Trevithick Locomotive Replica Model

Copy of the World's First Steam Railway Locomotive, built by the Coalbrookdale Co., 26 years before Stephenson's RocketThe Coalbrookdale Company built the world's first steam railway locomotive to a design by Richard Trevithick - 26 years before Stephenson's 'Rocket'. Trevithick came to Coalbrookdale from Cornwall because he believed the Coalbrookdale ironmasters owned one of the few companies who could build a boiler that could withstand much higher pressures than the normal riveted wrought-iron plates. At one and a quarter inches thick the boiler could run at a steam pressure of 45 pounds per square inch - most stationary engines at that time could only achieve 14 psi. With no preconceptions of what a locomotive should look like, the Trevithick locomotive might appear strange to us today, e.g. Trevithick put a chimney at the back. The locomotive ran on the Coalbrookdale 3ft gauge plateway track. Whilst the original does not survive, a replica, built in 1989-90 at GKN Sankey in Telford, currently runs at Blists Hill Victorian Town.

Copy of the World's First Steam Railway Locomotive, built by the Coalbrookdale Co., 26 years before Stephenson's Rocket