To think that every time someone climbs into a high tech vehicle from a jet fighter to a spaceship the experience of preparing it for departure by throwing switches and starting systems goes back to these steam pioneers.
Thanks so much for sharing! I spent much of my leisure hours in the '60s when 7 or 8 drawing this locomotive and its contempories over and over again. You could say I as obsessed!! I never imagined that one day it would be possible to see and hear what it would actually have been like in motion. Just amazing, thanks again.
If you visit Beamish Museum you can ride on it yourself. They also have working replicas of "Locomotion", "Steam Elephant" and various old trams & buses.
Puffing Billy was an iron cart-horse. No faster than shown here but it was a roaring success. It & Wylam Dilly both lasted around fifty years at work. Billy was made 18134. Wylam Dilly came later in 1815 and has improvements Billy does not. This locomotive does take a minor liberty with historical authenticity as Wylam was 5ft gauge and the replica is clearly standard gauge as it has been to other railways.
The small diesel engine is for the modern brakes which have been fitted for safety reasons. The original loco did not have brakes but because it ran at only 5mph that did not matter too much.
I do not know. The loco obviously runs on steam power & there were no gasoline engines back in 1813. It is probably something to do with modern safety requirements.
@@ianprince1698 Probably a compressor and air tank in the replica Chaldron wagon. 5 mph doesn't sound like much but it is the speed a heavy horse can manage. Because of the Peninsular War the price of feed for horses had massively increased. Thus locomotive use became more attractive. The locomotive could keep up this speed as long as fuel & water supply permitted, & feeding & watering the iron horse was relatively quick.
