Foundation and Early Success
The company was set up in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England by George Stephenson, his son Robert, with Edward Pease and Michael Longridge (the owner of the ironworks at Bedlington). It was founded as part of their construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The manager of the works for a while was James Kennedy, who was later, like the Stephensons, President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers
Its first engine was Locomotion No 1, which opened the line, followed by three more named Hope, Black Diamond and Diligence. The vertical cylinders meant that these locos rocked excessively and at the Hetton colliery railway Stephenson had introduced "steam springs" which had proved unsatisfactory. In 1828 he introduced the "Experiment" with inclined cylinders, which improved stability, and meant that it could be mounted on springs. Originally four wheeled, it was modified for six and another, Victory was built. Around this time, two locomotives were built for America. The first, a four coupled loco named America, was ordered by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. The second, six-coupled and named Whistler was built for the Boston and Providence Rail Road in 1833, later renamed Massachusetts was lost in a bog in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
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Famous quotes containing the words foundation, early and/or success:
“The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them.... Yet at the very first planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first governor, the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be next shipwrecked on to them.”
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“In an early spring
We see th’appearing buds, which to prove fruit
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
That frosts will bite them.”
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“The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion twenty years later.”
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