Rolling Thunder: a 12,000-Pound London-to-Birmingham Steam-Driven Land Coach (1833)

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post  [And yes! Four hyphens in the title!]

Here's a found bit from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1833, on a rumbling beast that would have been seen as the great technological achievement it was: a 12,000-lb land carriage connector between London and Birmingham. The report¹ was made by the great Thomas Telford, engineer and builder of roads/bridges/canals as president of the Society of Civil Engineers, and a host of others, on the possibility of  Sir Charles Dance's steam carriage being capable of implementing a transport service using existing roads.

[Sir Charles Dance's vehicle, ca. 1833. Source: wikipedia entry for Sir Charles Dance, motorist.]

The group found:

• “...there can be no doubt, that with a well constructed engine of greater power, a steam carriage conveyance between London and Birmingham at a velocity unattainable by horses, and limited only by safety, might be maintained; and it is our conviction that such a project might be undertaken with great advantage to the public, more particularly if, as might obviously be the case, without interfering with the general use of the road, a portion of it were to be prepared, and kept in a state most suitable for travelling in locomotive steam carriages."

The characteristics of the vehicle:

• Weight of carriage, with water, coke, and three operators: 3.5 tons;
• weight of attached omnibus, plus passengers and luggage, gross: 6 tons.
• The "motive power was an engine with two cylinders" each seven inches in diameter and with a sixteen inches stroke. 

It seems that this vehicle was not going to be very fast, or not-slow, nor the boiler very dependable,  even though the writer suggests that it could be faster than a horse-drawn carriage and do not damage to the road...I have my doubts on both. That said it was reported on one test run that the vehicle made 16 mph; another report said that it didn't do well in the rain so far as handling went; yet another reported a boiler semi-failure. It was also reported that the engine was insufficient to pull the monster along, and that it took about an hour to travel 6 miles in the trial being reported to the JFI in 1833.  Making your way to Birmingham some 120 miles away could have been an overnight trip. 

The issue was resolved a few years later when a regular rail service opened between the two cities. 

Notes:

1. "Report of the result of an Experimental Journey upon the Mail Coach Line of the Holyhead Road, in Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Dance's Steam Carriage, on the first of November 1833", Journal of the Franklin Institute, volume 17, 1833..