Trevithick"s High Pressure Tram Engine (litho)

The "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive, built 1803 by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), first full-scale working railway steam locomotive Plan of Richard Trevithick"s High Pressure Tram engine, by Campin, 1803. This engine was used in the Penydarren Iron works in Merthyr Tydfil. It was the first locomotive to run successfully on rails. Trevithick experimented with building several locomotives. His inventions paved the way to steam locomotives such as "Rocket" and "Locomotion number one" being built, but his ideas gained little financial support and he died a pauper in 1833.