The design of these replicas is based in part on the recollections in the 1880’s of the grandson of John Stevens, Dr. Francis B. Stevens, who was a frequent passenger on the original locomotive in 1825 at the age of 11. These recollections are contained in letters from Dr. Stevens to J. Elfreth Watkins, onetime curator of transportation and engineering of the National Museum. Stevens’ letters, dated March 30, 1883, January 17, 1888, and November 19, 1892, are now in the archives of the Museum. Two British-Built Locomotives The next locomotives known to have been used in this country were the British machines today popularly referred to as the _America_ (figure 5) and the _Stourbridge Lion_ (figure 6). They were contracted for in England in 1828 by Horatio Allen, who had been sent there for that purpose by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., and were delivered at New York City in 1829. The _America_, built by the already famous British firm of Robert Stephenson & Co., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, arrived from London on the ship _Columbia_ on January 15. The _Stourbridge Lion_, built by Foster, Rastrick and Co., of Stourbridge, arrived from Liverpool on the _John Jay_ on May 13. The delivered price of the former was $3,663.30 and of the latter $2,914.90. On July 2 they were shipped up the Hudson River by the steamboat _Congress_ to Rondout, N. Y., where they arrived on July 3. [Illustration: Uncaptioned locomotive.] [Illustration: Figure 5.—Early drawing of _America_, built by Stephenson in England in 1828.] [Illustration: Figure 6.—Drawing of _Stourbridge Lion_ of 1829 appearing in Renwick’s “Treatise on the Steam Engine,” published in 1830 (notice that crank rings are not shown). The track shown is not the type upon which the locomotive ran at Honesdale, Pa.] Later in July the two locomotives were sent up the Delaware and Hudson Canal from Eddyville, N. Y., to Honesdale, Pa., where the _Stourbridge Lion_ was subsequently tried out on the newly laid railroad tracks of the Canal company. The tests on August 8, and again on September 9, with Horatio Allen at the controls, showed that although the performance of the locomotive was satisfactory, the track was not sufficiently stable to withstand the weight of the relatively large machine. As a result of this failure, horses and steam- or water-powered stationary engines (see figure 7) constituted the motive power of this railroad until 1860. The _Stourbridge Lion_, nevertheless, had earned the distinction of being the first locomotive to operate in America on a railroad built expressly for commercial traffic.