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118 The First Steam Engine / Rail Gauge System
The First Steam Engine
Railroad history started in 1804 when a Cornish
engineer named Richard Trevithick built a steam
engine that ran on rails. The first fundamental
locomotive improvement came 25 years later when
George Stephenson, an English engineer, made his
celebrated “Rocket.” This vastly improved locomotive
included a blastpipe and multi-tube boiler, which
became standard in all the steam locomotives to follow. Stephenson’s Rocket was the key reason behind the rapid increase in railway construction so crucial to Britain’s Industrial Revolution.
Power in a steam locomotive comes from burning fuel in a furnace (sometimes wood, but usually coal). The furnace’s flames and hot gases funnel into tubes which run through a huge, water-filled boiler, turning the water into steam. From the boiler, steam is forced into cylinders, where it drives the pistons backward and forward. Piston movement is translated to the wheels by connecting rods and cranks.
Contrast With Today’s Locomotives
Modern locomotives are powered mostly by either powerful diesel-oil burning
engines or by electricity drawn from either a third rail parallel to the regular track or from a cable overhead.
Diesel engines may also drive an electrical generator, the electricity from which then powers electric motors, which in turn drive the wheels. In some locomotives, the diesel engine drives the wheels more directly through a mechanical link or through hydraulics.
In addition, several gas-turbine engines remain in operation. In them, hot gases spin a turbine which then drives the wheels.
fTT1⁄TAnatomy of Diesel-Electric Locomotive Engine
Dynamic brake Horn
Ventilator Air filter Diesel engine
Air compressor
Battery
Water tank
Ventilating fan
Driver’s cab
Alternator
Lubricating system
Coupler head
Control Stand
Fuel tank
Compressed air reservoir