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John Bull (locomotive)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   CAPTION: John Bull

   John Bull
   The John Bull, c. 1893.
       Power type                              Steam
        Builder       Robert Stephenson and Company
       Build date     1831
     Configuration    4-2-0 (although built by Stephenson as an 0-4-0)
   UIC classification 1'1A (built as B)
         Gauge        4  ft 8½  in (1435  mm)
      Driver size     4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) diameter
       Wheelbase      4 ft 11 in (1.4 m) between driving axles
       Frame size     14 ft 9 in (4.5 m) length x 6 ft 3 in (1.9 m) width
         Boiler       2 ft 6 in (0.76 m) diameter x 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) length
    Fire grate area   10.07 ft² (0.935 m²)
     Cylinder size    9 in (22.86 cm) diameter x 20 in (50.8 cm) stroke
         Career       Camden and Amboy Railroad,
                      Pennsylvania Railroad (initial preservation)
         Number       1
     Official name    Stevens (after C&A president Robert L. Stevens)
       Delivered      September 4, 1831
       First run      September 15, 1831
        Retired       1866
        Restored      September 15, 1981
     Current owner    Smithsonian Institution
      Disposition     Static display in Washington, D.C.

   The John Bull is an English-built railroad steam locomotive, operated
   for the first time on September 15, 1831; it became the oldest operable
   steam locomotive in the world (150 years) when the Smithsonian
   Institution operated it in 1981. Built by Robert Stephenson and
   Company, the John Bull was initially purchased by and operated for the
   Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad built in New Jersey. The
   railroad rostered it as locomotive number 1 and used it heavily from
   soon after the railroad's construction in 1833 until 1866 when it was
   removed from active service and placed in storage.

   After the C&A's assets were acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)
   in 1871, the PRR refurbished and operated the locomotive a few times
   for public displays. The John Bull was steamed up for the Centennial
   Exposition in 1876 and again for the National Railway Appliance
   Exhibition in 1883. In 1884 the locomotive was purchased by the
   Smithsonian Institution as the museum's first major industrial exhibit.

   In 1939 the employees at the PRR's Altoona, Pennsylvania, shops built
   an operable replica of the locomotive for further exhibition duties as
   the Smithsonian desired to keep the original locomotive in a more
   controlled environment. The Smithsonian commemorated the locomotive's
   150th birthday in grand style. The locomotive became the world's oldest
   surviving operable steam locomotive when it ran again under its own
   power in 1981. Today, the original John Bull is on static display in
   the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington,
   DC, and the replica John Bull operates regularly at the Railroad Museum
   of Pennsylvania.

Construction and initial use

   The John Bull and train as it looked in 1831; drawn by Isaac Dripps in
   1887. Image from the collection of the National Museum of American
   History, Smithsonian Institution, America On The Move exhibit, used
   with permission.
   Enlarge
   The John Bull and train as it looked in 1831; drawn by Isaac Dripps in
   1887. Image from the collection of the National Museum of American
   History, Smithsonian Institution, America On The Move exhibit, used
   with permission.

   The John Bull was built in Newcastle, England by Robert Stephenson and
   Company for the Camden and Amboy Railroad (C&A), the first railroad
   built in New Jersey. It was dismantled and then shipped across the
   Atlantic Ocean in crates aboard the Allegheny. C&A engineer Isaac
   Dripps reconstructed the locomotive to the best of his knowledge (the
   shipment did not include any drawings or instructions to assemble the
   locomotive) and ran it for the first time in September 1831. On
   November 12, 1831, Robert Stevens (then president of the C&A) repaid
   some political debts by inviting several members of the New Jersey
   legislature and some local dignitaries, including Napoleon's nephew
   Prince Murat, for rides behind the newly delivered locomotive over a
   short test track. The prince's wife made a point of hurrying onto the
   train so she could be declared the first woman to ride a steam-powered
   train in America.

   Until the railroad construction was completed, the locomotive was
   placed in storage; horse-drawn cars served the construction efforts
   until 1833. The C&A applied both numbers and names to their first
   locomotives, giving this engine the number 1 and officially naming it
   Stevens (after the C&A's first president, Robert L. Stevens). However,
   through regular use of the engine, crews began calling it the old John
   Bull, a reference to the cartoon personification of England, John Bull.
   Eventually the informal name was shortened to John Bull and this name
   was much more widely used until the Stevens name fell out of use in
   favour of John Bull.

Mechanical modifications and early exhibitions

   Stephenson built the locomotive originally as an 0-4-0 (an 0-4-0 is the
   Whyte notation for a steam locomotive with two powered axles and no
   unpowered leading or trailing axles). The locomotive's power was
   transmitted to the driving axles through pistons that were mounted
   under the boiler between the two front wheels and in front of the front
   axle. These inside cylinders' main rods were connected to a rear crank
   axle with a connecting rod between the two axles to power the front
   axle.
   John Bull as it appeared in 1877. Note the cab and wider exhaust stack.
   Image from the collection of the National Museum of American History,
   Smithsonian Institution, America On The Move exhibit, used with
   permission.
   Enlarge
   John Bull as it appeared in 1877. Note the cab and wider exhaust stack.
   Image from the collection of the National Museum of American History,
   Smithsonian Institution, America On The Move exhibit, used with
   permission.

   Due to poorer quality track than was the norm in its native England,
   the locomotive had much trouble with derailment; the C&A's engineers
   added a leading truck (an assembly consisting of an unpowered axle with
   smaller diameter wheels that was connected to the frame and pushed in
   front of the locomotive) to help guide the engine into curves. The
   leading truck's mechanism necessitated the removal of the connecting
   rod between the two main axles, leaving only the rear axle powered.
   Effectively, the John Bull became a 4-2-0 (a locomotive with two
   unpowered leading axles followed by one powered axle and no unpowered
   trailing axles). Later, the C&A also added a cowcatcher to the lead
   truck. The cowcatcher is an angled assembly designed to deflect animals
   and debris off of the railroad track in front of the locomotive. To
   protect the locomotive's crew from the weather, the C&A also added
   walls and a roof (a cab) to the rear of the locomotive where the
   controls were located. C&A shop crews also added safety features such
   as a bell and headlight.

   After several years serving as a switching engine (a locomotive used
   for moving railroad cars around within a railroad yard; also known as a
   shunter) and stationary boiler, the John Bull was retired in 1866 and
   stored in Bordentown, NJ. Toward the end of its life in revenue
   service, the locomotive worked as a pump engine and as the power for a
   sawmill.

   The C&A was soon absorbed into the United New Jersey Railroad and
   Canals Company (1869) which itself was merged into the Pennsylvania
   Railroad (PRR) in 1871. The PRR saw the potential publicity to be
   gained by exhibiting such an old engine and PRR shop forces
   "back-dated" the engine (by replacing some original parts with parts
   that "looked" old or by removing them entirely). The exhaust stack was
   replaced with a straight tube of metal and the cab walls and roof were
   removed. The PRR then exhibited the engine in 1883 at the National
   Railway Appliance Exhibition in Chicago, IL. The following year, the
   Smithsonian Institution purchased John Bull from the PRR as the
   Institution's first large engine purchase.

Smithsonian Institution and locomotive restoration

   At the exhibition in 1883, the Pennsylvania Railroad ended up resolving
   two problems at once. In the Smithsonian Institution, the railroad was
   able to find a home for the historic locomotive as well as a suitable
   new employer for a young civil engineer named J. Elfreth Watkins.
   Watkins had been involved in an accident on the railroad in New Jersey
   a few years before the exhibition. In the accident, he had lost a leg
   so he was no longer suited to the physical demands of railroad work
   (although the railroad did employ him as a clerk for a while after his
   accident). The PRR employed his engineering experience as an expert
   curator for the Smithsonian's new Arts and Industries Building which
   was opened in 1880. The locomotive's first public exhibition at the
   Smithsonian occurred on December 22, 1884, where it was displayed in
   the East Hall of the Arts and Industries building.
   John Bull at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.
   Enlarge
   John Bull at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

   The locomotive remained on display in this location for nearly 80
   years, but it was transported for display outside the museum on certain
   rare occasions. The most significant display in this time occurred in
   1893 when the locomotive traveled to Chicago for the World's Columbian
   Exposition. The Pennsylvania Railroad, like many other railroads of the
   time, put on grand displays of their progress; the PRR arranged for the
   locomotive and a couple of coaches to be delivered to the railroad's
   Jersey City, New Jersey, shops where it would undergo a restoration of
   sorts to operating condition. The PRR was planning an event worthy of
   the locomotive's significance to American railroad history—the railroad
   actually planned to operate the locomotive for the entire distance
   between New Jersey and Chicago.

   The restoration was supervised by the PRR's chief mechanical officer,
   Theodore N. Ely. Ely was confident enough in its 50-mile (80.5 km) test
   run to Perth Amboy, New Jersey (which took two hours and fifteen
   minutes), that the Governors of all the states that the locomotive was
   to pass through and then President of the United States Grover
   Cleveland were invited to ride behind the engine on its first leg
   toward Chicago. The John Bull was to pull a few passenger cars in a
   train that would carry dignitaries and representatives of the press.
   The train traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under one crew;
   starting in Philadelphia, local engineers (train drivers) were employed
   to ride on the locomotive's footplate as pilots to advise the operators
   for the trip over the local engineers' territories for the rest of the
   journey to Chicago. Traveling at 25 to 30 mph (40 to 50 km/h), the
   train reached Chicago on April 22. The locomotive operated during the
   exhibition giving rides to the exhibition's attendees, and then the
   train left Chicago on December 6 for the return trip to Washington. The
   locomotive arrived back in Washington on December 13.

   In 1927 the John Bull again traveled outside the museum. The Baltimore
   and Ohio Railroad was celebrating its centenary that year in its Fair
   of the Iron Horse in Baltimore, Maryland. Since the locomotive's
   original tender (fuel and water car) had deteriorated beyond repair and
   was dismantled in 1910, the PRR built a replica of the tender at its
   Altoona, Pennsylvania, shops. The locomotive was also refurbished in
   Altoona for operation during the fair. This fair was the last steam up
   for the locomotive until 1980.

(Mostly) static display

   The John Bull on display in the East Hall c. 1920.
   Enlarge
   The John Bull on display in the East Hall c. 1920.

   After the locomotive returned to the Smithsonian, it remained on static
   display. The museum in 1930 commissioned the Altoona shops to build a
   second replica of the locomotive's tender for display with the
   locomotive in the museum. This time, however, the replica tender used
   some of the original tender's fittings that the museum still had from
   the tender's dismantlement twenty years before.

   The Smithsonian recognized the locomotive's age in 1931. But, since the
   museum didn't have the funds to refurbish the locomotive for full
   operation again, it was decided to run the locomotive in place (with
   the driving wheels lifted off the rails using jacks) with compressed
   air. The museum borrowed an 1836 coach from the Pennsylvania Railroad
   to display on the track behind the newly rebuilt tender, and the
   locomotive's 100th birthday was officially celebrated on November 12,
   1931. The locomotive's semi-operation was broadcast over the CBS radio
   network with Stanley Bell narrating the ceremonies for the radio
   audience.

   The PRR again borrowed the locomotive in 1939 for the Century of
   Progress exhibition in Chicago. Unlike its earlier jaunt to Chicago,
   for this trip, the railroad hauled and displayed it as a static
   exhibit. While this exhibit was proceeding the Altoona shops were busy
   again building a replica; this time the replica was an operable copy of
   the locomotive itself. The replica was then operated in 1940 at the New
   York World's Fair, while the original locomotive and rebuilt tender
   returned to the Smithsonian.

   The original locomotive was displayed outside the museum one more time
   in 1939, but the museum's curators decided that the locomotive was
   becoming too fragile for repeated outside exhibits. It was then placed
   in somewhat permanent display back in the East Hall where it remained
   for the next 25 years. The locomotive was moved to its current home,
   the National Museum of American History (then called the National
   Museum of History and Technology), in 1964.

Operating again after 150 years

   The John Bull had remained on static display for another 15 years, but
   the locomotive's significance as one of the oldest locomotives in
   existence, or its use on the first railroad in New Jersey was not very
   plainly noted in the display's literature. As 1981 and the locomotive's
   150th birthday approached, the Smithsonian started discussions on how
   best to commemorate the locomotive's age and significance. There was
   very little question that special publications and exhibits would be
   prepared, but museum officials were left with the thought that the
   exhibit could still be so much more than that.

   Many superficial inspections were performed on the locomotive in 1980
   and it was found to be in relatively sound mechanical condition. There
   wasn't a significant amount of deterioration noted in these early
   inspections, and when the wheels were jacked off the rails, like they
   had been 50 years earlier, the axles were found to be freely operable.
   One morning in January 1980, before the museum opened to the public
   that day, museum officials used compressed air to power the cylinders
   and move the wheels through the connecting rods for the first time
   since its last semi-operation. After the compressed air blew some dirt
   and debris out of the locomotive's exhaust stack, it was soon ticking
   along as if it was meant to be operated again.

   The running gear seemed to be in good order, but it was still unknown
   if the boiler could still handle the pressure of steam and a live fire
   again. The museum asked the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and
   Insurance Company to inspect the locomotive's boiler for operation. The
   inspections were conducted after hours at the museum (from 6:30 p.m. to
   4:00 a.m.) over three days and included electromagnetic, ultrasonic and
   radiographic tests. The tests did reveal a few flaws, but it was
   projected that the engine could operate at a reduced boiler pressure of
   50 psi (340 kPa or 3.5 kgf/ cm²); as delivered to the Camden & Amboy,
   the boiler was rated for 70 psi (480 kPa or 4.9 kgf/cm²). The
   Smithsonian's staff, after a few further hydrostatic tests, were
   confident that the locomotive could again operate under its own power.

   The items that needed repair were repaired and the locomotive operated
   under steam on September 15, 1981, outside Washington, D.C.. On this
   exhibition, the locomotive became the oldest operable steam locomotive
   in the world.

   The original John Bull is currently housed and displayed at the
   National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.. The replica of
   the John Bull, built in 1939, is currently owned and operated by the
   Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Timeline

     * June 18, 1831: The John Bull is constructed by Stephenson and
       Company in England.
     * July 14, 1831: The John Bull departs Liverpool bound for
       Philadelphia, PA.
     * September 4, 1831: The John Bull arrives in Philadelphia, aboard
       the ship Allegheny from Liverpool.
     * September 15, 1831: The John Bull makes its first runs in New
       Jersey under its own power.
     * November 12, 1831: Robert Stevens hosts a group of New Jersey
       politicians on a series of trial runs pulled by the John Bull.
     * 1833: The John Bull is one of a few locomotives operating on the
       newly completed Camden & Amboy railroad.
     * 1866: The John Bull is retired from regular service.
     * 1876: The John Bull is displayed at the United States Centennial
       Exposition in Philadelphia.
     * 1883: The Pennsylvania Railroad displays John Bull at the National
       Railway Appliance Exhibition in Chicago, IL.
     * 1884: The Smithsonian Institution acquires the John Bull from the
       Pennsylvania Railroad
     * 1893: The John Bull operates at the World's Columbian Exposition in
       Chicago, IL.
     * 1910: The original tender, now deteriorated beyond repair, is
       dismantled by Smithsonian staff. Usable fittings from the tender
       are placed in storage.
     * 1927: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad borrows the John Bull to
       operate at the Fair of the Iron Horse in Baltimore, MD.
     * 1930: A replica tender is commissioned by the Smithsonian and built
       by the Pennsylvania Railroad using the fittings previously salvaged
       from the original tender; the new tender is displayed with the
       locomotive at the museum.
     * November 12, 1931: The Smithsonian celebrates the locomotive's
       100th "birthday", using compressed air to operate the stationary
       engine (stabilized on jacks) within the museum's exhibit hall.
     * 1933-1934: The Pennsylvania Railroad borrows the John Bull to
       display it at the Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, IL.
     * 1939: The original John Bull makes its final public appearance
       outside the Smithsonian for another 39 years when it is displayed
       in the opening of the New York World's Fair
     * 1940: A replica of the John Bull, built by engineers at the
       Pennsylvania Railroad's Juniata Shops in Altoona, PA, is displayed
       at the New York World's Fair, while the original is returned to the
       Smithsonian.
     * September 15, 1981: The John Bull operates on the 150th anniversary
       of its first use, becoming the oldest operable steam locomotive in
       the world.
     * 1985: The John Bull is carried aboard an airplane for an exhibition
       in Dallas, TX, making it the oldest locomotive in the world to
       travel by air.

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