Pockerley Waggonway at Beamish - behind steam elephant

A trip behind The Steam Elephant on the Waggonway at Beamish Museum.
This replica locomotive was created from an original oil painting. The original locomotive was built for working at Wallsend Colliery in 1814/15.
The Waggonway itself represents how coal was moved from the colliery with the arrival of steam power and lead to the development of the railway system we have today.

[@TobiasLeininger]

Saw some old videos of that ... only short part of the track left and the loco also looks very rough now

[@NJPurling]

The locomotive only had to equal the steady plod of a big horse. Walking pace. Horse feed was expensive at the time, wheras the locomotive was fed on coal, which they had by the ton & it was cheap. The rate at which locomotives developed was remarkable.
Imagine what an engine-man of the day would say if you told him that English men would create a locomotive that could move TWO THOUSAND tons of coal from a stand at equal or greater pace.

[@lucamarmiroli4563]

Bit of a rough runner 😂

[@greenfingers41]

Acceleration is not very smooth. That’s modern technology for you!

[@bingola45]

@@greenfingers41 I'm a Co. Durham man, and I love this era. Stephenson, Hackworth, Hedley...
Nobody knew what they had to do; but they just got on and did it anyway.