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The Iron Horse |
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B501 The Iron Horse
Railroads changed America as they provided a
fast and efficient means of transporting people and
goods for long distances.
This poster presents the early history of railroads
and steam locomotives. Rails reduced friction and
increased efficiency and trains began as horsedrawn
carts that carried coal. In 1804, Richard
Tevutchick introduced the first steam locomotive.
Other Englishmen vastly improved on it. Robert
Stephenson introduced his famous Rocket in 1829.
This poster shows these English locomotives and
two that were imported to America. The most important
was Edward Bury’s Liverpool design. Almost
100 of them were used by American railroads.
The vast distances that needed to be covered
resulted in constant innovation and new developments.
The bulk of the poster is devoted to the
many American designs that followed. It shows and
explains all the milestone locomotives made in the
U.S. prior to the Civil War. They include the 4-2-0
Jarvis design and the 4-4-0 American design. By
1850, American locomotives had cow-catchers,
headlights, whistles, and bells. The basic 4-2-0
design dominated our nation’s railroads for over a
half-century. This early devolpement is presented
through highly-detailed illustrations.
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