DH Steam Era - Gravity Railroad

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 10, 2005

Well, one must start with the very first Steam Locomotive that ever turned under steam not only in the US but all of North America.

Stourbridge Lion (Drawing)
D&H Bulletin: December 15, 1928

Hytec · Apr 10, 2005

Nice engraving of your namesake.
Though I didn't realize that it was the first steam power in North America. I had been mislead to believe that the John Bull was first....what do I know?

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 10, 2005

Quick History of the Stourbridge Lion

February 15, 1828

Horatio Allen goes to England to obtain a Steam Engine and rails. Builder of the first Steam Locomotive "Rocket" George Stephenson is contacted.

July 1828

Horatio Allen reports that he has contracted one Rocket style Engine from Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle and three from Foster, Rastrick & Co. of Stourbridge. He also has obtained a large quantity of strap rail by Messrs. W. & I. Sparrow of Wolverhampton. Engines obtained are the "America", "Delaware", "Hudson", and the "Stourbridge Lion"

January 15, 1829

The Engine "America" arrives in New York aboard the clipper ship "Columbia" and was later set up on blocks and turned under steam on May 27, 1829

May 13, 1829

The Engine "Stourbridge Lion" arrives in Gotham and is also setup on blocks and turned under steam on May 28, 1829

July 3, 1829

Both the "America" & "Stourbridge Lion" are both loaded on the steamer "Congress" and shipped up the Hudson to Rondout. There they are transferred to canal boats to the Gravity Line at Honesdale; but, no record of the "America" arriving when the boats reached Honesdale on July 24, 1829.

Summer 1829

Engines "Delaware" & "Hudson" arrive in New York and also shipped up to Rondout where all traces of them are lost.

August 8, 1829

The Engine "Stourbridge Lion" is officially tested with Horatio Allen at the controls. This marks the first operation of a steam locomotive in North America.

September 9, 1829

The "Stourbridge Lion" makes a second test run and its determined that the weight of the engine was to excessive for the road. The engine is rolled of the tracks and moved into a makeshift shelter to rot for 20 years. It won't be until 1860 that a steam locomotive will operated on the D&H again.

1831

"John Bull" is built

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 11, 2005

Stourbridge Lion (Replica) at 1933 Fair in Chicago, IL

Photo by: Cecil Wickham / Collection: Richard D. Leonard

Hytec · Apr 11, 2005

Thanks for the history Darren, I didn't know any of it. Also the photo from the 1933 Chicago Fair is fantastic!

fitz · Apr 11, 2005

Nice valve gear on the Lion . What can you tell us about it?

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 12, 2005

Stourbridge Lion (Replica) at Honesdale, PA on the 175th Anniversary of the D&H

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 12, 2005

Originally posted by fitz:
Nice valve gear on the Lion . What can you tell us about it?
Click to expand...

Well, that's a bit of an open question for such a historical engine and event that if not a D&H Railfan would almost be forgotten.

Let's step back cross the "POND" (as our some of our friends would call the Atlantic) to the English West Midlands, on the edge of the Black Country, in the town of Stourbridge England, where Foster, Rastrick & Co. operated in the below old foundry where the "STOURBRIDGE LION" was built in this old foundry so you can read some the the English history behind this engine that is nearly forgoten.

http://www.stourbridge.co.uk/

A brief history of Stourbridge

from the book Stourbridge in Times Past by H. Jack Haden © 1980

Stourbridge - Sturbrug or Sturesbridge as it is spelt in the 1255 Worcestershire assize roll - evidently owes its name to an ancient bridge erected across the River Stour which, until recently, formed the boundary of the counties of Worcester and Stafford.
The medieval township lay within the more extensive manor manor of Swynford (or Swinford) which, as the name indicates, was called after a ford - possibly situated near near the present riverside estate called Stepping Stones. The settlement lay within what was the inferior manor of Bedcote, a name that survived into this century as that of one of the mills so important to the growth of the local community and is still retained as a street name. Swinford is mentioned in a Saxon charter of about 950 AD and, spelt Suineforde, is mentioned in William the Conqueror's Domesday Survey, when the manor was possessed by William Fitz Ansculf, one of the most powerful of the Norman lords, who was able to supervise his great estates in the West Midlands from his hilltop castle at Dudley. This William also held Pevemore (the present day Pedmore) lying to the south of Stourbridge, and Elmcote (now Amblecote), which is a parish on the northern bank of the Stour in Staffordshire until recent years yet within the diocese of Worcester. Until it was created a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1845, it formed part of the parish of Old Swinford - the word "Old" having been added centuries earlier to distinguish it from the adjacent parish of Kingswinford or Swinford Regis.

The manors of Old Swinford, Bedcote and Pedmore changed hands from time to time during the Middle Ages as a result of political upheavals and the changes of fortune of their overlords. It is questionable whether these great feudal lords ever visited these manors, the supervision of the peasant's customary service and the collection to dues and fines being left to their stewards. The Lytteltons, seated a few miles away at Frankley until their house there was destroyed during the Civil War causing them to move to Hagley, acquired the superior manor of Old Swinford in 1564 and they were the dominant local family until the 17th century when, having fallen from favour and lost much of their wealth through involvement in the Gunpowder Plot and the Royalist and Roman Catholic causes in Stuart times, they were superseded by the Foleys whose wealth was based on the rapidly expanding iron industry.

From their forges and mills powered by water wheels on the River Stour and other rivers and streams members of the Foley family built up substantial fortunes which were supplemented as a result of judicious marriages into wealthy and influential families.

Large estates were acquired notably in North Worcestershire, South Staffordshire and Herefordshire and, in due course, came a barony. Said to have been impressed by a sermon given by a Puritan divine, Richard Baxter, on the proper use of wealth, Thomas Foley (1616 - 1677) founded (at Old Swinford) a school for boys who on completion of their education were put out as apprentices. Virtually the whole of the parish of Pedmore was set aside by Foley to form part of the endowment of his Old Swinford Hospital whose original buildings still stand - one of the most impressive architectural features of Stourbridge. Transformed from a charity school for poor boys, the Hospital is now a highly esteemed boarding school, also admitting selected day boys from the neighbourhood, but much of its land at Pedmore has been sold by the feoffees in order to extend the premises and bring the educational facilities up to the standard required to afford the boys the opportunity to obtain places at a university.

However, Oldswinford Hospital was not the first school to be established in the ancient parish. It is recorded that the stipendiary priest at the Chantry of Holy Trinity, founded in 1430 in Lower High Street, Stourbridge kept a school in 1548 and was "charged to teach the poor children of the same parish" and when, with other religious houses, the Chantry was suppressed at the command of Henry VIII, the school was continued, granted a charter by Edward VI and endowed with property from the income of which the school was maintained and the master paid. The school's most famous pupil was Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer, author and formidable conversationalist who, during his brief stay in 1725-6 is said to have learned "a great deal from the master", the Rev. John Wentworth.
Over the centuries Stourbridge developed slowly as a prosperous market town. The right to hold a weekly market with two fairs each year was granted by Edward IV in 1482 to the Dean and Canons of St George's Chapel, Windsor (who then held the manor) and was renewed bu Henry VII in 1486 to the Earl of Ormond, now the lord of the manor, as reward for his services in the Wars of the Roses. Surrounded by heath and hills suitable for rearing sheep and with a plentiful supply of clean water for washing wool, like many another English town, Stourbridge became a centre for producing woolen cloth. The local coal, limestone and fireclay had been exploited on a small scale from early times but it was the 16th and 17th centuries that saw the birth of the great industrial complex later to be called the Black Country.
The dawn of the 17th century saw also the introduction of the glass industry to the district by "gentlemen glassmakers" from France who had been forced to move their glassworks from woodlands to areas where there was coal with which to fire their furnaces.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century was felt strongly in Stourbridge where the woollen trade declined - to fade away early in the following century - and the production of ironwork, edge tolls, nails, chain, bricks and heavy engineering took over. The opening of the Stourbridge Canal in 1779 vastly enhanced industry's prospects and the beginning of the railway age led to a rapid expansion of the iron industry, the large works of John Bradley and Co. being developed alongside the arm of the canal that linked the town with the outside world. Bradley's works had the distinction of producing the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on rails in America - on 8 August 1829. Industrial expansion encouraged population growth, improved living standards and social amenities.
Spectacular development marked the 19th century. The bridge over the Stour was widened, the roads were improved and the railway arrived in Stourbridge, a piped water supply and gas were provided, a drainage system made life easier and more healthy, rows of terraced houses and impressive villas were erected, the Oldswinford parish was divided to form new parishes for which churches were built, the ancient parish churches of Oldswinford and Pedmore were rebuilt, the Nonconformists built chapels, the introduction of compulsory education meant the building of schools and civic pride led to the building, on the site of the old Corn Exchange, of a handsome - by Victorian standards of taste - Town Hall to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Local Government had been rudimentary until the Stourbridge Improvement Act of 1868 reconstituted an elected Board of Town Commissioners with greater powers to control and improve local services. A further step in local government was taken in 1894 when Stourbridge, Lye and Wollescote and the parish of Amblecote obtained Urban District status with Pedmore becoming part of Bromsgrove Rural District.

By this time Stourbridge had become an important local railway centre; steam trams had been replaced by electric trams, there was extensive house building, the Public Baths were erected in 1901, through the generosity of Andrew Carnegie Stourbridge was provided in 1905 with a Public Library with an Art and Technical School and a Girl's Secondary School on its upper floors. Stourbridge was acknowledged to be one of the most progressive and pleasant towns in the Midlands. Lye, Wollescote and Stambermill, a major cemtre of the holloware industry whose streets echoed with the thump, thump of hammers and olivers on forgings, possessed fewer amenities but a profusion of public houses and places of worship. Amblecote, the smallest Urban District in the country, was even more closely linked with Stourbridge for within the parish was the Corbett Hospital which served the whole area, the Stourbridge Gas Works, Stourbridge water undertaking, Stourbridge cricket and football ground and considerable industrial premises including glassworks and clay mines whose products were invariably labelled "Stourbridge". Pedmore parish was still predominantly a rural village, most of its acreage being farmed, but the population was growing with the building of substantial houses by Black Country businessmen.

The ambition of some of Stourbridge's leading public figures was realised in 1914 when the Urban District was granted a Charter of Incorporation and became a borough. World War I brought prosperity to its industries and with the return to peace the town council embarked on impressive improvement schemes, especially the building of municipal houses. Despite industrial unrest and growing unemployment in the late 1920s and early 1930s very significant progress was made in improving living conditions. In 1929 the district's greatest public benefactor Ernest Stevens, a millionaire holloware manufacturers, presented the Studley Court estate to Stourbridge; it was to be known as Mary Stevens Park in memory of his wife and the house was converted into the Council House. The following year Lye and Wollescote Urban District Council received Wollescote Hall estate, in all some 89 acres, which became Stevens Park.

Although in some ways distinctive communities, Stourbridge and its neighbouring parishes were becoming more closely involved and in 1932 Lye and Wollescote Urban District and Pedmore parish were incorporated in the borough. It was not until the implementation of the Boundary Commission's recommendations in 1966 that the major part of Amblecote Urban District was brought into Stourbridge Borough - that part to the north of the Stourbridge to Brierley Hill railway line being transferred to Dudley County Borough. The resultant well balanced unit of local government was to be short-lived for under a further reorganisation in 1974 the whole borough was absorbed into the new Metropolitan District (later to become the Metropolitan Borough) of Dudley within a new county called West Midlands torn from the ancient counties of Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
Click to expand...

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 12, 2005

Wayne County Historical Society Honesdale, PA
http://www.waynehistorypa.org/stourbridge.asp

The Stourbridge Lion and the Birthplace of America's Commercial Railroad

In 1827 the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company began to investigate the use of the steam engine for traction and locomotive use on its gravity railroad to haul coal from its mines to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and then by canal to New York City. The gravity railroad operated on a system of inclined planes over which the cars were moved by gravity. This system of connecting differences of elevation by means of a series of inclined planes was little known and understood in America at that time, though similar systems were in use in Europe.

In order to evaluate the use and power of the steam engines and the rails on which they were run, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company sent a deputy engineer, Horatio Allen, to England in 1828. If he decided they would be suitable for the company’s use, he was instructed to place orders for four engines and rails.

Horatio Allen’s inquiries led him first to Newcastle, where the Stephenson family was producing an engine for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Allen was impressed and ordered one engine from them. He then went to the Town of Stourbridge where he met a brilliant engineer, John Urpeth Rastrick.

Rastrick had taken out a patent for the steam engine in 1814 and formed the firm of Foster Rastrick and Company to produce them. He was considered an authoritative witness in support of railroads when opposition from the canal companies threatened their growth and development .

It was from Foster Rastrick and Company that Allen ordered the other three locomotives. Among them was the Stourbridge Lion, so named because a Lion’s head had been painted on the front of the boiler. It weighed eight tons and cost $2,915.00.

When the Stourbridge Lion arrived in Honesdale in July 1829, about three miles of wooden track had been laid which crossed the Lackawaxen River on a trestle bridge some thirty feet in height. The rails were of wooden construction, the running surface of which was faced with wrought iron strips secured to the rails with stout wood screws.

The trial run was to take place on the 8th of August 1829. When this became known, crowds of people assembled to witness the event, convinced that the iron Lion would never work. Afraid that the curious contraption would kill any who rode it, no one would take the trial run with Horatio Allen. So, amidst jeers and laughter, he mounted the hissing Lion. The jeers quickly turned to cheers as the Stourbridge Lion crossed the bridge and disappeared from sight. Many thought it would not return; but soon, with Allen at the throttle, and riding backwards, the fierce Lion screeched back into Honesdale. The crowd was jubilant. A new era in commercial transportation had begun.

After another trial, it was decided by the company that the light wooden rails would not stand up to the continued use of the locomotive and the haulage of coal, so it was put into storage in a shed at Honesdale. There it remained until 1849 when the company removed it to their workshops at Carbondale,
Pennsylvania. The boiler was removed and put to use, and other parts were removed and separated, some being irretrievably lost.

In 1889 another firm acquired the boiler and deposited it with as many of the other parts of the engine as they could find at the Smithsonian Institution. There it was partially reconstructed and stood in this form for many years in the Hall of Transport. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company has built a full scale replica of the Stourbridge Lion from the original plans. It is on exhibit at the Wayne County Historical Society’s, 810 Main Street, Honesdale museum, (570)-253-3240.

Visit our library for more information and photographs.
Click to expand...

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 12, 2005

THE BRIDGE LINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
http://www.bridge-line.org/blhs/stourbridge_lion.html

The Stourbridge Lion

The "STOURBRIDGE LION" was the first locomotive to run on a railway in America, and was operated between Honesdale and Seely's Mills in Pennsylvania on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad, August 8, 1829.
On March 13, 1823, The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company obtained rights from the Legislature of Pennsylvania, authorizing them to construct a canal from the mouth of the Lackawaxen to the present site of Honesdale and also to construct a railroad from their coal beds at Cardondale to the head of this canal.

In January, 1828, Horatio Allen left New York for England and contracted for four locomotives, one of which, the "STOURBRIDGE LION," built by Foster, Rastrick and Company of Stourbridge, England, was shipped in February, 1829, unloaded in New York, May 14, and then taken to Honesdale, PA., arriving the later part of July, where it was placed on the track and prepared for service.

One of the Company's coal wagons was fitted up to serve as a tender and a box added under the boiler, built around the junction of the two exhaust pipes form the cylinders with the single exhaust pipe to the stack, from which water flowing form the tender was pumped into the boiler. This was probably the first feed water heater in America.

The name LION was suggested by the fancy of a workman, who painted on the circular front , the head of a fierce-looking lion in bright colors, covering nearly the entire area.

Early in the forenoon of August 8, 1829, the "STOURBRIDGE LION" was "fired up" with Lackawaxen coal and ready to go. It was run back and forth on the straight portion of the track by Mr. Allen and then set forth on its history-making trip, for it was the first locomotive to run on a railroad in the Western Hemisphere, covering a distance of about one and a half miles to Seely's Mills, where it was reversed and returned to its starting point.

The trial was a failure despite the beautiful performance of the Lion. The original specification for the locomotive had specified a maximum weight of 4 tons. The Lion and her sisters weighed in at 7.5 tons, nearly double the specified weight. The track made of hemlock rails with iron railcap with tie spacing of 10' between ties had been constructed for a much lighter locomotive and would not support the greater weight of the locomotives. Sadly, the Lion and her sisters were retired to other uses. The only remaining pieces of these locomotives are the boiler from the Lion and one of the cylinders from the America, both in the possession of the Smithsonian. All traces of the Delaware and the Hudson Locomotives disappeared after the locomotives had been delivered to Honesdale.

The "STOURBRIDGE LION" replica was built at the Delaware and Hudson Railroad's Colonie Shops, NY, in 1933 after careful research to insure a true reproduction.

All iron parts have been hand-forged to duplicate the workmanship of the original and the same care exercised with respect to all the detail parts to obtain a true representation.

The replica has been operated under its own steam fired by anthracite.

A fourth locomotive was produced by Foster, Rastrick and Company.
The Agenoria was the fourth locomotive of the 'Lion' class believed by many to have been the prototype of the four, as it shows a number of modifications.

It began operation on the local Kingswinford Railway, moving coal and other items between the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal, and the Pensnett Ironworks, which was owned by James Foster, one of the partners in Foster, Rastrick Co..

Although rapidly dated, it operated successfully until around 1863, and was then refurbished and passed to the Science Museum London. It is now in the National Railway Museum, York and is one of their oldest exhibits.
Click to expand...

If you follow the BLHS Link above they have some "Locomotive Characteristics" of the Stourbridge Lion itself plus more images.

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 12, 2005

National Railway Museum in York, England
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/apindex.Html

At this site there is a large set of documents dedicated to:

"The History of the First Locomotives In America
From Original Documents And The Testimony Of Living Witnesses
By William H. Brown"

There are Chapters within this "Online Book" that talk about the Stourbridge Lion from eye witness accounts.

[ April 12, 2005, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: Stourbridge Lion ]

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 14, 2005

D&H#1 {Major Sykes} Built 1860 as a 0-4-0, later converted to 0-6-0 4' 3" Gauge

Hytec · Apr 14, 2005

It's hard to visualize how the Major Sykes was rigged as an 0-4-0. I assume the frame must have been totally rebuilt when it was converted to an 0-6-0. Because if they had used only two of the three existing axle positions as an 0-4-0, it looks like it would have either fallen on its nose or its butt.

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 14, 2005

In 1871 it was wrecked when it collided with #11 and that is when the rebuild was done.

Hytec · Apr 14, 2005

OK, I guess what they did was lift up the nameplate and place a whole new loco under it....

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 14, 2005

I keep hoping to find an image when she was a 0-4-0 as I would like to see the "Before" and "After" side by side.

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 18, 2005

#3 {Honesdale} - Builders Card

Stourbridge Lion · Apr 20, 2005

Next up: Steam Era - POLL

Log in or Sign up

DH Steam Era - Gravity Railroad

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Hytec TrainBoard Member

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Hytec TrainBoard Member

fitz TrainBoard Member

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Hytec TrainBoard Member

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Hytec TrainBoard Member

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Stourbridge Lion TrainBoard Supporter

Share This Page

About TrainBoard

Useful Links

Places To Go: