America

In 1829, a British-built locomotive - the Stourbridge Lion - became the first locomotive to run in America, with Horatio Allen of the Delaware & Hudson on the footplate.

Allen, having brought the locomotive from England, took it upon himself to put the engine through its paces. He had, he said, “never run a locomotive, nor any other engine before,” but then neither had anyone else in America at that time.

The route for the trial was a three-mile stretch of track, laid with strap-iron rails, which were essentially wooden rails, their top surfaces protected by an iron strip. They were cheap to make, but not very strong. Allen had imported examples of British iron rails, but it does not appear that they had yet been brought into use.

To add to the problems of the route, the line crossed a creek on a trestle bridge, followed by a sharp bend. Allen described the experience,

“I took my position on the platform of the locomotive alone, and with my hand on the throttle-valves said: ‘If there is any danger in this ride, it is not necessary that more than one should be subjected to it.’ The locomotive having no train behind it answered at once to the movement of the valve; soon the straight line was run over, the curve (and trestle) was reached and passed before there was time to think … and soon I was out of sight in the three miles-ride alone in the woods of Pennsylvania.”