ourney. In a magnificent chair car, luxuriously furnished and
upholstered, a liveried porter raised the windows and adjusted screens,
turned on an electric fan, offered me the latest magazines and papers
fresh from the press, placed a footstool at my feet and a cushion at
my back. My safety was provided for by double tracking and unseen but
perfectly trained employees, but neither the reading matter in my lap,
the comfort of my surroundings, nor the always charming scenery from the
car window, could drive from my thoughts the quaint old railroad; and
when I came back to Lexington in the fall, in my eager desire to know
more about it, I immediately began my research which has grown into this
history of

"A Pioneer Railway of the West."

MAUDE WARD LAFFERTY.

The first locomotive engine in the world was built just one hundred
years ago by George Stephenson and used at Newcastle, England, at the
Killingworth Colliery.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica _railways_ had their origin in
_tramways_ which were used more than two hundred years ago in the mining
districts of England to carry their output of coal to the sea.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway, about thirty-eight miles in length,
was operating a locomotive driven by Stephenson, with a signalman on
horseback, in advance, in 1825. The passenger coach in this instance was
named the "Experiment," and carried six persons inside and from fifteen
to twenty persons outside. But it was the year 1829, which became famous
in the annals of railways, not only for the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester line, but for the invention and construction of the first
high speed locomotive of the standard modern type. Robert Stephenson's
engine, "The Rocket," was made under competition for the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway and it gained the prize of five hundred pounds for
lightness, power and speed, awarded by the directors.

FIRST RAILROADS AND LOCOMOTIVES IN THE UNITED STATES.

The newspapers of that period were filled with the wonderful
"performance" of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the people of
the United States, as well as those of Great Britain, became interested
in the question of railroad transportation. As early as 1828 charters
were obtained in several Eastern States and railroad companies
organized.

The first locomotive engine used in this country was operated on the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad between