Introduction

A steam locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomotive’s boiler to the point when it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times.

The main part

The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along rail tracks. In 1784, William Murdoch , a Scottish inventor, built a small-scale prototype of a steam road locomotive in Birmingham . A full-scale rail steam locomotive was proposed by William Reynolds around 1787. An early working model of a steam rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the US during 1794. His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks.

The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive, was the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Coalbrookdale Locomotive, built by Trevithick in 1802. It was constructed for the Coalbrookdale ironworks in Shropshire in the United Kingdom. On 21 February 1804, the first recorded steam-hauled railway journey took place as another of Trevithick's locomotives hauled a train along the 4 ft 4 in (1,321 mm) tramway from the Pen-y-Darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales.

In 1811, William Barton built a new steam engine with three pairs of wheels. The innovation of his approach was the teeth with which the middle wheels were equipped. They were needed for coupling with the teeth of the rail laid along the tracks.

Another version of the locomotive was created by mechanic Forster and blacksmith Hackworth – their car was named "Puffing Billy", which was explained by the loud noise when releasing steam. The design turned out to be successful, since most of the elements were recreated by analogy with the first model of the Trevithick.

In 1813, the steam locomotive "Blucher" was built, which was invented by George Stephenson. However, he had to work hard to make his vehicle perfect, and it gained perfection only by 1816, when the third version was released, capable of carrying trains weighing up to 50 tons, developing a speed of 10 km / h.

The first steam locomotive in Russia was built by mechanics father and son E. A. and M. E. Cherepanov at the Nizhny Tagil plant in 1833-1834. The Cherepanovs' steam locomotive drove trains with ore weighing more than 200 pounds at a speed of 12-13 versts per hour (13-14 km/h).

The steam locomotive "Rocket" consisted of three main parts: a locomotive, a furnace and a tender. The locomotive consisted of a steam boiler and engine cylinders, coal burned in the furnace, and a fuel reserve, that is, coal, and cooling water were placed in the tender. Steam from the steam boiler powered two large cylinders. Moreover, each cylinder was connected to both front wheels. Steam entering the cylinder from above causes the piston to move down. This movement is transmitted through the piston and main thrust to the crank, which causes the wheel to turn. Then the steam enters the cylinder from below and pushes the piston up, turning the wheel further through the same two rods.

Over the years steam trains evolved significantly. They were equipped with cow catchers for better moving through turns (and protection from wandering animals on railway tracks), passenger sections became popular and built for both short and long travels with all necessary luxuries. Engines received update to four cylinders, geared wheels for industrial use, and between 1930s and 1950s they slowly transitioned to the new kinds of power sources– diesel and electric engines.

In different countries, the end of the era of steam locomotives occurred at different times, but the main turning point still occurred in the sixties. In the USA, steam locomotives began to be massively replaced already in the fifties, and the last passenger locomotive train passed in 1961. In Europe, the process was somewhat delayed – the locomotives were replaced in the seventies. In Russia, some passenger and freight lines used steam locomotives until the late eighties and early nineties. In many African and Asian countries, steam locomotives were used until the end of the twentieth century. In particular, in South Africa, the last commercial lines were closed in 1994, in India – in 2000, and in China, the use of steam locomotives in freight trains was officially discontinued only in 2005.

So, the era of regular use of steam locomotives for commercial transportation of passengers and cargo passed, and their new life began. Why are they needed in the XXI century?

Firstly, for tourist and historical purposes. There are several hundred lines of cultural and historical significance in the world. Not all of them use steam locomotives, but the first models of heat and electric locomotives are of no less interest to passengers accustomed to high-speed modern express trains.

Secondly, in the cinema. Every year, new historical films are shot, in which steam locomotives take a direct part.

And, thirdly, just in case. For example, such as a global fuel crisis, a major man-made or natural disaster. At the same time, steam locomotives have many advantages over modern machines.

Simplicity of design. The simplest steam locomotive is much easier to construct than any other similar machine.

Easy maintenance. You need to take care of any car, but in general, locomotives are less problematic in care than their more modern counterparts.

Fuel type. Steam locomotives ride on everything that burns: coal, firewood, diesel fuel, garbage and so on.

Oddly enough, most of the operating steam locomotives have been preserved in progressive Europe. For example, several hundred steam locomotives are operated in the UK alone, and commuter line operators are actively using them to attract tourists.

In Russia, about a thousand steam locomotives were mothballed and preserved as a national reserve. Some of them can be seen in museums, while others, apparently, are not used in any way.

The production of mainline steam locomotives in the USSR was discontinued in 1956 due to the radical reconstruction of traction on railway transport: the transition to new types of traction – diesel and electric.