History of steam road vehicles
The history of steam road vehicles comprises the development of vehicles powered by a steam engine for use on land and independent of rails, whether for conventional road use, such as the steam car and steam waggon, or for agricultural or heavy haulage work, such as the traction engine.
Murdoch's model steam carriage of 1784, now in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
Steam carriage by Verbiest of 1679
Cugnot's "Fardier à vapeur" ("Steam wagon") of 1769
A replica of Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive Puffing Devil
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
Portrait by John Linnell, 1816 (Science Museum, London)
Camborne Hill street name and plaque commemorating Trevithick's steam carriage demonstration in 1801
A drawing of the Coalbrookdale locomotive from the Science Museum
The London Steam Carriage, by Trevithick and Vivian, demonstrated in London in 1803