Grasshopper locomotive
First commercially successful and practical American built locomotive and class prototype.
It is in fact the first commercially successful and practical American built locomotive and class prototype, and Davis' second constructed for the B&O, his first having won a design competition announced by the B&O in 1830.
Quick Facts
- Name
- Atlantic
- Nickname
- Grasshopper
- Builder
- Phineas Davis
- Railroad
- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O)
- Year built
- 1832
- Cost
- $4,500
- Weight
- 6.5 ST
- Steam pressure
- 50 psi
Facts from the source article.
Design and construction
The Atlantic cost $4,500 to build, weighed 6.5 ST, and had two vertical cylinders. It was commissioned after Davis won a design competition, but the contract went to the inventor of the Tom Thumb; when five commissioned locomotives failed delivery, B&O bought out the patents. Some of these were incorporated in the Atlantic, though whether by specification or Davis's choice is unclear. Ox teams hauled the engine to Baltimore, where it made a successful inaugural trip to Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, 13 miles away. Nicknamed the 'Grasshopper' for its horizontal beam and long connecting rods, it carried 50 psi of steam and burned 1 ST of anthracite coal on a 40-mile trip from Baltimore. Satisfied, B&O built 20 more similar locomotives at its Mt. Clare shops. The Atlantic prototype was scrapped in 1835 after Davis's death, for an unclear reason.
The Atlantic replica
In 1892, four old Grasshopper locomotives were fixed up for public display. One of them, the No. 7 Andrew Jackson, was built in 1836 by Ross Winans and George Gillingham. Major J. G. Pangborn changed it to look like the 1832 Atlantic, taking off its side rods and cab while keeping the larger boiler and cylinders. This rebuilt engine appeared at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, ran in the B&O's 1927 Centenary Pageant, was shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and again at the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair. It now sits in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.
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