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A locomotive is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train.If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight trains.
John Gray of the London and Brighton Railway disbelieved the necessity for a low centre of gravity and produced a series of locomotives that were much admired by David Joy who developed the design at the firm of E. B. Wilson and Company to produce the 2-2-2 Jenny Lind locomotive, one of the most successful passenger locomotives of its day.
1863 – Scotsman Robert Francis Fairlie invented the Fairlie locomotive with pivoted driving bogies, so trains could negotiate tighter track curves. This innovation was rare for steam locomotives, but was the model for most future diesel and electric locomotives. 1863 – First steam railway in New Zealand opened from Christchurch to Ferrymead.
Steam locomotives of the Chicago and North Western Railway in the roundhouse at the Chicago, Illinois rail yards, 1942. The Timeline of U.S. Railway History depends upon the definition of a railway, as follows: A means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks.
Following early developments in the second half of the 1700s, in 1804 a steam locomotive built by British inventor Richard Trevithick powered the first ever steam train. [10] Outside of coal mines, where fuel was readily available, steam locomotives remained untried until the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.
The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first to use steam locomotives regularly beginning with the Best Friend of Charleston, the first American-built locomotive intended for revenue service, in December 1830. The B&O started developing steam locomotives in 1829 with Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb. [32]
LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard is officially the fastest steam locomotive, reaching 126 mph (203 km/h) on 3 July 1938. LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman was the first steam locomotive to officially reach 100 mph (160 km/h), on 30 November 1934. 41 018 climbing the Schiefe Ebene with 01 1066 as pusher locomotive (video 34.4 MB)
Harry Turtledove's alternate history short story "The Iron Elephant" has a character named Richard Trevithick inventing a steam engine in 1782 and subsequently racing a woolly mammoth-drawn train that it would in time come to supplant. The character was born sometime before 1771, and is American rather than British, indicating he is an analog ...