[Illustration: Figure 29.—Pre-1900 photo of _John Bull_, oldest
complete and operable locomotive in North America, now in National
Museum.]
Probably the most famous and historic old locomotive in the United
States today is the _John Bull_, the oldest complete and operable
locomotive in the country (figure 29). Built in England in 1831 by
Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, it was officially placed
in service on November 12, 1831, at Bordentown, N. J., on the lines of
the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Co., now a part of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Co. In regular service until 1865, the locomotive
was given by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to the National Museum in
1885 (USNM 180001). It should not be confused with another
Stephenson-built locomotive of the same name, built for the Mohawk and
Hudson Rail Road Co. at the same time but no longer in existence.
The Camden and Amboy’s _John Bull_, its first locomotive, was ordered
from Stephenson by Robert L. Stevens of New Jersey, son of the railroad
pioneer Col. John Stevens, and president of the company, who had gone to
England in October 1830 for this purpose, as well as to purchase iron
rails of his design for the track of the new railroad.
The locomotive was completed early in the summer of 1831 and was shipped
from Liverpool on the ship _Allegheny_, which sailed for Philadelphia on
July 14. It had been disassembled for shipping, as were most of the
early locomotives, and it is interesting to note that the freight charge
was only £19, or a little under $100. The total cost of the locomotive,
incidentally, was £784 7s. 0d., or a little under $4,000.
The engine arrived at Philadelphia about the middle of August, and was
then transshipped by sloop to Bordentown, near Trenton, whence a few
miles of rail were soon to head northeastward toward South Amboy. The
mechanics who assembled the locomotive found it a mysterious and
completely unfamiliar device. After considerable experimentation the
task was successfully accomplished under the leadership of Isaac Dripps,
a local youth who later rose to a position of importance in the
Pennsylvania Railroad.
In its first test the locomotive was fired up to 30 pounds steam
pressure, and Dripps, with Stevens by his side, opened the throttle of
the first locomotive of what was to become part of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. The engine was disassembled for a few minor modifications
shortly after this trial, and a few weeks later, on November 12, the
official first trip was made.
The _John Bull_ as it appeared when first placed in service in 1831 was
described in detail by J. Elfreth Watkins in his “Camden and Amboy
Railroad,” published in 1891. He wrote:
The engine originally weighed about ten tons. The boiler was thirteen
feet long and three feet six inches in diameter. The cylinders were
nine inches by twenty inches. There were four driving wheels four feet
six inches in diameter, arranged with outside cranks for connecting
parallel rods, but owing to the sharp curves on the road these rods
were never used. The driving wheels were made with cast-iron hubs and
wooden (locust) spokes and felloes. The tires were of wrought iron,
three-quarters of an inch thick, the tread being five inches and the
depth of flange one and a-half inches. The gauge was originally five
feet from center to center of rails. The boiler was composed of
sixty-two flues seven feet six inches long, two inches in diameter;
the furnace was three feet seven inches long and three feet two inches
high, for burning wood. The steam ports were one and one-eighth inches
by six and a-half inches; the exhaust ports one and one-eighth by six
and a-half inches; grate surface, ten feet eight inches; fire-box
surface, thirty-six feet; flue surface, two hundred and thirteen feet;
weight, without fuel or water, twenty-two thousand four hundred and
twenty-five pounds.
After the valves were in gear and the engine in motion, two levers on
the engineman’s side moved back and forth continuously. When it was
necessary to put the locomotive on the turn-table, enginemen who were
skilled in the handling of the engines first put the valves out of
gear by turning the handle down, and then worked the levers by hand,
thus moving the valves to the proper position and stopping the engine
at the exact point desired.
The reversing gear was a very complicated affair. The two eccentrics
were secured to a sleeve or barrel, which fitted loosely on the
crank-shaft, between the two cranks, so as to turn freely. A treadle
was used to change the position of this loose eccentric sleeve on the
shaft of the driving wheel (moving it to the right or left) when it
was necessary to reverse. Two carriers were secured firmly to the body
of this shaft (one on each side of the eccentrics); one carrier worked
the engine ahead, the other back. The small handle on the right side
of the boiler was used to lift the eccentric-rod (which passed forward
to the rock shaft on the forward part of the engine) off the pin, and
thus put the valves out of gear before it was possible to shift the
sleeve and reverse the engine.
As no tender came with the locomotive, one was improvised from a
four-wheel flat car that had been used on construction work, which was
soon equipped to carry water and wood. The water tank consisted of a
large whiskey cask which was procured from a Bordentown storekeeper,
and this was securely fastened on the center of this four-wheeled car.
A hole was bored up through the car into the barrel and into it a
piece of two-inch tin pipe was fastened, projecting below the platform
of the car. It now became necessary to devise some plan to get the
water from the tank to the pump and into the boiler around the turns
under the cars, and as a series of rigid sections of pipe was not
practicable, young Dripps procured four sections of hose two feet
long, which he had made out of shoe leather by a Bordentown shoemaker.
These were attached to the pipes and securely fastened by bands of
waxed thread. The hogshead was filled with water, a supply of wood for
fuel was obtained, and the engine and tender were ready for work.
The distance between the two main axles on the locomotive is just 5
feet, and the gauge is 56½ inches. The overall length of the locomotive,
including the pilot, is 25 feet; of the tender, 12 feet.
Watkins has given the cylinder bore as 9 inches, a figure also used by
C. F. Dendy Marshall in his “Two Essays in Early Locomotive History,”
and by J. G. H. Warren in his “A Century of Locomotive Building,” both
excellent publications. In fact, however, the cylinder bore of the _John
Bull_ was recently measured and found to be 11 inches. The stroke of 20
inches as cited by all is correct.
[Illustration: Figure 30.—Another pre-1900 view of _John Bull_,
which was built in England by Stephenson in 1831.]
Many changes, some minor and some major, were incorporated in the _John
Bull_ during the next few years. The most noticeable was the addition of
a 2-wheeled pilot, suggested in 1832 by Robert L. Stevens to guide the
locomotive around the sharp curves common in the tracks of that era. In
order to attach the pilot to the front axle, the outside rods and cranks
connecting the front and back axles had to be permanently removed, thus
reducing the number of drivers from four to two. The _John Bull_ has
ever since been driven by only the two rear wheels (figure 30). The
wheels of the pilot are 29 inches in diameter.
Another early permanent change was the replacement of the wooden-spoked
wheels with those of cast iron. The old wooden carriage-type wheels
could not stand up under service in America, where sharp curves in the
tracks prevailed. A wheel, said to be one of the originals (figure 31)
but lacking the flanged metal tire, was presented to the National Museum
(USNM 181194) by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. in 1894. An inch or so
less in diameter than 54 inches, the wheel would certainly be of the
original size if the tire were in place. The 14 spokes and the felloe
are of wood. Metal bands, similar to the crank rings of the _America_
(now affixed to the reconstructed wheels of the restored _Stourbridge
Lion_, see p. 20), are included in the construction of this old wheel of
the _John Bull_.
[Illustration: Figure 31.—Original wooden-spoked wheel of _John
Bull_, in National Museum.]
Whether or not it is one of the original wheels applied to the
locomotive by Stephenson can not at this time be definitely proved.
Possibly it is an early wooden-spoked wheel built and tried by the
Camden and Amboy prior to the adoption of the all-metal wheels now on
the locomotive. Another similar wheel, until recently located in the
Pennsylvania’s library in its Suburban Station Building in Philadelphia,
is now in storage. These two wheels were included in that railroad’s
exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Among the many other changes to the _John Bull_ were the addition of a
bell, a whistle, and a headlight, as well as a dial-type steam pressure
gauge (figure 32), and the relocation of the axle springs, the water
cocks, the safety valve, and the steam dome. At one time a cab was
installed at the rear of the locomotive, and an 8-wheeled tender was in
use (figure 33).
The tender as seen today is basically original, but much of the woodwork
was in such poor repair that it was completely disassembled in 1910 and
stored, the rotted pieces of wood being discarded. In 1930 the tender
was completely restored at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co., and since that time has been exhibited constantly with the
locomotive.
[Illustration: Figure 32.—_John Bull_ on display in National Museum.
Note controls and modern steam pressure gauge.]
Prior to its presentation to the National Museum, the _John Bull_ had
appeared at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and at
the Exposition of Railway Appliances at Chicago in 1883. In early 1893,
the locomotive and tender were taken from Washington to New York City,
and on April 17 proceeded under steam, pulling two old cars of the
period of 1836 (figure 34), to the World’s Columbian Exposition at
Chicago. It arrived without mishap on April 22 after having covered 912
miles. The locomotive and tender were returned to the Museum in December
1893 after having made daily demonstration runs at the exposition. They
returned to Washington under steam via Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg,
and Baltimore. The next time the locomotive left the Museum’s confines
was for a brief sojourn at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927 (figure
35). More recently it appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and
the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940.
In early 1940, a full sized operable replica of the _John Bull_
locomotive (figure 36) was made at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Co. The cylinder dimensions of 11 by 20 inches were apparently
known by the shops at that time, as the drawings made then for use in
building the replica show the bore and stroke to be 10⅞ by 20 inches.
Perhaps the bore of the original locomotive was also 10⅞ inches in 1831,
and was increased to 11 inches through many years of wear. However, the
figure of 9 inches for the bore, so often used in the past, is
definitely incorrect.
[Illustration: Figure 33.—As this early photo shows, the _John Bull_
toward the end of its active career had a cab and large smokestack,
and an 8-wheeled tender was used.]
[Illustration: Figure 34.—_John Bull_, with train of 1836-period
cars, en route to World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.]
[Illustration: Figure 35.—Original _John Bull_, with replica of
tender built in 1927, at the Fair of the Iron Horse, October 5,
1927.]
[Illustration: Figure 36.—Full sized operable replica of _John
Bull_, built in 1940 by Pennsylvania Railroad Co.]
[Illustration: Figure 37.—Model of _John Bull_ and tender, in
National Museum, showing appearance of original 1831 design. Note
side rod connecting the two axles.]
Earlier, in 1927, a full sized replica of the tender had been
constructed at Altoona. This replica of the tender appeared with the
original locomotive at the Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927, but since
1930 the restored original tender has always appeared with the original
locomotive. In 1940, the replica of the locomotive, accompanied by the
replica of the tender, appeared at the New York World’s Fair as a moving
exhibit, while the original locomotive and tender appeared there as a
stationary exhibit. The replica again appeared at the Chicago Railroad
Fair in both 1948 and 1949. When not on exhibition, the replica is
usually stored at the Pennsylvania’s enginehouse at Northumberland, Pa.
A small, nonoperable model of the _John Bull_ and its tender (figure
37), with two of the cars of the 1831 period, together about 6½ feet
long, was made in the National Museum by C. R. Luscombe about 1900, and
is included in the Museum’s collection (USNM 233510). The units are
represented as the originals appeared in 1831, without the pilot on the
locomotive, and without the sides and top on the tender.