Mainline steam trains in Great Britain
The most famous steam locomotive operating on the British main line is the 1923 built "Flying Scotsman". After being taken into public ownership in 2004, following a decade long refit it returned to mainline service in 2016. The fastest steam locomotive ever built, the 1938 built "Mallard", was also certified for main line operation briefly in the 1980s.
Steam locomotive
Many of the earliest locomotives for American railroads were imported from Great Britain, including first the "Stourbridge Lion" and later the "John Bull" (still the oldest operable engine-powered vehicle in the United States of any kind, as of 1981) however a domestic locomotive-manufacturing industry was quickly established. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's "Tom Thumb" in 1830, designed and built by Peter Cooper, was the first US-built locomotive to run in America, although it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction, rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive. The "DeWitt Clinton" was also built in the 1830s.