FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN
REACHES 15 MPH
G'day folks,
For the first time in history a steam locomotive carried passengers on a public railway in 1825. The engine was called Locomotion No. 1 and in control was its designer, the engineer George Stephenson.
It belonged to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which operated
across the North East of England. Apart from 36 wagons filled with sacks
of coal and flour, the train included a purpose-built passenger coach
called The Experiment. Bone-shaking and springless, the carriage
resembled a shed on wheels and was occupied by various dignitaries.
The rest of the passengers stood in open coal wagons, though a few had the "luxury" of temporary wooden benches.
The directors had allowed room for 300 passengers, but the train left
carrying between 450 and 600 people, some travelling on top of wagons
full of coal.
As the train set off, watched by hundreds of curious onlookers, it was
led by a man on horseback with a flag and managed to cover eight and a
half miles (14km) in two hours at an average speed of 8mph (13km/h).
The historic journey came about after a meeting between Stephenson, who
had built steam engines to work in local collieries, and Edward Pease,
the son of a wool merchant.
Pease rode round the country buying fleeces from farmers and in the
course of his travels became convinced of the need for a railroad to
carry coal from the collieries to an East Coast port. In 1821, with a
group of businessmen, he formed the Stockton & Darlington Railway
company.
Then he came up with a plan for an eight-mile (12.9km) line to exploit a
rich vein of coal. The coal wagons would be pulled by horses.
When he heard of the scheme, Stephenson contacted Pease and told him
that he should consider building a locomotive railway and that he had
already built a locomotive that was "worth fifty horses".
Pease saw the engine at work, realised Stephenson was right and offered him the post of chief engineer at the railroad company.
So it was that the historic "passenger train" made its first run. But it
was not the only railway "first": it was also the scene of the first
recorded accident involving a passenger. When the horseman ahead of the
train was out of the way and the train was going down a slope,
Stephenson opened the throttle and his train reached the staggering
speed of 15mph (24km/h).
This so unnerved one passenger that he fell off and his foot was crushed by the following wagon.
Clancy's comment: Well, there ya go. Now, we have trains doing amazing speeds.
I'm ...
