Figure 55.—Samson, with an original passenger car of 1840, at the Fair of the Iron Horse, September 30, 1927.
Ten years later, in 1893, it was again brought to Chicago, this time to be exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition. At the conclusion of the exposition the Samson, and the Albion that had accompanied it, were taken by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. to Baltimore for preservation there. The B & O later included the Samson (and also the Albion) in the exhibition of historic locomotives at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927 ([figure 55]).
In June 1928, when the two old locomotives were given by the B & O to the Province of Nova Scotia, the Samson returned to the land of its youth, only to be placed in storage in Halifax. Later, however, it was given to the town of New Glasgow, through which it had run almost daily in its early days, and it is now housed in a small building especially constructed for it at the town’s railroad station.
The Final Decade
In 1839 the Philadelphia locomotive building firm of Eastwick and Harrison constructed to the order of Moncure Robinson for the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Co. a noteworthy anthracite-burning locomotive, named the Gowan and Marx after an English banking firm. This engine during trials on February 20, 1840, turned in what was for the time an outstanding performance. It hauled from Reading to the inclined plane on the Columbia and Philadelphia Rail Road, located several miles from Vine and Broad Streets in Philadelphia, 101 cars of freight, a load of 423 long tons (2,240 pounds). The total weight of this load was 947,520 pounds not including the weight of the engine itself and its tender. The engine, in running order, weighed 24,660 pounds. The story of this remarkable feat is told by Joseph Harrison, Jr., in his book, “The Locomotive Engine, and Philadelphia’s Share in Its Early Improvements.”
So pleased was the Philadelphia and Reading with this locomotive that the road decided to order more of the same general style. However, as Eastwick and Harrison shortly became involved with plans to construct locomotives in Russia, and contemplated closing their Philadelphia works, most of these additional locomotives were made by other builders. A dozen or so, somewhat similar to the Gowan and Marx, were built in the machine shop of a Lowell, Mass., firm named “Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River.” Others were built by the New Castle Manufacturing Co. at New Castle, Del.
At least two, however, the Boston and the J. E. Thayer, were built by Eastwick and Harrison, and placed in service on the Philadelphia and Reading in September and October, respectively, of 1842.
What is thought to be one of these now famous locomotives has survived ([figure 56]). It is the earliest extant 4-4-0, or American type. Known today as the Peoples’ Railway No. 3, it was obtained at fourth or fifth hand in about 1872 by the Peoples’ Railway, which was then establishing a line from the York Street station at Pottsville to Minersville, Pa., a distance of about 4½ miles. Seldom used by the Peoples’ Railway after 1883, it was obtained by the Reading Co. in the early 1920’s when that road took over some of the rolling stock of the Peoples’ Railway. Since October 1933 it has been on loan to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where it is exhibited with the Braithwaite-built Rocket of 1838, also owned by the Reading Co.
The No. 3 has been the subject of much speculation and investigation since it was obtained by the Reading. Its origin and the name of its builder are not definitely known, nor is it absolutely certain for whom it was constructed. Without question, however, it is of the period of the early 1840’s, and is similar in appearance to the famous Gowan and Marx, although of considerably longer wheelbase.