The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-06-15
THE FIRST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE.
Ferty-Nine Years Old, and Still In Use on
the Baltimore aud ohio Road.


AWtOH~ hepuOhc0h
The eBaltimoreand Ohio Railroad Company
will send 10 the Chicago Railway Exposition
among other articles for their exhibit-the
| first locomotive engine built for their road
which proved successful. This locomotive
Is the celebrated "Arabian," which, like
all prominent objects in Baltimore, has a
family history. 1t is not, as is generally
supposed, either the first engine built by the
company, or the first engine that pulled q
train on curved road, but IL was the first
successful American locomotive. 1t was
built at the company's shops under the su-
pervisen of It's designer. II went into SER
vice June, 1884 1t has been carefully taken
care of and repaired, and with very little
difference is precisely the same engine that
it was 40 years ago. 1t is claimed to be
the Oldest effective locomotive engine in the
United States, and perhaps in the world. 1t
is geared engine, having avertical cylinder
with walking beam. 1t has four driving
one half the size of the drivers used on mod
ern passenger locomotives. The weight Of
the Arabian is thirteen tons, about one.third
that of the modern locomotive. Its tractive
power is G,000 pounds. IL used to have fans
connected with the exhaust, but they be.
came broken, and no attempt has been made
to restore them. With this exception 1t Is
the same engine as when first made. 1t is
in active service at the Mount Glare yards,
and orks as well now al when first put on
the road. 1t was for many years passen.
ger engine drawing trains ON both the Wash
ington branch aud the main stem. As far as
could be learned it had never jumped a rail,
or run Off the track, with one exception.
That exception was notable one. Before
it was finished Mr.. Davis promised the work.
men engaged in the shops, some 300, to take
them and their families on the train drawn
by the Arabian as far as it went, then to 60
to Washington and have dinner at Browns
(now the Metropolitan) Hotel. The Wash
ington branch was then opened nearly to
Bladensburg. The trip was made, William
Duff being the engineer. Just west Of Jes-
sup's cut, thirteeen and half miles this side
of Baltimore, the Arabian ran off the track.
Mr.. Davis was sitting with Mr.. Duff when
the accident occurred. The engine rolled
on its side. Neither Duff nor anybody else
In the tram was hurt, even in the least, but
Mr.. Davis. He was killed. There seemed
to be special fate in the matter. Nobody
could ever tell why the Arabian ran off the
track. There was no evidence ever shown,
although the fullest investigation was made,
that any cause existed to throw 1t off. As
the Bullock press, which, the first time it was
put to work, caught its inventor and printed
him into its first impression, so the Arabian
on its trip killed Its designer and maker. An
Imaginative man, giftrd-with little super
stition, might think that matter had been
imbued with intelligence that resented its
creation thus fiercely on its creator.
The Arabian will be engineered to Chicago
by Mr.. Thomas Galloway. The Chicagoans
will thus see the Oldest effective locomotive
engine in the world run by the Oldest living
railway engineer, an incident in railway his
tory that deserves more lasting record than
that of newspaper article.