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 — John Shaqi
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
The _Memnon_ has appeared with other engines in the historic collection
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at many expositions, fairs, and
railroad pageants. Its permanent home is now that railroad’s
transportation museum at Baltimore. Originally numbered _57_, the
_Memnon_ was renumbered _13_ on January 1, 1884 (figure 60), and when on
exhibition at St. Louis in 1904 it was incorrectly labeled _Dragon_.
Today, however, bearing its correct name and number, it stands on the
roster as the oldest of all extant B & O freight locomotives, as well as
the last of the locomotives to have survived the first quarter-century
of railroading in North America.
[Illustration: Uncaptioned locomotive.]
SUPPLEMENT
Models, in the National Museum, of Locomotives Not Included in This Work
Certain of the locomotives, locomotive parts, and models described in
the foregoing pages have been noted as being in the collection of the
United States National Museum. In addition to these, the collection of
the Museum includes 21 models of locomotives that do not fall into the
scope of this work, as the originals they represent are either no longer
in existence, are of too recent vintage, or were not used in North
America. Among them are five operable models—four steam and one
electric.
The originals represented by many of these models were involved in
notable events in the history of railroading or mark major steps in its
progress. For these reasons, and in order to provide the reader with a
complete catalog of the locomotive collection of the United States
National Museum, a brief description of each will be given on the pages
that follow.
Trevithick Locomotive, 1804
The National Museum’s nonoperable model shown in figure 61 represents
the probable form of the first rail locomotive of Richard Trevithick,
the Cornish engineer who was one of the early advocates of the
high-pressure steam engine. The Museum’s model (USNM 180058) is about 20
inches in length, and its flywheel is about 10 inches in diameter. It
was obtained in 1888 from its builder D. Ballauf, a model maker often
employed by the Museum.
[Illustration: Figure 61.—Model of Trevithick locomotive, 1804.]
Trevithick, who a few years earlier had constructed several successful
steam vehicles for use on the highways, in February 1804 completed the
construction of a machine at Pen-y-darran, near Merthyr Tydfil,
Glamorganshire, Wales, for use at the Pen-y-darran Iron Works of Samuel
Homfray. It is thought to have been the first steam locomotive ever
propelled along a railway.
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