A description of the Best Friend by David Matthew, who in 1830 had been foreman of the West Point Foundry Association, is contained in a letter he wrote in 1859 to the historian William H. Brown. Later quoted by Brown in his “History of the First Locomotives in America,” the letter says in part:

The Best Friend was a four-wheel engine, all four wheels drivers. Two inclined cylinders at an angle, working down on a double crank, inside of the frame, with the wheels outside of the frame, each wheel connecting together outside, with outside rods. The wheels were iron hub, wooden spokes and felloes, with iron tire, and iron web and pins in the wheels to connect the outside rods to.

The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old-fashioned porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, and all filled inside full of what we called teats, running out from the sides and top, with alternate stays to support the crown of the furnace; the smoke and gas passing out through the sides at several points, into an outside jacket; which had the chimney on it. The boiler sat on a frame upon four wheels, with the connecting-rods running by it to come into the crankshaft. The cylinders were about six inches in the bore, and sixteen inches’ stroke. Wheels about four and a half feet in diameter. The whole machine weighed about four and a half tons.

The Best Friend, as such, was short-lived. It gave service that was entirely satisfactory up to the moment its boiler exploded on June 17, 1831, when one of the helpers on the locomotive deliberately held the safety valve closed.

According to the statement in 1869 of Nicholas W. Darrell, first engineer of the Best Friend and later superintendent of machinery of the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, the salvageable parts were used in constructing another locomotive which was appropriately named the Phoenix. Darrell’s recollection is confirmed by the early reports of the company, which also reveal that the machinery and new boiler were arranged differently on the Phoenix, the cylinders being placed outside the frame, and the weight being much more evenly distributed. The Phoenix was put in service on October 18, 1832.

Although no documented relics of either of these two locomotives remain, the Redwood Library at Newport, R. I., now exhibits an all-metal wheel (figure 20) claimed to be from the “first locomotive used on first railroad of any length in America. Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga., 1835.” Quite probably it is a replacement wheel from the Phoenix, for Darrell also stated in 1869 that cast wheels with wrought tires were used to replace the original wooden wheels with iron tires that were on the Best Friend when it was salvaged to construct the Phoenix.

The wheel at Newport is built up of parts, and consists of a large round hub, 12 round 1¼-inch-diameter spokes, a rim approximately 46 inches in diameter and 4½ inches wide, and a flanged tire 4¾ inches wide and about 1 inch thick, the flange of which is 2 inches wide on its outside face. The wheel, therefore, has a diameter of about 48 inches. The spokes are staggered in the hub and appear to be fastened to it by threaded nuts. Four keyways are cut into the hole in the hub. The complete history and exact origin of this wheel, given to the Redwood Library in January 1863 by Isaac P. Hazard of Newport, will probably remain a mystery.

As with other early locomotives, a full sized operable replica of the Best Friend has been built. The Southern Railway System, which now includes the old South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, in 1928 constructed a faithful replica of the locomotive at its Birmingham, Ala., shops, and in the same year reproduced the original tender and several cars at its shops at Hayne, S. C. (figure 21). A new boiler was installed on the replica in 1948.

Among the various fairs at which it has been exhibited are those held at New York in 1939 and 1940 and in Chicago in 1948 and 1949. At present it is to be seen in the depot of the Chattanooga Station Co. at Chattanooga, Tenn.

A small, nonoperable model of the Best Friend, about 2 feet long (figure 22), with tender and two cars, was made in the late 1880’s by D. Ballauf, well known model maker of Washington, D. C. It was first exhibited at the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition in 1888, after which it was placed on exhibition in the National Museum (USNM 180244).

Of the West Point, the second locomotive built by the West Point Foundry Association, and the second bought by the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co., no relics or replicas are known to exist. A satisfactory locomotive, it arrived at Charleston on the ship Lafayette on February 28, 1831. Its final disposition is no longer known.

The third locomotive (figure 23) built by the West Point Foundry Association, the De Wilt Clinton of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Co., was the first to run in New York State. Its first public demonstration was an excursion trip on August 9, 1831, on a 12-mile stretch of railway between Albany and Schenectady. The distance was covered in less than one hour. Another notable demonstration, attended by many public officials, took place on September 24 of the same year.

The locomotive, which had been shipped up the Hudson River to Albany during the last week of June with David Matthew in charge, weighed a little over 6,750 pounds, was 11½ feet long, and was mounted on four 54-inch wheels, all of which were drivers. The two cylinders, at the rear of the locomotive and connected to the axle of the front wheels, had a bore of 5½ inches and a stroke of 16 inches. The boiler was tubular, with copper tubes about 2½ inches in diameter and 6 feet long. The top speed when pulling a load of about 8 tons was said to have been about 30 miles an hour.

The De Witt Clinton was never completely satisfactory, and after infrequent use in 1831 and 1832 it was disassembled and disposed of piece by piece. Some of the parts were listed as sold on April 20, 1835, others on September 13 and October 29, 1836. A total of $485 was realized from the various sales.

In 1891, a wheel said to have been one of the wheels of the original De Witt Clinton, was deposited in the National Museum (USNM 180947) by William Buchanan, at that time superintendent of motive power of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. The all-metal wheel (figure 24) contains 14 round, 1-inch-diameter spokes staggered around the hub, and is 52½ inches in diameter. The flanged metal tire is missing from the rim, which is 4⅛ inches wide, but its presence would undoubtedly bring the overall diameter of the wheel up to 54 inches.

This wheel, or an identical one, was used in the very early 1890’s by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. as a guide in their construction of the full sized operable replica of the De Witt Clinton locomotive, tender, and cars, first shown at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 (figure 25). The replica, constructed from the original plans of 1831, was made at the railroad’s shops at West Albany, N. Y. During the past 60 years the replica has undergone a number of repair operations, but it remains authentic. It has been exhibited on many occasions (figure 26).

Since the 1893 unveiling of the replica of the train at Chicago, it has been displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, the Fair of the Iron Horse (figure 27), the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949, and on many other occasions. For years the train was exhibited on a balcony within New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, but since 1935 it has been on loan from the New York Central System to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn.

An exquisitely made nonoperable model of the De Witt Clinton, its tender, and three cars, together about 3 feet long (figure 28), was made in 1932 by Peyton L. Morgan of Lynchburg, Va., and has been since 1935 in the collection of the National Museum (USNM 310961).

National Museum’s John Bull

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Three Grasshoppers

As a result of the success of Phineas Davis’ York on the Baltimore and Ohio (see p. 24), about 18 more small locomotives with vertical boilers were built for the B & O between 1832 and 1837, the first few by Davis[2] and his partner Israel Gartner,[3] several by Charles Reeder, and the remainder by George Gillingham and Ross Winans. These machines, with their vertical cylinders and their walking beams, earned the name “grasshopper” because of their peculiar appearance when under way.

Of the many “grasshoppers” constructed, three have survived. The earliest, the John Quincy Adams, was built in July 1835 and is now exhibited in Carillon Park at Dayton, Ohio, where it has been for several years, the gift of the Baltimore and Ohio. The remaining two, the Andrew Jackson and the John Hancock, were built in 1836 and are now housed in the B & O Museum at Baltimore.

The history of these three locomotives is somewhat complicated. All were in use at the Mount Clare station in Baltimore as recently as 1892, then serving as switching engines. At that time, with a fourth, the Martin Van Buren of 1836, they were retired from active service so they could be modified for the exhibit the B & O was planning for the following year at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

As it was the desire of the B & O to show in this exhibit some earlier “grasshoppers,” the Andrew Jackson (figure 38) was altered to resemble the first “grasshopper” built, Davis’ Atlantic of 1832 (figure 39); while the John Quincy Adams was rebuilt to resemble the Traveller (originally named the Indian Chief) of 1833.

The John Hancock, unaltered, was merely renamed the Thomas Jefferson (figure 40), a “grasshopper” of 1835. Why the John Quincy Adams, itself built in 1835, was not used for this purpose under its original name, is not now understood. (The Martin Van Buren, now no longer in existence, was altered considerably at that time to resemble the Mazeppa, a so-called “crab” engine of 1838.)

The original Andrew Jackson, ever since called the Atlantic (figure 41), has appeared at many railroad pageants throughout the East (figure 42); in 1935 and 1936 it was on exhibit in the National Museum (figure 43). The John Hancock, on the other hand, was recently given back its original name (figure 44) after having carried the incorrect appellation Thomas Jefferson for about 60 years. Many railroad historians of recent times have apparently not been aware of the name-switching involving these two locomotives, which are now part of the permanent collection in the B & O Museum.

The John Quincy Adams (figure 45), recently restored and repainted and no longer referred to as the Traveller, is the oldest complete American-built locomotive in existence.

These “grasshoppers” burned anthracite, as did the York. The cylinders of the newer two of the survivors have a 22-inch stroke and a 12½-inch bore (according to the 10th annual report of the B & O, for 1836, p. 22) and originally operated on a steam pressure of 50 pounds per square inch. With their thoroughly overhauled boilers, they now operate on 75. The bore of the John Quincy Adams is slightly smaller, 12¼ inches (according to the 9th annual report of the B & O, for 1835, p. 24), unless it has been increased by wear or replacement.

The wheelbase of each “grasshopper” is 49 inches, and the weight was originally about 8½ tons. The wheels, modern replacements, are about 34 inches in diameter but the original ones were several inches larger. All four wheels of each are (or were) connected by gearing and rods to the two cylinders. In converting the Andrew Jackson to represent the Atlantic, however, the side rods were removed so that only its rear wheels now serve as drivers, as did those of the original Atlantic.

It is of interest that at least one other “grasshopper” locomotive was built by Gillingham and Winans, but not for the B & O. Named the Columbus, this generally little known example was made in 1836 for the Leipzig to Dresden Railroad in Germany, and quite probably was the first American locomotive ever built for export. A description and illustration of it are found in the German publication “Hundert Jahre deutsche Eisenbahnen,” published in 1935.

Two Midwestern Locomotives

Among the early locomotives that have survived is the Pioneer (figure 46), the first to have steamed out of Chicago, this having occurred on October 25, 1848, at the opening of the Galena and Chicago Union Rail Road. Built early in 1836, the Pioneer was the 37th constructed by Matthias W. Baldwin and is the oldest Baldwin locomotive now in existence.

It was originally sold to the Utica and Schenectady Rail Road, in New York’s Mohawk Valley, and was their locomotive No. 7. Later it was sold to the Michigan Central Railroad, by whom it was reportedly renamed the Alert, a name that is open to question. From the latter road the Galena and Chicago Union obtained it in 1848.

In order to get the locomotive to Chicago, it had to be shipped by boat across Lake Michigan from Michigan City, Ind., and hauled by teams to the tracks. The little Baldwin locomotive at this time was given the name Pioneer. Its new owner, the Galena and Chicago Union, later, in 1864, was merged into the then 5-year-old Chicago and North Western Railway Co.

The Pioneer had a full and active life, for it was in operation 12 years prior to its acquisition by the Galena road and 26 years after (figure 47). It was at one time temporarily lent to the new Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line, until that company was able to buy an engine of its own, and was finally retired by the Chicago and North Western in 1874.

The Pioneer is a typical Baldwin design of the period. A wood burner, it weighs 10 tons, has slightly inclined cylinders 11 by 18 inches in size, one pair of 54-inch driving wheels at the rear, and a 4-wheeled swiveling truck at the front. The cylinder bore was originally 10 inches, but in 1872 the Chicago and North Western changed it to the present slightly larger dimension.

While owned by the Michigan Central, it had been altered in several ways, the principal change being in the valve motion. The locomotive originally had a single fixed eccentric for each cylinder, with two arms extending backward. These arms were fitted with drop hooks to engage with a pin on a rocker arm that actuated the valve rod. The new motion, installed by the Michigan Central, uses double eccentrics with V-hooks for each cylinder. The cab and the cowcatcher, not applied to the locomotive when it was constructed in 1836, are of a slightly later period according to an article in “Baldwin Locomotives” (vol. 10, No. 2, October 1931, pp. 3, 4).

In common with many of the other surviving old locomotives, the Pioneer has been on exhibition at many places, including the Exposition of Railway Appliances at Chicago in 1883, the World’s Columbian Exposition held there 10 years later, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, the Chicago World’s Fair 30 years later, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949. At the latter fair it operated under its own power every day each summer, requiring only the replacement of the old boiler flues with new ones of sturdier construction to make it again serviceable. In recent years it has been exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago, but is now stored in that city in one of the shops of the Chicago and North Western.

Not a great deal is known of the early history of the Mississippi (figure 48), which is now exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago. Originally it was used on a pioneering railroad operating east out of Natchez in the late 1830’s. Some writers have contended that it was imported from England. Others, including Angus Sinclair, the railroad historian, have stated that it was probably built by the New York firm of H. R. Dunham and Co.

The Mississippi, however, has none of the characteristics of English locomotives of its period, and it is well known that a representative of Dunham took several locomotives from New York to Natchez in late 1836. It is most probable that the Mississippi is a Dunham-built locomotive of the middle 1830’s.

Its first recorded service began in April 1837, between Natchez and Hamburg, Miss., a distance of about 19 miles. A violent storm lashed Natchez on May 7, 1840, and destroyed considerable railroad property. From this and subsequent financial blows the little railroad shortly succumbed, and the Mississippi passed to other owners. Among these were the Grand Gulf and Port Gibson Railroad, the Mississippi Valley and Ship Island Railroad, and the Meridian, Brookhaven and Natchez Railroad. The latter road was acquired in 1891 by the Illinois Central Railroad Co.

In the spring of 1893 the locomotive was rebuilt at the McComb, Miss., shops of the Illinois Central and then was taken under its own power from McComb to Chicago, a distance of 815 miles. There it was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition. It has since been seen in many places, including the old Field Museum at Chicago, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, the Semicentennial of Wheeling, W. Va., held in June 1913, and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934. The tender usually seen with the locomotive and marked “Natchez & Hamburg R. R.” is not the original one, but is of a considerably later period.

The Mississippi is a wood burner, weighs 7 tons, has wheels 43 inches in diameter, and, according to Sinclair, has cylinders with a bore and stroke of 9½ and 16 inches. Its tractive force is said to be 4,821 pounds.

A One-Armed Billy

An operable replica (figure 49) of another locomotive of the same period also exists. The Lafayette, built in 1837 by William Norris of Philadelphia, was the first Baltimore and Ohio locomotive to have either a horizontal boiler or six wheels. As B & O No. 13, with a 4-2-0 wheel arrangement, it represented the first stage of the transition from the old 4-wheeled vertical-boiler types. It was the first of a group of eight ordered from Norris and was placed on the road in April 1837.

According to the railroad historian J. Snowden Bell, these locomotives were known as “one-armed Billys,” a term derived from the name of the builder and the single connecting rod on each side. Some of them were in service with light local passenger trains as late as 1857, but by 1839 it had been realized that they could not meet the rapidly increasing requirements of the expanding B & O railroad system. As a result, only the eight “one-armed Billys” were bought by the company, and as early as September 1839 the road introduced on its lines the more advanced 4-4-0, or American-type locomotive—the second stage of transition from the old “grasshoppers” and “crabs.”

The replica of the Lafayette has one pair of 42-inch driving wheels, and a leading truck with four 29-inch wheels, although the diameters of the wheels of the original were 48 inches and 30 inches, respectively. It looks somewhat like the Chicago and North Western’s Baldwin-built Pioneer, but whereas it was Baldwin’s practice to locate the driving axle behind the firebox, the Norris engine had it located ahead. This feature gave the Norris 4-2-0’s greater adhesion and tractive force. The Lafayette replica, with a wheelbase of 112¾ inches and a weight of 29,200 pounds, has a tractive force of 2,323 pounds. Its cylinders have a 9-inch bore and an 18-inch stroke, and it operates on a steam pressure of 90 pounds per square inch.

The replica was built in 1927 for the Fair of the Iron Horse and later appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949. It has also been taken several times to the west coast, where it has been used in the filming of motion pictures. In the fall of 1955 it was used in northern Georgia in a film based on the story of the famous Civil War locomotive General (see p. 84).

For many years the replica carried the nameplate William Galloway, this name having been given it shortly after it was built, to honor a famous early locomotive engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio. Today, bearing the correct nameplate, the Lafayette is usually to be seen at the B & O Museum in Baltimore.

A Rocket in America

The second oldest of the three complete British locomotives of the 1825-1849 period extant in North America is the Rocket (figure 50), built in early 1838 for the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Co. by Braithwaite[4] of London. It was the first of eight Braithwaite locomotives purchased by that railroad between 1838 and 1841.