Steam Trains

History of the steam engine after James Watt
In 1800, the patent of James Watt was over. The consequence was an enormous mass of inventions with steam as their basis. All those inventors wanted to improve the steam engine. However, there were not many people that could achieve more than just a printed paper of their product.

The evolution of the noncondensing high-pressure steam-engine
James Watt already mentioned the idea of a high-pressure steam engine in his patent of 1769. He did not intend to build such an engine, but he wanted to be sure nobody else would either. Watt thought that it was impossible to create cylinders and pistons that did not leak under high pressure. He probably also thought about the boiler-detonations of some Savery-engines.

Richard Trevithick
He already thought early about building high-pressure steam engines.
However, many critics did not believe a high-pressure steam engine would really do any work. Trevithick found in South Whales an owner of a mine who refused to believe that a locomotive, operating at high pressure, could pull 10 tons on his 10 miles long good course. Trevithick made a bet with him. Then he built the first locomotive in the world and won the bet.

Nonetheless, he did not receive much success with his locomotives. In 1808, he tried again to take the interest of the public. He rented the largest building sites of London and a circular rail system. By paying entrance, everyone was able to shut a glimpse at his new locomotive "Catch me who can." A travel with it was part of the entrance. The conception did however not bring the success Trevithick expected. He, therefore, did other technical inventions.

George Stephenson and the competition at Rainhill in 1829
George Stephensons' inventions have been really substantial for the history of steam locomotives. However, his first attemps did not bring the success he had hoped for. The owners of the mines could not see the advantage of using steam power instead of horses.
Stephenson then invented some locomotives, which have been used on short coal courses. He was not the only man who contributed to the evolution of steam locomotives. In 1829, there was a decision to build a railway line between the two main cities of trade in England. The line had been finished before having concrete thoughts about the way of transport. Many ideas have been sent to the management. Many of them couldn't get realized. The best chances to be carried out had a set of stationary steam-engine which pulled the wagons by means of rope. But George Stephenson wanted them to do a competition of useful locomotives, so they did.

There were four locomotives that had been announced to participate on the competition. One got a damaged during the transportation and did not fit to the rules. Two locomotives had been suspended from the competition, because they had mechanical difficulties. So there was only Stephensons Rocket left. The great advantage of this engine was its tube boiler. It was the secretary of the railway company who designed it. The cylinder operated through some precautions directly on the front axle. After doing some improvements during the tests, the machine was able to pull a passenger wagon with more than thirty persons inside and reached a velocity of 45 km/h (=28 miles/h). A great advantage of this machine was also that it did not get damaged during the tests. The price of the competition was paid fifty-fifty to Stephenson and Booth, the secretary of the railway company and inventor of the tube boiler.
Stephenson build more locomotives.


Steam locomotives


A modern steam engine consists of a double acting steam engine, which works directly on the driving wheels. Water is heated in a boiler to produce steam. The water is leaded in spiral formed tubes over the fire to enlarge the surface. The conveying of steam is regulated by a slide-gate valve, which can be adjusted to choose whenever the engine runs forward or backwards.