The development of the steam locomotive by Trevithick early in the 19th century gave added impetus, and coal consumption grew rapidly as the railway network expanded through the Victorian period.
Richard Trevithick of Cornwall had experimented with various models of steam locomotive, and in 1805 his work had culminated in an engine for the Wylam Colliery.
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The Murray/Blenkinsop locomotives had the first double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick pattern, no flywheel.
In 1811 the firm made a Trevithick-pattern high-pressure steam engine for John Wright, a Quaker of Yarmouth.
Francis Trevithick (1812-1877), one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway
The Environment Forum is extremely active in engaging with all parts of the community and involving members in a range of community projects, such as the Trevithick Heritage Trail, completed recently with the assistance of Cyfarthfa Castle and Museum.
At Wylam, Timothy Hackworth also employed a blastpipe on his earliest locomotives, but it is not clear whether this was an independent discovery or a copy of Trevithick's design.
A replica is under construction by the Trevithick 200 charity at the Severn Valley Railway workshops, close to the site where the original locomotive was built.
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It was demonstrated to the public at a "steam circus" organized by Trevithick on a circular track in Bloomsbury, just south of the present-day Euston Square tube station in London.
Through the Wylam colliery and its owner Christopher Blackett, Hedley would have been familiar with Trevithick's engine.
On February 21, 1804 at the Penydarren ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, the first self-propelled railway steam engine or steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, was demonstrated.