Early Years
This locomotive, designed by Robert Stephenson, famously won the Rainhill trials in 1829, proving that locomotives were the best motive power for the soon to be opened Liverpool & Manchester Railway
What is "Stephenson's Rocket"?
This locomotive, designed by the North Eastern Railway, famously was rebuilt multiple times over its century and a half existance, originally being a 2-2-2 well tank, then a 4-2-2, and finally a 2-2-4. It was retired in 1933, and is on display at the National Railway Museum.
What is NER 66 "Aerolite"?
This class of 4-8-8-4 locomotive, originally to be named "Wasatch," gained this alliterative nickname after an unknown ALCO worker wrote it on one of the engines' smokeboxes.
What is "Big Boy"?
This 0-10-0 Decapod locomotive, designed by the Midland Railway, was famous for helping bank trains up the Lickey Incline.
What was Midland Railway No. 2290 "Big Bertha"?
What is the Talyllyn Railway?
This locomotive, designed by George & Robert Stephenson, was the first locomotive to haul a passenger service on a public railway, and currently resides as a static display in Darlington
What is "Locomotion No. 1"?
George Ivatt is famous for being one of the Chief Mechanical officers of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, most notably designing the 2MT classes of Tank Engine and Tender Engine. However his father, Henry Ivatt, worked for this precursor railway, which would later become part of the LNER
What is the Great Northern Railway?
This 4-6-2 locomotive, of British design, resides at the National Railroad Museum in Wisconsin. It shares the name of a United States Army General and President, hence its move to the United States.
What is LNER A4 4496 "Dwight D. Eisenhower"?
This 0-4-0 tank engine, affectionately nicknamed "Dubsy" after its builder, Dübs & Co, is a strange locomotive, due to it having this on its tank
What is a Crane?
This locomotive was the final steam engine to be produced in the United Kingdom, and was almost immediately put into preservation. It currently resides at the National Railway Museum.
What is BR Standard 9F "Evening Star"?
This name was given to multiple classes of 2-2-2 locomotives built by the London and North Western Railway between 1851 and 1862. While no original examples survive, a static replica was completed in 1991, and a working replica is currently under construction
What are the "Bloomers"?
LBSCR A1 Terrier Number 54 "Waddon" is famous for being preserved at the Canadian Railway Museum, however that is not all it is famous for. It was also famous for being sold to this railway, one of the LBSC's "rivals," and being fitted with one of their boilers.
What is the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR)?
This locomotive, preserved at the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania, infamously had an accident in 2022, crashing into an excavator and cracking a hole in its smokebox door. It was previously featured in the movie, Thomas & the Magic Railroad, as the Rainbow Sun.
What is 475?
This experimental locomotive class, designed by the Southern Railway's Oliver Bullied, was intended to extend the life of steam by taking cues from diesel and electric locomotive designs, such as cabs on both sides, with a diesel-like boxy appearance. It was a failure, however, and due to design flaws and spiraling costs, all examples were scrapped by 1951
What is the SR Leader Class?
This preservation railroad in the United States famously features a replica of Thomas the Tank Engine that is operational, as it was rebuilt from a Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal 0-6-0ST locomotive.
What is the Strasburg Railroad?
This railway in wales is the oldest-operating narrow-gauge railway, having opened all the way back in 1836. While it originally closed in 1946, a group of volunteers reopened it as a heritage railway, beginning in 1955. While many of its engines have either been scrapped or put on static display, some still remain operational to this day.
What is the Ffestiniog Railway?
The Midland Railway's experimental Paget locomotive, named after designer and railway superintendent Cecil Paget, was the first British tender engine to feature this wheel configuration, and would be the only one to do so until the 1940's.
What is 2-6-2?
This locomotive, alongside fellow Southern Railways locomotive "Repton," was sold to Steamtown, a railroad museum in Vermont, after it was withdrawn in the 1960's. However, two decades later, it was sent back to the UK, where it currently resides.
What is the London & South Western Railway M7?
In 1940, a member of this class of express passenger locomotive was tested with three chimneys, in an attempt to hide it from view of enemy aircraft. The experiment did not produce the desired results, so it was refitted with a single chimney in 1941
What is the London & South Western Railway N15 "King Arthur" Class?
This Steam Engine class is the most preserved class of steam engine in the UK, with 70 examples being preserved, including 2 more from a subclass.
What is the WD Hunslet Austerity?
This country is home to the "Fairy Queen," the oldest operating steam locomotive. This 2-2-2 locomotive was first built by Kitson & Co in 1855, and returned to service in 1997. As of today, it is still operating with two coaches totaling a 50 passenger capacity.
What is India?
This railway, which would later be amalgamated into the Great Western Railway in the 1920's, has two of its 0-6-2 tank engines preserved, one in the National Collection, and one at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.
What is the Taff Vale Railway?
This line of diesel engines are among the most popular and well-known American designs, with a rounded, snub-nosed (or Bulldog-nosed) front. It is also known to wear the Santa Fe red, silver & yellow "Warbonnet" livery. Its legacy includes being the basis for the Chuggington character, Wilson.
What is the Electro-Motive Division F-Series?
10 members of this class of steam engine were built with Franco-Crosti boilers, in an attempt to increase their efficiency. These members did not have the typical smoke deflectors like the rest of the class, and instead had cylinders attached to the smokebox of the engine. The results did not impress, as crews complained of fumes escaping from the sides of the locomotive rather than the funnel, and all were scrapped by 1967.
What is the BR 9F?
This class of diesel, produced in the early-to-mid 1960's, is the second-most preserved class of british diesel, after the Class 08, with 35 units preserved.
What is the BR Class 37?