Discussions

George Stephenson transported a train of loaded coal carriages along a twenty-five mile horse drawn tramway from a colliery at Darlington to Stockton on the seaboard in England using the first locomotive.  
 
The inventor’s engineer cousin James Stephenson, and ‘young Joseph’ stoked this history making machine named ‘the Rocket’.  
 
The steamers creator recognized the abilities latent in the boy and interested himself in his education: Joseph Whitehead became factory assistant, foreman, and then field representative of railroad construction.  
 
He is credited with building the Caledonian Railway of Scotland, the American Buffalo and Lake Erie line into Pennsylvania. He came to Canada in 1849, and worked on the English syndicate owned Great Northern out of Toronto.  
 
He signed agreements to unite by rail St. Boniface, East Selkirk, and Rat Portage, (Kenora).  
 
He signed a contract to engineer and construct the Canadian Pacific’s ‘Section #15’ from Winnipeg to the west.  
 
He brought the first locomotives to Manitoba. The most famous of these, the Countess of Dufferin, presided for years with Victorian dignity before the entrance to the C.P.R. station in Winnipeg.  
 
Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RArocket.htm  
 
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAstephensonG.htm  
 
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/notable_manitobans/whitehead_j.html