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 19^th 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.)

RICHARD TREVITHICK (1771-1833)

INVENTION OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 200 YEARS AGO
        This year marks the 200^th 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

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, Trevithick’s vision evolved into steam transport on the iron rails of a 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.

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. Now, in a series of events commemorating the 200th jubilee of the first run of the Penydarren, Trevithick is finally gaining recognition as deserving at least a share of the title "Father of the Railways" for introducing the technology that changed the world.

THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS IN BRITAIN
        The bicentennial of the Penydarren’s first journey in South Wales is being celebrated by a series of events and exhibitions throughout much of 2004. Chief among these will be the exhibition of a full-scale replica Penydarren to appear in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, over the summer months. Several events are planned for an expanded Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Festival from July 1-11, 2004, with several replicas of the Penydarren possibly on display for two days, July 3-4. Home at First's Mid-Wales cottages and apartments are 20-45 minutes drive from Merthyr Tydfil.
        In northern England, "RailFest 2004" (May 29–June 6, 2004) commemorates 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 York's National Railway Museum.
        Next January Britain’s Royal Mint will issue 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