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Travel is
people. You may go abroad to see the famous sites, but
what you remember best are the people you meet. Among them, like
unexpected treasure, are a few memorable contacts that will make
your travels unique, special, and delightful. "People" is devoted to some
of those you may come in contact with during your Home at First travels.
APRIL, 2004
Two of Britain’s shining
stars of the 19th century are back in the news about 200 years after one was
born and 200 years after the other changed the world.
After Richard Trevithick’s
practical railway locomotive first ran 200 years ago in Pen-y-darren, South Wales,
horsepower would never be the same. After 200 years, this "Father of the
Railways" is finally getting the recognition he deserves.
Also back in the news is the little giant of
British engineering, I.K. Brunel, himself a
major contributor to the development of modern transportation via his designs for
railways, bridges, stations, tunnels, and steamships. A public works project near
Paddington Station in western central London has uncovered a long-forgotten Brunel bridge,
and the move toward preservation has begun. (See article page 2.)
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RICHARD TREVITHICK (1771-1833)
INVENTION OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 200 YEARS AGO
2004 marked the 200th
anniversary of the impressive first practical use of Richard Trevithick’s Penydarren
locomotive pulling a heavy trainload of iron and 70 people in the mountains of South
Wales. Although the infrastructure was not yet in place elsewhere, Trevithick’s
isolated train proved it possible to use "portable steam power" to transport
passengers and freight even in a rugged environment. Every subsequent development in
railway—even in ground transportation—has been an improvement on
Trevithick’s inspired core invention. |
RICHARD TREVITHICK |
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MODERN TRANSPORTATION BEGAN IN CORNWALL
Trevithick was a Cornish lad at time when tin
mining was the principal economic activity in Cornwall. During the last quarter of the
eighteenth century, Cornwall was home to the greatest number of steam engines in the
world. In Cornwall applied steam engineering first became sophisticated. As a young man
Trevithick became a rising star engineer through his novel application of high-pressure
steam engines of his design to pump ocean water from coastal mines prone to flooding.
By combining high-pressure steam with
miniaturized engine design Trevithick became convinced of the promise of self-propelled
steam-powered transportation. His vision first took the form of the truck, when, in 1801,
Trevithick invented a steam-powered road vehicle that was accurately named Puffing
Devil. But the medieval roads of Britain were no place for a heavy, under-powered
machine designed to roll, and Trevithick’s vision would have to wait. |
THE WORLD'S FIRST STEAM TRAIN RUNS IN SOUTH WALES
Then, two years later, when a Welsh
industrialist consulted Trevithick about using steam to transport iron
from his Penydarren Ironworks to the nearby Merthyr-Cardiff Canal,
Trevithicks vision evolved into steam transport on the iron rails of a
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PENYDARREN |
horse-drawn railway. On February 21, 1804 his Penydarren
locomotive pulled five wagons with ten tons of iron and seventy passengers between the
ironworks and the canal at the fast walk of four mph, and became the world’s first
steam-powered train. But the train was too heavy for the fragile cast iron rails it ran
on. After three trips to the canal and back the Penydarren was retired and railway
technology was put on the back burner to wait for two other of Britain’s great
engineer-inventors, George and Robert Stephenson, to put all the pieces together starting
ten years later. |
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DEATH IN OBSCURITY; RECOGNITION COMES SLOWLY
When Richard Trevithick died in April, 1833,
back home in Cornwall where he was working on a steam engine, he was virtually penniless
and largely forgotten. His self-written epitaph shows no bitterness: "However much I
may be straitened in pecuniary circumstances, the great honour of being a useful subject
can never be taken from me, which to me far exceeds riches." Add this: Richard
Trevithick was a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution and among the greatest engineers to
have ever lived.
For well over a century now, Richard Trevithick
has played Nikola Tesla to the Stephensons’ Edison. In a series of events
in 2004 commemorating the 200th jubilee of the first run of the Penydarren, Trevithick finally gained recognition as deserving at least a share of the title "Father of the
Railways" for introducing the technology that changed the world. |
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THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS IN BRITAIN
The bicentennial of the Penydarren’s
first journey in South Wales was celebrated by a series of events and exhibitions
throughout much of 2004. Chief among these was the exhibition of a full-scale replica Penydarren
that appeared in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, over the summer months.
Home At First's Mid-Wales cottages and apartments are 20-45
minutes drive from Merthyr Tydfil.
In northern England, "RailFest 2004"
commemorated Trevithick’s first locomotive and several
other key events in the history of railroading at the city of York’s award winning
National Railway Museum.
Home At First's Yorkshire cottages and
apartments are within 45-90 minutes drive of
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York's
National Railway Museum.
In January 2005 Britain’s Royal Mint issued a £2 coin commemorating the 1804 Penydarren locomotive and finally earning
Trevithick an official share of the steam-engineering pantheon with James Watt and the
Stephensons. |
FOR NEWS ABOUT BRUNEL, GO TO PAGE 2
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Travel back in time. |
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