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).
Stephenson's engine hauled eight loaded coal wagons weighing thirty tons, at a speed of about four miles an hour. This was the first steam-powered locomotive to run on a railroad as well as the most successful working steam engine that had ever been constructed up to this period. The achievement encouraged the inventor to try further experiments. In all, Stephenson built sixteen different engines.