What was the name of the first US steam locomotive, built in 1830, to be operated on a common-carrier railroad?
Tom Thumb (locomotive) Tom Thumb (locomotive) Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to operate on a common-carrier railroad. It was designed and constructed by Peter Cooper in 1830 to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O)(now CSX) to use steam engines; it was not intended to enter revenue service. It is especially remembered as a participant in an impromptu race with a horse-drawn car, which the horse won after "Tom Thumb" suffered a mechanical failure. However, the demonstration was successful, and the railroad committed to the use of steam locomotion and held trials in the following year
Steam locomotive 20th century. The first steam locomotive, made by Richard Trevithick, first operated on 21 February 1804, three years after the road locomotive he made in 1801. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was created in 1812–13 by John Blenkinsop. Built by George Stephenson and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company, the "Locomotion" No. 1 is the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George also built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830.