The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

174 HISTORY OF THE FIEST LOCOMOTIVES EST AMERICA.
1831, The train consisted of a locomotive, tender, and two cars.
The locomotive, named the ' John Bull,' and imported from England,
was of very simple and uncouth construction, and might be
mistaken in these days for a pile-driver. Its cylinders were five
and a half inches in diameter, and sixteen inches' stroke, and the
connecting-rods worked on double cranks on the front axle. It
weighed four tons. John Hampson, an Englishman, was the
engineer. The tender was a gimplfe frame, with a platform, upon
which were placed a heap of wood used for fuel, and two crates
filled with similar combustibles. This vehicle had also a passengerbox
in the rear. The cars were patterned after the old stage-
coaches, resembling somewhat the railroad-coaches still used in
England, and were coupled with three links instead of one, as at
present. Twelve passengers occupied the inside seats, and three
were seated outside. Among them were Mr. Thurlow Weed and
ex-Governor Yates. Their portraits, and those of their feUow-
passengers, which the picture gives in sombre and sharply-defined
silhouette, would readily be recognized by any one acquainted
with them when they made the excursion. The picture is photographed
by Messrs. J. L. Howard & Co., of Springfield, from the
original, in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society."
The original picture of tte engine and train of cars,
from wliicli the photograpli just described was taken,
was executed by tlie author of this history, and pre-
sented by him to the Connecticut Historical Society at
Hartford. This photograph copy has since been litho-
graphed for Thomas Jarmy, at the lithographic estab-
lishment of Sage & Son, Buffalo, in 1865.
The original picture, presented by the author to the
Connecticut Historical Society, was done on the very day
the engine made its first trip with a train of cars. At-
tached to this lithograph Mr. Jarmy has given a kind of
history of the machine, as follows: "View of the first
American railroad train, as it; appeared ready for start-
ing, on the Mohawk and Hudson Eailway, the first part
of the New York Central Railroad from Albany to
Schenectady, about the 31st of July, 1832, executed at
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