The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America / Remaining Relics and Operable Replicas with a Catalog of Locomotive Models in the U. S. National Museum. United States National Museum Bulletin 210

by Smith Hempstone Oliver

National Museum’s John Bull

Figure 29.—Pre-1900 photo of John Bull, oldest complete and operable locomotive in North America, now in National Museum.

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.

Figure 30.—Another pre-1900 view of John Bull, which was built in England by Stephenson in 1831.

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.

Figure 31.—Original wooden-spoked wheel of John Bull, in National Museum.

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.

Figure 32.—John Bull on display in National Museum. Note controls and modern steam pressure gauge.

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.

Figure 33.—As this early photo shows, the John Bull toward the end of its active career had a cab and large smokestack, and an 8-wheeled tender was used.

Figure 34.—John Bull, with train of 1836-period cars, en route to World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.

Figure 35.—Original John Bull, with replica of tender built in 1927, at the Fair of the Iron Horse, October 5, 1927.

Figure 36.—Full sized operable replica of John Bull, built in 1940 by Pennsylvania Railroad Co.

Figure 37.—Model of John Bull and tender, in National Museum, showing appearance of original 1831 design. Note side rod connecting the two axles.

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.