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- Jun 24, 181290% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Fenton, Murray and Wood Launches the Salamanca, the First Commercial Steam Locomotive
- The Salamanca was built in 1812 by Matthew Murray of Fenton, Murray and Wood in Holbeck for the Middleton Railway, and is called the first commercially successful steam locomotive[2][3]
- It was a rack and pinion locomotive using John Blenkinsop's patented toothed rail, and the first with two cylinders[2][3]
- It was named after Wellington's victory at the Battle of Salamanca in 1812, and could pull over 20 times its own weight[2][3]
- Four such locomotives were built; Salamanca was destroyed by a boiler explosion about six years later[3]
- The rack system was obsolete by the late 1830s as adhesion locomotives spread[2]
References 382% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%youtube.com/watch?v=9Yrahv0JgDIyoutube.com· Posted Sep 15, 2026· Starts Jun 24, 1812 ✓· 50% of score
Wikipedia's[3] Salamanca (locomotive) article and the Real Yorkshire Blog[2] both date the locomotive's first public run to 24 June 1812.
- [2]75%The Salamanca - the world's first commercially successful steam locomotiverealyorkshireblog.com· Added Sep 15, 2026· 50% of score
Independent account corroborating the 1812 build date and the Round Foundry/Fenton, Murray and Wood attribution.[1]
- [3]85%Salamanca (locomotive) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org· Published Jun 24, 1812· 0% of score
Wikipedia dates Salamanca's first public appearance to 24 June 1812, built by Matthew Murray at the Round Foundry.
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