Section of damaged track highlights formative experiment in railway history

In 1802 Richard Trevithick built a high-pressure steam engine and mounted it on wheels.

This experiment led to the first locomotive-hauled railway journey just two years later in 1804 when Trevithick’s steam locomotive ran on the existing Penydarren (or Merthyr Tydfil) tramroad track between Penydarren and Abercynon. 

Trevithick’s engine travelled the distance of 9.75 miles in four hours and five minutes, and became the first steam engine to pull a load on the railway. The engine was estimated to weigh five tonnes and the combined weight of the engine and the load it was hauling broke the track it was running on. The engine ran only as an experiment and afterwards transport returned to horse-drawn wagons.

A section of the track exists in the IMechE’s collection. The section was acquired by W T Anderson in 1920 from one of the firms that had laid the Penydarren-to-Abercynon railway and was later gifted to the IMechE. 

A 3D version of the rail section can be viewed in the IMechE's Virtual Archive.