Robert Stephenson and Company was the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives in the first decades of steam for railways in the United Kingdom, the United States, and much of Europe. In 1830 George Stephenson opened the first public inter-city railway, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 1, built by George Stephenson and his son Robert’s company Robert Stephenson and Company, was the first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in 1825. Salamanca, built in 1812 by Matthew Murray for the Middleton Railway, was the first commercially successful steam locomotive. Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive in 1802.

Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Variations in this general design include electrically-powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it.

In most locomotives, the steam is admitted alternately to each end of its cylinders, in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels.

: 80 It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or – now rare – wood) to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point when it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. 41 018 climbing the Schiefe Ebene was pusher locomotive (video 34.4 MB)Ī steam locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam.

How big is steam