The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-07
THE SToURBRIDGE LION.
Trial Trip of Americas First Locomotive
at HonesdaIe,

| Trial Trip of Americas First Locomotive
| at HonesdaIe.
Guide-books, as 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.. j. 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, a 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 1925 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 1t 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. 1t 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.
An old Queen Anne cannon was
brought up from New York to add its
voice to those of the people. Predic-
tons 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
the new vehicle. Mr.. Allen, declarin o
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 a few
pulled the throttle valve open, and,
shouting a 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 a 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 its
weight.
1AS llC lllOll IJdSScll Wv I'll llt IOdu lIlt
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
| Seelyville, the Lion was reversed and
returned to the dock at Honesdale amid
the shouts of the people and the boom
| ing of the cannon, having met with no
accident and encountered no difficulty.
The trial trip was thus completed and
the locomotive was pronounced 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
i'll shanty on the canal docks, where
| it lay for years, a prey to rust and de-
cav. The boiler was afterward used in
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 relic-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 twenty-three miles of railroads in
this country, and now the number OF
miles of track exceed 100,000.-M. 7.
| San.