We were not fighters like them; we were cunning and cowardly, and it was because of our cunning and cowardice, and our inordinate capacity for fear, that we survived in that frightfully hostile environment of the Younger World.
Union Pacific's 4-6-6-4 Challenger steam locomotive #3985 is the largest operating locomotive in the world. Built in July 1943 and still used by UP for occasional excursion throughout the western United States, the 3985 weighs 1,073,900 pounds (537 tons).
Railroads in the 1800s for kids: Timeline of the Trains, Inventors and Innovators. The timeline of the famous men, innovators and inventors who developed the railroads and the steam locomotives: 1814: George Stephenson constructed a locomotive that could pull 30 tons up a hill at 4 mph. 1  Stephenson called his locomotive, the Blutcher. He is considered to be the inventor of the first steam locomotive engine for railways.