title: Iron Horses: American Locomotives 1829-1900
author: Edwin P. Alexander
description: "A pictorial story of the development of the American locomotive from the first engine to run on rails in 1829 down to the turn of the century."
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  [Contents](1011250017_toc.htm)
  
  # **Harnessing The Iron Horse: Railroad Locomotion In The 1632 Universe**
  
  ### **By Iver P. Cooper**
  
  
  
  ### **_Railroading in 1632 Canon_**
  
  At the first "cabinet meeting," Mike Stearns says, "We got rail tracks leading
  most of the way from the mine to the power plant, but as far as I know there
  isn't a locomotive anywhere around. We may have to haul it by truck." ( _1632_
  , Chap. 8)
  
  The principal focus of this article will be on how the USE will design its
  first locomotives, but first I will explain what Canon (the entire set of
  _1632_ series novels and anthologies) tells us about railroading after the
  Ring of Fire (RoF).
  
  Mike decides that Grantville's best survival strategy is to use its "modern
  technology, while it lasts, to build a nineteenth-century industrial base."
  Mike muses, "Steam engines, steam engines. The railroads are about to make a
  big comeback in the world." (Chap. 11)
  
  By the t