Cumberland Valley Railroad Steam Locomotive, <I>Pioneer</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1851
label: date made
content: ca. 1851
label: used date
content: 1851-1948
name: label: maker
content: Seth Wilmarth
label: maker
content: Union Works
notes: label: Description
content: The <I>Pioneer</I> is a steam locomotive made in 1851 by Seth Wilmarth, owner of a large machine shop in Boston who made few locomotives. <I>Pioneer</I> is an early type of steam locomotive on U.S. railroads and used only on a very few of them. This locomotive is significant only because of that rarity. Its age is also unusual among preserved locomotives; <I>Pioneer</I> was built just two decades after America’s first domestically made locomotive. Its general type was obsolete on almost all railroads in the U.S. by 1850.
label: Description
content: <I>Pioneer</I> served the Cumberland Valley RR, connecting Harrisburg, Pa. with Hagerstown, Md. and Winchester, Va. The locomotive was designed specifically to pull two-car passenger trains. <I>Pioneer</I> was one of several locomotives badly damaged by fire during the Civil War, during a Confederate raid on the CVRR roundhouse at Chambersburg, Pa. The CVRR rebuilt the engine, operated it on light, one- and two-car passenger trains till the mid 1880s, and then saved and exhibited it as an historic relic. The Pennsylvania RR (then one of the nation’s largest) absorbed the CVRR soon after. The PRR entirely repainted <I>Pioneer</I> in 1947 for the 1947-48 Chicago Railroad Fair. The lettering on the fenders, “PIONEER,” is inauthentic. A replica headlight was added by NMAH (then NMHT) in Dec 1965.
label: Description
content: In the standard type nomenclature for steam locomotives, <I>Pioneer</I> is a “2-2-2T” type, meaning that it has an unpowered leading pair of wheels; a single powered axle (the larger-diameter wheels, driven by the steam cylinders via connecting (or “main”) rods; and another unpowered pair of wheels at the rear. The “T” stands for “tank engine,” meaning one that has no separate tender for carrying its fuel (wood) and water for the boiler; fuel and water is carried on the same single chassis as the boiler, cab, and running gear.
label: Location
content: Currently on loan
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
label: used
content: United States: Maryland, Hagerstown
label: used
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
topic: label: Subject
content: Railroads
label: Subject
content: Locomotives
label: Subject
content: Technology
label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Railroad
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.317547.01
label: accession number
content: 230385
label: catalog number
content: 317547.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: locomotive
label: Object Name
content: locomotive, full size
label: Other Terms
content: locomotive; Rail
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 3/16 ft x 26 ft x 7 1/4 ft; 3.41376 m x 7.9248 m x 2.2098 m