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

Today, however, bearing its correct name and number, it stands on the roster as the oldest of all extant B & O freight locomotives, as well as the last of the locomotives to have survived the first quarter-century of railroading in North America.

SUPPLEMENT
Models, in the National Museum, of Locomotives Not Included in This Work

Certain of the locomotives, locomotive parts, and models described in the foregoing pages have been noted as being in the collection of the United States National Museum. In addition to these, the collection of the Museum includes 21 models of locomotives that do not fall into the scope of this work, as the originals they represent are either no longer in existence, are of too recent vintage, or were not used in North America. Among them are five operable models—four steam and one electric.

The originals represented by many of these models were involved in notable events in the history of railroading or mark major steps in its progress. For these reasons, and in order to provide the reader with a complete catalog of the locomotive collection of the United States National Museum, a brief description of each will be given on the pages that follow.

Trevithick Locomotive, 1804

The National Museum’s nonoperable model shown in figure 61 represents the probable form of the first rail locomotive of Richard Trevithick, the Cornish engineer who was one of the early advocates of the high-pressure steam engine. The Museum’s model (USNM 180058) is about 20 inches in length, and its flywheel is about 10 inches in diameter. It was obtained in 1888 from its builder D. Ballauf, a model maker often employed by the Museum.

Figure 61.—Model of Trevithick locomotive, 1804.

Trevithick, who a few years earlier had constructed several successful steam vehicles for use on the highways, in February 1804 completed the construction of a machine at Pen-y-darran, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales, for use at the Pen-y-darran Iron Works of Samuel Homfray. It is thought to have been the first steam locomotive ever propelled along a railway.