If this project is successful, it will certainly be a fascinating sight to see in operation with all those reciprocating levers and cranks…I wonder how contemporary boiler safety regulations would impact this replica, if at all…ditch lights anyone? Just kidding… Whats interesting is the recent trend to resurrect examples from early American railroading history…I wonder if coaches will be next to haul behind this beast…if I recall…they were equally bizarre looking…like stage coaches… looks like a challenge to fire…with that high tech tender…
A smaller scale replica run under compressed air gives an impression of how Byzantine the workings of this engine this machine are…watch your fingers kids…stand back!
IIRC the first passenger cars were indeed built by a stagecoach manufacturer because…well, who else would build them?? [:)] So they were basically stagecoach bodies on RR wheels. I suppose that’s why passenger cars came to be called “coaches”??
The B&O Museum had their steam weekend this past weekend. I did not attend but one of the locomotives that was supposed to operate was a 1927 replica of an 1837 locomotive called the “Lafayette”. The train was supposed to consist of replicas of that type of passenger car (converted stage coaches), also constructed in 1927. We had a Nor-Easter here over the weekend. I don’t know how Baltimore was affected. The fact of the matter is that replicas already exist of that type of passenger car, and Honesdale, PA also had a replica of the Stourbridge Lion on display.
Why replicate a very un-succesful locomotive, that never moved an inch in revenue service? Silliness, methinks. The replica, in Honesdale, serves its purpose and is done well.
I ask the same question considereing how virtually useless it was not being capapble of pulling anything of consequence. The replica in Honsedale is owned by the D&H Company and on perminent loan to the museum I believe, and there might be legal restrictions on fireing it up or it just might not be in condition to be fired and moved. However, I’ve been told it is a simple machine to replicate in that it has only one flue and all the simple mechanisims are out in the open.
If anyone is interested, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC (I forget which building off hand, Arts & Industry perhaps?) has the boiler and other parts of the original Stourbridge Lion on display. It only weighed 8 tons, but as was pointed out, the rails in use at that time could not handle the “great weight of the locomotive”. I wonder what those folks back then would have thought when they saw a UP Big Boy or a C&O Allegheny come chugging by!
I thought the replica of the Stourbridge Lion is esconced in the Canal Museum at Honesdale, PA. on permanent loan from the D&H. When was it take out…it was there less than a year ago when I drove by and saw it as it is visible from the street.
You are correct. There is a replica of the Lion in Honesdale. What belongs to the Smithsonian and currently resides in Baltimore are the remaining pieces of the original Lion.
The Stourbridge Lion, by all accurate and honest accounts, was not a rousing success. Beside the “great weight” issue making it too heavy for the track structure, the single flue would not provide enough heating surface in such a locomotive to allow much steaming capacity, and thus power output. Thank goodness, as the positioning of the cylinders, rocking arms and main rods to the front driving wheels, coupled with the lack of counterweights, would have made for a rather rough ride.
The Rocket, Stephenson’s successful entry in the Rainhill trials, was successful because it had a boiler incorporating multiple firetubes, greatly increasing the heating surface and thus the steam generating capacity. That’s why virtually all successful locomotive designs to follow used the same boiler construction pattern. The Rocket’s cylinders were originally mounted at an elevated angle of around 30 degrees, but this caused a rough ride. They were soon lowered to an angle of only 8 degrees, providing for a much smoother ride and vastly decreasing the dynamic augment forces on the primitive track structure.
I understand that the Stourbridge Lion could manage to drag itself and several lightweight coaches, but was not able to achieve the goal it was designed to perform, which was to haul loaded coal wagons. Still, it is interesting to see these early examples of steam power and to see how rapidly technology developed. Barely twenty years later, quite capable locomotives had transformed transportation in this country and in Europe as well.
No one claimed the Lion was a rousing success. The claim is that it was the first steam engine to run on rails in America.
The Wright Flyer was not a rousing success. It only went 112 feet, the pilot had to lay on the wing and a bunch of guys had to push it down the hill. But it’s still in the Smithsonian.
Off topic: I took a train to Asheville Sunday. You live in very pretty country.
Regardless of the relative success or failure of the original Lion, it’s encouraging to see efforts to replicate old steam. The recent completion of the “Tornado” in Britain and “Leviathan” here bode well for the possibility that someone will undertake the building of other significant American locomotives, albeit using modern tools, techniques, and materials.
Who wouldn’t want to see a Niagara or a “Mother Hubbard” or {insert favorite locomotive} under steam again?
To parse whether the first American steam locomotive was a model of efficiency is something only a infinitesimally minuscule portion of the population ruminates over. Does the Jefferson memorial have an efficient roofing system? To bring living history to the young, as opposed to the perverse strategy Moe Larry and Curly have designed over in Green Bay that will squelch the 261,one of a handful of operable nationally historic locomotives, is an admirable quest, regardless if it hauled one potato rather than two.
As several people have pointed out, the original was just plain too heavy for the track - a common problem with early locomotives anywhere.
There is, in the National Railway Museum, York in the UK, a complete sister of the ‘Stourbridge Lion’. ‘Agenoria’ was built, like the ‘Lion’, by Foster & Raistrick in 1829. It shows the grasshopper beams and the simple boiler that really were rendered completely obsolete by ‘Rocket’ of the same year. By 1830, ‘Planet’ had been built for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and all subsequent locos show the layout that Robert Stephenson produced with ‘Planet’
There are several working replicas of very early locomotives in the UK:
Locomotion, Puffing Billy, Steam Elephant, Rocket, Sans Pareil, the Penydarren loco, and some later ones including the 7 foot gauge ‘Firefly’ and ‘Iron Duke’
By all means, go ahead and build the replica - generations of people have never seen these things in action. At best they have a static exhibit, or a few remaining parts, or at worst only photographs or drawings. To see one in action is the only way to appreciate it.
By the way, the same applies to other machines - paddle steamers, vintage aircraft and old cars.
