CHAPTER IV

RAILROADS During the period of the development of the canals there was growing up along side of them an agency for transportation that was destined practically to put them out of business. Engineers in both Europe and America were straining every energy to apply the steam engine to the propulsion of wagons along a highway. No one at first looked upon the railroad as a separate and distinct industry. For years upon roads over which there was much hauling of heavy loads planks had been placed in the tracks to prevent rutting. These planks had developed into rigidly set timbers or rails either attached to cross timbers or to stones set in the roadway. A little later iron straps were fastened to the tops of the rails to lessen wear and friction. It was found that a horse could haul on these tramways several times as much as he could on the dirt roadway. The steam engine had revolutionized industry and was turning all sorts of machinery with an efficiency unknown before, why then could it not be applied to propel vehicles? In England George Stephenson and associates were proving that it could. But prior to their time many thinkers of America believed in it. John Fitch, the half crazy inventor of an early steamboat, had built a model locomotive. Oliver Evans, who had placed wheels under a steamboat of his invention (1804) and run it over the streets of Philadelphia, predicted “The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines, from one city to another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen to twenty miles an hour.” His vision went still further; he saw what most people think to be absolutely modern innovations: “A carriage will set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York, the same day ... and travel by night as well as by day; and the passengers will sleep in these stages as comfortably as they do now in steamboats.”[87] Evans antedated Stephenson’s thought that speed with a locomotive could only be made on nearly level rails. John Stevens, who is often spoken of as the father of American railroads, of course, had similar beliefs, and wrote a pamphlet to impress his ideas of the importance of railways upon Congress. He said: “I am anxious and ambitious that my native country should have the honor of being the first to introduce an improvement of such immense importance to society at large, and should feel the utmost reluctance at being compelled to resort to foreigners in the first instance.”[88] Had Congress not turned a deaf ear to him it is quite possible that he might have been before Stephenson in demonstrating the practicability of the locomotive.[89] Stevens built a small locomotive and demonstrated it on a piece of track on his grounds with himself as passenger in 1820. Several tramways or railroads operated by horse were established in different parts of the country. One of them--sponsored by the people of Baltimore, anxious to retain their trade--was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which had secured from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania charters for its construction in 1827 and 1828. It was being built with many curves, as it, too, was expected to have horse propulsion. Many persons thought it should be made straighter in order to take advantage of the steam locomotive when the inventors had perfected it sufficiently to be usable. It was not considered feasible to operate locomotives on crooked roads. Peter Cooper, justly praised for many benefits to his country, decided to build a locomotive to prove it could run on a crooked track. In his own words: “Under these discouraging circumstances many of the principal stockholders were about to abandon the work, and were only prevented from forfeiting their stock by my persuading them that a locomotive could be so made as to pass successfully around the short curves then found in the road.”[90] Accordingly in 1829 Cooper fitted up a small engine and boiler on a flat car and with that crude locomotive, the _Tom Thumb_, was able to demonstrate that curves could be “navigated.” Having made some changes in the _Tom Thumb_, Cooper, the next year, ran it over the 13 miles from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills in an hour and a quarter, an average of 6 miles per hour, returning in sixty-one minutes, including a stop of four minutes. The engine pushed ahead of it a flat car carrying twenty-four passengers. The wheels of the engine had been constructed on the “cone principle” which allowed it to round the curves of 400 feet radius without trouble.[91] This was the first time a car filled with passengers had been hauled over a railroad in the United States by means of steam power. In England steam engines had been tried out but not until 1820 was the first commercial road, the Stockton & Darlington Railroad, 37 miles in length, completed. Prior to this time the tram roads had been erected for specialized private transportation (from colliery to canal, for instance) or as improvements to the public highways. The Stockton & Darlington was intended to be operated with horses. And even as late as 1828 the Liverpool & Manchester Railroad, intended primarily to haul freight and relieve the congested condition of the canals, was chartered with a provision that the owners could exact toll of all who might put vehicles on the road for the transport of goods. The engineer, George Stephenson, however, was a strong advocate of steam power and the success of the _Rocket_, built by his son Robert, in 1829, as this road was nearing completion, definitely determined the power to be used. Roads in America followed the same idea that they were public highways. In Pennsylvania the state built a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia and licensed over twenty different companies to run their horse-drawn cars over it.[92] In other states the same idea prevailed and the right to charge tolls “upon all passengers and property” transported upon the road was legalized by the charter. The utility and economy of the railways were so manifest that organizations were formed rapidly over the whole well settled portions of the country. Several locomotives were imported from England. One of these, the _John Bull_ (locomotives were for a number of years all named like sleeping cars are now), brought over by Stevens & Son, is said to have given Baldwin information which enabled him to build _Old Ironsides_, the first locomotive to run on Pennsylvania tracks, and establish a business which afterwards became one of the largest locomotive works in the world. _Old Ironsides_ was built by Matthias Baldwin and his brother-in-law Rufus Tyler for the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Road. Tyler seems to have made the drawings. Baldwin was by trade a jeweler but his mechanical ingenuity had carried him further. He had added to his business that of constructing tools and calico printing apparatus and machinery. He had built a steam engine for his own shop. A museum operator in Philadelphia desiring to add to the attractions of his place of amusement wished to put in a miniature locomotive and railway. He applied to Baldwin, who built the road with its small locomotive and cars. On April 25, 1831, its installation was completed and it hauled two four-seated passenger cars about a circular track, to the great delight of the patrons, who were anxious for the experience of riding on the railroad. [Illustration: THE EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY TRAIN