On May 31, 1879, German inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens, founder of the electrical engineering company Siemens & Halske (today’s Siemens AG corporation), demonstrated a small four-wheeled, electric motor-driven locomotive at an industrial exhibition in Berlin. Originally built for use in a coal mine, it ran on a small 300 meter circular track and pulled a small train of three trucks with wooden benches, each capable of carrying 6 passengers. With 18 passengers, the train could reach a speed of 6 km/hr. (13 km/hr without a load). 

It may look like a small garden locomotive by today’s standards, but the Siemens “E-Lok”— a German abbreviation for ”elektrische Lokomotive” (transl. electric locomotive)—was a major attraction at the exhibition. In the course of four months, it carried over 90,000 thrill-seeking passengers on the two minute trip. It even merited an article in the New York Times in September 1879 (see pdf below). The original locomotive is now on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin has a replica.

NY TIMES	Manufacturer & Builder  Oct.1880			original locomotive
1879 photo on which engraving was based				Munich original