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In the 19th century the first railway locomotives were powered by steam, usually generated by burning wood, coal, or oil. Because steam locomotives included one or more steam engines, they are sometimes referred to as "steam engines". The steam locomotive remained by far the most common type of locomotive until after World War 1.

The first steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick; it first ran on 21 February 1804, although it was some years before steam locomotive design became economically practical. The first commercial use of a steam locomotive was Salamanca on the narrow gauge Middleton railway in Leeds in 1812. In the USA, Mathias Baldwin started building stationary steam engines for commercial use and by 1830, opened his own workshop producing steam locomotives. Baldwin Locomotive Works became the world's largest by the early 1900s and built the most powerful steam locos in history. The locomotive Fairy Queen, built in 1855 runs between Dehli and Alwar in India and is the oldest steam locomotive in regular (albeit tourist-only) service in the world, and the oldest steam locomotive operating on a mainline.