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.
Figure 5.—Early drawing of America, built by Stephenson in England in 1828.
Figure 6.—Drawing of Stourbridge Lion of 1829 appearing in Renwick’s “Treatise on the Steam Engine,” published in 1830 (notice that crank rings are not shown). The track shown is not the type upon which the locomotive ran at Honesdale, Pa.
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.
Figure 7.—Combining different methods of transportation was common practice in the early days of railroading. The Delaware and Hudson as late as 1866, for example, carried coal by rail from the mines of Scranton and Carbondale, Pa., to its canal at Honesdale, Pa., and thence on barges by way of Port Jervis, Ellenville, and Rondout, N. Y., to New York City. On some early railroads, horses drew the cars on level stretches, but in hilly country where grades were very steep, gravity roads with switchbacks and inclined planes were often used. The inclined plane consisted of a set of rails over which units of the train could be raised or lowered by mechanical means. Horses, water power, or a stationary steam engine, often located at the top of the slope, were among the sources of power.
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.
Figure 8.—Cylinder of America, in National Museum.
Figure 9.—Piston from cylinder, at about twice the scale of [figure 8].
Figure 10.—Walking beams of Stourbridge Lion, in National Museum.
Figure 11.—Stourbridge Lion partially reassembled from original parts in National Museum. Frame and wheels are not original, and the crank rings are undoubtedly from 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]).
Figure 12.—Model of Stourbridge Lion, in National Museum.
Figure 13.—Full sized operable replica of Stourbridge Lion, built in 1932 by Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corp.
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.
Figure 14.—Replica of Stourbridge Lion at New York World’s Fair, May 20, 1939.
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.