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 210Oliver, Smith Hempstone
History
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
Oliver, Smith Hempstone
Locomotives -- History
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).
[Illustration: Figure 27.—Replica of _De Witt Clinton_ at the Fair
of the Iron Horse in 1927.]
[Illustration: Figure 28.—Model of _De Witt Clinton_, in National
Museum.]
National Museum’s John Bull
[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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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