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 18 items.
Page 1 of 2
Steam Locomotive, Southern Railway 1401
- Description
- The 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive for passenger trains was introduced late in the 19th century and perfected after 1910. It was among the most numerous type of steam locomotive for passenger trains operated in the United States from about 1910 to 1955. This type was characterized by four leading or "pilot" wheels, arranged in a "truck" to guide the locomotive in curves; 6 large-diameter driving wheels for power and speed; and a pair of "trailing wheels" in a "trailing truck" under the rear of the engine to help support its great weight.
- Far from ordinary, the Class Ps-4-type steam locomotives of the Southern Railway were inspired by handsomely painted British locomotives. The Ps-4's green and gold livery set these locomotives apart from the funereal black associated with most American steam locomotives in the 20th century. The distinctive green was exclusive to locomotives on the Southern Railway that were assigned to the company's principal passenger trains, such as the Crescent Limited, the Piedmont Limited, and others.
- The Charlotte Division was part of the Southern's Washington–Atlanta mainline, with extension of the mainline to Birmingham and New Orleans on track leased by Southern. The Charlotte Division included the line between Greenville, S.C., and Salisbury/Spencer, N.C. Thus the 1401 rarely, if ever, ran north of Spencer, home of the Southern's vast Spencer Shops for the heavy repair of locomotives from throughout the system.
- A Ps-4 was capable of hauling 12–15 steel passenger cars, about 700–1000 tons, at 80 mph on level track. (The hill-and-dale profile of the Charlotte Division, however, kept average speeds to about 50–60 mph.) The 14,000 gallons of water in the tender permitted runs of about 150 miles—the full length of the Division—between water stops, although there would be one intermediate water stop normally scheduled. Fuel (16 tons of bituminous coal) in the tender was good for the full 150 miles.
- Date made
- 1926
- user
- Southern Railway
- maker
- American Locomotive Company. Richmond Works
- ID Number
- TR*320000
- accession number
- 196330
- catalog number
- 320000.01
- accession number
- 196330
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Steam Locomotive, John Bull
- Description
- Knowing the best locomotives were made in England, Robert Stevens ordered one from Robert Stevenson & Company of New Castle for the Camden and Amboy Railroad which ran across central New Jersey. The "John Bull," named later for the mythical gentleman who symbolized England, was the result.
- The locomotive was built as a standard 0-4-0 Planet class. Never seeing a locomotive before, Isaac Dripps, a young steamboat mechanic, assembled the engine from the parts that arrived in New Jersey in September 1831. It was tested that same month. The locomotive proved vulnerable to derailment. Dripps installed an extra pair of wheels, carried in a frame out front. Stevens called them "guide wheels"; they helped to steer the locomotive in curves and over uneven rails. The innovation worked so well that the Camden and Amboy bought 15 American copies of "John Bull" with the added wheels. By the end of the 1830s, American manufacturers were building locomotives and exporting to Russia and other countries that had vast terrain much like America.
- The steam locomotive "John Bull" ran for 35 years, pulling trains of passengers and cargo between the two largest cities of the time, Philadelphia and New York. A short ferry ride connected Camden with Philadelphia and a longer ferry run connected South Amboy with New York. The locomotive propelled trains at 25 to 30 miles per hour.
- Date made
- 1831
- user
- Camden and Amboy Railroad
- Stevens, Robert
- assembled by
- Dripps, Isaac
- maker
- Robert Stephenson and Company
- ID Number
- TR*180001
- accession number
- 15804
- catalog number
- 180001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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
Railroad Switch Lamp, ca 1900 - 1940s
- Description
- This large, kerosene-fueled switch lamp, ca. 1900s-1940s, was placed immediately adjacent to the manual operating lever that controlled the position of a switch in a railroad track. The lever, operated by a brakeman or switchman, changed the position of the movable rails of the switch, aligning the switch for a train's movement from one route to another, or from a main track to a siding track.
- This lamp has fresnel lenses - two blue and two red. The crenelated top allows heat to escape from the burner. The body is embossed with the initials, "M.C.R.R.", showing that it was made for and used on the Michigan Central Railroad, a major part of the New York Central System.
- A switch lamp's position was mechanically interlinked with the position of the switch, so that the lamp automatically indicated which way the switch was aligned. When aligned for a main route or normal path ("normal" as specified in the railroad's employee timetable and/or standing instructions for that particular switch's milepost location), the lamp's green (or blue) lenses showed fore and aft; when the switch was changed to a diverging route or siding, the lamp rotated 90 degrees so that the red lenses showed fore and aft.
- Clearly, the safety of passing trains was dependent on the accurate indication of the lamp, if a derailment due to a misaligned switch was to be prevented.
- This large-size lamp is of a type typically used on principal tracks in railroad yards or on main routes in the vicinity of junctions or stations. The kerosene fuel for the lamp had to be replenished regularly by nearby employees. Electric lighting for such lamps became common in the 1890s-1900s along heavily used routes. But kerosene lamps were common into the 1950s along lightly used routes and in many rail yards.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- user
- Michigan Central Railroad
- maker
- Peter Gray & Sons
- ID Number
- 1989.0687.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0687.01
- accession number
- 1989.0687
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Model of the 1825 Steam Locomotive, Dewitt Clinton
- Description
- This 1/2" scale model of the De Witt Clinton represents an early American built four-wheel connected locomotive. Peyton L. Morgan, the maker, based the model on drawings supplied by Popular Mechanics Magazine between 1931 to 1933. The model consists of the engine with horizontal boiler, steam dome, stack and a four wheel tender.
- The De Witt Clinton was the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad's first locomotive. It is named for the governor of New York who promoted the construction of the Erie Canal. Designed by John B. Jervis, the locomotive was the third engine produced by the West Point Foundry Association of New York City. Completed in 1831, it was found to be too light to haul trains of sufficient size and its wheel arrangement too rigid to negotiate sharp curves without incident. It was dismantled piecemeal between 1833 and 1836.
- The Erie Canal, completed through the state of New York in 1825, became an artery of trade and travel. Between Albany and Schenectady, the canal travelled forty miles through twenty-seven locks. Over land, however, the distance between the two towns was only sixteen miles. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, chartered in 1826, linked the Mohawk River at Schenectady with the Hudson at Albany. The New York Legislature intended that the railroad complement, not compete with, the canal, as it allowed traffic to bypass the roundabout section of waterway between the two towns.
- date made
- 1931
- De Witt Clinton locomotive built
- 1831
- maker
- Morgan, Peyton L.
- ID Number
- 1992.0036.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0036.01A
- accession number
- 1992.0036
- catalog number
- 1992.0036.01B
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Railroad Hand-Signal Lantern, ca. 1945
- Description
- This “Conger” model battery-powered signal lantern was manufactured by the Star Headlight & Lantern Company of Honeoye Falls, New York around 1945. The metal case has rusted and the handle has been wrapped in electrical tape to improve the grip. The lantern has two bulbs; a bare bulb with widely dispersed light used for signaling and a smaller adjacent bulb with a focused beam that could be used as a flashlight. The tape label reads “W.L. Metz” for Wilbur L. Metz, who used this lamp during his career as a freight train brakeman and conductor on the Western Maryland Railroad.
- Before the advent of portable two way radios, train crews communicated via hand signals during the day, and lantern signals during periods of low visibility or at night. Specific motions of the lantern convey precise instructions such as “Clear to Depart;" "Move the train Forward;" "Move the train Backward;" "Slow Down;" "Slow Down Further;" or "Stop and Remain Stopped."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1945
- Maker
- Star Headlight & Lantern Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0107.08
- catalog number
- 1996.0107.08
- accession number
- 1996.0107
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Rebel
- Description (Brief)
- Flat, rectangular plastic card in white with red and blue print. On the front is an image of the Rebel, a red, silver, and blue train, and a calendar for 1935. On the reverse is a map of Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad's routes. Traffic offices include: Birmingham; Chicago; Detroit; Jackson, Mississippi; Jackson, Tennessee; Kansas City; Memphis; Meridian; Mobile; New Orleans; New York; Pittsburgh; and St. Louis.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1935
- advertiser
- Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad
- maker
- Whitehead & Hoag Company
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.0616
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.0616
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Railroad Hand-Signal Lantern, 1830s-1840
- Description
- This signal lantern was used on the Camden & Amboy Railroad in New Jersey from around 1833 until 1840. The top of the lantern bears the inscription “Edward Muschamp,” the conductor who used the lamp, as well as the inscription “Phile & NEW YORK RAILROAD” two cities connected on the Camden & Amboy route.
- Before the advent of portable two way radios, train crews communicated via hand signals during the day, and lantern signals during periods of low visibility or at night. Specific motions of the lantern convey precise instructions such as “Clear to Depart;" "Move the train Forward;" "Move the train Backward;" "Slow Down;" "Slow Down Further;" or "Stop and Remain Stopped."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1831-1840
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- TR*181048
- catalog number
- 181048
- accession number
- 25376
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cumberland Valley Railroad Steam Locomotive, Pioneer
- Description
- The Pioneer is a steam locomotive made in 1851 by Seth Wilmarth, owner of a large machine shop in Boston who made few locomotives. Pioneer is an early type of steam locomotive on U.S. railroads and used only on a very few of them. This locomotive is significant only because of that rarity. Its age is also unusual among preserved locomotives; Pioneer was built just two decades after America’s first domestically made locomotive. Its general type was obsolete on almost all railroads in the U.S. by 1850.
- Pioneer served the Cumberland Valley RR, connecting Harrisburg, Pa. with Hagerstown, Md. and Winchester, Va. The locomotive was designed specifically to pull two-car passenger trains. Pioneer was one of several locomotives badly damaged by fire during the Civil War, during a Confederate raid on the CVRR roundhouse at Chambersburg, Pa. The CVRR rebuilt the engine, operated it on light, one- and two-car passenger trains till the mid 1880s, and then saved and exhibited it as an historic relic. The Pennsylvania RR (then one of the nation’s largest) absorbed the CVRR soon after. The PRR entirely repainted Pioneer in 1947 for the 1947-48 Chicago Railroad Fair. The lettering on the fenders, “PIONEER,” is inauthentic. A replica headlight was added by NMAH (then NMHT) in Dec 1965.
- In the standard type nomenclature for steam locomotives, Pioneer is a “2-2-2T” type, meaning that it has an unpowered leading pair of wheels; a single powered axle (the larger-diameter wheels, driven by the steam cylinders via connecting (or “main”) rods; and another unpowered pair of wheels at the rear. The “T” stands for “tank engine,” meaning one that has no separate tender for carrying its fuel (wood) and water for the boiler; fuel and water is carried on the same single chassis as the boiler, cab, and running gear.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- 1851
- used date
- 1851-1948
- maker
- Seth Wilmarth
- Union Works
- ID Number
- TR*317547.01
- accession number
- 230385
- catalog number
- 317547.01
- 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
- Next Page