History of rail transport Richard Trevithick, a British engineer born in Cornwall. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon a piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury, London, the "Catch Me Who Can", but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives,
Catch Me Who Can fare of 1 shilling. Trevithick hoped this would be a commercial venture, as well as creating publicity and hopefully demand for more locomotives. Trevithick's fourth railway locomotive was built new for the Steam Circus. It was named "Catch Me Who Can" by the sister of Davies Gilbert. This new locomotive differed from the previous locomotive designs: instead of a horizontal cylinder, flywheel, and geared drive, Catch Me Who Can used a vertical cylinder encased in the boiler, driving one pair of wheels directly. The cylinder was in diameter, with a stroke. The boiler was Trevithick's return-flue type, complete with an