Cycloped
Cycloped was an experimental vehicle entered in the Rainhill Trials of October 1829, the celebrated competition organised by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to select the motive power for its newly-opened line. Unlike the other Rainhill entrants — Stephenson's Rocket, Hackworth's Sans Pareil, and Braithwaite and Ericsson's Novelty — Cycloped was not a steam locomotive at all but a horse-powered vehicle: a platform carried on wheels and propelled by a horse walking on a treadmill connected to the driving mechanism. It was entered by Thomas Shaw Brandreth, a Liverpool merchant and L&MR shareholder, who believed that horse traction could be made competitive with steam if the effort were applied through gearing rather than direct draught.
The Rainhill Trials were a defining moment in railway history, organised to resolve the L&MR's uncertainty about whether steam locomotives, stationary engines with rope haulage, or horse traction should work the railway. The rules required competing vehicles to haul a load of three times their own weight over a measured mile course at a minimum speed of ten miles per hour, and to complete multiple return trips equivalent to a return journey between Liverpool and Manchester. Cycloped failed to meet these requirements almost immediately: the horse on the treadmill was unable to maintain the required speed under load, and the vehicle made no serious competitive impression. It was withdrawn from the competition without completing the trials.
Cycloped is remembered today primarily as a curiosity — the horse-powered entry in the trial that established the supremacy of steam — and as evidence that serious engineers and investors of 1829 were still uncertain whether steam traction had decisively overcome animal power on railways. Rocket's performance at Rainhill removed that uncertainty permanently, and Cycloped represented the last serious attempt to propose horse-powered mechanical traction for a main-line railway in Britain. The vehicle itself was not preserved and no reliable technical drawings survive.
Design and development
The Liverpool & Manchester Railway held its famous trial of locomotives at Rainhill, near Liverpool, in October 1829, with a £500 prize for the most successful design. Five entries were received, of which four were genuine steam locomotives. The fifth, Cycloped, was the work of Thomas Shaw Brandreth, a director of the L&MR — though officially entered as the work of Brandreth's local engineer.
Cycloped consisted of a four-wheeled carriage on which was mounted a wide moving belt or treadmill. A horse walked on the treadmill, its walking motion driving the belt and, through gearing, the carriage's wheels. The arrangement was a serious attempt to apply animal power efficiently to railway haulage, and was not without merit at low speeds.
Service and withdrawals
Cycloped was disqualified from the Rainhill Trials on its first day when the treadmill broke through and the horse fell into the works. It never operated commercially. The trials were won by Rocket and the Liverpool & Manchester adopted steam locomotion exclusively. Brandreth remained an L&MR director for many years.
Identification features
Four-wheeled flat carriage with a wide horizontal treadmill belt running between the two axles, geared to the wheels. No boiler, no cylinders, no chimney — visually quite unlike any steam locomotive of the period.
Numbers and names
Named locomotives (outside the listed ranges)
- 0 — Cycloped
Not a steam locomotive. Horse-powered treadmill vehicle. Not preserved.
Notable locomotives
- Cycloped (1829, not preserved)
