drag the coal-trucks
instead of horses!

'If you will only come to Killingworth,' said he, 'I will show you an
engine I made and have been driving in the colliery yard for more than
ten years. It is forty times as strong as a horse, and cheaper in the
end.'

Mr. Pease kindly promised that he would accept this invitation some day,
but nothing had been said about locomotives in the Act of Parliament,
and for the time being things must go on as they were.

The first rail was laid on May 23rd, 1822, and the whole twelve miles of
line were ready for traffic, on September 27th, 1825. Three years doing
twelve miles! That does not seem very fast, but we must remember that
there were rivers to be spanned, and hills to be cut through, and
valleys to be crossed by high embankments. And George Stephenson had
progressed very much more than twelve miles in these three years. He had
taken Mr. Pease to Killingworth, and shown him his engine; he had
convinced him it would travel even faster than a horse, and drag a
heavier load behind it; and he had won a promise that the railroad
between Darlington and Stockton should be opened with a locomotive
driven by steam, though he was made to understand that it was only an
experiment, and no one really expected it to succeed.

On September 27th, therefore, in 1825, crowds of people streamed along
the country roads in the direction of Brusselton, nine miles from
Darlington, to see the beginning of this strange experiment. Some were
interested, most were inclined to laugh, and many had come with the
secret hope of seeing this 'ridiculous engine' blown into a thousand
pieces.

At the bottom of a slope the monster stood, puffing and hissing with
impatience to show these unbelieving people how mistaken they were. It
was a strange-looking machine, quite unlike any of the giants that we
know. A large boiler lay full length between four ornamental iron
wheels. Out of the front end of the boiler rose a tall and ugly
stove-pipe, while _over_ the boiler was a confused collection of rods
and levers communicating with the crank of the big wheels. It was called
the 'Locomotion.' George Stephenson stood ready to drive it as soon as
the trucks, which a stationary engine was lowering down the slope by
means of a wire rope, had been attached to it. In the first of these
trucks came the Directors of the Railway Company and their friends,
followed by twenty-one trucks (all open to the sky, like ordinary
go