When and where was the first trains built?

Question

I am looking for the history of locomotives and freight cars.

Answer 1

here's a decently entertaining source on this:

http://www.sapiensman.com/old_trains/eng...

Answer 2

Check out this site:http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fre...

Answer 3

Ewood Eddie - whilst it is true that the Stockton and Darlington was built as a coal carrying line and that the Directors did not envisage passenger traffic, that started to happen with a very short time. The Liverpool and Manchester was built to carry passengers from the beginning. But actually, the very first passenger carrying line was the Swansea and Mumbles dating from 1803. Questioner - the history of locomotives is vast and cannot be answered in the space available here. Google - or better still , go to your local librbary and borrow some books on the subject.

Answer 4

nitebear, stockton -Darlington caried coal. the first  passenger railway was Liverpool -Manchester in 1829.

the earliest steam rail locomotive was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian. It ran with mixed success on the narrow gauge "Penydarren tramroad" at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Then followed the successful twin cylinder locomotives built by Matthew Murray for the edge railed Middleton Railway in 1812. These early efforts culminated in 1829 with the Rainhill Trials and the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway a year later making exclusive use of steam power for both passenger and freight trains.

Answer 5

There's this great new search tool, you should try it.  It's called G-O-O-G-L-E.

Answer 6

Early 1800s.  The first railway line to carry passengers was the Stockton-Darlington line in England 1825.  Form there everything exploded in the railway industry.  The first iron rail road bridge was built a year earlier for the same line.

Definitely do some online searching as the info is out there.

Answer 7

There ought to be a FAQ section for this sort of question because it comes up time and again...

The first rail locomotive was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a Cornish engineer who had already experimented successfully with stationary engines and a steam road carriage. He was the first engineer to use a high pressure steam boiler working at 100 pounds per square inch (p.s.i.) where previously boilers had operated at 15-20 p.s.i.

In February of that year Trevithick's locomotive pulled a train of wagons containing 10 tons of iron and 70 men along a 16km track at Pen-y-Darren near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, at 5 mph.

Horse-drawn railways had already existed for about a century and the first railway wagons for locomotive-hauled freight were of the type previously pulled by the horses.

At first the railways only covered short distances and were used to carry coal or other mining products the short distances from the mine to a canal jetty or sea dock, as the horse-powered lines had done. Speeds were limited to 4 or 5mph until 1825 when George Stephenson built a locomotive capable of 20mph and then in 1829 broke his own record with the 'Rocket' which could do 30mph, thus debunking the widely-believed myth that people would die of asphyxiation at speeds above 25mph.

Construction of the rail network in Britain took off around the middle of the 19th century and engineers such as Stephenson also began to export railway technology to other countries, e.g. Germany were the first train, built by Stephenson, ran in 1835.

Gradually with increasing speeds and heavier loads the freight stock became more specialised and designed for locomotive-hauled use. Just about everything went by rail until  well into the last century and there was a rail wagon for just about everything - coal, livestock, perishable goods, oil, building materials, chemicals, heavy machinery, etc.

Bogie wagons (longer bodied with wheels in pivoting trucks at either end, as opposed to shorter, rigid wheelbase vehicles) allowed greater capacity and began to appear in the later 19th century especially in the US where trains were much heavier and covered greater distances.

Locomotives evolved to cope with the increased loads, reaching their extreme with the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 'Big Boy' articulated machines of the US.

One of the main factors in the development of railways throughout the world was the existence of the British Empire. Virtually everywhere they ruled the British built railways to suit the local conditions in every corner of the world, to promote trade and make it easier to move troops around if needed. At first the locomotives and rolling stock were built and exported from Britain but gradually rolling stock and later locomotives began to be locally built, a process which accelerated as the countries of the Empire became independent in the 2nd half of the last century.

Answer 8

Some of the first engines were constructed in Paterson, NJ

The earliest Railroads were formed in CT

Here is a good site for ya!

http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/