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96-448: Tredegar Ironworks may refer to either of the two similarly named nineteenth-century ironworks: Tredegar Iron Works , Virginia, United States Tredegar Iron and Coal Company , South Wales Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Tredegar Ironworks . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

192-659: A Scottish inventor, built a small-scale prototype of a steam road locomotive in Birmingham . A full-scale rail steam locomotive was proposed by William Reynolds around 1787. An early working model of a steam rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the US during 1794. Some sources claim Fitch's model was operable already by the 1780s and that he demonstrated his locomotive to George Washington . His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks. The model still exists at

288-660: A (newly identified) Killingworth Billy in 1816. He also constructed The Duke in 1817 for the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway , which was the first steam locomotive to work in Scotland. In 1825, Stephenson built Locomotion No. 1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway , north-east England, which was the first public steam railway in the world. In 1829, his son Robert built in Newcastle The Rocket , which

384-448: A balance has to be struck between obtaining sufficient draught for combustion whilst giving the exhaust gases and particles sufficient time to be consumed. In the past, a strong draught could lift the fire off the grate, or cause the ejection of unburnt particles of fuel, dirt and pollution for which steam locomotives had an unenviable reputation. Moreover, the pumping action of the exhaust has the counter-effect of exerting back pressure on

480-627: A bookstore, and interpretive NPS rangers on site daily to provide programs and to aid visitors. In 2000, the former Tredegar Iron Works facility overlooking the James River near downtown Richmond became the site of the main Visitor's Center of the Richmond National Battlefield Park . Sculptor David Frech of Newburgh, New York, was commissioned by The United States Historical Society of Richmond to commemorate

576-486: A crankpin on the driving wheel ( Main driver in the US) or to a crank on a driving axle. The movement of the valves in the steam chest is controlled through a set of rods and linkages called the valve gear , actuated from the driving axle or from the crankpin; the valve gear includes devices that allow reversing the engine, adjusting valve travel and the timing of the admission and exhaust events. The cut-off point determines

672-498: A fight with a workman and was buried on Belle Isle in the James River . In 1841, the owners turned management over to a 28-year-old civil engineer named Joseph Reid Anderson who proved to be an able manager. Anderson acquired ownership of the foundry in 1848, after two years of leasing the works, and was soon doing work for the United States government. Anderson began introducing slave labor to cut production costs. By

768-479: A further market in steam locomotives and rail stock. One of those attributed with starting the Tredegar Locomotive Works with John Souther was Zerah Colburn , the well-known locomotive engineer and journalist. The company produced about 70 steam locomotives between 1850 and 1860. From 1852 to 1854, John Souther also managed the locomotive shop at Tredegar. Its locomotive production work

864-429: A gauge mounted in the cab. Steam pressure can be released manually by the driver or fireman. If the pressure reaches the boiler's design working limit, a safety valve opens automatically to reduce the pressure and avoid a catastrophic accident. The exhaust steam from the engine cylinders shoots out of a nozzle pointing up the chimney in the smokebox. The steam entrains or drags the smokebox gases with it which maintains

960-488: A lower pressure in the smokebox than that under the firebox grate. This pressure difference causes air to flow up through the coal bed and keeps the fire burning. The search for thermal efficiency greater than that of a typical fire-tube boiler led engineers, such as Nigel Gresley , to consider the water-tube boiler . Although he tested the concept on the LNER Class W1 , the difficulties during development exceeded

1056-433: A lower reciprocating mass than three, four, five or six coupled axles. They were thus able to turn at very high speeds due to the lower reciprocating mass. A trailing axle was able to support a huge firebox, hence most locomotives with the wheel arrangement of 4-4-2 (American Type Atlantic) were called free steamers and were able to maintain steam pressure regardless of throttle setting. The chassis, or locomotive frame ,

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1152-625: A new facility, brought a number of his fellow iron workers from Tredegar , Wales , to construct the furnaces and rolling mills. The foundry was named in honor of the town of Tredegar, where iron works of the same name were constructed in the early 19th century. The new works opened in 1837, yet the Panic of 1837 and accompanying downturn resulted in hardship for the new company. Davies died in Richmond in September 1838 from stab wounds sustained in

1248-639: A number of Swiss steam shunting locomotives were modified to use electrically heated boilers, consuming around 480 kW of power collected from an overhead line with a pantograph . These locomotives were significantly less efficient than electric ones ; they were used because Switzerland was suffering a coal shortage because of the War, but had access to plentiful hydroelectricity . A number of tourist lines and heritage locomotives in Switzerland, Argentina and Australia have used light diesel-type oil. Water

1344-461: A number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine and increased its efficiency. Trevithick visited the Newcastle area in 1804 and had a ready audience of colliery (coal mine) owners and engineers. The visit was so successful that the colliery railways in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation and development of

1440-459: A rigid frame with a 30% weight reduction. Generally, the largest locomotives are permanently coupled to a tender that carries the water and fuel. Often, locomotives working shorter distances do not have a tender and carry the fuel in a bunker, with the water carried in tanks placed next to the boiler. The tanks can be in various configurations, including two tanks alongside ( side tanks or pannier tanks ), one on top ( saddle tank ) or one between

1536-401: A tank in the locomotive tender or wrapped around the boiler in the case of a tank locomotive . Periodic stops are required to refill the tanks; an alternative was a scoop installed under the tender that collected water as the train passed over a track pan located between the rails. While the locomotive is producing steam, the amount of water in the boiler is constantly monitored by looking at

1632-912: A team of historians that included James M. McPherson of Princeton, Bill Cooper of Louisiana State University, John Fleming of the Cincinnati Museum Center, Charles Dew of Williams College, David W. Blight of Yale and Emory Thomas at the University of Georgia. In November 2013 the Civil War Center was merged with the Museum of the Confederacy and became the American Civil War Museum in January 2014. Steam locomotive A steam locomotive

1728-466: A vacation in New Hampshire in 1892, he was succeeded by his son Colonel Archer Anderson . The Tredegar company remained in business throughout the first half of the 20th century, and supplied requirements of the armed forces of the United States during World War I and World War II . In 1957, Anderson's descendants sold the land to Ethyl Corporation , which began restoration of some of

1824-405: 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 locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. In most locomotives, the steam

1920-557: Is a separate museum at the former Tredegar Ironworks. In the 1990s, the Court End-based Valentine Museum opened a second museum site at the Tredegar Ironworks. The focus of the museum experience was industrial history. Interpretive tours to and from the site covered industrial history, African American history, and Civil War history. The venture, however, was short-lived. The "Valentine on

2016-449: Is admitted alternately to each end of its cylinders in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it. Variations in this general design include electrically powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Steam locomotives were first developed in

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2112-475: Is crucial to the efficiency of any steam locomotive, and the internal profiles of the chimney (or, strictly speaking, the ejector ) require careful design and adjustment. This has been the object of intensive studies by a number of engineers (and often ignored by others, sometimes with catastrophic consequences). The fact that the draught depends on the exhaust pressure means that power delivery and power generation are automatically self-adjusting. Among other things,

2208-419: Is directed upwards out of the locomotive through the chimney, by way of a nozzle called a blastpipe , creating the familiar "chuffing" sound of the steam locomotive. The blastpipe is placed at a strategic point inside the smokebox that is at the same time traversed by the combustion gases drawn through the boiler and grate by the action of the steam blast. The combining of the two streams, steam and exhaust gases,

2304-418: Is made of a bronze cast depicting Lincoln and his son Tad on a bench with Lincoln's arm around his son. The bench was deliberately made long enough so that viewers may sit next to either statue on the bench to take photographs. The words "To Bind Up The Nation's Wounds" from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address are carved into granite behind them. The idea of another museum on the site was realized in 2006 when

2400-704: Is sometimes listed with combinations of the names Anderson, Souther, Delaney, and Pickering. Tredegar also produced the steam propulsion plants for the USS Roanoke (1855) and the USS Colorado (1856). Prior to the Civil War, industry expanded at the Tredegar site under Anderson's direction to include a new flour mill on land leased to Lewis D. Crenshaw and a stove works on land leased to A.J. Bowers and Asa Snyder. By 1860, Crenshaw and Co. had established

2496-415: Is the principal structure onto which the boiler is mounted and which incorporates the various elements of the running gear. The boiler is rigidly mounted on a "saddle" beneath the smokebox and in front of the boiler barrel, but the firebox at the rear is allowed to slide forward and backwards, to allow for expansion when hot. European locomotives usually use "plate frames", where two vertical flat plates form

2592-529: The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar opened to the public. James M. McPherson described the museum as "a truly comprehensive exhibit and education center weaving together Union, Confederate, and African-American threads ... much needed for future generations to understand how the Civil War shaped the nation." The Center contains interactive theaters, plasma-screen maps, and artifacts. The museum's exhibits were put together by

2688-608: The CSS Virginia which fought in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862 ; credit for approximately 1,100 artillery pieces during the war, about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery during the war years of 1861–1865, including the development and production of Brooke rifles ; large rifled cannons intended for the nascent CSA Navy and an answer to the rifled, armor piercing, Dahlgren Guns favored by

2784-924: The Drache , was delivered in 1848. The first steam locomotives operating in Italy were the Bayard and the Vesuvio , running on the Napoli-Portici line, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The first railway line over Swiss territory was the Strasbourg – Basel line opened in 1844. Three years later, in 1847, the first fully Swiss railway line, the Spanisch Brötli Bahn , from Zürich to Baden

2880-591: The Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus, US. The authenticity and date of this locomotive is disputed by some experts and a workable steam train would have to await the invention of the high-pressure steam engine by Richard Trevithick , who pioneered the use of steam locomotives. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was the 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge Coalbrookdale Locomotive built by Trevithick in 1802. It

2976-549: The Pennsylvania Railroad class S1 achieved speeds upwards of 150 mph, though this was never officially proven. In the United States, larger loading gauges allowed the development of very large, heavy locomotives such as the Union Pacific Big Boy , which weighs 540 long tons (550  t ; 600 short tons ) and has a tractive effort of 135,375 pounds-force (602,180 newtons). Beginning in

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3072-535: The United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive known to have hauled a load over a distance at Pen-y-darren in 1804, although he produced an earlier locomotive for trial at Coalbrookdale in 1802. Salamanca , built in 1812 by Matthew Murray for the Middleton Railway ,

3168-487: The Civil War and, therefore, was able to restore his business when the Confederate currency collapsed. He petitioned U.S. President Andrew Johnson for a pardon for himself and Tredegar and was back in business before the end of 1865, regaining full ownership in 1867. That same year, Tredegar incorporated with a stock of $ 1,000,000. Francis Thomas Glasgow, the father of Virginia writer and suffragist Ellen Glasgow ,

3264-544: The Confederacy protests were held at the unveiling April 5, 2003, namely by the Sons of Confederate Veterans . Robert H. Kline, chairman of the historical society, the Richmond-based nonprofit company that commissioned the statue stated that the statue was for the purpose of reconciliation "He came on a mission of peace and reconciliation and I think the statue will serve that purpose for a very long time." Dignitaries at

3360-577: The Crenshaw Woolen Mill on adjoining land they owned. This enterprise employed more than 50 people. The Crenshaw Woolen Mill became "the principal source of supply for the [Confederate] Army's requirements of uniform material" during the first half of the Civil War. A May 16, 1863 fire on the Tredegar/Crenshaw site damaged the mill, which was not rebuilt, and Tredegar purchased the land from Crenshaw and Co. by 1863. By 1860,

3456-592: The James" opened on Memorial Day 1994 and closed to the public on Labor Day 1995. The main visitor center for Richmond National Battlefield Park opened at the Tredegar Iron Works site in June 2000 . The Civil War Visitor Center at Tredegar Iron Works is located in the restored pattern building and offers three floors of exhibits, an interactive map table, a film about the Civil War battles around Richmond,

3552-582: The Saar (today part of Völklingen ), but neither could be returned to working order after being dismantled, moved and reassembled. On 7 December 1835, the Adler ran for the first time between Nuremberg and Fürth on the Bavarian Ludwig Railway . It was the 118th engine from the locomotive works of Robert Stephenson and stood under patent protection. In Russia , the first steam locomotive

3648-483: The Tredegar Iron Works was the largest of its kind in the South , a fact that played a significant role in the decision to relocate the capital of the Confederacy from Montgomery, Alabama , to Richmond in May 1861. Tredegar supplied high-quality munitions to the Confederacy throughout the war, until the capture of Richmond in 1865. Its wartime production included the iron plating for the first Confederate ironclad warship ,

3744-423: The US), or screw-reverser (if so equipped), that controls the cut-off, therefore, performs a similar function to a gearshift in an automobile – maximum cut-off, providing maximum tractive effort at the expense of efficiency, is used to pull away from a standing start, whilst a cut-off as low as 10% is used when cruising, providing reduced tractive effort, and therefore lower fuel/water consumption. Exhaust steam

3840-527: The Union. One Brook Rifle was even used as a rail-mounted siege cannon . The company also manufactured railroad steam locomotives in the same period. As a result of his difficulties competing with Northern industries due to his higher labor and raw material costs, Anderson was a strong supporter of southern secession and became a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army as the war broke out. He

3936-617: The United States, including John Fitch's miniature prototype. A prominent full sized example was Col. John Steven's "steam wagon" which was demonstrated on a loop of track in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1825. Many of the earliest locomotives for commercial use on American railroads were imported from Great Britain, including first the Stourbridge Lion and later the John Bull . However, a domestic locomotive-manufacturing industry

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4032-550: The adhesive weight. Equalising beams connecting the ends of leaf springs have often been deemed a complication in Britain, however, locomotives fitted with the beams have usually been less prone to loss of traction due to wheel-slip. Suspension using equalizing levers between driving axles, and between driving axles and trucks, was standard practice on North American locomotives to maintain even wheel loads when operating on uneven track. Locomotives with total adhesion, where all of

4128-530: The artillery used by the Confederate States Army , as well as the iron plating for CSS Virginia , the first Confederate ironclad warship, which fought in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. The works avoided destruction by troops during the evacuation of the city, and continued production through the mid-20th century. Now classified as a National Historic Landmark District ,

4224-521: The beginning of the Civil War in 1861, half of the 900 workers were slaves, including many in skilled positions. By 1860, Anderson's father-in-law Dr. Robert Archer had joined the business and Tredegar became a leading iron producer in the country. The commissioning of 900 miles of railroad track in Virginia, largely financed by the Virginia Board of Public Works between 1846 and 1853, offered

4320-402: The boiler materials to the point where it needs to be rebuilt or replaced. Start-up on a large engine may take hours of preliminary heating of the boiler water before sufficient steam is available. Although the boiler is typically placed horizontally, for locomotives designed to work in locations with steep slopes it may be more appropriate to consider a vertical boiler or one mounted such that

4416-404: The boiler remains horizontal but the wheels are inclined to suit the slope of the rails. The steam generated in the boiler fills the space above the water in the partially filled boiler. Its maximum working pressure is limited by spring-loaded safety valves. It is then collected either in a perforated tube fitted above the water level or by a dome that often houses the regulator valve, or throttle,

4512-399: The boiler. Boiler water surrounds the firebox to stop the metal from becoming too hot. This is another area where the gas transfers heat to the water and is called the firebox heating surface. Ash and char collect in the smokebox as the gas gets drawn up the chimney ( stack or smokestack in the US) by the exhaust steam from the cylinders. The pressure in the boiler has to be monitored using

4608-516: The company's best gun iron furnaces, drastically reducing ordnance production by July and August when existing stockpiles ran out. Thus it cast 128 weapons during the first six months of 1864, but only 85 pieces during the last half of the year, and most of those guns were of questionable quality. Worse yet, Anderson noted that because of the depreciated Confederate currency and the government's failure to pay invoices (the Niter and Mining Bureau alone owed

4704-689: The dominant fuel worldwide in steam locomotives. Railways serving sugar cane farming operations burned bagasse , a byproduct of sugar refining. In the US, the ready availability and low price of oil made it a popular steam locomotive fuel after 1900 for the southwestern railroads, particularly the Southern Pacific. In the Australian state of Victoria, many steam locomotives were converted to heavy oil firing after World War II. German, Russian, Australian and British railways experimented with using coal dust to fire locomotives. During World War 2,

4800-440: The early 1900s, steam locomotives were gradually superseded by electric and diesel locomotives , with railways fully converting to electric and diesel power beginning in the late 1930s. The majority of steam locomotives were retired from regular service by the 1980s, although several continue to run on tourist and heritage lines. The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along rail tracks . In 1784, William Murdoch ,

4896-431: The exhaust gas volume was vented through a cooling tower, allowing the steam exhaust to draw more air past the radiator. Running gear includes the brake gear, wheel sets , axleboxes , springing and the motion that includes connecting rods and valve gear. The transmission of the power from the pistons to the rails and the behaviour of the locomotive as a vehicle, being able to negotiate curves, points and irregularities in

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4992-448: The firebox becomes exposed. Without water on top of the sheet to transfer away the heat of combustion , it softens and fails, letting high-pressure steam into the firebox and the cab. The development of the fusible plug , a temperature-sensitive device, ensured a controlled venting of steam into the firebox to warn the fireman to add water. Scale builds up in the boiler and prevents adequate heat transfer, and corrosion eventually degrades

5088-708: The firm $ 300,000, plus the Ordnance Department had not paid its account since October 4 and the navy and Railroad Bureau were also deeply in arrears). Thus, in December Tredegar on many occasions requested the government take over its blast furnace (and the problem of acquiring and provisioning slaves), but even after extensive negotiations (and a 2 week shutdown for repairs in early January, the company's financial distress only grew, with over $ 1 million in outstanding bills by February 1, 1865, and Anderson had to borrow $ 100,000 to meet its first payroll for

5184-512: The frames ( well tank ). The fuel used depended on what was economically available to the railway. In the UK and other parts of Europe, plentiful supplies of coal made this the obvious choice from the earliest days of the steam engine. Until 1870, the majority of locomotives in the United States burned wood, but as the Eastern forests were cleared, coal gradually became more widely used until it became

5280-418: The grate into an ashpan. If oil is used as the fuel, a door is needed for adjusting the air flow, maintaining the firebox, and cleaning the oil jets. The fire-tube boiler has internal tubes connecting the firebox to the smokebox through which the combustion gases flow transferring heat to the water. All the tubes together provide a large contact area, called the tube heating surface, between the gas and water in

5376-582: The highly mineralised water was available, and locomotive boilers were lasting less than a quarter of the time normally expected. In the days of steam locomotion, about half the total train load was water for the engine. The line's operator, Commonwealth Railways , was an early adopter of the diesel-electric locomotive . The fire-tube boiler was standard practice for steam locomotive. Although other types of boiler were evaluated they were not widely used, except for some 1,000 locomotives in Hungary which used

5472-619: The historic arrival of Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad Lincoln and their tour of the burnt-out Union-captured Richmond, Virginia, April 4, 1865, 10 days before his assassination. Funds were raised by the Historical society through donations and the selling of miniature versions of the statue as well as bronzed resin copies. The statue, much like the Arthur Ashe Monument, received a wide array of criticism for its placement. Traditionally reserved for statues of key figures of

5568-504: The installation ceremony included former governors Douglas Wilder and Gerald L. Baliles , former mayor of Richmond, then-Lt. Governor, and future Governor Tim Kaine , and then-Mayor of Richmond Rudy McCollum . The dedication ceremony was buzzed by a plane trailing a banner proclaiming Sic semper tyrannis , which is not only Virginia's motto (meaning "Thus always to tyrants "), but also what John Wilkes Booth , according to his diary , called out while assassinating Lincoln. The statue

5664-407: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tredegar_Ironworks&oldid=933217999 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Tredegar Iron Works Tredegar supplied about half

5760-681: The locomotive ran on a circular track in the factory yard. It was the first locomotive to be built on the European mainland and the first steam-powered passenger service; curious onlookers could ride in the attached coaches for a fee. It is portrayed on a New Year's badge for the Royal Foundry dated 1816. Another locomotive was built using the same system in 1817. They were to be used on pit railways in Königshütte and in Luisenthal on

5856-403: The main chassis, with a variety of spacers and a buffer beam at each end to form a rigid structure. When inside cylinders are mounted between the frames, the plate frames are a single large casting that forms a major support element. The axleboxes slide up and down to give some sprung suspension, against thickened webs attached to the frame, called "hornblocks". American practice for many years

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5952-509: The mainframes. Locomotives with multiple coupled-wheels on a rigid chassis would have unacceptable flange forces on tight curves giving excessive flange and rail wear, track spreading and wheel climb derailments. One solution was to remove or thin the flanges on an axle. More common was to give axles end-play and use lateral motion control with spring or inclined-plane gravity devices. Railroads generally preferred locomotives with fewer axles, to reduce maintenance costs. The number of axles required

6048-401: The mob set fire to the arsenal, causing an explosion that shattered nearly every window. Nonetheless, facing resistance at the plant itself, the mob retreated to the town center. As a result, the Tredegar Iron Works is one of few Civil War-era buildings that survived the burning of Richmond. At the outset of hostilities, Anderson had wisely secured Tredegar assets overseas for the duration of

6144-470: The moment when the valve blocks a steam port, "cutting off" admission steam and thus determining the proportion of the stroke during which steam is admitted into the cylinder; for example a 50% cut-off admits steam for half the stroke of the piston. The remainder of the stroke is driven by the expansive force of the steam. Careful use of cut-off provides economical use of steam and in turn, reduces fuel and water consumption. The reversing lever ( Johnson bar in

6240-517: The month. During the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederates on the night of April 2–3, 1865, the retreating troops were under orders to burn munitions dumps and industrial warehouses that would have been valuable to the North. The Tredegar battalion defended the works despite widespread looting in the nearby warehouse district. However, despite Gorgas' order not to destroy ordnance facilities,

6336-861: The original John Bull was on static display in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The replica is preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania . The first railway service outside the United Kingdom and North America was opened in 1829 in France between Saint-Etienne and Lyon ; it was initially limited to animal traction and converted to steam traction early 1831, using Seguin locomotives . The first steam locomotive in service in Europe outside of France

6432-468: The piston in turn. In a two-cylinder locomotive, one cylinder is located on each side of the vehicle. The cranks are set 90° out of phase. During a full rotation of the driving wheel, steam provides four power strokes; each cylinder receives two injections of steam per revolution. The first stroke is to the front of the piston and the second stroke to the rear of the piston; hence two working strokes. Consequently, two deliveries of steam onto each piston face in

6528-411: The purpose of which is to control the amount of steam leaving the boiler. The steam then either travels directly along and down a steam pipe to the engine unit or may first pass into the wet header of a superheater , the role of the latter being to improve thermal efficiency and eliminate water droplets suspended in the "saturated steam", the state in which it leaves the boiler. On leaving the superheater,

6624-418: The side of the piston receiving steam, thus slightly reducing cylinder power. Designing the exhaust ejector became a specific science, with engineers such as Chapelon , Giesl and Porta making large improvements in thermal efficiency and a significant reduction in maintenance time and pollution. A similar system was used by some early gasoline/kerosene tractor manufacturers ( Advance-Rumely / Hart-Parr ) –

6720-473: The site serves as the main building of the American Civil War Museum . The name Tredegar derives from the Welsh industrial town that supplied much of the company's early workforce. In 1836, a group of Richmond businessmen and industrialists led by Francis B. Deane, Jr. set about to capitalize on the growing railroad boom in the United States. The group hired Rhys Davies , then a young engineer, to construct

6816-504: The steam exits the dry header of the superheater and passes down a steam pipe, entering the steam chests adjacent to the cylinders of a reciprocating engine. Inside each steam chest is a sliding valve that distributes the steam via ports that connect the steam chest to the ends of the cylinder space. The role of the valves is twofold: admission of each fresh dose of steam, and exhaust of the used steam once it has done its work. The cylinders are double-acting, with steam admitted to each side of

6912-477: The steam locomotive. Trevithick continued his own steam propulsion experiments through another trio of locomotives, concluding with the Catch Me Who Can in 1808, first in the world to haul fare-paying passengers. In 1812, Matthew Murray 's successful twin-cylinder rack locomotive Salamanca first ran on the edge-railed rack-and-pinion Middleton Railway . Another well-known early locomotive

7008-544: The success of Rocket at the 1829 Rainhill Trials had proved that steam locomotives could perform such duties. Robert Stephenson and Company was the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives in the first decades of steam for railways in the United Kingdom, the United States, and much of Europe. Towards the end of the steam era, a longstanding British emphasis on speed culminated in a record, still unbroken, of 126 miles per hour (203 kilometres per hour) by LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard , however there are long-standing claims that

7104-494: The surviving structures. In the 21st century, the buildings at the Tredegar site have been preserved through development of the site to commemorate the Civil War. The site is also used for various festivals and public events such as the Richmond Folk Festival . The Pattern Building is used as the main visitors' center for Richmond National Battlefield Park . The American Civil War Museum at Historic Tredegar

7200-434: The track, is of paramount importance. Because reciprocating power has to be directly applied to the rail from 0 rpm upwards, this creates the problem of adhesion of the driving wheels to the smooth rail surface. Adhesive weight is the portion of the locomotive's weight bearing on the driving wheels. This is made more effective if a pair of driving wheels is able to make the most of its axle load, i.e. its individual share of

7296-433: The two cylinders generates a full revolution of the driving wheel. Each piston is attached to the driving axle on each side by a connecting rod, and the driving wheels are connected together by coupling rods to transmit power from the main driver to the other wheels. Note that at the two " dead centres ", when the connecting rod is on the same axis as the crankpin on the driving wheel, the connecting rod applies no torque to

7392-419: The water level in a transparent tube, or sight glass. Efficient and safe operation of the boiler requires keeping the level in between lines marked on the sight glass. If the water level is too high, steam production falls, efficiency is lost and water is carried out with the steam into the cylinders, possibly causing mechanical damage. More seriously, if the water level gets too low, the crown sheet (top sheet) of

7488-401: The water-tube Brotan boiler . A boiler consists of a firebox where the fuel is burned, a barrel where water is turned into steam, and a smokebox which is kept at a slightly lower pressure than outside the firebox. Solid fuel, such as wood, coal or coke, is thrown into the firebox through a door by a fireman , onto a set of grates which hold the fuel in a bed as it burns. Ash falls through

7584-408: The wheel. Therefore, if both cranksets could be at "dead centre" at the same time, and the wheels should happen to stop in this position, the locomotive could not start moving. Therefore, the crankpins are attached to the wheels at a 90° angle to each other, so only one side can be at dead centre at a time. Each piston transmits power through a crosshead , connecting rod ( Main rod in the US) and

7680-411: The wheels are coupled together, generally lack stability at speed. To counter this, locomotives often fit unpowered carrying wheels mounted on two-wheeled trucks or four-wheeled bogies centred by springs/inverted rockers/geared rollers that help to guide the locomotive through curves. These usually take on weight – of the cylinders at the front or the firebox at the rear – when the width exceeds that of

7776-406: The will to increase efficiency by that route. The steam generated in the boiler not only moves the locomotive, but is also used to operate other devices such as the whistle, the air compressor for the brakes, the pump for replenishing the water in the boiler and the passenger car heating system. The constant demand for steam requires a periodic replacement of water in the boiler. The water is kept in

7872-878: The world also runs in Austria: the GKB 671 built in 1860, has never been taken out of service, and is still used for special excursions. In 1838, the third steam locomotive to be built in Germany, the Saxonia , was manufactured by the Maschinenbaufirma Übigau near Dresden , built by Prof. Johann Andreas Schubert . The first independently designed locomotive in Germany was the Beuth , built by August Borsig in 1841. The first locomotive produced by Henschel-Werke in Kassel ,

7968-562: Was Puffing Billy , built 1813–14 by engineer William Hedley . It was intended to work on the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne. This locomotive is the oldest preserved, and is on static display at the Science Museum, London . George Stephenson , a former miner working as an engine-wright at Killingworth Colliery , developed up to sixteen Killingworth locomotives , including Blücher in 1814, another in 1815, and

8064-462: Was a manager at Tredegar Iron Works, and Joseph Reid Anderson was her maternal uncle. By 1873, Tredegar Iron Works was employing 1,200 workers and was a profitable business. However, the Panic of 1873 hit the company hard, and as a result of financing difficulties it did not transition to steel , and so faded from national prominence. The neighborhood of Oregon Hill cropped up as a company town -like development. When Joseph Anderson died on

8160-644: Was built in 1834 by Cherepanovs , however, it suffered from the lack of coal in the area and was replaced with horse traction after all the woods nearby had been cut down. The first Russian Tsarskoye Selo steam railway started in 1837 with locomotives purchased from Robert Stephenson and Company . In 1837, the first steam railway started in Austria on the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway between Vienna-Floridsdorf and Deutsch-Wagram . The oldest continually working steam engine in

8256-760: Was constructed for the Coalbrookdale ironworks in Shropshire in the United Kingdom though no record of it working there has survived. On 21 February 1804, the first recorded steam-hauled railway journey took place as another of Trevithick's locomotives hauled a train along the 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm )-wide tramway from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil , to Abercynon in South Wales. Accompanied by Andrew Vivian , it ran with mixed success. The design incorporated

8352-411: Was dictated by the maximum axle loading of the railroad in question. A builder would typically add axles until the maximum weight on any one axle was acceptable to the railroad's maximum axle loading. A locomotive with a wheel arrangement of two lead axles, two drive axles, and one trailing axle was a high-speed machine. Two lead axles were necessary to have good tracking at high speeds. Two drive axles had

8448-487: Was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to the company emerging as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the UK, US and much of Europe. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened a year later making exclusive use of steam power for passenger and goods trains . Before the arrival of British imports, some domestic steam locomotive prototypes were built and tested in

8544-709: Was named The Elephant , which on 5 May 1835 hauled a train on the first line in Belgium, linking Mechelen and Brussels. In Germany, the first working steam locomotive was a rack-and-pinion engine, similar to the Salamanca , designed by the British locomotive pioneer John Blenkinsop . Built in June 1816 by Johann Friedrich Krigar in the Royal Berlin Iron Foundry ( Königliche Eisengießerei zu Berlin),

8640-471: Was noticed that Tredegar's products were beginning to lose quality as well as quantity. Even in the summer of 1861, soon after the beginning of the Civil War, metal was so scarce that the iron works failed to produce a single piece of artillery for an entire month. By 1864, Tredegar was producing nine different types of projectiles for the Confederacy, compounded by the many types of foreign built and captured weapons. Then in June 1864, Hunter's cavalry destroyed

8736-534: Was opened. The arid nature of south Australia posed distinctive challenges to their early steam locomotion network. The high concentration of magnesium chloride in the well water ( bore water ) used in locomotive boilers on the Trans-Australian Railway caused serious and expensive maintenance problems. At no point along its route does the line cross a permanent freshwater watercourse, so bore water had to be relied on. No inexpensive treatment for

8832-577: Was soon established. In 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 's Tom Thumb , designed by Peter Cooper , was the first commercial US-built locomotive to run in America; it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive. The DeWitt Clinton , built in 1831 for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad , was a notable early locomotive. As of 2021 ,

8928-403: Was supplied at stopping places and locomotive depots from a dedicated water tower connected to water cranes or gantries. In the UK, the US and France, water troughs ( track pans in the US) were provided on some main lines to allow locomotives to replenish their water supply without stopping, from rainwater or snowmelt that filled the trough due to inclement weather. This was achieved by using

9024-488: Was the first commercially successful steam locomotive. Locomotion No. 1 , built by George Stephenson and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company , was the first steam locomotive to haul passengers on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , in 1825. Rapid development ensued; in 1830 George Stephenson opened the first public inter-city railway, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , after

9120-404: Was to use built-up bar frames, with the smokebox saddle/cylinder structure and drag beam integrated therein. In the 1920s, with the introduction of "superpower", the cast-steel locomotive bed became the norm, incorporating frames, spring hangers, motion brackets, smokebox saddle and cylinder blocks into a single complex, sturdy but heavy casting. A SNCF design study using welded tubular frames gave

9216-561: Was wounded at Glendale during the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 and served in the Ordnance Department for the duration of the Civil War. As the war continued with more and more men conscripted into the Confederate armies, Tredegar experienced a lack of skilled laborers. Scarce supplies of metal also hurt the company's manufacturing abilities during the war, and as the conflict progressed it

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