Foster, Rastrick and Co: Stourbridge Lion

Stourbridge Lion 1828

1829.

The Stourbridge Lion was the first steam railway locomotive to be tried out in the United States. It was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside Great Britain, where it was manufactured by Foster, Rastrick and Co of Stourbridge. Construction was completed in early January 1829.

The locomotive evidently acquired the name from the image of a lion's face on the front of the locomotive. One source stated that the lion's face was in bold relief.

The cylinders were 8.5 in. in diameter and with a 36 in. stroke. The boiler was 48 in. in diameter and 10ft 6ins long. The working pressure was 50 psi.

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 and shipped their locomotive, the Pride of Newcastle in late 1828, several months before any of Rastrick's locomotives. However, it was the Lion which was used for the first trials on rails.

With their vertical cylinders, complex grasshopper linkage, and other 'early generation' features, the Foster, Rastrick locomotives represented obsolescent technology compared with the Stephenson locomotive. Horatio Allen had intended to favour the Stephenson locomotives, because of their superior design, but the Foster, Rastrick locomotives were appreciably cheaper. The order he did place with Stephenson & Co was in recognition of the valuable information and assistance given to Allen by George and Robert Stephenson. Allen had been sent to England by John B. Jervis to investigate steam railways and to procure locomotives.

Allen arrived in Liverpool in mid-February 1829, and stayed in England until October. Soon after arriving he made the acquaintance of some prominent engineers, including George Stephenson. In mid-April he placed an order with W. and I. Sparrow (presumably W. and J. Sparrow of Wolverhampton for iron rails.

The locomotive was assembled after shipment at the works of William Kemble, the New York agent of the West Point Foundry, where it was set up on blocks and tested under steam on 28 May 1829. Its first official run on tracks took place on 8 August 8 in Honesdale, PA. The locomotive itself performed admirably, but the wooden track, capped by 1/2" thick iron bar, was inadequate for the task. It appears that Jervis had specified flat bar 1/2" thick by 2.5" wide, but Allen preferred a refined version with radiused top edges and tapered sides. He approached large UK ironmakers, without success, and turned to Sparrows, possibly on the recommendation of George Stephenson. They modified their rolls and completed the contract within 10 days of the contract being placed. The rails were sent by canal to Liverpool, and then shipped to New York.

Curiously, an 1830 engraving by James Renwick shows the locomotive standing on fish-bellied iron rails.

Jervis had specified to Allen that a two-axle locomotive for the line should weigh no more than 5.5 tons; the Stourbridge Lion weighed over 7 tons. The company was well aware of the weight problem before shipment. Allen had reported to the company President from England in August 1828 that the weight exceeded his wishes, and that while every exertion had been made to reduce weight, the locomotives would probably weigh about 6.5 tons, without water. This compared with the 'usual' weight of 8 or 9 tons.

It would be simplistic to blame the failure on the locomotives being made too heavy or the track being inadequate for the weight. In 1851 Horatio Allen made a speech in which he stated that The road had been built in the summer, and the rails, of large dimensions, notched onto caps far apart. The timber had cracked and warped from exposure to the sun. ..... So, it seems that even if the locomotive had been lighter, the track was ill-suited to steam haulage. Allen went on to give the first demonstration of the locomotive, bravely doing so on his own, so as not to put anyone else at risk. He drove 2 or 3 miles 'with a fair degree of speed', and returned without accident. It had one more trial, and on 13 September 1829 he wrote: The railroad as it now stands, is not sufficiently stable for the operation of the locomotive. Before it is put to work, the road ought to be carefully examined and strengthened, without doing so it would be unsafe to put the engine to work.

Jervis was also aware of the unsuitability of the track for the weight of the locomotive. He wrote to Mr. Bolton, the railroad President, that the curved track with '15 feet streaches' needed additional support.

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 Agenoria, worked until c.1865, and is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York. The American engineer Horatio Allen had visited Stourbridge in 1828 and apparently saw the locomotive under construction.

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 Institution until 2000, after which they went to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.

In 1927, in anticipation of the centenary, the Delaware & Hudson RR decided to construct an accurate replica of the Lion, and the Motive Power Superintendent, George Edmonds visited the UK, where, with the assistance of the Science Museum, he gleaned a great deal of information about The Agenoria. Steel was used instead of wrought iron, but care was taken to replicate the appearance of hand-forged components and riveted joints. Some safety-related dsign changes were made, including the provision of a band brake on one axle. In the event the work was not completed until 1933. The locomotive has run periodically, and was permanently loaned to the Wayne County Historical Society. It is based at Honedale, close to the original's first public demonstration.

See also Robert Stephenson and Co: Pride of Newcastle for more information about the saga of the four locomotives.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• L. F. Loree (1923) 'The Four Locomotives imported into America in 1829 by the

Delaware & Hudson Company', Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 4:1, 64-72. Mr Loree was President of the Delaware & Hudson Co.

• 'Locomotion - The World's Oldest Steam Locomotives' by Michael R. Bailey, The History Press, 2014
• [3] Wikipedia