re hauled was so slow that only two journeys were performed
by each man and horse in one day, and three on the day following. This
primitive waggon-way passed, as before stated, close in front of the
cottage in which George Stephenson was born; and one of the earliest
sights which met his infant eyes was this wooden tramroad worked by
horses.

Mr. Blackett was the first colliery owner in the North who took an active
interest in the locomotive. Having formed the acquaintance of Trevithick
in London, and inspected the performances of his engine, he determined to
repeat the Pen-y-darran experiment upon the Wylam waggon-way. He
accordingly obtained from Trevithick, in October, 1804, a plan of his
engine, provided with "friction-wheels," and employed Mr. John Whinfield,
of Pipewellgate, Gateshead, to construct it at his foundry there. The
engine was constructed under the superintendence of one John Steele, an
ingenious mechanic who had been in Wales, and worked under Trevithick in
fitting the engine at Pen-y-darran. When the Gateshead locomotive was
finished, a temporary way was laid down in the works, on which it was run
backwards and forwards many times. For some reason, however--it is said
because the engine was deemed too light for drawing the coal-trains--it
never left the works, but was dismounted from the wheels, and set to blow
the cupola of the foundry, in which service it long continued to be
employed.

Several years elapsed before Mr. Blackett took any further steps to carry
out his idea. The final abandonment of Trevithick's locomotive at
Pen-y-darran perhaps contributed to deter him from proceeding further;
but he had the wooden tramway taken up in 1808, and a plate-way of
cast-iron laid down instead--a single line furnished with sidings to
enable the laden waggons to pass the empty ones. The new iron road
proved so much smoother than the old wooden one, that a single horse,
instead of drawing one, was now enabled to draw two, or even three, laden
waggons.

Encouraged by the success of Mr. Blenkinsop's experiment at Leeds, Mr.
Blackett determined to follow his example; and in 1812 he ordered a
second engine, to work with a toothed driving-wheel upon a rack-rail.
This locomotive was constructed by Thomas Waters, of Gateshead, under the
superintendence of Jonathan Foster, Mr. Blackett's principal
engine-wright. It was a combination of Trevithick's and Blenkinsop's
engines; but it was of a more awkward