Railroad history

Railroad History
Important milestones in English and American railway development
1630: | Beaumont designs and builds wagon roads for English coal mines using heavy planks on which horses pulled carts and wagons. |
1753: | First steam engine arrives in the colonies from England. |
1755: | First steam engine in America is installed to pump water from a mine. |
1758: | An Act of Parliamentestablishes the Middleton Railway in Leeds. Thus the Middleton claims to be the oldest Railway in the world. |
1769: | Frenchman Nicholas Cugnot builds a steam carriage. |
1774: | Scotsman James Watt builds first "modern" stationary steam engine. |
1776: | English tram road is laid down with cast iron angle bars on timber ties. |
1784: | Murdoch (Watt associate) steam engine model runs 6to 8 mph. |
1789: | Englishman William Jessup designs first wagons with flanged wheels. |
1800: | Oliver Evans, an American, creates the earliest successful non-condensing high pressure stationary steam-engine. |
1804: | Oliver Evans builds his first steam-powered boat, weight: 4,000 lbs. |
1804: | Matthew Murray of Leeds, England invents a steam locomotive which runs on timber rails. Thisis probably the FIRST RAILROAD ENGINE. Seen by Richard Trevithick before he builds his loco. |
1804: | Richard Trevithick of Cornwall builds 40 psi steam locomotive for the Welsh Penydarran Railroad. |
1807: | The very first passenger train ran from Swansea to Mumbles on March 25th. |
1808: | Trevithick builds a circular railway in London's Torrington Square. Steam carriage Catch Me WhoCan weighes 10 tons and makes 15 mph. |
1812: | The first commercially successful steam locomotives, using the Blenkinsop rack and pinion drive, commenced operation on the Middleton Railway. This was the world's first regular revenue-earning use of steam traction, as distinct from experimental operation. |
1812: | American Colonel John Stevens publishes a pamphlet containing:
"Documents tendingto prove the superior advantages of Railways and Steam Carriages over Canal Navigation." 
He also states, 
"I can see nothing to hinder a steam carriage moving on its ways with a velocity of 100 miles an hour." |
1813: | Englishman William Hedley builds and patents 50 psi railroad loco which could haul 10 coal wagons at 5 mph, equal to 10 horses. |
1814: | Englishman George Stephensonbuilds Blucher, his first railway engine. Pulls 30 tons at 4 mph, but is not efficient. |
1815: | Stephenson's second engine: 6 wheels and a multitubular boiler. |
1821: | Englishman Julius Griffiths patents a passenger road locomotive. |
1824: | Construction begins on the 1st locomotive workshop in New Castle, England. |
1824: | Englishman David Gordon patents a steam-driven machine with legswhich imitates the action of a horse's legs and feet. Not successful. |
1825: | Stephenson's 8-ton LOCOMOTION No. 1 built for the Stockton & Darlington Railroad. Capable of pulling 90 tons of coal at 15 mph. Stephenson plans all details of the line, and even designs the bridges, machinery, engines, turntables, switches, and crossings, and is responsible for every part of the work of theirconstruction. (The passenger coaches of this time were all drawn by horses.) |
1825: | Colonel John Stevens builds a steam waggon which he placed on a circular railway before his house now Hudson Terrace at Hoboken, New Jersey. |
1826: | The first line of rails in the New England States is said to have been laid down at Quincy, Mass., 3 miles in length and pulled by horses. |
1827: |The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is chartered to run from Baltimore to the Ohio River in Virginia. It was the first westward bound railroad in America. Wind power (sail on carriage) was tried, followed by horse power, with the horse walking on a treadmill which drove the carriage wheels! |
1827: | The Switch Back Gravity Railroad in Pennsylvania began operation in May of 1827 before work began on the...