_July 1955_
Silver Spring, Maryland
Remaining Relics and Operable Replicas Representing the First
Quarter-Century Of Steam Locomotives in North America
BUILDER NAME DATE BUILT FOR CONDITION SEE
BUILT PAGE
Col. John none 1825 Experiment Relics and 2 10
Stevens operable
replicas
Robert _America_ 1828 Delaware and Relics only 14
Stephenson & Hudson Canal Co.
Co.
Foster, _Stourbridge 1829 Delaware and Assembled 14
Rastrick and Lion_ Hudson Canal Co. relics and
Co. an operable
replica
Peter Cooper _Tom Thumb_ 1830 Baltimore and Operable 22
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
Phineas Davis _York_ 1831 Baltimore and Operable 24
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
The West Point _Best Friend 1830 South-Carolina Operable 26
Foundry of Canal and replica
Association Charleston_ Rail-Road Co.
The West Point _DeWitt 1831 Mohawk and Hudson Relic and an 32
Foundry Clinton_ Rail Road Co. operable
Association replica
Robert _John Bull_ 1831 Camden and Amboy Operable 38
Stephenson & Rail Road and original
Co. Transportation and replica
Co.
Davis and _John Quincy 1835 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Adams_ Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Davis and _Andrew 1836 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Jackson_ Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Davis and _John Hancock_ 1836 Baltimore and Operable 47
Gartner Ohio Rail Road original
Co.
Matthias W. _Pioneer_ 1836 Utica and Operable 53
Baldwin Schenectady Rail original
Road
H. R. Dunham _Mississippi_ about Name unknown Operable 55
and Co. (?) 1836 original
William Norris _Lafayette_ 1837 Baltimore and Operable 58
Ohio Rail Road replica
Co.
Braithwaite, _Rocket_ 1838 Philadelphia and Operable 60
Milner and Co. Reading Rail original
Road Co.
Timothy _Samson_ 1838 General Mining Operable 63
Hackworth Association original
Builder unknown _Peoples’ about Name unknown Operable 67
Railway No. 1842 original
3_
Holmes Hinkley _Lion_ 1846 Machiasport Operable 69
Railroad original
New Castle _Memnon_ 1848 Baltimore and Operable 71
Manufacturing Ohio Rail Road original
Co., Co.
sub-contractor
to Matthias W.
Baldwin
[Illustration: Uncaptioned locomotive.]
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.