Chapter II: Foreword: The Vanishing Iron Horse (1)

As the midpoint of the 20th century was reached, the curtain was falling upon the final phases of steam locomotive operation in North America. Almost certainly, after another decade there would remain in service comparatively few representatives of the engine which had been the primary source of motive power of the railroads for over a hundred years.

In that comparatively short time the steam locomotive had changed the United States from a small country with a few seaports, and with towns and settlements little farther inland than river navigation permitted, to a great nation covered with cities and spanning a continent. It had made possible the confederation of the isolated provinces of Canada into a great Dominion. Now, by the 1950’s, owing to the emergence of another type of motive power, it had become obsolete and its days could be numbered.

No future generation would experience the thrill enjoyed by its predecessors. No future American could stand awed beside the track and behold the majestic onrush of the iron horse, be deafened by the blast of the exhaust, the crash and clatter of steel on steel, and the hiss of escaping steam, or be momentarily shaken as the locomotive thundered past in a blurred flash of connecting rods, valve mechanism, and pounding wheels.

No child at night would ever again awaken to the eerie echo of a far-off steam whistle crying at a lonely crossing, or by day look out from a hillside at the long white plume of steam that marked a distant train charging down the valley below. The present generation of Americans can gaze back upon these things with nostalgia. The next will never know them.

Here and there a steam engine will be saved, but the people of a different era will note them and quickly pass on, wondering. Only a few will pause to marvel and ponder over the development of the steam locomotive.

It is to the everlasting credit of our forebears that some few examples and relics of the early engines have been preserved; and the appearance of this study of them, coming in the final hour of the steam locomotive, is most appropriate. The author has gone to painstaking lengths to find and sift and bring together the most complete record ever compiled of these examples and relics remaining of the earliest of North American railway engines and of working replicas of them.

Students of locomotive and railroad history are familiar with the almost impossible task confronting the researcher who undertakes to trace the history of early engines. The contemporary account is often a will-o’-the-wisp pursued endlessly through the yellowed pages of century-old newspapers and books; the seemingly authentic fragment of fact is found to be faulty just when it seems flawlessly correct; the colorful description of some ephemeral engine of the past just cannot be reconciled with contemporary accounts and finally proves to have been prepared long afterward, replete with the inaccuracies which most unfortunately result from the inroads made by time upon the recollections of the most careful observer.

Through all this confusing maze the author step by step has made his way, the result being a most noteworthy and valuable contribution to the literature of the steam locomotive. To students of its history, to the vast body of railway enthusiasts all over the world, and to those generally interested in the development of mechanical industry and transportation, this work must appeal as unique and one that will be long remembered.

THOMAS NORRELL

_July 1955_
Silver Spring, Maryland

Remaining Relics and Operable Replicas Representing the First
Quarter-Century Of Steam Locomotives in North America

BUILDER NAME DATE BUILT FOR CONDITION SEE
BUILT PAGE
Col. John none 1825 Experiment Relics and 2 10
Stevens operable
replicas
Robert _America_ 1828 Delaware and Relics only 14
Stephenson & Hudson Canal Co.
Co.
Foster, _Stourbridge 1829 Delaware and Assembled 14
Rastrick and Lion_ Hudson Canal Co. relics and
Co. an operable
replica
Peter Cooper _Tom Thumb_ 1830 Baltimore and Operable 22
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
Phineas Davis _York_ 1831 Baltimore and Operable 24
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
The West Point _Best Friend 1830 South-Carolina Operable 26
Foundry of Canal and replica
Association Charleston_ Rail-Road Co.
The West Point _DeWitt 1831 Mohawk and Hudson Relic and an 32
Foundry Clinton_ Rail Road Co. operable
Association replica
Robert _John Bull_ 1831 Camden and Amboy Operable 38
Stephenson & Rail Road and original
Co. Transportation and replica
Co.
Davis and _John Quincy 1835 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Adams_ Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Davis and _Andrew 1836 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Jackson_ Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Davis and _John Hancock_ 1836 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Matthias W. _Pioneer_ 1836 Utica and Operable 53
Baldwin Schenectady Rail original
Road
H. R. Dunham _Mississippi_ about Name unknown Operable 55
and Co. (?) 1836 original
William Norris _Lafayette_ 1837 Baltimore and Operable 58
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
Braithwaite, _Rocket_ 1838 Philadelphia and Operable 60
Milner and Co. Reading Rail original
Road Co.
Timothy _Samson_ 1838 General Mining Operable 63
Hackworth Association original
Builder unknown _Peoples’ about Name unknown Operable 67
Railway No. 1842 original
3_
Holmes Hinkley _Lion_ 1846 Machiasport Operable 69
Railroad original
New Castle _Memnon_ 1848 Baltimore and Operable 71
Manufacturing Ohio Rail Road original
Co., Co.
sub-contractor
to Matthias W.
Baldwin

Altogether, perhaps a quarter of a million steam locomotives have been built in America. From the first they have been objects of interest to young and old. They have been depicted and photographed untold times, and as a result a wonderfully accurate pictorial record of their construction and appearance has been built up.

The locomotives themselves, however, as they wore out or fell into disuse were usually destroyed for the value of their scrap metal. This process has been greatly hastened in recent years by the trend toward the use of diesel-electric and other types of motive power. Few remain of the busy multitudes of steam locomotives that served so well in building the Nations on this continent. The picturesque and once popular steamer has today become the vanishing iron horse.

It is proposed to deal here only with the relics and replicas of the historic steam locomotives used during the pioneer days of railroading on this continent, in the period 1825-1849. Of these, only 11 have survived in even reasonably complete form. With the remaining parts of several others, they are accounted museum treasures. Full sized operable replicas of 7 other famous early locomotives have been constructed. All these together afford a good idea of the actual construction of the locomotives of long ago.

Not to be included, are the many nonoperable, wooden facsimiles of early locomotives that merely serve to show the general external appearance of the originals they represent. Many such are to be seen in the railroad collection in the Baltimore and Ohio Transportation Museum located at the old Mount Clare station and roundhouse at Baltimore, Md.

Also not to be included are the modern, full sized, operable replicas of Robert Stephenson’s famous locomotive _Rocket_ of 1829, of which several exist in the United States (one is in the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, Mich., another is in the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago, Ill.). These replicas, built 100 years later by Robert Stephenson & Co., Ltd., of Darlington, England, do not represent a locomotive actually used in North America during the pioneering days of railroading here, and therefore do not fall into the category covered by this work.

Various old models of suggested designs for locomotives would not seem to come within the scope of this publication either, as the full sized versions never came into being. One such example is the model said to have been built by John Fitch, and now exhibited in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at Columbus, Ohio. As Fitch died in July 1798, the model might, if authenticated as to builder and purpose, be a very early example of an idea along the lines of a steam locomotive.

On the other hand, there is no assurance that the model referred to was intended by its builder to represent a locomotive. It is thought by most historians that the model is that of a proposed power plant for a boat, for Fitch is known to have constructed several successful steamboats a few years before his death.

America’s First Rail Locomotive

Col. John Stevens of Hoboken, N. J., had by 1825 long been intrigued with the idea of constructing a steam locomotive, having had considerable success with steam as a method of propulsion on water. In that year he constructed a small experimental 4-wheeled engine, the first rail locomotive to be built in this country. The unflanged wheels were kept on the flat rails by vertical bars that projected down from each corner of the locomotive. These were fitted on their lower ends with horizontal rollers bearing on the inside of the rails.

Equipped with a vertical water-tube boiler, and with its horizontal 1-cylinder power plant geared to a rack located between the two rails, it was built only for demonstration and experimentation. It was often run, however, on a small circular track laid out on the lower lawn of Stevens’ estate at Hoboken. This was the first steam railroad in America.

Of this original locomotive only the boiler and safety valve remain. They are on exhibition at the National Museum (USNM 180029), where they were deposited in 1888 by the Stevens Institute of Technology. The boiler (figure 1) contains 20 wrought-iron tubes, each a little over 1 inch in outside diameter, set closely together in a circle and originally surrounding a circular grate, now missing. It is 4 feet high, including the headers, and 1 foot across, and was formerly enclosed by a jacket of thin sheet iron topped by a conical hood on which rested the smokestack.

Wood used as fuel was dropped onto the grate through a door in the hood, and water was put into the boiler through a pipe in the bottom header. Steam was taken from a 1-inch pipe in the top header. The boiler when new is reported to have sustained with safety a steam pressure of 550 pounds per square inch. The design of the boiler was patented by Stevens on April 11, 1803.

The safety valve (figure 2) is of simple design. It consists of a lever 10 inches long from which a 4-pound lead ball about 2½ inches in diameter is suspended. Beneath the lever, and about 1 inch in from the fulcrum, is a disk valve controlled by the weight of the ball, which hangs by a stirrup that can be moved to any of several notches, so that it can be set for different pressures at which the valve will open.

A small, nonoperable model of the locomotive, about 2 feet long (figure 3), was made in the National Museum in 1898 (USNM 180241) and is exhibited there. A full sized operable replica, constructed in 1928 at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., was demonstrated (figure 4) at the Stevens Institute of Technology on November 23, 1928, upon the occasion of the inauguration of Harvey N. Davis as president of the Institute. It was given by the Pennsylvania Railroad to the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago in 1932, where it is now exhibited.

Another replica of the Stevens locomotive, made by the Pennsylvania in 1939, appeared in the railroad pageant at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, and for a time in 1941 was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Station in New York City. In June 1941 it was placed on exhibition in the museum of Stevens Institute, where it remained until March 1943. At that time it was returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., and has since been stored in their enginehouse at Trenton, N. J.

The design of these replicas is based in part on the recollections in the 1880’s of the grandson of John Stevens, Dr. Francis B. Stevens, who was a frequent passenger on the original locomotive in 1825 at the age of 11. These recollections are contained in letters from Dr. Stevens to J. Elfreth Watkins, onetime curator of transportation and engineering of the National Museum. Stevens’ letters, dated March 30, 1883, January 17, 1888, and November 19, 1892, are now in the archives of the Museum.

Two British-Built Locomotives

The next locomotives known to have been used in this country were the British machines today popularly referred to as the _America_ (figure 5) and the _Stourbridge Lion_ (figure 6). They were contracted for in England in 1828 by Horatio Allen, who had been sent there for that purpose by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., and were delivered at New York City in 1829.

The _America_, built by the already famous British firm of Robert Stephenson & Co., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, arrived from London on the ship _Columbia_ on January 15. The _Stourbridge Lion_, built by Foster, Rastrick and Co., of Stourbridge, arrived from Liverpool on the _John Jay_ on May 13. The delivered price of the former was $3,663.30 and of the latter $2,914.90. On July 2 they were shipped up the Hudson River by the steamboat _Congress_ to Rondout, N. Y., where they arrived on July 3.

Later in July the two locomotives were sent up the Delaware and Hudson Canal from Eddyville, N. Y., to Honesdale, Pa., where the _Stourbridge Lion_ was subsequently tried out on the newly laid railroad tracks of the Canal company. The tests on August 8, and again on September 9, with Horatio Allen at the controls, showed that although the performance of the locomotive was satisfactory, the track was not sufficiently stable to withstand the weight of the relatively large machine. As a result of this failure, horses and steam- or water-powered stationary engines (see figure 7) constituted the motive power of this railroad until 1860.

The _Stourbridge Lion_, nevertheless, had earned the distinction of being the first locomotive to operate in America on a railroad built expressly for commercial traffic.

No record exists to show that the _America_ was ever used, and its subsequent history as a locomotive is unknown. Two other locomotives were built by Foster, Rastrick and Co. for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. As these were not delivered to Rondout until after the _Lion_ had demonstrated the inadequacy of the track at Honesdale, they were not sent there, but were instead stored at Rondout, where all trace of them has been lost. It is thought they were destroyed by fire while in storage.

In 1890, Lindsay and Early of Carbondale, Pa., deposited one of the two cylinders (figure 8) of the _America_ in the National Museum (USNM 180922). It has a 9-inch bore and a 24-inch stroke, and the piston (figure 9) is fitted with two compression rings. (The location of the other cylinder is today unknown.)

Earlier, in 1888, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. had given to the Museum several locomotive parts, all thought to have been from the _Stourbridge Lion_. It has been established, however, through correspondence with E. A. Forward, formerly of the Science Museum, South Kensington, London, and with the firm of Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, Ltd., that the three crank rings (USNM 180030-C) received at that time are actually relics of the _America_.

Other definite relics of the _Lion_ received from the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. in 1888, from Lindsay and Early in 1890, from G. T. Slade in 1901, and from Mrs. Townsend Poore of Scranton, Pa., in 1913, include the boiler, one of the two cylinders, the two 6-foot-long walking beams (figure 10), and the 48-inch-diameter flanged metal tires of the four driving wheels.[1] These parts, with the exception of the walking beams, were many years ago reassembled at the National Museum into a reconstructed version showing somewhat the original appearance of the locomotive (figure 11).

At that time, the three crank rings from the wheels of the _America_, together with a fourth, duplicate ring made at the time of the reassembly, were unwittingly incorporated in the reconstruction. It is this version of the _Stourbridge Lion_ that is now on exhibition. The gauge of the reassembly, furthermore, is 56½ inches, while that of the original is recorded as 51 inches.

Also exhibited in the National Museum is a small nonoperable model (USNM 215649) of the _Stourbridge Lion_ with its tender, together about 2 feet long (figure 12), made by C. R. Luscombe in 1901 and rebuilt by Paul E. Garber in 1920.

A full sized operable replica (figure 13) was constructed in 1932 by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corp. and lent by them to the Wayne County Historical Society at Honesdale, Pa. The cylinder bore of the replica is ⁷/₁₆ inches, the stroke 36 inches. Since the outside dimensions of the original cylinder are approximately those of the replica, its working dimensions are probably also the same.

From time to time the replica has appeared in various railroad pageants, including those at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 (figure 14) and 1940, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948. Otherwise, it can be seen on exhibition at Honesdale, the scene of the trials of the original _Stourbridge Lion_.

Peter Cooper and Phineas Davis

No original parts remain of one of the best known early locomotives, the _Tom Thumb_. A full sized operable replica (figure 15), however, was made in 1926 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. for use in their exhibit that year at the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition. It has since appeared at the Fair of the Iron Horse, held at Halethorpe, near Baltimore, in the fall of 1927, the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949. Its permanent home is in Baltimore, at the Baltimore and Ohio Transportation Museum.

A small nonoperable model of the _Tom Thumb_, about 2 feet long (figure 16), made in the National Museum in 1890 (USNM 204581), is exhibited in the collection of the Museum. Other small models of it appear in the B & O Museum. One of these, a ¼-inch-scale model recently made under the direction of Lawrence W. Sagle of the B & O Museum, differs somewhat from the usually accepted idea of the _Tom Thumb_.

Notably, the smokestack is not straight, but has an elbow at its upper end, and the belt-driven blower is located there rather than on the floor of the machine as in the replica and the other models. Peter Cooper, the New York engineer and inventor who constructed the original _Tom Thumb_ as an experiment in the winter of 1829-1830, mentioned this upper location of the blower in a speech delivered many years later, in 1875, and quoted in Bulletin 73 of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society (1948, pp. 50-52).

The little locomotive, with its vertical boiler made of rifle barrels, looked rather like the larger locomotive of John Stevens of only several years earlier but had considerably smaller wheels, these being only 30 inches in diameter.

Although a 3¼-inch bore for its vertical 1-cylinder engine is given by most writers, Jonathan Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio, in the fourth annual report of the company (for 1830, p. 35) gives the figure as 3½. Unfortunately, he does not mention the stroke, which is usually given elsewhere as either 14¼ or 14½ inches. The bore and stroke of the replica were made 5 and 27 inches so as to give it sufficient power to operate satisfactorily. For that matter, in the interest of sturdiness and suitable operation the replica is somewhat larger in all respects and considerably heavier than the original. It operates on a steam pressure of 90 pounds per square inch, and it is reported that the original did likewise.

The _Tom Thumb_ was engaged in its famous race with the horse-drawn railroad car in the summer of 1830 on a parallel section of the new 13-mile stretch of track between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills. It covered the 13 miles between the Mount Clare station and Ellicott’s Mills in a little over an hour, and the return trip in 57 minutes. The race with the horse-drawn car took place during the return trip. The _Tom Thumb_ appeared to be a certain winner until temporary slipping of the belt driving the blower caused the steam pressure to drop and allowed the horse to become the victor.

Nevertheless, the _Tom Thumb_ by this and later trips in the same year proved that steam locomotives were practicable, and caused the railroad officials to announce on January 4, 1831, a proposed contest (to be somewhat similar to the famous Rainhill Trials held in October 1829 in England) in which the best locomotive demonstrated would be purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co. for the sum of $4,000.

The winner of this contest, the _York_, a vertical-boiler locomotive built in early 1831 by Phineas Davis, a former watchmaker of York, Pa., is in the same category as the _Tom Thumb_, not only in that no original parts survive, but also in that a full sized operable replica of it (figure 17) has been constructed. This was built by the Baltimore and Ohio in 1927 for use in the Fair of the Iron Horse. It also appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, after which it was presented to the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago, where it has since remained.

The original _York_ was used successfully on the run between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, and subsequently on the much longer run of some 40 miles between Baltimore and the inclined planes at Parr’s Ridge, on the way to Frederick Town and Point of Rocks, Md. (Horse power was used to raise the cars at Parr’s Ridge in 1832.)

As the first practical and generally serviceable locomotive of the early Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the _York_ influenced considerably the design of the company’s subsequent locomotives. Within a year Davis had constructed several locomotives of a generally similar design, all with vertical boilers (see p. 47).

The _York_ had wheels 30 inches in diameter, weighed about 3½ tons, and had a top speed of 30 miles an hour. Not long after its construction, it was drastically altered in design and appearance. The vertical cylinders were removed from the opposite sides of the boiler, where they had operated the four wheels by means of direct-acting rods and trussed side bars, and inclined adjacent cylinders were located behind the boiler, where they operated by means of gearing on the rear axle only.

The modern replica, however, represents the _York_ as it was originally designed and constructed. It operates on a steam pressure of 115 pounds per square inch. The original is said to have operated on 100 pounds per square inch, and it burned anthracite coal, a very early use of that fuel in locomotives.

The West Point Foundry Association

The scene is now shifted to South Carolina and New York. The West Point Foundry Association, situated in New York City, had been the location of a stationary demonstration under steam of the blocked-up _Stourbridge Lion_ on May 28, 1829, shortly after it was unloaded from the ship that brought it from Liverpool. The Association soon thereafter built a locomotive (figure 18) for the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co., which was building a line from Charleston to Hamburg, S. C., just across the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga. Prior to its adoption of the steam locomotive, the railroad had used horses to draw its cars, and had even experimented with a wind-propelled sail car.

The locomotive, the _Best Friend of Charleston_, which was to become the first to operate on a regularly scheduled run in this country, was constructed at a cost of $4,000 in the summer of 1830, and arrived at Charleston on October 23 of that year, on the ship _Niagara_. The same Horatio Allen who had tested the _Stourbridge Lion_ for the Delaware and Hudson had become chief engineer of the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co. and was one of those responsible for the plans of the _Best Friend_.

Local machinists at Charleston were hired to reassemble the locomotive and prepare it for its first trial, but when the run was made on November 2, 1830, the wheels were discovered to be unsatisfactory. They were replaced by sturdier ones, and following a subsequent test on December 9, the locomotive was accepted. After several more experimental runs, some with passengers, the official first run, carrying 141 persons, finally took place on Christmas Day 1830.

Notice of the coming event had been published the previous day, so it became the first steam railroad train run scheduled by “timetable” to be made in the Western Hemisphere. All previous locomotive operations on this side of the Atlantic had been purely experimental—for test or demonstration purposes. At the time of this run the tracks of the railroad extended only about 6 miles out of Charleston, but by October 3, 1833, the full 136 miles to Hamburg had been completed. The South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road was then the longest continuous railroad in the world (see figure 19).

A description of the _Best Friend_ by David Matthew, who in 1830 had been foreman of the West Point Foundry Association, is contained in a letter he wrote in 1859 to the historian William H. Brown. Later quoted by Brown in his “History of the First Locomotives in America,” the letter says in part:

The _Best Friend_ was a four-wheel engine, all four wheels drivers.
Two inclined cylinders at an angle, working down on a double crank,
inside of the frame, with the wheels outside of the frame, each wheel
connecting together outside, with outside rods. The wheels were iron
hub, wooden spokes and felloes, with iron tire, and iron web and pins
in the wheels to connect the outside rods to.

The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old-fashioned
porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, and
all filled inside full of what we called teats, running out from the
sides and top, with alternate stays to support the crown of the
furnace; the smoke and gas passing out through the sides at several
points, into an outside jacket; which had the chimney on it. The
boiler sat on a frame upon four wheels, with the connecting-rods
running by it to come into the crankshaft. The cylinders were about
six inches in the bore, and sixteen inches’ stroke. Wheels about four
and a half feet in diameter. The whole machine weighed about four and
a half tons.

The _Best Friend_, as such, was short-lived. It gave service that was entirely satisfactory up to the moment its boiler exploded on June 17, 1831, when one of the helpers on the locomotive deliberately held the safety valve closed.

According to the statement in 1869 of Nicholas W. Darrell, first engineer of the _Best Friend_ and later superintendent of machinery of the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, the salvageable parts were used in constructing another locomotive which was appropriately named the _Phoenix_. Darrell’s recollection is confirmed by the early reports of the company, which also reveal that the machinery and new boiler were arranged differently on the _Phoenix_, the cylinders being placed outside the frame, and the weight being much more evenly distributed. The _Phoenix_ was put in service on October 18, 1832.

Although no documented relics of either of these two locomotives remain, the Redwood Library at Newport, R. I., now exhibits an all-metal wheel (figure 20) claimed to be from the “first locomotive used on first railroad of any length in America. Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga., 1835.” Quite probably it is a replacement wheel from the _Phoenix_, for Darrell also stated in 1869 that cast wheels with wrought tires were used to replace the original wooden wheels with iron tires that were on the _Best Friend_ when it was salvaged to construct the _Phoenix_.

The wheel at Newport is built up of parts, and consists of a large round hub, 12 round 1¼-inch-diameter spokes, a rim approximately 46 inches in diameter and 4½ inches wide, and a flanged tire 4¾ inches wide and about 1 inch thick, the flange of which is 2 inches wide on its outside face. The wheel, therefore, has a diameter of about 48 inches. The spokes are staggered in the hub and appear to be fastened to it by threaded nuts. Four keyways are cut into the hole in the hub. The complete history and exact origin of this wheel, given to the Redwood Library in January 1863 by Isaac P. Hazard of Newport, will probably remain a mystery.

As with other early locomotives, a full sized operable replica of the _Best Friend_ has been built. The Southern Railway System, which now includes the old South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, in 1928 constructed a faithful replica of the locomotive at its Birmingham, Ala., shops, and in the same year reproduced the original tender and several cars at its shops at Hayne, S. C. (figure 21). A new boiler was installed on the replica in 1948.

Among the various fairs at which it has been exhibited are those held at New York in 1939 and 1940 and in Chicago in 1948 and 1949. At present it is to be seen in the depot of the Chattanooga Station Co. at Chattanooga, Tenn.

A small, nonoperable model of the _Best Friend_, about 2 feet long (figure 22), with tender and two cars, was made in the late 1880’s by D. Ballauf, well known model maker of Washington, D. C. It was first exhibited at the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition in 1888, after which it was placed on exhibition in the National Museum (USNM 180244).

Of the _West Point_, the second locomotive built by the West Point Foundry Association, and the second bought by the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co., no relics or replicas are known to exist. A satisfactory locomotive, it arrived at Charleston on the ship _Lafayette_ on February 28, 1831. Its final disposition is no longer known.

The third locomotive (figure 23) built by the West Point Foundry Association, the _De Wilt Clinton_ of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Co., was the first to run in New York State. Its first public demonstration was an excursion trip on August 9, 1831, on a 12-mile stretch of railway between Albany and Schenectady. The distance was covered in less than one hour. Another notable demonstration, attended by many public officials, took place on September 24 of the same year.

The locomotive, which had been shipped up the Hudson River to Albany during the last week of June with David Matthew in charge, weighed a little over 6,750 pounds, was 11½ feet long, and was mounted on four 54-inch wheels, all of which were drivers. The two cylinders, at the rear of the locomotive and connected to the axle of the front wheels, had a bore of 5½ inches and a stroke of 16 inches. The boiler was tubular, with copper tubes about 2½ inches in diameter and 6 feet long. The top speed when pulling a load of about 8 tons was said to have been about 30 miles an hour.

The _De Witt Clinton_ was never completely satisfactory, and after infrequent use in 1831 and 1832 it was disassembled and disposed of piece by piece. Some of the parts were listed as sold on April 20, 1835, others on September 13 and October 29, 1836. A total of $485 was realized from the various sales.

In 1891, a wheel said to have been one of the wheels of the original _De Witt Clinton_, was deposited in the National Museum (USNM 180947) by William Buchanan, at that time superintendent of motive power of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. The all-metal wheel (figure 24) contains 14 round, 1-inch-diameter spokes staggered around the hub, and is 52½ inches in diameter. The flanged metal tire is missing from the rim, which is 4⅛ inches wide, but its presence would undoubtedly bring the overall diameter of the wheel up to 54 inches.

This wheel, or an identical one, was used in the very early 1890’s by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. as a guide in their construction of the full sized operable replica of the _De Witt Clinton_ locomotive, tender, and cars, first shown at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 (figure 25). The replica, constructed from the original plans of 1831, was made at the railroad’s shops at West Albany, N. Y. During the past 60 years the replica has undergone a number of repair operations, but it remains authentic. It has been exhibited on many occasions (figure 26).

Since the 1893 unveiling of the replica of the train at Chicago, it has been displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, the Fair of the Iron Horse (figure 27), the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949, and on many other occasions. For years the train was exhibited on a balcony within New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, but since 1935 it has been on loan from the New York Central System to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn.

An exquisitely made nonoperable model of the _De Witt Clinton_, its tender, and three cars, together about 3 feet long (figure 28), was made in 1932 by Peyton L. Morgan of Lynchburg, Va., and has been since 1935 in the collection of the National Museum (USNM 310961).

National Museum’s John Bull

Probably the most famous and historic old locomotive in the United States today is the _John Bull_, the oldest complete and operable locomotive in the country (figure 29). Built in England in 1831 by Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, it was officially placed in service on November 12, 1831, at Bordentown, N. J., on the lines of the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Co., now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. In regular service until 1865, the locomotive was given by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to the National Museum in 1885 (USNM 180001). It should not be confused with another Stephenson-built locomotive of the same name, built for the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Co. at the same time but no longer in existence.

The Camden and Amboy’s _John Bull_, its first locomotive, was ordered from Stephenson by Robert L. Stevens of New Jersey, son of the railroad pioneer Col. John Stevens, and president of the company, who had gone to England in October 1830 for this purpose, as well as to purchase iron rails of his design for the track of the new railroad.

The locomotive was completed early in the summer of 1831 and was shipped from Liverpool on the ship _Allegheny_, which sailed for Philadelphia on July 14. It had been disassembled for shipping, as were most of the early locomotives, and it is interesting to note that the freight charge was only £19, or a little under $100. The total cost of the locomotive, incidentally, was £784 7s. 0d., or a little under $4,000.

The engine arrived at Philadelphia about the middle of August, and was then transshipped by sloop to Bordentown, near Trenton, whence a few miles of rail were soon to head northeastward toward South Amboy. The mechanics who assembled the locomotive found it a mysterious and completely unfamiliar device. After considerable experimentation the task was successfully accomplished under the leadership of Isaac Dripps, a local youth who later rose to a position of importance in the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In its first test the locomotive was fired up to 30 pounds steam pressure, and Dripps, with Stevens by his side, opened the throttle of the first locomotive of what was to become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. The engine was disassembled for a few minor modifications shortly after this trial, and a few weeks later, on November 12, the official first trip was made.

The _John Bull_ as it appeared when first placed in service in 1831 was described in detail by J. Elfreth Watkins in his “Camden and Amboy Railroad,” published in 1891. He wrote:

The engine originally weighed about ten tons. The boiler was thirteen
feet long and three feet six inches in diameter. The cylinders were
nine inches by twenty inches. There were four driving wheels four feet
six inches in diameter, arranged with outside cranks for connecting
parallel rods, but owing to the sharp curves on the road these rods
were never used. The driving wheels were made with cast-iron hubs and
wooden (locust) spokes and felloes. The tires were of wrought iron,
three-quarters of an inch thick, the tread being five inches and the
depth of flange one and a-half inches. The gauge was originally five
feet from center to center of rails. The boiler was composed of
sixty-two flues seven feet six inches long, two inches in diameter;
the furnace was three feet seven inches long and three feet two inches
high, for burning wood. The steam ports were one and one-eighth inches
by six and a-half inches; the exhaust ports one and one-eighth by six
and a-half inches; grate surface, ten feet eight inches; fire-box
surface, thirty-six feet; flue surface, two hundred and thirteen feet;
weight, without fuel or water, twenty-two thousand four hundred and
twenty-five pounds.

After the valves were in gear and the engine in motion, two levers on
the engineman’s side moved back and forth continuously. When it was
necessary to put the locomotive on the turn-table, enginemen who were
skilled in the handling of the engines first put the valves out of
gear by turning the handle down, and then worked the levers by hand,
thus moving the valves to the proper position and stopping the engine
at the exact point desired.

The reversing gear was a very complicated affair. The two eccentrics
were secured to a sleeve or barrel, which fitted loosely on the
crank-shaft, between the two cranks, so as to turn freely. A treadle
was used to change the position of this loose eccentric sleeve on the
shaft of the driving wheel (moving it to the right or left) when it
was necessary to reverse. Two carriers were secured firmly to the body
of this shaft (one on each side of the eccentrics); one carrier worked
the engine ahead, the other back. The small handle on the right side
of the boiler was used to lift the eccentric-rod (which passed forward
to the rock shaft on the forward part of the engine) off the pin, and
thus put the valves out of gear before it was possible to shift the
sleeve and reverse the engine.

As no tender came with the locomotive, one was improvised from a
four-wheel flat car that had been used on construction work, which was
soon equipped to carry water and wood. The water tank consisted of a
large whiskey cask which was procured from a Bordentown storekeeper,
and this was securely fastened on the center of this four-wheeled car.
A hole was bored up through the car into the barrel and into it a
piece of two-inch tin pipe was fastened, projecting below the platform
of the car. It now became necessary to devise some plan to get the
water from the tank to the pump and into the boiler around the turns
under the cars, and as a series of rigid sections of pipe was not
practicable, young Dripps procured four sections of hose two feet
long, which he had made out of shoe leather by a Bordentown shoemaker.
These were attached to the pipes and securely fastened by bands of
waxed thread. The hogshead was filled with water, a supply of wood for
fuel was obtained, and the engine and tender were ready for work.

The distance between the two main axles on the locomotive is just 5 feet, and the gauge is 56½ inches. The overall length of the locomotive, including the pilot, is 25 feet; of the tender, 12 feet.

Watkins has given the cylinder bore as 9 inches, a figure also used by C. F. Dendy Marshall in his “Two Essays in Early Locomotive History,” and by J. G. H. Warren in his “A Century of Locomotive Building,” both excellent publications. In fact, however, the cylinder bore of the _John Bull_ was recently measured and found to be 11 inches. The stroke of 20 inches as cited by all is correct.

Many changes, some minor and some major, were incorporated in the _John Bull_ during the next few years. The most noticeable was the addition of a 2-wheeled pilot, suggested in 1832 by Robert L. Stevens to guide the locomotive around the sharp curves common in the tracks of that era. In order to attach the pilot to the front axle, the outside rods and cranks connecting the front and back axles had to be permanently removed, thus reducing the number of drivers from four to two. The _John Bull_ has ever since been driven by only the two rear wheels (figure 30). The wheels of the pilot are 29 inches in diameter.

Another early permanent change was the replacement of the wooden-spoked wheels with those of cast iron. The old wooden carriage-type wheels could not stand up under service in America, where sharp curves in the tracks prevailed. A wheel, said to be one of the originals (figure 31) but lacking the flanged metal tire, was presented to the National Museum (USNM 181194) by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. in 1894. An inch or so less in diameter than 54 inches, the wheel would certainly be of the original size if the tire were in place. The 14 spokes and the felloe are of wood. Metal bands, similar to the crank rings of the _America_ (now affixed to the reconstructed wheels of the restored _Stourbridge Lion_, see p. 20), are included in the construction of this old wheel of the _John Bull_.

Whether or not it is one of the original wheels applied to the locomotive by Stephenson can not at this time be definitely proved. Possibly it is an early wooden-spoked wheel built and tried by the Camden and Amboy prior to the adoption of the all-metal wheels now on the locomotive. Another similar wheel, until recently located in the Pennsylvania’s library in its Suburban Station Building in Philadelphia, is now in storage. These two wheels were included in that railroad’s exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Among the many other changes to the _John Bull_ were the addition of a bell, a whistle, and a headlight, as well as a dial-type steam pressure gauge (figure 32), and the relocation of the axle springs, the water cocks, the safety valve, and the steam dome. At one time a cab was installed at the rear of the locomotive, and an 8-wheeled tender was in use (figure 33).

The tender as seen today is basically original, but much of the woodwork was in such poor repair that it was completely disassembled in 1910 and stored, the rotted pieces of wood being discarded. In 1930 the tender was completely restored at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., and since that time has been exhibited constantly with the locomotive.

Prior to its presentation to the National Museum, the _John Bull_ had appeared at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and at the Exposition of Railway Appliances at Chicago in 1883. In early 1893, the locomotive and tender were taken from Washington to New York City, and on April 17 proceeded under steam, pulling two old cars of the period of 1836 (figure 34), to the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. It arrived without mishap on April 22 after having covered 912 miles. The locomotive and tender were returned to the Museum in December 1893 after having made daily demonstration runs at the exposition. They returned to Washington under steam via Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, and Baltimore. The next time the locomotive left the Museum’s confines was for a brief sojourn at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927 (figure 35). More recently it appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940.

In early 1940, a full sized operable replica of the _John Bull_ locomotive (figure 36) was made at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. The cylinder dimensions of 11 by 20 inches were apparently known by the shops at that time, as the drawings made then for use in building the replica show the bore and stroke to be 10⅞ by 20 inches. Perhaps the bore of the original locomotive was also 10⅞ inches in 1831, and was increased to 11 inches through many years of wear. However, the figure of 9 inches for the bore, so often used in the past, is definitely incorrect.

Earlier, in 1927, a full sized replica of the tender had been constructed at Altoona. This replica of the tender appeared with the original locomotive at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927, but since 1930 the restored original tender has always appeared with the original locomotive. In 1940, the replica of the locomotive, accompanied by the replica of the tender, appeared at the New York World’s Fair as a moving exhibit, while the original locomotive and tender appeared there as a stationary exhibit. The replica again appeared at the Chicago Railroad Fair in both 1948 and 1949. When not on exhibition, the replica is usually stored at the Pennsylvania’s enginehouse at Northumberland, Pa.

A small, nonoperable model of the _John Bull_ and its tender (figure 37), with two of the cars of the 1831 period, together about 6½ feet long, was made in the National Museum by C. R. Luscombe about 1900, and is included in the Museum’s collection (USNM 233510). The units are represented as the originals appeared in 1831, without the pilot on the locomotive, and without the sides and top on the tender.

Three Grasshoppers

As a result of the success of Phineas Davis’ _York_ on the Baltimore and Ohio (see p. 24), about 18 more small locomotives with vertical boilers were built for the B & O between 1832 and 1837, the first few by Davis[2] and his partner Israel Gartner,[3] several by Charles Reeder, and the remainder by George Gillingham and Ross Winans. These machines, with their vertical cylinders and their walking beams, earned the name “grasshopper” because of their peculiar appearance when under way.

Of the many “grasshoppers” constructed, three have survived. The earliest, the _John Quincy Adams_, was built in July 1835 and is now exhibited in Carillon Park at Dayton, Ohio, where it has been for several years, the gift of the Baltimore and Ohio. The remaining two, the _Andrew Jackson_ and the _John Hancock_, were built in 1836 and are now housed in the B & O Museum at Baltimore.

The history of these three locomotives is somewhat complicated. All were in use at the Mount Clare station in Baltimore as recently as 1892, then serving as switching engines. At that time, with a fourth, the _Martin Van Buren_ of 1836, they were retired from active service so they could be modified for the exhibit the B & O was planning for the following year at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

As it was the desire of the B & O to show in this exhibit some earlier “grasshoppers,” the _Andrew Jackson_ (figure 38) was altered to resemble the first “grasshopper” built, Davis’ _Atlantic_ of 1832 (figure 39); while the _John Quincy Adams_ was rebuilt to resemble the _Traveller_ (originally named the _Indian Chief_) of 1833.

The _John Hancock_, unaltered, was merely renamed the _Thomas Jefferson_ (figure 40), a “grasshopper” of 1835. Why the _John Quincy Adams_, itself built in 1835, was not used for this purpose under its original name, is not now understood. (The _Martin Van Buren_, now no longer in existence, was altered considerably at that time to resemble the _Mazeppa_, a so-called “crab” engine of 1838.)

The original _Andrew Jackson_, ever since called the _Atlantic_ (figure 41), has appeared at many railroad pageants throughout the East (figure 42); in 1935 and 1936 it was on exhibit in the National Museum (figure 43). The _John Hancock_, on the other hand, was recently given back its original name (figure 44) after having carried the incorrect appellation _Thomas Jefferson_ for about 60 years. Many railroad historians of recent times have apparently not been aware of the name-switching involving these two locomotives, which are now part of the permanent collection in the B & O Museum.

The _John Quincy Adams_ (figure 45), recently restored and repainted and no longer referred to as the _Traveller_, is the oldest complete American-built locomotive in existence.

These “grasshoppers” burned anthracite, as did the _York_. The cylinders of the newer two of the survivors have a 22-inch stroke and a 12½-inch bore (according to the 10th annual report of the B & O, for 1836, p. 22) and originally operated on a steam pressure of 50 pounds per square inch. With their thoroughly overhauled boilers, they now operate on 75. The bore of the _John Quincy Adams_ is slightly smaller, 12¼ inches (according to the 9th annual report of the B & O, for 1835, p. 24), unless it has been increased by wear or replacement.

The wheelbase of each “grasshopper” is 49 inches, and the weight was originally about 8½ tons. The wheels, modern replacements, are about 34 inches in diameter but the original ones were several inches larger. All four wheels of each are (or were) connected by gearing and rods to the two cylinders. In converting the _Andrew Jackson_ to represent the _Atlantic_, however, the side rods were removed so that only its rear wheels now serve as drivers, as did those of the original _Atlantic_.

It is of interest that at least one other “grasshopper” locomotive was built by Gillingham and Winans, but not for the B & O. Named the _Columbus_, this generally little known example was made in 1836 for the Leipzig to Dresden Railroad in Germany, and quite probably was the first American locomotive ever built for export. A description and illustration of it are found in the German publication “Hundert Jahre deutsche Eisenbahnen,” published in 1935.

Two Midwestern Locomotives

Among the early locomotives that have survived is the _Pioneer_ (figure 46), the first to have steamed out of Chicago, this having occurred on October 25, 1848, at the opening of the Galena and Chicago Union Rail Road. Built early in 1836, the _Pioneer_ was the 37th constructed by Matthias W. Baldwin and is the oldest Baldwin locomotive now in existence.

It was originally sold to the Utica and Schenectady Rail Road, in New York’s Mohawk Valley, and was their locomotive _No. 7_. Later it was sold to the Michigan Central Railroad, by whom it was reportedly renamed the _Alert_, a name that is open to question. From the latter road the Galena and Chicago Union obtained it in 1848.

In order to get the locomotive to Chicago, it had to be shipped by boat across Lake Michigan from Michigan City, Ind., and hauled by teams to the tracks. The little Baldwin locomotive at this time was given the name _Pioneer_. Its new owner, the Galena and Chicago Union, later, in 1864, was merged into the then 5-year-old Chicago and North Western Railway Co.

The _Pioneer_ had a full and active life, for it was in operation 12 years prior to its acquisition by the Galena road and 26 years after (figure 47). It was at one time temporarily lent to the new Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line, until that company was able to buy an engine of its own, and was finally retired by the Chicago and North Western in 1874.

The _Pioneer_ is a typical Baldwin design of the period. A wood burner, it weighs 10 tons, has slightly inclined cylinders 11 by 18 inches in size, one pair of 54-inch driving wheels at the rear, and a 4-wheeled swiveling truck at the front. The cylinder bore was originally 10 inches, but in 1872 the Chicago and North Western changed it to the present slightly larger dimension.

While owned by the Michigan Central, it had been altered in several ways, the principal change being in the valve motion. The locomotive originally had a single fixed eccentric for each cylinder, with two arms extending backward. These arms were fitted with drop hooks to engage with a pin on a rocker arm that actuated the valve rod. The new motion, installed by the Michigan Central, uses double eccentrics with V-hooks for each cylinder. The cab and the cowcatcher, not applied to the locomotive when it was constructed in 1836, are of a slightly later period according to an article in “Baldwin Locomotives” (vol. 10, No. 2, October 1931, pp. 3, 4).