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.
[Illustration: Uncaptioned locomotive.]
[Illustration: Figure 5.—Early drawing of _America_, built by
Stephenson in England in 1828.]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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_.
[Illustration: Figure 8.—Cylinder of _America_, in National Museum.]
[Illustration: Figure 9.—Piston from cylinder, at about twice the
scale of figure 8.]
[Illustration: Figure 10.—Walking beams of _Stourbridge Lion_, in
National Museum.]
[Illustration: 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).
[Illustration: Figure 12.—Model of _Stourbridge Lion_, in National
Museum.]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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_.