A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING.
Fig. 1.—The Blenkinsop locomotive, built in 1812–13 to work on the rack Railway between Leeds and the Middleton colliery, a distance of 3.5 miles. This was the first commercially successful enterprise in which steam locomotives were employed. Fig. 2.—Model of locomotive engine No. 1 of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, England, built by Messrs R. Stevenson & Company in 1825. This engine ran successfully for 21 years. Fig. 3.—The locomotive "Royal George" which worked on the Stockton and Darlington Railway 1827–1842. It will be observed that each of these engines antedated Stevenson's famous "Rocket." Fig. 4.—Shows, by way of contrast with these earliest types of locomotive, the "Twentieth Century Limited" train of the New York Central Railroad, and a racing automobile, either of which can easily make better time than a mile a minute, as against the two or three miles per hour of their prototypes.
The passenger coach on this first train, the first of its kind ever constructed for the special purpose of carrying passengers, was remarkable for its simplicity. One writer described it as "a modest and uncouth-looking affair, made more for strength than for beauty. A row of seats ran along each side of the interior, and a long table was fixed in the centre, the access being by the doorway behind, like an omnibus. This vehicle was named the Experiment, and was the only carriage for passengers upon the road for some time."
About this time the now famous Liverpool and Manchester Railway was projected. It was elaborately planned and carried out at an enormous expense. The construction of the road-bed was given special attention, although as yet the question of what motive power should be used had not been decided. Most of the directors and engineers favored the use of horses. The few that were in favor of steam did not favor the use of locomotives, but a system that would now be called a relay-cable system. According to this plan the road of about thirty miles was to be divided into nineteen sections, over each of which a stationary steam-engine was to work a chain or cable. But when the board of engineers appointed to investigate the possibilities of this system reported on the matter, it was found that there were several vital defects in such a system. For example, should any one of the sections of cable break or become inoperative, the entire line would have to stand idle; and furthermore, the cost of building and maintaining these nineteen stations offered serious financial obstacles.
It is an interesting fact that until the report of this board was made "not a single professional man of eminence could be found who preferred the locomotive over the fixed engine, George Stephenson only excepted." But with the glaring defects of the cable road, and the enormous cost of maintenance impressed upon the directors, the idea of the locomotive became at once more attractive, and the performance of Stephenson's locomotive was more carefully investigated. The upshot of these investigations was the offer of a prize of £500 for a locomotive that, on a certain day would perform certain duties named under the eight following headings:—
1. The engine must effectually consume its own smoke.
2. The engine, if of six tons' weight, must be able to draw, day by day, twenty tons' weight, including the tender, and water-tank, at ten miles an hour, with a pressure of steam upon the boiler not exceeding fifty pounds to the square inch.
3. The boiler must have two safety-valves, neither of which must be fastened down, and one of them completely out of the control of the engineer.
4. The engine and boiler must be supported upon springs and rest on six wheels, the height of the whole not exceeding fifteen feet to the top of the chimney.