Application of locomotive steam power to the navigation of canals
On Monday and Tuesday the following novel experiment of locomotive steam-power was tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Mr John M’Neil, the civil engineer of the Clyde navigation, has had constructed on the banks of the canal a railway upon blocks, on which a locomotive engine has been put, which was used on the above named days instead of horses, to draw the canal passage-boats, and succeeded in taking them the whole distance of the line at the rate of eight miles an hour. The company having ascertained the full success of the experiment, will construct a tramway along the canal bank, and will be able to take their passage-boats in future at the rate of 18 miles an hour.
Bradford Observer quoting the Stirling Journal 5 September 1839
Irish waterways history 