The replica of Trevithick’s 1804 Penydarren locomotive is being restored to working order in The Works at the National Railway Museum - and will take centre stage in this year’s steam bicentennial celebrations including Railfest 2004 at York. ROBIN JONES

Two centuries ago, the wheel was re-invented. No more, no less. As was the case the first time round, the human race was suddenly equipped with the means to take giant steps forward – ones which would eventually lead to the surface of the moon and maybe well beyond. Yet at the time, comparatively few people blinked an eye.
And the name of the great inventor and innovator, Cornishman Richard Trevithick, was to pale into relative obscurity in popular history when compared to those ‘giants’ who followed in his wake – George and Robert Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir William Stanier, Henry Ford…
It was ‘Captain Dick,’ as he was known to his employees, who invented the world’s first car, the first effective traction engine/tractor, the first motor bus…and, as we celebrate this year, the world’s first railway locomotive, and then the first train. But this Bill Gates of the early 18th century not only suffered the indignation of little to no interest being shown in his groundbreaking devices, but died penniless.
However, in 2004, Trevithick has finally come into the money, with the Royal Mint issuing a special £2 coin bearing his name and an engraving of his great invention (Old Glory 168).
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council in South Wales, where Trevithick’s locomotive made its run along the Penydarren Tramroad on February 13, 1804, is to turn the 91¼2-mile route into a public walkway and heritage trail, while holding celebratory events almost every week throughout this year.
Most dramatically, the National Railway Museum at York is to hold one of its biggest railway history events of all time. Running from May 29-June 6, Railfest 2004 will feature displays of Britain’s most famous preserved steam locomotives running alongside a working replica of Trevithick’s 1804 engine and headed by none other than Great Western Railway 4-4-0 No. 3440 City of Truro. A hundred years after Trevithick’s Penydarren locomotive turned its wheels for the first time, City of Truro became regarded as the world’s first steam engine to (unofficially) break the 100mph barrier.
Another celebration is the annual Trevithick Day parade through Camborne on April 24, when Cornwall celebrates the world-shaping achievement of its greatest son.
The tiny Celtic kingdom of West Wales (Cornwall) may have succumbed to the Saxons under Athelstan as the Dark Ages closed, but through the steam railway locomotive, its technology a millennium later went on to conquer the globe!

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