In 1804 in England the locomotive was born. Matthew Murray and Richard Trevithick both built locomotives that ran on timber rails. Though Matthew was the first, Richard built an improved 40 psi engine. On March 25, 1807 the first passenger train ran from Swansea to Mumbles, England. While novel, these first few engines were merely experimental.
Beginning in 1812, the Blenkinsop rack and pinion drive began operation on the Middleton railway. In 1814, a 50 psi locomotive was patented that could haul ten coal wagons at 5 miles per hour(mph). Over the next fifteen years, there were several innovations in design, including George Stephenson's eight ton locomotive put in service in 1825 that could pull 90 tons of coal at 15 mph. In 1827, both the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Switch Back Gravity Railroad began operations in the New World. These were first pulled by horses.
By 1829, the first steam locomotives began to be used in America. In 1830, the first American built steam engine went into service, and the American frontier quickly became the center for innovation in rail technology. The cone "tread" of the wheel was invented as well as the four-wheel leading truck, the bell and cow catcher, and the popular 4-4-0. Speeds and horsepower increased and in 1833 brakes were added to locomotives. Rail transport began to be both economical and practical, doing the work of many horses at less than half the cost.
By 1862, railroad potential had gained presidential interest and Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act authorizing the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. In 1868, the knuckle coupler was invented eliminating a major source of railroad worker injuries. April 13, 1969 saw the installation of the first straight air brake and by 1872 this was improved to the system similar to one still in use in locomotives today. On May 10, 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed. Between 1883 and 1885 the Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Santa Fe railroads were completed.
By 1893, safety regulations required air brakes on all locomotives and automatic couplers on all rail cars. On May 10th of that same year a new speed record was set by locomotive #999 of the New York Central and Hudson River Rail Road. Also that year in Baltimore the first main line electrification took place. This paved the way for electric locomotives where steam was either banned or found to impractical in the early 1900s. To close out the 1800s, Casey Jones road the "Cannonball" into history.
