Matthew Murray

Biography

Matthew Murray (1765–1826) was an English steam engine and machine-tool pioneer who, working with the colliery engineer John Blenkinsop, produced the world's first commercially-successful steam locomotive, the rack-rail engine Salamanca of 1812, at the Round Foundry, Leeds. Salamanca and her three sisters worked the Middleton Colliery Railway from 1812 until at least 1830 and represent the first sustained use of steam locomotion for commercial freight haulage anywhere in the world.

Born at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1765, Murray was apprenticed as a blacksmith and worked at John Marshall's flax mill at Adel before founding the engineering firm Fenton, Murray & Wood at the Round Foundry in Holbeck, Leeds, in 1795. The works produced flax-spinning and steam machinery and from 1812 supplied the Middleton Colliery with its rack-and-pinion locomotives.

The locomotives, Salamanca, Prince Regent, Lord Wellington and Marquis Wellington, used Blenkinsop's patent toothed third rail to provide adhesion on the colliery's gradients, and were powered by Murray's two-cylinder engines arranged at the front of the boiler in a roughly horizontal layout that anticipated later locomotive practice.

Murray was an inventor of broad range, his patents covered hemp- and flax-spinning machinery, a steam ploughing engine and the slide valve, and the Round Foundry was an important early machine tool maker. He died at Leeds on 20 February 1826 and is buried at St Matthew's, Holbeck.

Locomotives designed

Lord Wellington — The third Murray-Blenkinsop rack-and-pinion locomotive built for the Middleton Railway near Leeds. Completed in 1813, Lord Wellington was named after the Duke of Wellington (the Iron Duke), who had been raised to the peerage in 1809 and was at the height of his Peninsular War fame. The engine was identical in design to Salamanca and Prince Regent, twin vertical cylinders driving a central rack pinion, and worked the Leeds-Middleton coal traffic until the rack rails were abandoned in the mid-1830s.
Marquis Wellington — The fourth and last Murray-Blenkinsop rack-and-pinion locomotive built for the Middleton Railway near Leeds. Completed in 1813, Marquis Wellington was named to mark the Duke of Wellington's 1812 elevation to Marquess. The engine was identical in design to its three sisters and worked the Leeds-Middleton coal traffic for approximately 20 years until the rack-and-pinion principle was superseded in the mid-1830s.
Prince Regent — The second of four Murray-Blenkinsop rack-and-pinion locomotives built for the Middleton Railway near Leeds. Completed shortly after Salamanca in late 1812, Prince Regent shared the same design, twin vertical cylinders, central rack-pinion drive, cylindrical boiler, and worked alongside Salamanca on the Leeds-Middleton coal traffic. The engine was named after the Prince Regent (later George IV). The Murray-Blenkinsop class as a whole worked the Middleton Railway successfully for approximately twenty years, until the rack-and-pinion principle was superseded by simple adhesion working in the mid-1830s.
Salamanca — Matthew Murray's 1812 rack-and-pinion steam locomotive, widely regarded as the world's first commercially successful steam locomotive. Built by Fenton, Murray and Wood of Leeds to John Blenkinsop's patent rack-and-pinion adhesion system, the engine entered service on the Middleton Railway between Leeds and Middleton Colliery on 12 August 1812, making the Middleton Railway the world's first commercially-operated steam railway. Salamanca was the first of four engines built to the same design over 1812–1813. The class operated successfully for approximately 20 years; Salamanca itself exploded in 1818, killing the driver. No original survives.

Born	1 January 1765
Died	20 February 1826
Nationality	English
Employer	Fenton, Murray and Wood (Round Foundry, Leeds), founder partner from 1795