The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-10-09
THE sToyRsa,pos LION.
Trial Trip Of Americas First Lecomotivs
ut Honesdale.


Trial Trip of Americas First Lsoemotivs
ut Honesdale.
Guide-books. a. rule, possess no
interest that is at all dependent on any
inherent value in the facts that are pre-
sented in them, but Mr.. ]. w. Burdict,
the general passenger agent Of the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Com.
pany's railroad, in q little pamphlet
just issued, has been at some pains to
present what he deems trustworthy
facts about the first locomotive that
ever ran upon an American railroad.
According to him. the first of these en-
gines was the Stourbridge Lion, so
called because it bore lions head on
the front of its boiler and was made BY
Foster, Boswick & Co. in Stourbridge,
England. Horatio Allen, young civil
engineer, had been sent to England by
the canal company to buy scrap-iron
for the rails, chains for the inclined
planes and three locomotives for the
level of the projected railroad. He re-
turned in 1923, and the first of the loco
motives reached New York in May,
1929. 1t was set up at the West Point
foundry at the foot of Beach street, in
this city, and in the summer was
shipped by boat to Honesdale, where
it was put upon the iron-strapped
wooden rails of the new road. It was
of the pattern afterward known by the
name of ''grasshoppers," because Of
the walking-beams that elbowed up
and down over the boiler, like the leg
joints of those insects. It weighed
seven tons, or less than one of our ele-
waited railroad locomotives, but it had
no such pulling power as they possess.
1t was big and clumsy, with four
wooden wheels, spoked and with iron
tires. 1t had no cab and the cylinders
were upright. The first trip was made
on August 8, 1929. in the presence of
q crowd collected from forty miles
around. A
An old Queen Anne cannon was
brought up from New York to add its
voice to those of the people. Predic-
tions of failure were not wanting:
the breaking down of the track, which
was built largely on trestles or piles,
was especially apprehended, and there
was little inclination on the part of
those present to trust themselves on
tho new vehicle. Mr.. Allen, declaring
that If there was any danger he was
ready to meet it, took his position on
the locomotive, and, after running
slowly backward and forward few
times before the assembled multitude,
pulled the throttle valve open, and,
shouting loud goodbye to the crowd,
dashed swiftly away around the dan
gerous curve and over the swaying
trestle, setting in motion the first loco
motive that ever turned wheel in the
western hemisphere. The track was
of strap-iron, spiked next the inner
edge to large hemlock sleepers laid on
cross-ties. At the time of the trial
trip the timbers and ties, though
securely connected. had become
warped, and in some places raised
from the ground. by exposure to
the sun. The road crossed the Lacka-
waxen river over frail hemlock trestle
one hundred feet in height. and as the
locomotive was found to weigh seven
tons instead of four, as the contract
had stipulated, it was feared by every
body that the trestle would not bear it,
weight.
AS the Lion passed over the road the
weight pressed every thing underneath
firmly down to its place on the road
bed, with no little creaking and groan-
ing. The locomotive proved to be all
that the engineer had expected. After
running at fair rate of speed as far as
Scelyville. the Lion was reversed and
returned to the dock Mt Honesdale amid
the shouts of the people and the boom
ing Of the cannon. having met with no
The trial trip was thus completed. and
the locomotive was pronounced a sue
cess. Mr.. Allen remained in Honesdale
three weeks after this experimental
trip, during which time he made some
improvements in the locomotive. After
his departure, however, the company
not being rich enough to purchase iron
rails, and the wooden ones proving
too frail for the engine, it was housed
in shanty on the canal docks, where
it lay for years. prey to rust and de-
cav. The boiler was afterward used In
a foundry at Carbondale; the pump
was used for several years by an en-
ploye of the company, and the rest Of
the old hulk was partly hacked to pieces
by rclic-hunters and partly sold for old
iron.
On October 5, 1929, less than two
months after the historic ride in the
Stourbridge Lion. the famous COMPETE
tive test of locomotives at Liverpool
took place. The result of this was the
firm establishment of the steam rail-
road at the head Of all methods of land
transportation. There were four en-
gines in competition, and Stephenson's
Rocket won the prize. Eleven months
after this the Liverpool and Manchester
railroad was established, and the Rocket
ran fifteen miles at speed of thirty
seven miles an hour. Then there were
only txenty-three miles of railroads in
this country, and now the number Of
miles of track exceed 100, 000.-M r.
Sun.
Moist Air and Fog.