 1862 and Wylam Dilly in 1883. Both have been preserved in museums, making them the oldest surviving steam locomotives.

A working replica of Puffing Billy (in its four-wheel configuration) has been built for the Beamish Museum.

This 1825 drawing is often claimed to show Puffing Billy’s 8-wheeled form, but it actually seems to be based on another 8-wheel engine which Hedley used to guide his own 8-wheel conversions.
Puffing Billy in 1862, the year of its retirement.
Wylam Dilly circa 1862.
Puffing Billy on display in the Science Museum. (More photos.)
Wylam Dilly on display in the National Museum of Scotland. (More photos.)
The Beamish Museum's Puffing Billy working replica. (More photos.)

Steam Elephant, 1815

Steam Elephant was a six-coupled (0-6-0) locomotive built in 1815 for the Wallsend Colliery. It had a typical design for this period, with a layout similar to the Murray-Blenkinsop locomotives, but not using a rack drive. Apparently it served into the 1830s. It was depicted in some artworks, including the first oil painting of a steam locomotive. A working replica was built in 2002 for the Beamish Museum.

Detail of a painting in which Steam Elephant is depicted.
The Steam Elephant replica at the Beamish Museum. (More photos.)

Locomotion, 1825

Locomotion (originally named Active) was built by George Stephenson and Timothy Hackworth in 1825 for the newly-opened Stockton and Darlington Railway. (Although this was the first public passenger railway, its locomotives were intended to haul slower freight traffic.) Locomotion was one of the first locomotives to couple its driving wheels with rods rather than gears or chains. It was soon joined by three more similar locomotives, Hope, Black Diamond, and Diligence. Locomotion remained in service until 1841, when it was converted into a stationary engine. It was later placed on display and now resides at the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum. The Beamish Museum built a working replica of Locomotion in 1975.

Locomotion on display at Darlington.
The Beamish Locomotion replica, visiting Tyseley.
Another view of the replica at Tyseley. (More pictures.)

George Stephenson's Billy, 1826

Billy, another of George Stephenson's locomotives, was built in 1826 for a Tyneside colliery; it is quite similar to Locomotion. It was in service for over fifty years and has been preserved at the Stephenson Railway Museum.

Billy on display at the Stephenson Railway Museum.

Hackworth's Royal George, 1827

In addition to working with George Stephenson, Timothy Hackworth also designed locomotives of his own. He particularly appreciated the importance of the steam blastpipe and paid careful attention to optimizing its form and alignment. One of his first creations was Royal George, built in 1827 for the Stockton and Darlington. It was a six-coupled (0-6-0) locomotive, the first 0-6-0 to use coupling rods, and while its cylinders were still vertical, the pistons drove the connecting rods directly, without long crossheads or rocking beams. At the time it was the most powerful locomotive yet built. It served on the Stockton and Darlington for thirteen years.

An 1829 engraving of Royal George. The blastpipe runs from the cylinders along the top of the boiler into the smokestack.

Robert Stephenson's Lancashire Witch, 1828

One of the first locomotives designed by George Stephenson's son Robert, Lancashire Witch was built in 1828. It first served on the Bolton and Leigh Railway and also worked on the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It had inclined cylinders in order to reduce the rocking and "hammerblow" effects generated by the vertical cylinders then in common use. Robert Stephenson went on to build a number of inclined-cylinder locomotives, including the famous Rocket.

An engraving of Lancashire Witch, with the smokestack truncated.
An 1831 engraving of Lancashire Witch. This is somewhat inconsistent with the first engraving.

Stourbridge Lion and Agenoria, 1829

Stourbridge Lion was one of three similar locomotives built in 1829 by the English firm Foster, Rastrick and Company and shipped overseas to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in the United States. Stourbridge Lion became the first railway locomotive to run in America. Unfortunately it and its siblings proved to be much too heavy for the lightly-built American track and were immediately put into storage. Foster, Rastrick and Company built one more locomotive, Agenoria, in 1829 which was similar to the three American engines, except for having a much taller smokestack. It was far more successful, running for some 35 years, and has been preserved in the National Railway Museum.

Engraving of Stourbridge Lion.
A 1916 depiction of Stourbridge Lion’s first run.
Agenoria at the National Railway Museum. (More photos.)

Marc Seguin's locomotive with multitubular boiler, 1829

In 1829, French engineer Marc Seguin built two locomotives for the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway, one of the first French railways. These locomotives, the first to be built in France, were also the first to have a multitubular boiler rather than the typical flued boiler. The boiler had an embedded firebox, and its draft was provided by large mechanical blower fans mounted on the tender. Robert Stephenson's Rocket also had a multitubular boiler, but it used a blastpipe for draft.

A working replica of a Marc Seguin locomotive was built in 1987.

Drawings of the Marc Seguin locomotive.
The working replica of the Marc Seguin locomotive.
The tender of the Marc Seguin locomotive replica, with its fans and their air trunks. (More photos.)