About 200 years ago, the very first steam locomotive was invented. Now trains are powered by diesel fuel and overhead catenary systems that can reach over 150 mph while commuting passengers, but back then in the 19th century the trains could only reach about 5 mph. The very first train locomotive was invented by an English inventor by the name of Richard Trevithick. In 1771, he was born in the coal district of Carn Brea in Cornwall, England. While still young, he worked on water pump engines with his father, and Trevithick eventually thought of a more efficient way to transport coal to England’s industries. To do this, he would use an original steam engine design by James Watt to power the moving locomotive. In the early 1800s, Trevithick received…show more content… In 1825, then renamed Locomotion, it took 450 people 25 miles from Darlington to Stockton at 15 miles an hour. In 1830, Stephenson finally finished the Rocket which operated on the Liverpool and Manchester in Lancashire and reached 36 miles an hour. Fast forward about 39 years, across the Atlantic Ocean the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific finish the Transcontinental Railroad. Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific Railroad drove in the golden spike (he missed his first swing and hit the rail), completing the railroad. The Union Pacific started in Omaha, Nebraska while the Central Pacific started in Sacramento, California and met at Promontory, Utah. At that time, they had more efficient steam locomotive such as Union Pacific’s Jupiter and Central Pacific’s 119. A few months later on the eastern side of the United States, new locomotives were being invented. It was in the late 1870’s when Ephraim Shay started to make a new locomotive the would change the wood industry. Many people noticed that normal steam engines with pistons are not strong enough to get up high grades, but other engines like the Shay, Climax, and Heisler could get the job
