Railroads who invented

Railways changed the landscape physically and culturally, putting Britain at the forefront of railway technology and architecture in the 19th century. Until the railways, most people rarely travelled further than the next market town, perhaps 10 miles away. Stations were gateways to journeys of over a hundred miles, completed in a few hours in futuristic machines. Find out more about the history of the railways, when trains were invented, and where the developments happened, with this guide to the history of railways and rail travel in Britain….

Unlike the atom bomb, for example, there was no single invention with the steam engine. First you had the stationary steam engine where the most important person was Thomas Newcomen. Then James Watt improved its efficiency and its capacity to generate power. Later on, the stationary steam engine was transformed into the locomotive with George Stephenson. What the steam engine enabled people to do was transform themselves beyond the existing constraints of energy use, meaning that human society could develop in all sorts of ways.

Now we know that the long-term environmental consequences of industrialisation were detrimental but on the other hand life would have been totally different if we had remained shackled by the manufacturing, energy, and communication systems before the steam engine. The long-term implications of steam power were everything we understand by modernity. It gave us the ability to speed up existence and overcome the constraints under which all other animal species operated.

For much of human history we were not radically different in organisational terms from other animals, which have language, the capacity for acting as a group and systems of hierarchy. For much of human history that was how we were but we moved to a very different tune when we had everything that is understood by modernity. It was the steam engine that set that in motion.

Thundering along at previously unimaginable speeds, early steam locomotives were a frightening prospect for their Victorian passengers. Little more than 20 years later, their fears allayed, people flocked to this exciting new form of transport, and by mid-century, millions were dashing across the country on tracks stretching thousands of miles.

From professional football and the Penny Post to suburban living and seaside excursions, the railways changed the face of Victorian Britain. Almost anything you can think of was transformed or made possible for the first time by the railways. The technology that made it possible — engines driven by steam — was already gathering momentum by the late 18th century, when James Watt produced the steam-powered loom.

Originally conceived as a freight railway to reduce the cost and time of transporting goods, the line proved equally popular among intrepid travellers. Despite a fatal accident on the first day, thousands were using the line within weeks. Encouraged by the success, entrepreneurs began submitting applications to parliament for all sorts of railways schemes. There was some opposition but over the next ten years, as railway companies became attractive investments, unprecedented levels of capital funded the construction of 4, miles of track.

Meanwhile, the growth of excursion trains and the Great Exhibition of stimulated vast numbers to use the railways for the first time. By the end of the s, passenger numbers had risen beyond all expectations. In alone, 92 million journeys were made in England and Wales alone, on a network stretching 6, miles.

The magic of train travel had caught the public imagination and the rapid expansion of the iron road left few aspects of life in Victorian Britain untouched.

Aware of the importance of the day, crowds clustered around the newly-constructed line in anticipation. Ever the showman, George Stephenson hit speeds of 15mph in his steam locomotive, Locomotion — outpacing the local horses in the process.

Conceived primarily to transport coal from collieries to the river Tees at Stockton, this was the first venture in the world to employ steam engines for hauling goods. But the railway also leased out the rights to run passenger services to various operators, including two female innkeepers.

Located on the original route of the railway, the Head of Steam museum encompasses three of the original 19th-century buildings — North Road Passenger Station, the Goods Shed and Hopetown Carriage Works. Early railway promoters understood the allure of the spectacle.

As expected, the Rainhill Trials captured the public imagination and around 15, spectators took their places on specially erected grandstands for the inaugural day of the week-long event. After the more madcap inventions had been eliminated — including Cycloped, which consisted of a horse running on a treadmill that pulled the wagons — four realistic contenders emerged.

With the challengers listed like runners and riders in a horse race, the final day promised much. The prize, and the adulation, was his. Bigger and better locomotives would arrive soon enough, but the spectacular success of Rocket was a critical moment because it showed the world the immense potential of steam locomotives. It is from Rainhill station that the locomotives set off toward Lea Green in October Rainhill is a Grade I listed building, and still a working railway station. Such unsavoury scenes marred the festivities but the promoters of the railway were pleasantly surprised when passengers quickly warmed to the train in the following weeks, attracted by the fact that the journey took just a couple of hours, less than half the time it took in a stagecoach.

For the first time a double-tracked, steam-powered railway hauled passengers and goods between two major cities. As the world awoke to read reports of this pioneering achievement in the north-west of England, the railway age was born.

Visitors can step into the first-class booking hall to see what it would have been like in the s and learn about the people who worked and travelled on the early locomotives. Having pulled out of Liverpool, the celebratory procession made good progress, reaching Parkside, 17 miles down the track, in under an hour.

Ignoring warnings to stay inside the carriage, a group of notables including the Duke of Wellington and Liverpool MP William Huskisson, took advantage of the stop to stretch their legs. Huskisson approached the duke, but as they shook hands a shout alerted them to an approaching train, the Rocket. Until the s, railways were constructed of cast-iron.

Unfortunately, cast-iron was prone to rust and it was brittle, often causing it to fail under stress. In , John Birkinshaw invented a more durable material called wrought-iron. This innovation, although an improvement over cast-iron was still flawed, however, it became the standard until the advent of the Bessemer process enabled the cheaper production of steel in the late s, sparking the rapid expansion of railways not only across America but around the world.

Eventually, the Bessemer process was replaced by the use of open-hearth furnaces, which further reduced the cost of steel production and allowed trains to connect most major cities in the United States by the end of the 19th century.

With the groundwork laid out for an advanced system of railways, all that was left to do was find a means to transport more people and more goods for more lengthy distances over a shorter period of time. The answer came in the form of one of the most significant inventions of the Industrial Revolution , the steam engine , which was critical to the development of the modern railroad and trains. In , a man named Samuel Homfray decided to fund the development of a steam-powered vehicle to replace the horse-drawn carts on the tramways.

Richard Trevithick built that vehicle, the first steam engine tramway locomotive. On February 22, , the locomotive hauled a load of 10 tons of iron, 70 men, and five extra wagons the nine miles between the ironworks at Pen-y-Darron in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, to the bottom of Abercynnon valley. The trip took about two hours to complete. By , he'd built his first locomotive for them.

Not long after, he convinced the owners to try out a steam-powered locomotive. The first effort was named the Locomotion. While Stephenson is credited as the inventor of the first steam locomotive engine for railways, Trevithick's invention is cited as the first tramway locomotive. In , Englishman Julius Griffiths became the first person to patent a passenger road locomotive. These new trains could pull six loaded coal cars and 21 passenger cars with a capacity of passengers over nine miles in about an hour.

Not long after that, Stephenson opened his own firm built, Robert Stephenson and Company. The Rocket , the most advanced locomotive of its day, won handily and went on to set the standard by which most steam engines would be built for the next years. Colonel John Stevens is considered to be the father of railroads in the United States. In , Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on an experimental circular track constructed at his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey—three years before Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England.

Stevens was granted the first railroad charter in North America in but others began to receive grants and work began on the first operational railroads soon after.

In , Peter Cooper designed and built the first American-built steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb, to be operated on a common-carrier railroad. Another major train innovation of the 19th century didn't have anything to do with propulsion or power supply. Instead, it was all about passenger comfort. George Pullman invented the Pullman Sleeping Car in Although sleeping cars had been in use on American railroads since the s, the Pullman car was designed specifically for overnight passenger travel and was considered a marked improvement over its predecessors.

While steam-powered locomotives had an undeniable impact on transportation and economic expansion over the course of the 19 th century, the technology was not without its drawbacks. One of the most problematic was the smoke that resulted from burning coal and other fuel sources. While the noxious byproducts were tolerable in open countryside, even early on, the hazards created by fuel exhaust became all the more apparent as railroads encroached on more populated areas, which in turn, necessitated a growing number of underground tunnels to accommodate trains headed for urban destinations.

In a tunnel situation, smoke could turn lethal, especially if a train got stuck below ground. Trains powered by electricity seemed an obvious alternative but early electric train technology simply couldn't keep up with steam for long distances.

The first prototype for an electric locomotive was built in by Scottish chemist Robert Davidson, powered by galvanic battery cells. It weighed seven tons, had two direct-drive reluctance motors that used fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to wooden cylinders on each axle.

In , Englishman, Julius Griffiths was the first person to patent a passenger road locomotive. Stephenson's locomotive pulled six loaded coal cars and 21 passenger cars with passengers over 9 miles in about one hour. George Stephenson is considered to be the inventor of the first steam locomotive engine for railways. Richard Trevithick 's invention is considered the first tramway locomotive, however, it was a road locomotive, designed for a road and not for a railroad.

Stephenson was extremely poor growing up and received little formal education. He worked in local collieries and was self-taught in reading and writing. In , he became a colliery engine builder, and in he built his first locomotive for the Stockton and Darlington Railway Line.

Stephenson was hired as the company engineer and soon convinced the owners to use steam motive power and built the line's first locomotive, the Locomotion. In , Stephenson moved to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, where together with his son Robert built the Rocket. Colonel John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. In Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a circular experimental track constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England.

The first railroad charter in North America was granted to John Stevens in Grants to others followed, and work soon began on the first operational railroads. Designed and built by Peter Cooper in , the Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to be operated on a common-carrier railroad.

Pullman's railroad coach or sleeper was designed for overnight passenger travel. Sleeping cars were being used on American railroads since the s, however, early sleepers were not that comfortable and the Pullman Sleeper was very comfortable. Advanced Train Systems In the s and early s, considerable interest developed in the possibility of building tracked passenger vehicles that could travel much faster than conventional trains. From the s, interest in an alternative high-speed technology centered on magnetic levitation, or maglev.