In
1811 John Blenkinsop, the manager of
Middleton Colliery and Matthew Murray,
an engineer from Leeds began experimenting
with producing locomotives. Blenkinsop and Murray rejected the idea
that a steam locomotive with smooth wheels on a smooth rail would
have sufficient adhesion to propel itself and a load. They therefore
experimented with producing a rack railway.
The rack railway system was patented by John
Blenkinsop in 1811. The system involved the combination of a locomotive
cogwheel and toothed rack rail. The Salamanca first appeared
in public on 24th June, 1812. Soon afterwards Blenkinsop and Murray
produced three more of these locomotives. However, Blenkinsop's locomotives
created heavy wear of the driving gear wheel and the horizontal rack
and the idea was not used by other collieries.
The Salamanca and the Rack
Railway
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