"Iron horse" is an iconic literary term (currently transitioning into an archaic reference) for a steam locomotive, originating in the early Victorian culture (1825Ð35) when horses still powered most machinery, excepting windmills and stationary steam engines. The term was common and popular in both British and North American literary articles.Iron Horse was used admiringly when comparing early road and railroad traction engines performance to slower, less powerful horse powered tramways. The Iron Horse term became widely popularized and found frequent use in the century and a half following the competition won by Stephenson's Rocket, in innumerable newspaper articles as well as in various novels.
Excerpt from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_horse
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