Age of Steam

Puffing Billy remained at work until 1862. It was then lent to the museum that became the Science Museum, which later purchased it.

After its railway career, Locomotion spent several years as a stationary engine before being restored for preservation in the 1850s.

Rocket was substantially rebuilt within about eighteen months of its Rainhill success. Even this celebrated design was quickly overtaken by further improvements.

By February 1833, Planet was reported to have covered 41,000 miles and still to be in good condition, a substantial working record for an early locomotive.

Lion became a film star as the elderly locomotive in the 1953 Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt.

Crampton's distinctive solution placed the driving axle behind the firebox, allowing unusually large driving wheels without raising the boiler above them.

The term Single refers to the locomotive's one driving axle, not to a single cylinder or a solitary wheel.

City of Truro was renumbered from 3440 to 3717 in 1912, helping place engines of the same class in a consecutive number sequence.

A corridor tender fitted in 1928 allowed replacement crew members to reach the footplate from the train without stopping.

Mallard's record run was a team achievement. Its crew included driver Joseph Duddington and fireman Thomas Bray, whose names deserve a place beside the locomotive's.

Castle construction continued until 1950, long after the first engine entered service in 1923. The class total included sixteen locomotives rebuilt from earlier designs.

King George V crossed the Atlantic in 1927 to take part in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's centenary celebrations.

The streamlined shape seen in preservation is a restoration. Duchess of Hamilton spent much of its later working life without the original casing.

Black Five production continued beyond the creation of British Railways in 1948. The design also influenced the later BR Standard Class 5MT.

Bulleid's 21C numbering described the axle arrangement: two leading axles, one trailing axle and three coupled axles represented by C.

Evening Star's working career lasted only about five years, despite its place as the final steam locomotive built for British Railways.

Jupiter reached California by ship around Cape Horn. It was dismantled for transport and reassembled in Sacramento before entering service.

The engines operating at Golden Spike are replicas. The original No. 119 was scrapped in 1903 and the original Jupiter in 1906.

The Smithsonian holds a model of No. 999 that was used to illustrate the technological development of the locomotive in its former Railroad Hall.

No. 3750 was once displayed under the identity of the scrapped prototype K4s No. 1737 before its own number was restored.

The locomotive's appearance was shaped by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, whose brief connected the engine with the visual identity of the Twentieth Century Limited.

Only twenty-five Big Boys were built. No. 4014's restoration included conversion from coal firing to oil firing.

Union Pacific donated No. 3985 to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America in 2022, beginning another chapter in its preservation story.

No. 4449 was restored to help haul the American Freedom Train during the United States bicentennial celebrations of 1975 and 1976.

No. 01 150 took part in the 1935 celebrations marking one hundred years of German railways, the same year it was built.

The preservation group's career record credits 241 P 17 with 1,741,865 kilometres of commercial service.

In 1963, No. 705 received the chassis of No. 778. Its familiar number was retained along with its four-axle tender.

JR West identified the 1938-built D51 200 for restoration to wider excursion use after its earlier role hauling museum demonstration trains.

Akbar was built in 1965, showing that new mainline steam locomotives were still being produced in India after many other railway systems had stopped ordering them.

No. 3405 was built in Glasgow for South Africa and later returned to Britain for preservation, completing an unusual international round trip.

No. 6988 was built in 1985 and later shipped to the United States, where it became part of an American steam-preservation programme.

After withdrawal, Ja 1271 spent several years supplying steam for boiler washouts at Dunedin before it was acquired for preservation.

Only the first five C38 locomotives were semi-streamlined. The remaining twenty-five were built without that casing at Eveleigh and Cardiff workshops.

The D57 locomotives were built by Clyde Engineering, but their large tenders were supplied by the shipbuilding firm Mort's Dock.

5917 was hauling early Picnic Train excursions to Kiama in 1973, linking today's heritage operation with a story more than fifty years old.

R761's builder's year is 1951, while its Victorian service began in April 1952. Those two dates describe different stages of its arrival.

S302 was already an established locomotive when it gained its streamlined casing in 1937. The famous appearance was a later transformation.

Only three Victorian turntables could turn H220 without separating its engine and tender: North Melbourne, Albury and Ararat.

No. 1089 entered service on 13 March 1958. It is recognised as the last mainline steam locomotive built in Australia.

6A worked on all four Victorian Railways narrow-gauge lines during its career, although much of its service was on the Colac and Gembrook routes.