Rail transport Kingdom in 1804 by 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
History of rail transport in Great Britain to 1830 public, on 21 February 1804 it successfully carried 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men a distance of from Penydarren to Abercynon in 4 hours and 5 minutes, an average speed of nearly . This locomotive proved that steam traction was a viable proposition, although the use of the locomotive was quickly abandoned as it was too heavy for the primitive plateway track. A second locomotive, built for the Wylam colliery, also broke the track. Trevithick built a third locomotive in 1808, "Catch Me Who Can", which ran on a temporary demonstration railway in Bloomsbury, London. Members of