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 We are two years away from a centennial and bicentennial celebration in railroading. Way back in 1804, there were roads made of wooden rails laid upon wooden crossmembers, and more than one wagon moved at a time. These were called trains and they were pulled by horses.Steam engines existed then, tall, spindly things which pumped water out of mines. But in that year of 1804, an Englishman named Richard Trevithick created a marvelous device. It was a steam engine mounted upon a set of wheels, looking for all the world like the clockworks escaped from Big Ben. |
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| This fascinating contraption is credited with being the world’s first steam locomotive. Robert Fulton had produced a steam-powered boat some eight years earlier, but steam power on dry land opened a door that would change mankind forever. In a world that used natural power for getting itself about, the muscles of people and animals were equal in importance to the force of water, wind, and gravity. Most of humanity traveled from one spot to another without ever exceeding the speed of 15 miles per hour. A steady walk was good enough. The potent combination of dynamic power and a road of rails combined to provoke a revolution in transportation. A quarter century would be required to give railroads and steam engines enough maturity to become an economic force. From 1829 until today, the march of progress within dynamic power would blossom steadily, all from Trevithick’s strange little locomotive. |
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 Exactly a hundred years later, America’s first railroad would combine with one of the earliest locomotive builders to produce another first. In 1904, the American Locomotive Company (Alco) delivered to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad a very unusual locomotive. This one used the principles of Anatole Mallet to place two steam engines under a single boiler, controlled by a single locomotive crew. No. 2400 was nicknamed “Old Maude” and was a complete success as a helper on B&O’s fearsome Sand Patch grade where she helped loaded trains make the crossing. |
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| This was not the first articulated steam locomotive in the world, nor was it the first Mallet compound articulated built. But it was the first produced in the United States and ushered in another era of locomotive history, pioneering some 4,000 articulated steam locomotives throughout North America. Old Maude was a very modest 0-6-6-0 and was soon eclipsed by larger and more powerful sisters and brothers. She was the first locomotive to really take advantage of the improvements made in freight car frames and couplers, air brakes and telegraph signalling, better steel and higher boiler pressures. Had she appeared ten years earlier, she would have been a failure. It would be entirely appropriate to see models of both locomotives in all of the major scales. From N to G, it would be lovely to see Trevithick’s clocklike gizmo and Baldwin’s grand old dame. I propose a bicentennial celebration of land-based dynamic power and a simultaneous centennial recognition of the locomotive which ushered in the 20th century. And if either product makes it into production, I’ve got dibs on reviewing it! John Sipple Editor |
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