Railroads  

"The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.... A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore , dine at Philadelphia , and sup in New York the same day.... Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, and there will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi , as predicted years ago."  

This quote by Oliver Evans, a famous American inventor during the Industrial Revolution, illustrates the great change that was occurring all around the world in terms of railway, leaving great hopes for the future. 

Timeline  

1630 – Beaumont in England designs railways where horses pulled carts and wagons on heavy planks  

1753 – First steam engine in Britain – spreads to the American colonies within the same year  

1755 – Frst steam engine established that can pump water from a mine ]  

1758 – The oldest railway in the world is built – the Middleton Railway in Leeds , Britain  

1769 – In France , Nicholas Cygnot builds a steam carriage  

1774 – James Watt builds the first steam engine  

1776 – Instead of using wood, iron is used to build an English tram road.  

1784 – Murdoch, a steam engine model of Watt, speeds up to 6 to 8 miles per hour  

1789 – The first wagon with flanged wheels is designed by William Jessup  

1800 – In America , Oliver Evans expands on Watt's model, and makes a successful “non- condensing high pressure steam engine”  

1804 – The train building industry did indeed have an impact on other industries, as Oliver Evans expands the steam train to a stem powered boat in America  

1804 – The actual first railroad engine is built by Leeds in England ; Richard Threvthickof Cornwall in Great Britain builds a 40 psi steam locomotive for the Welsh Penydarran Railroad  

1807 - First ever passenger railroad from Swansea to Mubles on March 25 th  

1812 – The first actual stable, commercially successful railway is built in the form of the Middleton Railway  

1813 – Advances in the railroad locomotive : William Hedley of England builds a 50 psi loco, which could bear a load equal to 10 horses.  

1824 – The 1 st locomotive workshop is built in New Castle , England , showing the railroads popularity. 

1825 – Stephenson builds an 8 – ton Locomotion No. 1, for the Stockton and Darligton railroad. Cold pull 90 tons at 15 mph. Planned with route, train, tracks, material, etc. Huge development from before rails.  

1826 – English developments spread as railroads are established – not very efficiently, but exist nonetheless in America , France , Germany and India . 

Effects of Railroads 

Because of railroads, people were encouraged more than ever to move to cities as opposed to staying in the country. People came to cities by rail to look for work. However, jobs were also created outside the cities: work in transport – of resources (such as coal), goods, and people came into higher demand, as did mining for the coal that fed the steam-powered engines' furnaces. Ideas also travelled by railways, and inventions and techniques could spread all around Europe , and in turn, the world. Railways carried mail, provisions for soldiers at war, shipments of farm crops, and traveling entrepreneurs as well as down-and-outs. Railways posed an example of what success newer models and inventions could bring about, thus motivating those who watched hem speed across the plains. 

Railroads affected the economy by giving it a boost, since a few wealthy people invested in railroads in hopes of profit. This initial capital propelled the industry to spread, and connect people and places who had heretofore been isolated. Farmers could ship their grain to distant markets, ordinary people had greater mobility between cities; producers, buyers, and sellers could, in the accelerative spirit of the Industrial Revolution, achieve all their transactions faster, and an entirely new industry emerged, augmenting local, national, and international markets significantly and propelling mercntilism. Railroad companies would give rise to the modern business structure as well as much political residue, such as trust legislation and, much later, well-known travelling campaigns. As the first step toward a closer-knit world, the railroad was one of the most significant industries to develop.

Sources

Houk , Randy . "Railway history." Railroads Timeline . 26 Dec. 2005 < http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/ >. 

"Railway history." James Watt . 26 Dec. 2005 < http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SCwatt.htm >.  

Poole , Keith T. “Railroads: the First Big Business.” 1999. December 2 2005 . < http://voteview.com/rtopic4c.htm   >