My understanding (from things I’ve read years ago and this may not be 100% correct) is that early on in the steam era, cartels were formed in the UK, with the help of royal charters. Mining, transportation, distribution, etc were all controlled by a small handful of companies for maximum profit.<p>Coal was expensive and scarce (ish). So while railroads did build their infrastructure out of durable materials like stone, the gentle grades and wide turns were necessary to allow smaller, less powerful, more efficient locomotives to move freight around the nation.<p>In North America, that was not the case. Coal was cheap and plentiful, and available from all sorts of vendors and locations. Ultimately, it was easier to overpower obstacles with bigger locomotives than to put the effort into wringing maximum efficiency from what you had. The consequence was a much more rapid pace of technological development. And when the markets opened up in the UK, their firms were not prepared to compete.
Top-tier article. Felt like I was reading a more thorough explanation of American expansionism in the 1800's than what I got out of my old US History textbook.
See small and huge steam engines running at the annual Yankee Steam-Up at the New England Wireless & Steam Museum on Saturday, October 7 from 9AM - 3PM in East Greenwich Rhode Island.<p><a href="https://newsm.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://newsm.org/</a>