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).
The first steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick; it first ran on 21 February 1804, although it was some years before steam locomotive design became economically practical. The first commercial use of a steam locomotive was Salamanca on the narrow gauge Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812.