Model Railways
Locos from the 1800s
Photographs and a little about models of The Rocket, John Bull, Der Adler, The DeWitt Clinton and the Lafayette.
The Rocket was an early steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1829 for the Rainhill Locomotive Trials held in the same year. The Rocket brought together several innovations producing the most advance loco of the time becoming the basic design for most steam engines throughout our steam age. For those that don’t know The Rocket did win the trial. (Wheel arrangement 0-2-2)
John Bull was built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey. It was operated for the first time on September 15, 1831, and it became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operated it in 1981. (Original Wheel arrangement 0-4-0)
The Adler (German for ‘Eagle’) was the first locomotive that was successfully used for the rail transport of passengers and goods. It was designed and built by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1835 for the Bavarian Ludwig Railway to run between Nuremberg and Furth. (Wheel Arrangement 2-2-2, (Continental 1A1))
The DeWitt Clinton of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad (M&H) was the first steam locomotive to operate in the state of New York and the fourth built in the United States. It began operations in 1831 and was named in honour of DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York State responsible for the Erie Canal. Its passenger cars were yellowstagecoaches in which the riders would sit either inside or on outdoor rumble seats (Wheel arrangement 0-4-0)
The Lafayette was built in 1837 for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad by the Norris Locomotive Works based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and named the following year after the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. This engine was the world's first locomotive to feature a leading truck (bogie) and may have been the first standardised production model locomotive. Innovations included the positioning of cylinders ahead of the smoke box and the four-wheel swivelling pilot truck (bogie) establishing the configuration that steam locomotives would follow until the end of the steam era. (Wheel arrangement 4-2-0).
Published 26/10/2013
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