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The Jupiter (1876)
The Smithsonian's Jupiter is one of many locomotives built in the 19th century to carry that name -- a name designed to inspire awe on the part of contemporary onlookers. Until late in the century, locomotives carried names instead of numbers, as befitting their vital roles in the explosive growth of the U.S. economy and in binding a thinly populated, continental nation into a unified political entity. Steam locomotives were the Space Shuttles of their time, expensive to purchase, yet essential to the agendas of a rapidly expanding country. Jupiter is also an example of the sometimes incredible chain of coincidental events that can result in a valuable acquisition by the Smithsonian. In 1876, Jupiter's maker -- the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, PA -- was the oldest and largest locomotive producer in the U.S. The firm employed 2,000 highly skilled workers, had delivered 4,000 engines since its founding by abolitionist and watchmaker Matthias Baldwin in 1831, and provided engines to large and small railroads in the U.S. as well as to railroads overseas -- including New Zealand and Russia. One of 232 locomotives that Baldwin craftsmen manufactured in the American Centennial year of 1876, Jupiter rolled out of the Works in August and went overland on a heavy railroad flatcar to California. The Santa Cruz Railroad Co., whose name is painted on Jupiter's tender, began in 1874. The idea was to link Santa Cruz, at the northern end of Monterey Bay, with the farming center of Watsonville 20 miles southeast. The SCR was built to "narrow gauge" -- the rails set at a three-foot width, instead of the more-common "standard" gauge used then and today of 56-1/2 inches (a bit over four and a half feet in width). The idea of narrow gauge was that it would reduce construction costs for the line compared to standard gauge. In the railroad-building mania of America's post-Civil War era, the SCR's founding entailed its share of politics, civic promotion ("we need a railroad if our town is going to prosper!"), stock selling, bond issuances, and numerous lawsuits. By 1876 the line was up and running. It was just seven years after the driving of the "Golden Spike," the famous event that marked the completion of America's first transcontinental railroad route. Passengers on the little Santa Cruz Railroad could connect with the big Southern Pacific Railroad, which anchored the western end of the nation's growing transcontinental rail system. The SCR owned only three locomotives, all fueled on wood: the Betsey Jane (1873); the Neptune (1875), later called Pacific; and the Jupiter. Tiny five-ton Betsey Jane was used in the construction of the line; Neptune and Jupiter pulled passenger and freight trains. The last two engines were of the "American" (sometimes called "American Standard") type. This classic design included four small wheels in front, together with four larger wheels (the driving wheels) for propulsion. Historians call this layout a "4-4-0." The four wheels in front served to guide the weight of the locomotive safely over uneven track and into curves. Steam pistons propelled the driving wheels. A separate tender, permanently coupled to the engine, carried fuel and water supply for the boiler. The design was elegant and mechanically simple. An "American"-type locomotive -- the New York Central No. 999 of 1893, pulling a four-car train -- became the first vehicle anywhere in the world to exceed 100 miles per hour. More "American"-type locomotives were manufactured in the 19th century than any other type. Some 25,000 in a great variety of gauges and sizes were made for U.S. railroads. It is the type celebrated in Currier & Ives lithographs, seen in countless movies of the "Old West" (though the type was just as popular in the East, South, and Midwest), and depicted on a recent series of first-class U.S. postage stamps. The last "American" wasn't built until the early 20th century. When SCR's Neptune first rolled into Santa Cruz from Watsonville in May 1876, a local newspaper editor enthusiastically but disjointedly wrote, "The engine is very powerful, handsomely finished, magnificently finished and painted." And: "At last our enterprising young city is in full connection with the rest of mankind." The somewhat larger Jupiter arrived and began pulling trains a few months later. Resplendently decorated in "lake and gold" filigree striping, brass trim, and with a cab of intricately shaped and fitted walnut worthy of any furniture maker, Jupiter must have turned heads. It carried a boiler pressure of 140 pounds-per-square-inch and could pull a train totaling 500 tons on level track (though loads were seldom that much). It could run safely up to about 50 miles per hour (though usual speeds were 25 to 40 miles per hour). Its career on the SCR was short, however. The Southern Pacific took over the line in 1881 and soon changed it to standard gauge. Jupiter and Neptune were sold to the narrow-gauge Ferrocarril Guatemala Central -- in Central America -- in 1885. Jupiter's ultimate acquisition by the Smithsonian began with a railroad consolidation in Guatemala in 1912: in that year, the Guatemala Central became part of the Ferrocarriles Internacionales de Centroamerica (FIdeCA). Jupiter ran under steam regularly until about 1960. It was last active on FIdeCA's remote Ocos Branch in northwestern Guatemala -- completing a working career of nearly 84 years!
Then, in 1963, Mr. O. Roy Chalk of Washington, D.C., bought the FIdeCA. Chalk also owned the D.C. Transit System, predecessor to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The following year, as a civic gesture, Chalk shipped Jupiter to the District and installed it in the John F. Kennedy Playground at 7th & O Streets, N.W. For over a decade, Jupiter was a beloved piece of playground apparatus, upon which a generation of youngsters acted out fantasies of being steam locomotive engineers. In 1975, Chalk agreed to curator John H. White's proposal to donate Jupiter to the Smithsonian for the U.S. Bicentennial. It was one of the most generous gifts of an historic industrial artifact by an individual to the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian staff then went to work on Jupiter at the Institution's Silver Hill Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland. The walnut cab had disappeared long ago; one of steel had replaced it. Boiler jacketing, many mechanical components, and brass trim were missing. Using an 1880 photograph (see above) and the original Baldwin Locomotive Works specifications of 1876, Smithsonian staff and contractors rebuilt and restored the engine to near-original condition. Included was the fitting of a period headlight, the rebuilding of the "cowcatcher" (in actual terminology, the "pilot"), the fabrication of a proper smokestack, the installation of the elegant cab, repairs to the tender, and the intricate painting and lettering. Jupiter emerged from the restoration to take its place in the Smithsonian's "1876" exhibition in the Arts & Industries Building, where it inspired awe in yet another generation of onlookers. Twenty-three years later, Jupiter journeyed to the National Museum of American History, where it will help succeeding generations better understand their heritage. |
