抄録
Early locomotives are reviewed from the standpoint of start of railroad axle rotation and fretting fatigue. Richard Trevithick, William Hedley, and George & Robert Stephenson were English engineers who made great works for steam locomotives. Meanwhile, John Stevens in the US was the pioneer for US steam locomotives. Richard Trevithick started to use rotational axles from the first stage in the locomotive era in 1804, and there were no fretting fatigue since he seemed to use a key ditch and a cotter. Fretting fatigue occurs at a contact surface in a condition of load and flexural movement. In that sense, the locomotive in 1814 made by William Hedley may be the first to have a possibility of fretting fatigue. One of the first axle failures can be admitted in a novel of memoire of a tourist by Standahl in 1838. This is considered to be one of the first failures by fretting fatigue.
