Also not to be included are the modern, full sized, operable replicas of Robert Stephenson’s famous locomotive _Rocket_ of 1829, of which several exist in the United States (one is in the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, Mich., another is in the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago, Ill.). These replicas, built 100 years later by Robert Stephenson & Co., Ltd., of Darlington, England, do not represent a locomotive actually used in North America during the pioneering days of railroading here, and therefore do not fall into the category covered by this work. Various old models of suggested designs for locomotives would not seem to come within the scope of this publication either, as the full sized versions never came into being. One such example is the model said to have been built by John Fitch, and now exhibited in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at Columbus, Ohio. As Fitch died in July 1798, the model might, if authenticated as to builder and purpose, be a very early example of an idea along the lines of a steam locomotive. On the other hand, there is no assurance that the model referred to was intended by its builder to represent a locomotive. It is thought by most historians that the model is that of a proposed power plant for a boat, for Fitch is known to have constructed several successful steamboats a few years before his death. America’s First Rail Locomotive Col. John Stevens of Hoboken, N. J., had by 1825 long been intrigued with the idea of constructing a steam locomotive, having had considerable success with steam as a method of propulsion on water. In that year he constructed a small experimental 4-wheeled engine, the first rail locomotive to be built in this country. The unflanged wheels were kept on the flat rails by vertical bars that projected down from each corner of the locomotive. These were fitted on their lower ends with horizontal rollers bearing on the inside of the rails. Equipped with a vertical water-tube boiler, and with its horizontal 1-cylinder power plant geared to a rack located between the two rails, it was built only for demonstration and experimentation. It was often run, however, on a small circular track laid out on the lower lawn of Stevens’ estate at Hoboken. This was the first steam railroad in America. [Illustration: Figure 1.—Original boiler, now in National Museum, of experimental locomotive built in 1825 by Col. John Stevens.]