Trevithick Model Engine at Bridgnorth

This is a model of a high pressure engine and boiler, that was patented by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian in 1802. The original engine was made by Hazeldine and Co. of Bridgnorth between 1803 and 1808. This model was presented to the people of Bridgnorth on 17th November 1949 by John Pascoe.

During the summer of 1808 Trevithick constructed a circular railway in Euston Square in London. For one penny, he gave people the opportunity to ride on his locomotive. There seems to have been no shortage of volunteers to ride on the train that reached speeds of 12 mph (19 kph). However, the rails did eventually break and his experiment was forced to come to an end.

The original engine and boiler was found in 1882 at Hereford, amongst a heap of scrap iron, by Mr F.W.Webb of Crewe, who restored all of the missing parts. The engine is now preserved in the Science Museum, London.

Richard Trevithick was born in 1771 to a Cornish Mine Captain. His developments and innovations were ahead of their time, as his railway engines were running a decade before George Stephenson's. At his death in 1833 he was able to boast having given the world a high-pressure steam engine, the Cornish boiler, the railway locomotive, the steam dredger, the propeller and the threshing machine.