| Home | TRAIN WORLD THE GOLDEN AGE OF RAILROAD In the 1600’s the English and Germans had railroads for mining. There were propelled by horses or people. These all go back to the very first locomotive built in 1804 by a British inventor named Richard Trevithick. After then, other locomotives such as the Rocket and the General were built. HORSE vs. HORSEPOWER ROUND 1 In 1830, an American named Peter Cooper tried to convince the Baltimore and Ohio Railway (B. & O.) that his steam locomotive was faster than the horses that they used. His locomotive was called "Tom Thumb". So the Tom Thumb and a horse had a race. In the first race, the Tom Thumb's engine belt broke and the little locomotive slowed to a stop allowing the horse to win. IRON WHEELS on IRON RAILS When the steam locomotive was just beginig in the west, indians called the trains"Iron Horses". Also when the trains were in the west, the trains would scare the buffalo runninig away from their homes. But sometimes the buffalos would get in there way which steam engines like General had to wear a cowcatcher. A cowcatcher is somewhat of a protector for the front of the steam locomotive from cows, buffalos of other large object that were in the trains way. There was also another kind of protector called side plates. Side plates would do the same as cow catcher ,but were used on the sides of the locomotive. Some steam locomotives have cow catchers or side plates or even both. There was a special kind of train that used both cow catchers and side plates there were called tram engines. A tram engine was sort of a rectangular train that didn't look like a regular steam locomotive. Old Ironsides was built by the American industrialist Matthias William Baldwin for the Philidelphia, Germantown and Norristown railroad Company. This train was a four-wheeled locomotive weighing about 5 metric tons. It was given the first road tests in 1832 and put to service almost immediately. If you have any questions or comments, please E-Mail the Webmaster |