with effort and further adventure, that the victory of Stephenson's life was won on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. The intervening period was, however full of importance. Stephenson built a second engine in 1815, in which the connecting-rods were attached direct to crank-pins on the wheels. The Duke of Portland ordered one of his engines in 1817, for use on his Kilmarnock and Troon tramroad, but here the cast-iron tramplates were found too weak to carry any engine.
The owners of the Hetton Colliery decided in 1819 to alter their old horse tramroad into a locomotive line, and engaged Stephenson to lay out the line and build the engines. This was completed for opening on November 18th, 1822, when five of Stephenson's engines were working on the system.
Up to this stage locomotives were still confined to private colliery lines, but the Stockton & Darlington public railway project proved a turning point in Stephenson's career, and in locomotive history. Stephenson was appointed engineer, and application was made to Parliament for powers in 1818, but twice the Bill was rejected, being eventually passed in 1821. This, the first public railway in the world, was opened for traffic on Tuesday. September 27th, 1825, and the only engine possessed by the company when the first train steamed out bore the name "Locomotion." Handbills announcing this novel service of steam carriages depicted "Locomotion" as "The Company's Locomotive Engine and the Engine's Tender." The total weight of this first publicly used engine and tender was eight tons, and her full dimensions will always be a matter of interest to enginemen. They were as follow:—
Cylinders, 10 inches diameter; stroke, 24 inches; wheels, 4 feet diameter; boiler, 10 feet in length, 4 feet diameter; boiler pressure, 25 lbs, to square inch: weight of engine without tender, 64 tons. She worked on the Stockton & Darlington line from September 27th, 1825, to 1841, and is still in working order and capable of being put in steam. It remains on a pedestal at the entrance to North Road Station, Darlington. At the opening of the Middlesbrough & Redcar Railway, this engine headed the procession, and
