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

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

BUILDER	NAME	DATE BUILT	BUILT FOR	CONDITION	SEE PAGE
Col. John Stevens	none	1825	Experiment	Relics and 2 operable replicas	[10]
Robert Stephenson & Co.	America	1828	Delaware and Hudson Canal Co.	Relics only	[14]
Foster, Rastrick and Co.	Stourbridge Lion	1829	Delaware and Hudson Canal Co.	Assembled relics and an operable replica	[14]
Peter Cooper	Tom Thumb	1830	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable replica	[22]
Phineas Davis	York	1831	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable replica	[24]
The West Point Foundry Association	Best Friend of Charleston	1830	South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co.	Operable replica	[26]
The West Point Foundry Association	DeWitt Clinton	1831	Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Co.	Relic and an operable replica	[32]
Robert Stephenson & Co.	John Bull	1831	Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Co.	Operable original and replica	[38]
Davis and Gartner	John Quincy Adams	1835	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable original	[47]
Davis and Gartner	Andrew Jackson	1836	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable original	[47]
Davis and Gartner	John Hancock	1836	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable original	[47]
Matthias W. Baldwin	Pioneer	1836	Utica and Schenectady Rail Road	Operable original	[53]
H. R. Dunham and Co. (?)	Mississippi	about 1836	Name unknown	Operable original	[55]
William Norris	Lafayette	1837	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable replica	[58]
Braithwaite, Milner and Co.	Rocket	1838	Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Co.	Operable original	[60]
Timothy Hackworth	Samson	1838	General Mining Association	Operable original	[63]
Builder unknown	Peoples’ Railway No. 3	about 1842	Name unknown	Operable original	[67]
Holmes Hinkley	Lion	1846	Machiasport Railroad	Operable original	[69]
New Castle Manufacturing Co., sub-contractor to Matthias W. Baldwin	Memnon	1848	Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.	Operable original	[71]

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.