The United States is renowned as a world leader in technology, and sent the first manned space missions to the moon half a century ago. Yet the first steam railway locomotive to run in the US was built in Britain – at a foundry in the West Midlands.
It is not often the name of a railway locomotive becomes adopted as an everyday saying in the English language, but many believe that happened in the case of the world’s oldest surviving steam locomotive. Heritage Railway editor Robin Jones has the story.
