Hello I am Michael and I have this opportunity to interview a master mechanical engineer who thought of and built the first permanent steam locomotive public railway.
How did you get to where you are now?
High Pit in Killingworth had a faulty colliery engine, so I offered to fix it. This was the way I became an expert in my field of steam driven machines.
What is you main job?
Maintaining and repairing all the colliery engines.
Now you are an expert, what was the first railway you designed?
I was hired to build a railway line to cover the 8 miles from Sunderland to Hetton Colliery, the finished line used trains to pull carriages on the flat bits and too go up hill, and gravity to go down hill.
What gave you the idea to build the first railway?
I built the news railway because the new locomotives were to heavy for the wooden rails, so I felt there was need for a new design of rail way.
High Pit in Killingworth had a faulty colliery engine, so I offered to fix it. This was the way I became an expert in my field of steam driven machines.
What is you main job?
Maintaining and repairing all the colliery engines.
Now you are an expert, what was the first railway you designed?
I was hired to build a railway line to cover the 8 miles from Sunderland to Hetton Colliery, the finished line used trains to pull carriages on the flat bits and too go up hill, and gravity to go down hill.
What gave you the idea to build the first railway?
I built the news railway because the new locomotives were to heavy for the wooden rails, so I felt there was need for a new design of rail way.
There is a little completion now, how do you feel with the competition?
Inspires me to build more railways like the Liverpool to Manchester railway and Stockton to Darlington.
How did you improve the railways then?
Well I noticed when building a railway a couple of years ago that locomotives run slower on uneven tracks, so I researched this and came up with some idea. This is where I designed them to use stone viaducts, this smoothes the route the locomotives take.
Inspires me to build more railways like the Liverpool to Manchester railway and Stockton to Darlington.
How did you improve the railways then?
Well I noticed when building a railway a couple of years ago that locomotives run slower on uneven tracks, so I researched this and came up with some idea. This is where I designed them to use stone viaducts, this smoothes the route the locomotives take.
Well I think I have asked enough questions, so I would like to take this moment to thank Goerge for joing me here for my exclusive interview.
(George Stephenson at wikipedia)
2 comments:
Mentioned in Dispatches
Thank you for the mention. feel this post stands out and gives some history.
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