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 71 items.
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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
- No Image Available
Edwin Price Reminiscences, 1893
- Notes
- Edwin Price was a locomotive engineer for various railroad companies, ca. 1851-1886. He began his career on the Nashville & Chattanooga where he worked for five years. He was employed for eighteen years on the Little Miami Railroad. He describes the responsibility of his position, "One million one hundred and fourtee[n] thousand nine hundred and twenty three miles or equal to forty two time[s] around the world without crippling, wounding or killing a single soul rideing [sic] behind me."
- Summary
- One original journal and a typed transcript of the original
- Cite as
- Edwin Price Reminisences, 1893, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Miriam Price Taylor
- Date
- 1893
- 19th century
- author
- Price, Edwin (locomotive engineer) 1829-1901
- donor
- Taylor, Miriam Price
- collector
- Transportation, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Loaded open rail cars.] 28659 photonegative
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.67 [113]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Local number
- RSN 17890
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Workers loading railroad car.] photonegative 1906
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.43 [6]
- Date
- 1906
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Ashton
- Local number
- RSN 15385
- Video number 14747
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Railroad cars beside factory.] 12463 photonegative
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.44 [41]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Local number
- RSN 15421
- Video number 14768
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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
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
- No Image Available
James J. Hill Scrapbook, 1916
- Notes
- Hill was the son of a farmer in Ontario, Canada. At 18 he moved to St. Paul, Minn., and took a job as a clerk with a steamship company. In 1873 he and a partner took over the bankrupt St. Louis and Pacific Railway. This line was reorganized in 1879 as the St. Paul, Minnesota and Manitoba Railway, with Hill as General Manager; in 1883 he became its President. Hill extended his rail line into the Great Northwest and opened it up to commerce. He amassed a fortune, estimated at between 200 to 250 million dollars at his death
- Summary
- Scrapbook contains clippings of the news stories and obituaries printed after the death of James J. Hill on May 29, 1916, drawn from newspapers throughout the United States and Canada
- Cite as
- James J. Hill Scrapbook, 1916, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1916
- 1910-1920
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Subject
- Hill, James Jerome 1838-1916
- Great Northern Railroad
- St. Paul, Minnesota and Mantioba Railway
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
A railway train that crosses the equator, near Stanley Falls. 9974 interpositive
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 3.2.33 [145]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- Local number
- RSN 23649
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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