Steam locomotive facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A steam locomotive is a type of train engine that uses steam power. These powerful machines were widely used from around the 1830s until the 1970s. After that, diesel and electric trains became more common.

The very first steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick. He created it for a railway that moved iron at a factory in Wales. A steam locomotive works by burning fuel, like coal, in a special area called a firebox. This burning creates hot gases. These hot gases travel through tubes inside a large tank of water called a boiler. The heat from the gases turns the water into steam. This steam then goes into a cylinder and pushes a part called a piston. The piston is connected to the wheels, which makes the train move. Finally, the used steam escapes through the chimney.

Even today, steam locomotives are still used in some countries where railway lines have not yet been updated with electricity.

History
Images for kids
See also

History

Britain

In the early days, horses pulled carts on rail tracks. In 1784, a Scottish inventor named William Murdoch built a small model of a steam road engine. Later, in 1794, John Fitch in the US designed an early working model of a steam rail locomotive.

Trevithick's 1802 Coalbrookdale locomotive

The first full-size working steam locomotive was the Coalbrookdale Locomotive. Richard Trevithick built it in 1802 for an ironworks in Shropshire, United Kingdom. On February 21, 1804, Trevithick's locomotive made the first recorded steam-powered train journey. It pulled a train from the Pen-y-darren ironworks in South Wales. This design was special because it used high-pressure steam, which made the engine lighter and more efficient.

Trevithick's work inspired many coal mine owners and engineers in northeast England. This area soon became a hub for developing steam locomotives. Trevithick continued his experiments, building more locomotives like the Catch Me Who Can in 1808.

The Salamanca locomotive

In 1812, Matthew Murray's successful Salamanca locomotive started running. It was a special type of engine that used a rack (a toothed rail) to move. Another famous early locomotive was Puffing Billy, built in 1813–14 by William Hedley. This locomotive is one of the oldest preserved steam engines and can be seen in the Science Museum, London.

George Stephenson

The Locomotion at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum

George Stephenson was a former miner who became an engine-wright. He developed several locomotives, including Blücher in 1814. In 1817, he built The Duke, which was the first steam locomotive to work in Scotland.

In 1825, George Stephenson built Locomotion No. 1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This was the world's first public steam railway. In 1829, his son Robert built The Rocket in Newcastle. This locomotive won the famous Rainhill Trials competition. This victory helped their company become a leading builder of steam locomotives for railways in the UK, US, and Europe. A year later, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, using only steam power for both passengers and goods trains.

United States

The Stourbridge Lion

Many of the first locomotives in America came from Great Britain. These included the Stourbridge Lion and the John Bull. The John Bull is still the oldest working engine-powered vehicle in the United States. Soon, America started building its own locomotives. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Tom Thumb, built in 1830 by Peter Cooper, was the first US-built locomotive to run in America. It showed how useful steam trains could be. The DeWitt Clinton was also built in the 1830s.

Continental Europe

The first railway service outside the UK and North America opened in 1829 in France, connecting Saint-Étienne and Lyon. Then, on May 5, 1835, the first line in Belgium linked Mechelen and Brussels. The locomotive was called The Elephant.

Photo of the Adler made in the early 1850s

In Germany, the first working steam locomotive was similar to the Salamanca. It was designed by British pioneer John Blenkinsop and built in June 1816. This locomotive ran on a circular track in a factory yard. It was the first locomotive built on the European mainland and offered the first steam-powered passenger service. On December 7, 1835, the Adler ran for the first time between Nuremberg and Fürth in Germany.

The Austria, the first locomotive in Austria

In 1837, the first steam railway in Austria started. The oldest continuously working steam engine in the world, the GKB 671, is also in Austria. Built in 1860, it has never stopped working and is still used for special trips.

In 1838, the Saxonia was the third steam locomotive built in Germany. The first locomotive designed completely in Germany was the Beuth, built by August Borsig in 1841.

The first steam locomotives in Italy were the Bayard and the Vesuvio. They ran on the Napoli-Portici line. Switzerland's first railway line opened in 1844. Three years later, in 1847, the first fully Swiss railway line, the Spanisch Brötli Bahn, opened from Zürich to Baden.

Images for kids

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 (161 km/h), on 30 November 1934.
The Locomotion at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum
A 1848 scale model of the La Gironde in a museum at Le Creusot
First locomotive in Russia. 1834
A steam locomotive with the boiler and firebox exposed (firebox on the left)
Aftermath of a boiler explosion on a railway locomotive, circa 1850
Thermal image of an operating steam locomotive
Running gear animation
Steam-cleaning the running gear of an "H" class locomotive, Chicago and North Western Railway, 1943
Running gear of steam locomotive
Water gauge. Here the water in the boiler is at the "top nut", higher than the normal maximum working level.
A locomotive takes on water using a water crane
A locomotive crew in France
The boiler safety valves lifting on 60163 Tornado, creating a false smoke trail
Pressure gauges on Blackmore Vale. The right-hand one shows boiler pressure, the one on the left steam chest pressure.
Watering a steam locomotive
South African Class 25 condensing locomotive
"Wakefield" brand displacement lubricator mounted on a locomotive boiler backplate. Through the right-hand sight glass a drip of oil (travelling upwards through water) can be seen.
Big-end bearing (with connecting rod and coupling rod) of a Blackmoor Vale showing pierced cork stoppers to oil reservoirs
Preserved Great Western Railway locomotive 7802 Bradley Manor, with two oil lamps signifying an express passenger service, and a high-intensity electric lamp added for safety standards
A typical AWS "sunflower" indicator. The indicator shows either a black disk or a yellow and black "exploding" disk.
U-127, the 4-6-0 oil burning De Glehn compound locomotive that pulled Lenin's funeral train, in the Museum of the Moscow Railway at Paveletsky Rail Terminal
A South Australian Railways 400 class Garratt locomotive, built in 1952 to a Beyer, Peacock & Company design by Société Franco-Belge. Articulation is enabled by pivots at the ends of the locomotive's central frame.
David Lloyd George Leaves Tan-y-Bwlch Station, Gwynedd - a Fairlie locomotive on the Festiniog Railway, Wales
Ljungström steam turbine locomotive with air preheater, c.1925
Fireless locomotive
Heilmann locomotive No. 8001, Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest
The Gov. Stanford, a 4-4-0 (using Whyte notation) locomotive typical of 19th-century American practice
Esh 4444 0-10-0 at Varshavsky Rail Terminal, St. Petersburg
Great Western Railway No. 6833 Calcot Grange, a 4-6-0 Grange class steam locomotive at Bristol Temple Meads station. Note the Belpaire (square-topped) firebox.
60163 Tornado on the East Coast Main Line in 2016
California Western Railroad No. 45 (builder No. 58045), built by Baldwin in 1924, is a 2-8-2 Mikado locomotive. It is still in use today on the Skunk Train.
The 200th steam locomotive built by Clyde Engineering (TF 1164) from the Powerhouse Museum collection
60163 Tornado, a new express locomotive built for the British main line, completed in 2008
Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad 425 being readied in Pennsylvania, US, for the daily tourist train in 1993
Er 774 38 0-10-0 on Steam Special Train in Moscow 11 July 2010
2-6-0 type "N3" steam locomotive built by Beyer, Peacock & Company in 1910 and restored 2005–2007 by the Uruguayan Railfan Association (AUAR). The photo shows the locomotive with a passenger tourist train in March 2013 at a Montevideo railway station museum.
South African Class 26, the Red Devil