Richard Trevithick and Catch Me Who Can

The great engineer was born on 13 April 1771

Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 - 22 April 1833) was an important figure in the early development of steam technology. His contributions include the first successful high-pressure steam engines; steam carriages, one of which was demonstrated along Tottenham Court Road in London; and the first steam locomotive to run on rails, at Penydarren Ironworks in 1804.

Four years later Trevithick, demonstrated the new technology in London. Recent research by Nick Tyler (Transactions of the Newcomen Society Vol 77(1), 2007) has found that the most likely location of the track was under University College London's Chadwick Building, appropriately now the home of the Centre for Transport studies.

The plan seems to have been to race the engine against "any mare, horse or gelding which may be produced". This race does not seem to have taken place but during July and August, the locomotive, Catch Me Who Can, was run on a circular track within a fenced enclosure. Observers were admitted for a shilling and the entry fee included a ride for the brave. Catch Me Who Can also demonstrated that it was possible to run a locomotive with smooth wheels on a smooth rail, without the need for a track.

After some weeks, one of the rails broke and the engine flew off at a tangent and overturned. It seems that the number of shillings which had been received were insufficient for Trevithick to restore it to the rails.

Disenchanted by fading public interest, he moved on and never returned to railway locomotives.

He died penniless but is credited with the following statement: "However I may be straitened in my pecuniary circumstances, the great honour of being a useful subject can never be taken from me, which to me far exceeds riches."