THE STEAM ENGINE LOCOMOTIVE

EVER WANTED TO KNOW ......

Fathers and Sons

The Pioneers of the high pressure steam engine ......

This is the story of three great engineers.Richard Trevithick, a Cornish man born in 1771, George Stephenson, born at Wylam near Newcastle upon Tyne in 1781 and his son Robert born at Willington Key, Northumberland in 1803.

RICHARD TREVITHICK was the Cornish Giant who disliked book learning and loved wrestling. He found work with his father starting in the Dolcoath Mine in 1786 and developed a passion for engineering and in particular the steam engine.

George Stephenson – was the son of a colliery fireman and grew up with engines. He began work as a herdsman but when he was 18 years old, enrolled in evening classes and learned to read and write. He became a colliery engine man in 1802 and four years later, his wife Frances died leaving him with a three year old son – Robert.

Trevithick's interest in the steam engine grew ever more passionate and as he gained promotion and started work in the Ding Dong Mine in 1796. He was given instructions to cut down on the fuel consumption and increase the output of their steam engine which he did by increasing the pressure. His high pressure engine was born using what he called “strong steam”. He also built a working model steam locomotive with the boiler and engine in one piece. The boiler contained hot water and he introduced a red hot rod into a tube underneath that produced the steam and set the engine in motion.

George Stephenson meanwhile had also developed a keen interest in steam engines and had joined his father at the Dewley mine. By the time he was 27, he had become an engine man at Killingworth Colliery near Newcastle and there, he took engines made by the prominent engineers Newcomen and Watts to bits to find out more about their workings. He gained so much knowledge that in 1812, they promoted him to engineering. The following year, knowing of attempts by two engineers at the Wylam Colliery to develop a locomotive, he convinced his manager, Nicholas Wood to let him try to build a steam powered locomotive and by the following year, 1814, he had succeeded in developing “ Blutcher “ an engine that could haul 30 tons up a gradient at 4mph. It was also the first flanged wheel engine and the following year, he changed the design so that the connecting rods directly drove the wheels.

During this time, Trevithick had been working on a steam road locomotive and his “Puffing Devil” which utilised steam pressure to propel a piston back and forth into a cylinder let into a horizontal boiler. This was linked by a piston rod and connecting rod to a crankshaft and large flywheel. Unfortunately, he was unable to keep up the steam for long. Undeterred, he took his idea to London with disastrous results as one of his boilers at Greenwich had exploded and killed four workmen and the Watts and Boulton company who made low pressure boilers, exploited this tragedy to persuade Parliament that high pressure steam - sometimes as high as 45lb per square inch, would be extremely dangerous with a high risk of explosions. Parliament however allowed him to continue with the stipulation that the boiler plates be changed from cast to wrought iron and a pressure relief valve be fitted. In 1803, he found new backers and took his new locomotive to London but it developed serious problems and they withdrew their support.This did not stop him however and with the help of his new sponsor Samuel Homfray who owned Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, he finally produced the world's first steam locomotive that could run on rails.It hauled 70 passengers, 10 tons of iron and 5 wagons on a nine mile trip at speed of up to 5mph. He achieved this by exhausting the steam up the chimney and the resulting draught improved the draw of hot gases through the boiler.

Following the success of the Blutcher, George Stephenson had gone from strength to strength and in the subsequent five years had successfully built another 16 steam engines at Killingworth. He went on to construct the first railway that had no need of horses to do the hauling. During this time, Parliament had commissioned Edward Pearse to construct a horse railway to link the collieries in West Durham to the River Tees at Stockton and Stephenson persuaded him to see the Blutcher at work. So impressed was Pearse that he engaged Stephenson as his chief engineer of the Stockton & Darlington Company.

Robert Stephenson, son of George, was by now becoming an accomplished engineer having been an apprentice mining engineer at Killingworth. His father enlisted his help to survey the Stockton & Darlington line and he subsequently built a four wheeled, high pressure locomotive. In 1823, he formed Robert Stephenson & Co. who built the “Locomotion” and went on to complete his steam engine designs for the Stockton & Darlington railway. That same year, he sailed for South America to open up silver mines having signed a contract with agents of what was to become the Columbian Mining Association and in his absence, his father founded the company “George Stephenson & Son” naming Robert as Chief Engineer.

Richard Trevithick had not fared so well. On all three journeys of his locomotive “Penydarren”, the 7 ton engine had broken the cast iron rails. His sponsor became despondent and withdrew his backing. The locomotive “Catch Me Who Can” was his next steam engine and he erected a circular rail track in Euston Square; London charging one shilling a ride. It was a popular attraction but again the rails broke and finished the experiment. Various projects followed, including building a steam dredger for lifting waste from the Thames. Failing to make money from this, he accepted a job offer in Peru where his steam engines were at last successful. Disaster struck again however in the form of a civil war in 1826, forcing him to leave everything and flee. He arrived in Columbia where he met Robert Stephenson who generously loaned him £50 for his return passage to England.

The Stockton & Darlington line was opened in September 1825. George Stephenson had spent considerable time cutting embankments and tunnels to lessen the gradients and enhance the pulling power of the locomotives. He was at the controls of the “Locomotion” as it hauled its 36 wagons to the delight of large crowds along the way. It completed 9 miles in 2 hours and greatly reduced the cost of transporting coal. One of his next tasks, was as chief engineer of the new Liverpool & Manchester railway. The task was daunting and he faced many engineering difficulties. His directors could not decide whether to use steam engine locomotives or stationary engines so they decided to hold a competition. The winning locomotive would claim the £500 prize money and possibly be used on the new line. Thus was born the idea of the Rainhill Trials.

It was Robert Stephenson who came up with the design of winning steam engine “The Rocket”. Held at Rainhill, Merseyside in October 1829, each locomotive had to haul a load 3 times its own weight, twenty times up and down the track at a speed of at least 10 mph. Only three actually took part, “Novelty”, “Sans Pariel” and “The Rocket” which went on to win the competition.

George Stephenson went on to develop the Rocket, until it gained a top speed of 29mph. He went on to acquire many successful businesses and a small farm. Married three times, he died at Tapton House in Chesterfield on August 12th 1848.

His son Robert was appointed Chief Engineer to the London & Birmingham Railway, opened offices in London, patented two broad gauge locomotives that were used on the opening of the Great Western Railway. His companies were exporting all over the world and he was surveying for many railway companies and building bridges. He became chief engineer for the Alexandria to Cairo railway and as a commissioner to the Great Exhibition, he recommended Paxton's design for the great Crystal Palace. He designed the tubular girder bridge spanning the St. Lawrence seaway in Montreal which was then the longest bridge in the world. In 1855, Napoleon the third made him a “Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur”. He died in 1859 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Trevithick, on his return to England continued trying out new ideas including a new marine boiler and a recoil gun carriage but he never did obtain the financial support he so badly needed and he died a pauper in Dartford on April 22nd 1833. He would have had a pauper's grave if it had not been for the generosity of some local workers who raised the money to bury him in the churchyard at Dartford.

And so ended the lives of these brilliant engineers whose passions for the steam engine were the same but whose fortunes could not have been more different.

Richard Trevithick and

George & Robert Stephenson....truly great pioneers of Steam.

Trevithick's Steam Carriage

Photo by Kind Courtesy of Bev Parker

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