Coalbrookdale Museum 0-4-0 No. None
Telford, Shropshire, UK 		Location: Blists Hill Victorian Town
Status: Operational Replica
Related Notes
Photo Copyright © Steve Frost
Here are the notes for Coalbrookdale Museum No. None, a 0-4-0 located in Telford, Shropshire. If you have additional information about this locomotive, and would like to share it, click the Add Note button.
Posted: Oct 14, 2024 @ 20:10:26 by Bob Yarger
I worked with a Richard Trevithick (an engineer) during my brief employment at Vermont Railway, before getting a "real" (union) railroad job again.
Posted: Aug 28, 2011 @ 12:08:01 by Steve Frost
The original loco may have been the world's first steam locomotive. Built by 'the Dale Co', presumably the Coalbrookdale Company, to a design by Richard Trevithick. It features his compact return flue boiler with a single horizontal cylinder. To keep the machine running, the large flywheel was necessary to get the piston past dead centre on each stroke.

In this early design, Trevithick placed the cylinder at the same end of the loco as the firebox. As the cylinder stroke was about 3 feet, firing it must have been a problem unless a shovel with a very long handle was available or they employed a dwarf for the job!

Watch the video to see the problems of starting the loco. Heaving the flywheel round to get it past dead centre is the routine. No wonder that, in 1812, Matthew Murray built the locos for the Middleton Railway with two cylinders and cranks at 90 degrees to eliminate the problems and the flywheel.

Sadly there is no clear evidence that the original ever was used, although some drawings have survived.

Posted: May 11, 2008 @ 15:05:30 by Phil Horton
A replica of a Richard Trevithick locomotive, built by GKN Sankey in 1990 at the Coalbrookdale Museum on 4 April 2004. The original was built some time between 1800 - 1810.