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,
GE steam turbine locomotives Angeles Union Passenger Terminal and were on display in Omaha for the world premier of Cecil B. DeMille's film "Union Pacific" on April 28. During test runs, the locomotives displayed excellent acceleration and an ability to maintain schedules better than conventional steam engines, although they also demonstrated serious reliability problems and relatively high maintenance costs. On one occasion, the two locomotives broke down while hauling a train from Colorado to Omaha, necessitating a 2800-class Pacific steam locomotive to pull them along with the rest of the train for the remainder of the journey. The locomotives worked on several routes in