Catch Me Who Can was the fourth and last steam railway locomotive created by the inventor and mining engineer Richard Trevithick. It was an evolution of three earlier locomotives which had been built for Coalbrookdale, Penydarren ironworks and Wylam colliery. Demonstration runs began in July 1808, and Catch Me Who Can was the first locomotive in the world to haul fare-paying passengers.
Drawing of the locomotive Catch Me Who Can, from a card or admission ticket to Trevithick's "Steam Circus", summer 1808
Replica of Catch Me Who Can during a 2014 exhibition in the Netherlands Railway Museum.
Contemporary (disputed) illustration of the steam circus in London, where Catch Me Who Can ran for just a few weeks.
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels.
LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard is officially the fastest steam locomotive, reaching 126 mph (203 km/h) on 3 July 1938.
LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman was the first steam locomotive to officially reach 100 mph (160 km/h), on 30 November 1934.
The Salamanca locomotive
The Locomotion at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum