''Locomotion'' No. 1 (originally named ''Active'') is an early

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

that was built in 1825 by the pioneering railway engineers

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

and

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE FRSA Doctor of Civil Law, DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railway ...

at their manufacturing firm,

Robert Stephenson and Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomotiv ...

. It became the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway, the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...

(S&DR). ''Locomotion No. 1'' was ordered by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company in September 1824; its design benefitted from George Stephenson's experience building his series of

Killingworth locomotives George Stephenson built a number of experimental steam locomotives to work in the Killingworth Colliery between 1814 and 1826. Background George Stephenson was appointed as engine-wright at Killingworth Colliery in 1812 and immediately improve ...

. It is believed that ''Locomotion No. 1'' was the first locomotive to make use of

coupling rod A coupling rod or side rod connects the driving wheels of a locomotive. Steam locomotives in particular usually have them, but some diesel and electric locomotives, especially older ones and shunters, also have them. The coupling rods transfer t ...

s to link together its driving wheels, reducing the chance of the wheels slipping on the iron rails. However, the centre-flue boiler proved to be a weakness, providing for a poor heating surface compared to later multi-flue boilers. In September 1825, ''Locomotion No. 1'' hauled the first train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and became the first locomotive to run on a public railway. On 1 July 1828, it was heavily damaged when its boiler exploded at station, resulting in the death of its driver, John Cree. It was rebuilt but, as a consequence of the rapid advances in locomotive design, ''Locomotion No. 1'' became obsolete within a decade. It was used on the railway until 1850, after which it was converted into a

stationary engine A stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. They are used to drive immobile equipment, such as pumps, generators, mills or factory machinery, or cable cars. The term usually refers to large immobile reciprocating engines, pr ...

. In 1857, as a consequence of its historical importance, ''Locomotion No. 1'' was preserved and put on display. Between 1892 and 1975, it was on static display at one of the platforms at Darlington Bank Top railway station, and was then on display at the

Head of Steam Head of Steam, formerly known as the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum, is a railway museum located on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the world's first steam-powered passenger railway. It is based inside the ...

museum based at Darlington North Road railway station between 1975 and 2021. It is presently at the

Locomotion Locomotion means the act or ability of something to transport or move itself from place to place. Locomotion may refer to: Motion * Motion (physics) * Robot locomotion, of man-made devices By environment * Aquatic locomotion * Flight * Locomo ...

museum in Shildon. A working replica of ''Locomotion'' has also been built and following years of operation at

Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it wa ...

is now on display at the Head of Steam museum.

History

Origins

On 23 June 1823, the pioneering locomotive manufacturer Robert Stephenson and Company was established by the railway engineers George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson, and the businessmen Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson. In November of that year, only months after the company started operations, a key order was placed by the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company for four stationary engines. On 16 September 1824, the S&DR ordered a pair of steam locomotives, at a price of £550 (about £ today) each. This order was historically important as the first of these locomotives, ''Active'' (later renamed ''Locomotion No. 1''), was the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger train on a public railway.

Design

The design of ''Locomotion'' combined and built on the improvements that George Stephenson had incorporated in his Killingworth locomotives. The locomotive weighed 6.6 tonnes, with many elements, including the boiler, cylinders and wheels, composed of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

, although the frame was

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

. There were four diameter

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

s. ''Locomotion No. 1'' used high-pressure (50 psi) steam generated in a centre-flue boiler and driving a pair of vertical

cylinders A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infini ...

, in diameter, which were half embedded within the boiler. The boiler had a

blastpipe The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire. History The primacy of discovery of the ...

in the chimney. The single flue boiler had a low heating surface-to-water ratio compared to later boiler designs. The maximum speed of ''Locomotion No. 1'' was about . A pair of cross-heads above the cylinders transmitted the power through a pair of

s, making use of a loose eccentric valve gear. ''Locomotion No. 1'' is believed to have been the first locomotive to use coupling rods to connect its driving wheels together, an approach which considerably decreased the chance of slipping. According to author

H. C. Casserley Henry Cyril Casserleyfull name established from entries in (12 June 1903 – 16 December 1991) was a British railway photographer. His prolific work in the 1920s and 1930s, the result of travelling to remote corners of the railway network in th ...

, ''Locomotion No. 1'' is most notable for being the first locomotive to haul a passenger train on a public railway than for the innovations in its design.

Operations

The completed ''Locomotion No.1'' was transported by road from Newcastle to Darlington in September 1825. On 26 September, the day before the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the locomotive was taken on a trial run between

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...

and Darlington, with a number of the railway's directors aboard the railway's first passenger coach, known as ‘’Experiment’’. The driver, who had to perch on a small platform beside the boiler, was James Stephenson, the elder brother to George Stephenson; the fireman, William Gowling, stood on a footplate between the engine and the tender. On 27 September 1825, ''Locomotion No.1'' hauled the first train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, driven by George Stephenson. The train consisted of ''Locomotion No.1'', eleven wagons of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, the carriage ‘’Experiment’’, and a further 20 wagons of passengers, guests, and workmen. Around 300 tickets had been sold but about twice as many people were believed to have been aboard. The train, which had an estimated weight of 80 tonnes was about long, reached a maximum speed of ), and took two hours to complete the first of the journey to Darlington, but was slowed by a derailed wagon and a blocked

feed pump A boiler feedwater pump is a specific type of pump used to pump feedwater into a steam boiler. The water may be freshly supplied or returning condensate produced as a result of the condensation of the steam produced by the boiler. These pumps are ...

valve, thus only achieving an average speed of . ''Locomotion No. 1'' continued to haul trains on the S&DR for three years. On 1 July 1828, the locomotive was heavily damaged when the boiler exploded while the train was stopped at station, resulting in the death of the driver, John Cree, and the wounding of water pumper, Edward Turnbull. Cree had tied down the arm of a

safety valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...

, which caused the boiler pressure to rise to the point of explosion. ''Locomotion No. 1'' was rebuilt and returned to service and ran until 1850. On 4 June 1846, it hauled the opening train on the Middlesbrough and Redcar Railway, a subsidiary of the S&DR. Following its withdrawal, ''Locomotion'' was purchased by Joseph Pease and Partners, converted into a stationary pumping engine for use at their West Collieries in

South Durham South Durham, formally the Southern Division of Durham and often referred to as Durham Southern, was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two M ...

, where it was used until 1857.

Heraldry

Locomotion 1 is such an important part of Darlington's history that it is depicted on the town's coat of arms, and on the badges of its football and rugby clubs.

Preservation

In 1856, Joseph Pease and his family spent £50 to restore the S&DR Company's ''Locomotion No. 1'', saving it from the scrapyard when its working life had ended; it was one of the first locomotives to be restored for preservation. Between 1857 and the 1880s, it was usually on the pedestal display at Alfred Kitching's

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

near the

Hopetown Carriage Works Hopetown Carriage Works, also known as the Stockton and Darlington Railway Carriage Works, was a carriage works of the Stockton and Darlington Railway built in 1853 in Hopetown, near Darlington, County Durham, England. The works built railw ...

. It was on exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, Newcastle in 1881, Chicago in 1883, Liverpool in 1886, Newcastle in 1887, Paris in 1889, Edinburgh in 1890. ''Locomotion No.1'' was steamed for the Stockton and Darlington Railway's Golden Jubilee in September 1875, as well as to participate in a procession of locomotives at the George Stephenson Centenary, in June 1881. ''Locomotion'' always returned to its static display in Darlington, the headquarters of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company. From 1892 to 1975, ''Locomotion'' was on static display along with ''Derwent'', another early locomotive, on one of the platforms overlooking the S&DR line to Saltburn-by-the-Sea at Darlington's main station Bank Top. During 1924, it was cosmetically restored. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it was temporarily relocated (at Stanhope) due to the threat of

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

. In 1975 Darlington built its railway museum around Locomotion No. 1. As ownership of the railways changed, the locomotive became a

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

historic item, all of which were transferred as the National Collection in 1968 to the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...

(NRM), now part of the Science Museum Group (SMG). The locomotive, as its ownership changed, remained in Darlington from 1857, in later years on display at the

museum in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

, in the same building as Darlington's North Road station. From 1975, it was formally on loan by the NRM to Head of Steam. The loan agreement expired in March 2021, after which the locomotive was moved to the NRM's outpost museum in Shildon, itself named ''Locomotion''. Some in Darlington objected to the move, as the locomotive had resided in Darlington since preservation, and is depicted on the town's coat of arms and on the badges of its football and rugby clubs, and so it is claimed by some that the locomotive is only owned by the NRM due to an accident of history. An agreement was reached between Darlington Borough Council and the

Science Museum Group The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums: * The Science Museum in South Kensington, London * The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester * The National Railway Museum in York * The Locomotion Museum (formerly the Natio ...

which will see ''Locomotion'' return to Darlington for extended visits in the lead-up to the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 2025. As the original locomotive is too fragile to return to steam, a working replica was built in 1975, and was resident at

. After a period on display at the Locomotion museum, it moved to Head of Steam in April 2021, replacing the original. Originally only at Darlington on loan from Beamish, ownership of the replica was transferred to Darlington Borough Council, which will see the replica returned to service in time for the S&D's 200th anniversary.

References

External links

Darlington Railway Centre and Museum

Photograph of ''Locomotion'' at the Darlington Railway Museum

Postcard of ''Locomotion'' at the Darlington Bank Top station in 1959
* http://www.spartacus-educational.com/RAlocomotion.htm
Photo (1975) of locomotive ''Locomotion'' No.1 on display at Darlington main station
{{Authority control Locomotives of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 0-4-0 locomotives English inventions Individual locomotives of Great Britain Preserved steam locomotives of Great Britain Early steam locomotives Railway accidents in 1828 Railway accidents and incidents in County Durham Tourist attractions in County Durham George Stephenson Railway boiler explosions