Transportation - Overview
Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.
In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.
"Transportation - Overview" showing 19 items.
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Model of the 1857 Steam Locomotive Phantom
- Description
- This is a model of the Phantom, a locomotive built in 1857 by William Mason for the Toledo and Illinois Railroad.
- By the mid 1850s, the American locomotive had developed into a remarkably well-proportioned and graceful machine. Some of the most elegant engines were those built by William Mason of Taunton, Massachusetts. Mason made a fortune as a textile machinery manufacturer and later turned to locomotive production in 1853. More than utilitarian workhorses, he intended to build locomotives that were both mechanically successful and visually appealing. Mason machines were characterized by symmetrical design, clean lines and pleasing proportions. Although Mason enjoyed a favorable reputation, his total production remained small; between 1853 and 1890, his firm built only 754 locomotives.
- Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. The Phantom has four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. It is therefore classified as a 4-4-0 locomotive, which is also known as the American type. Based on the 4-4-0 designed by Thomas Rogers several years earlier, the Phantom was the fifty-ninth engine built by Mason. For the next twenty-five years, locomotives continued to be built to this general plan.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1963
- maker
- Lawrence, B. F.
- ID Number
- TR*322281
- catalog number
- 322281
- accession number
- 247842
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Locomotive model, "Brother Jonathan"
- Description
- This is a model of a small and relatively unknown locomotive that is actually one of the most important benchmarks in American railway engineering. The "Brother Jonathan" was the first engine to have a leading truck. It was more than a short-lived prototype because it remained in regular service over twenty years.
- It was completed for the Mohawk and Hudson in mid-1832 by the West Point Foundry to a design furnished by John B. Jervis. This contract price for the engine, less tender, was $4,600. Its designer apparently based the plan on what he felt were the better designs of Robert Stephenson, a British locomotive builder. The boiler, valve gear and crank axle bear a strong resemblance to those parts of the Stephenson locomotives. However, Jervis recognized the need for a more flexible running gear and so radically changed the four square, rigid British plan by introducing a leading truck. This idea proved wonderfully effective, as already noted, but Jervis' design for a coal burning boiler proved less than successful. It would be many years before hard coal was regularly used for locomotive fuel. In the winter of 1833 a new deep and narrow wood burning firebox and a wire screened hood over the top of the smoke stack were added. The engine's name, originally the "Experiment," was probably changed at this time to "Brother Jonathan."
- Even in its original state the engine performed well. An employee of the West Point Foundry tested the engine for speed in August of 1832 with remarkable results. He said she was the "fastest and steadiest engine I have ever run...." Fourteen miles, including one stop for water, was made in thirteen minutes, and one mile was clocked in only 45 seconds. In the time when the horse was man's fastest courier, this test was miraculous. Yet surely these racing trips were rare because trains on the Mohawk and Hudson were operated at 19 mph in respect to safety and economy.
- The locomotive was rebuilt and enlarged in 1846 as an eight wheel engine and either sold or retired around 1853.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1967
- maker
- Severn-Lamb Ltd.
- ID Number
- TR*335608
- catalog number
- 335608
- accession number
- 1977.0358
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Model of Richard Trevithick's 1804 Locomotive
- Description
- This is a 1/2 inch scale model of Richard Trevithick’s 1804 locomotive, which is considered the world’s first steam-powered railway vehicle. It shows four wheels, horizontal boiler, a single cylinder and gearing on its side.
- In the early years of the nineteenth century, Richard Trevithick, British inventor and engineer, experimented with high-pressure steam boilers, constructing several stationary steam engines and two steam-powered roadway carriages. In 1803, the owner of the Penydarren Iron Works of Merthy & Tydfill, Wales, requested a railway engine for his tram road. Completed in February of 1804, the engine hauled a five-car train loaded with 70 men and 10 tons of iron on its first trip, and later hauled a 25-ton train. Pulling a load, its normal speed was around 5 miles per hour, but the engine alone could reach 16 miles per hour. Despite its successful operation, the locomotive proved too heavy, breaking the brittle cast-iron plate rails of the tram road. It was retired and used as a stationary engine.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1888
- date refurbished
- 1963
- Trevithick's locomotive constructed
- 1804
- ID Number
- TR*180058
- catalog number
- 180058
- accession number
- 021090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Model of the Steam Locomotive, Tom Thumb
- Description
- This is a 1/2" scale four-wheel model of Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb, which operated on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1830. Few contemporary details about the locomotive’s construction have survived. The model is based on Peter Cooper's recollection printed in the an 1875 issue of the American Railway Master Mechanics Association. The model shows a verticle boiler, a verticle cylinder and piston and a stack.
- After making a modest fortune in glue manufacturing in New York City, Peter Cooper purchased property in Baltimore on which he constructed the Canton Iron Works. He was therefore anxious about the future of the newly opened Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, since only a successful line would increase the value of his land holdings. In England, where the railway was first developed, companies operated steam locomotives over farely straight lines. B&O officials believed that their route’s sharp curves were unsuitable for locomotives, and operated trains hauled by horses instead. Cooper, by contrast, insisted that steam locomotives were not only practical but necessary if the line was to make a profit. To argue his position, he constructed a small locomotive that hauled trains carrying B&O Railroad officials during the summer of 1830. The Tom Thumb’s ability to traverse the sharp curves of the line with a speed of 18 mph proved Cooper’s point, and steam locomotives were adopted on the B&O the following year.
- date made
- 1960
- Tom Thumb locomotive constructed
- 1830
- ID Number
- TR*318210
- catalog number
- 318210
- accession number
- 233853
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Model of the 1837 Steam Locomotive, H. R. Dunham
- Description
- This is a 1/2 inch scale model of the engine and tender that represent the general service locomotive, Dunham built around 1837 by H. R. Dunham & Co. of New York City for the Harlem Rail Road. Contemporary drawings reveal that Dunham closely followed Baldwin’s Lancaster design. The locomotive model shows a 4-2-0 wheel arrangment. Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. This engine has four leading wheels, two driving wheels, and no trailing wheels.
- The proliferation of new railroads encouraged many small machine shops to enter the locomotive business. While some of these firms, like that of M. W. Baldwin, would produce many engines and make a fortune, most, like H.R. Dunham & Co., built only a few machines and went out of business. Dunham constructed sixteen locomotives from 1836 to 1838 for the New York and Harlem, the Camden and Amboy, the Michigan Central and several other lines.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1961
- maker
- Severn Lamb, Ltd.
- ID Number
- TR*319306
- catalog number
- 319306
- accession number
- 234646
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Model of the 1839 Steam Locomotive, Gowan & Marx
- Description
- This is a 1/2" scale model of the Gowan and Marx, a 4-4-0 freight locomotive built in 1839 for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The model consists of an engine with two inclinded cylinders, horizontal boiler, a domed firebox and a four wheel tender.
- As trains grew longer and heavier, railroad companies needed more powerful locomotives. One way to increase power was to build machines with more driving wheels, or powered wheels. However, such locomotives had previously proved too rigid for the rough tracks of early American railroads, derailing often or damaging the track. On the Gowan and Marx, locomotive builders Eastwick and Harrison of Philadelphia introduced the equalizing lever, a spring suspension that distributed the engine’s weight over three points. In this arrangement, each of the four driving wheels could bounce independently as the engine negotiated rough track, greatly improving stability and traction. According to John H. White in American Locomotives: 1830-1880, the equalizing lever, which allowed the successful operation of engines with multiple pairs of driving wheels, “was possibly the most important American contribution to locomotive design.” Eastwick and Harrison’s equalizing lever proved so successful that it was used through the end of steam locomotive construction in the 1950s.
- Steam locomotives are often classified by wheel arrangement, in the order of leading, driving, and trailing wheels. The Gowan and Marx has four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. It is therefore classified as a 4-4-0 locomotive. When compared to an earlier 4-2-0 type engine, like Baldwin’s Lancaster, the 4-4-0’s additional pair of driving wheels brought a great increase in power. Intended for slow speed, heavy coal trains, the Gowan and Marx performed extremely well; on one occasion, it pulled a 101-car train of 423 tons at an average speed of 9.8 miles per hour. After 1840, the 4-4-0 or “American type” became the most popular locomotive in the country. The exceptional performance of the Gowan and Marx greatly enhanced the reputation of Eastwick and Harrison. They were subsequently invited to Russia to build locomotives for the Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1962
- Gowan & Marx locomotive constructed
- 1839
- maker
- Shawcraft (Models) Ltd.
- ID Number
- TR*320630
- accession number
- 242186
- catalog number
- 320630
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
William E. Woodard Patents, 1909-1949
- Notes
- Woodard was directly responsible for many developments in steam locomotive design. As an inventor of locomotive equipment, he had ninety-two patents on various mechanical features of steam locomotive and electric locomotive design. He worked for the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Cramp's Shipyard, the Dickson Locomotive Works, the Schenectady Locomotive Works, the American Locomotive Works (1900-1916), and, finally, the Lima Locomotive Works (1916-1942); during the same period he worked as a consultant to the Franklin Railway Supply Company. At the Lima Locomotive Works, he was vice president in charge of design until his death in 1942
- Summary
- Includes ninety-one patents exclusively issued to William E. Woodard; eleven others were joint issue in the name of Woodard and his associates. Among them are three United States patents, copies which are not in their original form
- Cite as
- William E. Woodard Patents, 1909-1949, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1909
- 1909-1949
- 1890-1960
- 20th century
- author
- Woodard, William E (inventor) 1873-1942
- Subject
- Baldwin Locomotive Works
- Local number
- 1986.3183 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Thomas Norrell Railroad Photographs Collection, circa 1840-circa 1960 (bulk 1870-1940)
- Notes
- Norrell was a collector of photographic and print materials on the history of railroads, and was a scholar on railroad history.
- Summary
- The collection contains approximately 11,000 images (original photographic prints and photographic postcards, original film and glass plate negatives, and duplicate/copy photographic prints and negatives) the majority of which are external views of single locomotive engines of North American railroad and industrial companies. Images of international railroad company locomotives and of representative locomotives from various locomotive works and builders are also included. The collection contains a small number of subject-specific images covering such topics as train wrecks, funeral trains, experimental locomotives, miniature trains, and locomotives at the 1933 and 1939 World's Fairs
- Cite as
- Thomas Norrell Railroad Photographs Collection, 1899-1985, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1836
- 1836-1960
- circa 1840-circa 1960 bulk 1870-1940
- 19th century
- 20th century
- donor
- Norrell, Thomas 1899-1985
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-1934 : Chicago, Ill.)
- New York World's Fair (1939-1940)
- Local number
- 266009 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Southern Iron & Equipment Company Records, 1900-1960
- Notes
- The Southern Iron & Equipment Company, a family-owned business located in Atlanta, Georgia, was a major reconditioner of locomotives in the period ca. 1900-1960. The company purchased locomotives, refurbished them, and then sold them. In addition, the company did repair and reconditioning work on behalf of various railroads
- Summary
- These records document the rebuilding of locomotives by the Southern Iron & Equipment Company. They consist of one folder of "Memorandum of Locomotive Numbers" and a number of 6" x 4" cards recording sales of rebuilt locomotives. The "Memorandum," 48 pages total, lists the locomotive, manufacturer, and buyer. The cards, alphabetically arranged by purchaser, record the type of locomotive, manufacturer, its number, and purchase price. The cards contain most complete information on the period ca. 1903-1924; after that, only the number of the locomotive was noted on the card
- Cite as
- Southern Iron & Equipment Company Records, 1900-1960, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1900
- 1900-1960
- author
- Southern Iron & Equipment Company
- donor
- Bond, Edward
- Subject
- Southern Iron & Equipment Company
- Local number
- 1990.3083 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Timken Roller Bearing Company Collection, 1925-1957
- Notes
- The Timken Roller Bearing Co., Canton, Ohio, produced its first tapered roller bearings in the 1890s. The bearings were first used in horse-drawn vehicles and later in automobiles. As automobiles improved in design, power, and endurance, Timken made improvements in its bearings to compensate. The company soon realized that the only way to ensure quality in its product was through the production of its own special alloy steel. It organized the Timken Steel & Tube Company to supply itself and other manufacturers with high-grade steel. In the late 1920s, the company entered the railroad equipment supply market with special tapered bearings for locomotives
- Summary
- Primarily technical papers by Timken engineers, presented in journals and meetings of professional societies. The papers concern the use of Timken roller bearings and other products in locomotives and other rolling stock on U.S. railroads and rapid transit systems. Also articles from trade magazines and brochures advertising Timken products, and a 1925 U.S. Bureau of Mines study of friction in mine-car wheels
- Cite as
- Timken Roller Bearing Company Collection, 1925-1927, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1925
- 1925-1927
- 1925-1957
- 20th century
- collector
- Timken Roller Bearing Company
- donor
- Pauly, Frank G
- author
- United States. Bureau of Mines
- Local number
- 1990.3162 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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