By Henry M. Holden    

James Watt, a young student in Scotland watched his mother‘s teakettle in her kitchen in Green Neck, Scotland. He watched as the tea lid lifted from the pressure of the steam within. He realized then that steam was power. This discovery and the ability to apply it would change the world. But James Watt was not the only one thinking of steam power.

This was a time when the change in the method of hauling freight from one part of the state to the other was under consideration. Canals, as expensive to build and maintain, seem to be the only alternative to the horse-drawn wagons traveling on nearly impossible roads.

Railroads facilitated western settlement. Land to sell and the desire to generate more traffic, freight and passengers were compelling reasons for railroads to actively promote settlement. It was big business for the railroads, and marketing efforts stretched across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. It was by design were land grants the United States gave the railroad companies as incentives to build the railroads. The United States wanted the west settled as quickly as possible to establish a valid claim to the territory.

Whoever seized the existing and future routes of trade here would have control of an area embracing eight huge and barely populated states which held incalculable resources.

“Time and space are annihilated by steam,” said Asa Whitney an American merchant who travelled abroad in the mid-1800s, where experienced first-hand the ease of commerce that railway systems provided.     

Using a horse and wagon, the journey west took 2,400 miles and 4-8 months and was reduced to a mere week or two following the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.” The nation was connected to a level of transportation it had never been before, and the impact was felt immediately.

Railroads exponentially expanded logging and mining. The capacity of a train to haul raw logs from a hillside to a mill far exceeded what had been possible with a horse or oxen. Similar economies were realized in coal mines, and throughout the mining industry. The rail network allowed products to be shipped to markets outside the Northwest.

In the 21st century we take railroads for granted. We expect underground railroads to run on time and have no mechanical issues. And for the most part the expectations are met. Railroads running   above ground encounter more mechanical issues from track debris, broken catenary wire breakage usually from cold weather to automobile traffic jams at popular intersections.

In 1788, at his home in Hoboken, Colonel (Civil War rank) John Stevens heard of a machine that ran on steam. Being the visionary, he travelled to England, met the inventor (Watt) and bought the machine, and had it shipped in pieces to the Unites States.

Stevens realized that America was expanding and transporting Americans west  was a daunting task that needed to be addressed.  Stevens had seen the promise in a steam powered engine but not on steel railroad tracks.

In an 1866 excursion to the border of New Jersey, “The end of the track,” said a Union Pacific Railroad spokesperson.

A Union Pacific Railroad map touting “1,000,000 acres of choice farming land … for sale.” said a Union Pacific poster.

In 1869, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and the Central Pacific Railroad (CP) met at Promontory, Utah. The Nation’s first transcontinental railroad was complete. The UP had built east to west, relying heavily on Irish immigrant labor. The CP had been built west from Sacramento, CA, through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The CP had relied heavily on Chinese immigrant labor. Both the UP and CP experienced challenges, including maintaining both supply levels (building materials. etc.) and adequate staffing.

The first northern transcontinental, the Northern Pacific (NP), was completed in 1883. Its western terminus was Tacoma, WA. Other railroads and connections followed later. The Great Northern Railway (1893) and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Puget Sound Railway (1909) also, railroads fueled settlements.

Railroad companies often had real estate divisions responsible for selling the land gained through incentive programs. Real estate sales were an important way of funding continued track construction, especially on large transcontinental marketing was a vital part of sales industry fueled by railroads.

The John Bull as the locomotive was called was the first railroad car used for passenger traffic. It arrived in Hoboken and upon uncrating some of the parts they discovered there were no drawings to help the mechanic, Issacc Dripps began to assemble it although he had never seen a locomotive. Young Dripps was not deterred. He began to match parts by trial and error and several weeks had labor had a functioning locomotive.

The locomotive was fitted on its wooden platform and to this the tender from which pinewood and a whisky barrel filled with water was also added.    

The first movement by steam on railroad tracks in the state of New Jersey was on November 12, 1831, by the Perennial locomotive John Bull, with all the component parts and the six and one half miles in New Jersey was laid by the Camden and Amboy Railroad between Hoboken and the stone (tablet) eastward, in 1831.

The railroads developed so rapidly that John Bull was soon out of date. It was stowed away in the museum along with the boiler and steam valve of Colonel John Stevens, another smaller locomotive that had raced around his circular track at Stevens’ Castle.        

The successful adaptation of steam power to boats was assured by the successes of John Finch, Robert Fulton and Stevens who owned Little Julianna the first regulated steam ferry in the world.

Stevens recognized what was possible so he focused his action to develop a steam engine that could pull a wagon.

In early as 1812, Stevens had urged De Whitt Clinton, the governor of New York, to abandoned plans for a proposed Erie Canal and plan a railroad. He claimed that a speed of 20 to 30 mph would be attained with railroad cars and a possible 100 miles an hour might be achieved. He had traveled in vain from New York, Pennsylvania, Virgina and even as far as North Carolina trying to have the legitimate legislatures appropriate funds for his railroad plans.

But Stevens  was considered a visionary and Chancellor Robert Livingston, of New York asked him to try not to see himself and ask was there was really any practical practicality in his plan.

In 1830 the two sons, Robert Livingston and Edward became president and treasurer respectively of the Camden and Amboy Railroad charted by the New Jersey legislation. The cars were to be drawn and needed preliminary inspection for freight.

Robert L Stevens fulfilled the past laid out by his father, so he went to England to England to investigate the new engine authorized in order to bring to appear practical.

Another problem were the rails and on the way over he whittled on wood , a model of the design for “T “rails, which is now standard rail equipment.

The locomotive was fitted on its wooden platform, and this was added the tender, another wooden platform for pine wood for fuel, and a whisky barrel filled with water. The barrel and the engine were connected by a leather pipe made by a local cobbler. Behind it the tender with two carriages with flanges wiggles to fit the track and with benches for passengers. The ancient methods had been tried out several times to see whether the mechanic had managed to get all the parts just in the right places and now on November 12, 1831, all was ready and John Bull  passed the final test..

Farmers lined up by the dozens ready to celebrate the failure of the equipment they  hoped for if this newfangled thing worked. They stood to lose the business of supplying horses and their feed to the railroads. They could not foresee success that would help every Jerseyman who had anything to sell to the great outside world.

The railroads developed so rapidly that the little John Bull or soon out of date. It was stored away in the care of this Smithsonian institution along with the boiler and steam valve of Colonel John Stevens’ earlier locomotive that had been named Stevens Castle.

After 1893, the early the structure puzzle that the mechanic had patiently worked out and some painfully put together for Robert and Edwin Stevens was out run out of the museum and another opportunity to display its powers. Eventually the John Bull was moved to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington where it still quietly at rest.