It is now over 200 years since the world’s first steam railway locomotive made its maiden voyage along a primitive plateway in South Wales – in 1804 Richard Trevithick’s high-pressure steam locomotive successfully hauled a loaded train a distance of nine miles at an average speed of two mph.
The Coming of the Railway is the first global history of the epic early days of the iron railway. Railways, in simple wooden or stone form, have existed since prehistory. But from the 1750s onward the introduction of iron rails led to a dramatic technological evolution – one that would truly change the world. In…
