Foster, Rastrick and Co: Stourbridge Lion
The Stourbridge Lion was a railway steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured by Foster, Rastrick and Co in 1828.
The locomotive evidently acquired its name from the picture of a lion's face that was painted on the front of the locomotive by its maker, Foster, Rastrick & Co of Stourbridge.
The cylinders were 8.5ins in diameter and with a 36in stroke. The boiler was 48ins in diameter and 10ft 6ins long.
Stourbridge Lion was one of the first four locomotives built for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. Two others were built by Foster, Rastrick and Co - Delaware and Hudson. Robert Stephenson and Co had completed their locomotive, the Pride of Newcastle before any of Rastrick's locomotives. It arrived in America nearly two months before the Stourbridge Lion, but it was the latter that was used for the first railroad trials.
The locomotive was assembled after shipment at the West Point Foundry in New York where it was first tested under steam in 1829. Its first official run took place on August 8 of that year in Honesdale, PA. The locomotive performed admirably, but the wooden track that was built on which to run it was insufficient for the task. Jervis had specified that the locomotives should weigh no more than 4 tons; the Stourbridge Lion weighed nearly double that, 7.5 tons.
Rastrick built a similar engine for local use (on the Shutt End Railway) in addition to the three that were sent to America. This engine, the The Agenoria, worked until c.1865, and is currently preserved at the National Railway Museum in York. The American engineer Horatio Allen visited Storbridge in 1828 and apparently saw the locomotive under construction. It was Allen who had been sent to England by John B. Jervis to procure locomotives.
The Stourbridge Lion was laid up, until about 1845 when it was dismantled and various components dispersed for use elsewhere.
The surviving components were united and preserved in the Smithsonian Institute until 2000, after which they went to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.
See Also
Sources of Information
- 'Locomotion - The World's Oldest Steam Locomotives' by Michael R. Bailey, The History Press, 2014
- [1] Wikipedia