Tom Thumb (locomotive)

Tom Thumb

A 1927 replica of Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive

Type and origin Power type Steam Builder Peter Cooper Build date 1830

Specifications Configuration 2-2-0 Length 13 ft 2 3⁄4 in (4.03 m) Height 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) Fuel type anthracite coal Boiler 27 in × 66 in (690 mm × 1,680 mm) dia × high Cylinder size 5 in × 27 in (127 mm × 686 mm) dia × stroke

Performance figures Power output 1.4 hp (1.0 kW) horsepower

Career Operators Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to operate on a common-carrier railroad. Designed and constructed by Peter Cooper in 1830, it was built to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to use steam engines and not intended to enter revenue service. It is especially remembered as a participant in an impromptu race with a horse-drawn car, which the horse won after Tom Thumb suffered a mechanical failure. However, the demonstration was successful; and in the following year, the railroad committed to the use of steam locomotion and held trials for a working engine.

The first railroads were little more than tracks on roads: horses pulled wagons and carriages with their wheels modified to ride on the rails. Only when the development of the steam engine had progressed to the point where such an engine could be mounted on wheels could trains be moved by steam power. The first steam locomotives were built in England, the birthplace of steam power; the first locomotives in America were imported from England. Soon, however, Americans began to plan their own locomotives.

Tom Thumb was designed by Peter Cooper as a four-wheel locomotive with a vertical boiler and vertically mounted cylinders that drove the wheels on one of the axles. The "design" was characterized by a host of improvisations. The boiler tubes were made from rifle barrels and a blower was mounted in the stack, driven by a belt to the powered axle. The engine was fueled by anthracite coal.

Cooper's interest in the railroad was by way of substantial real estate investment in what is now the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore. Success for the railroad was expected to increase the value of his holdings.

Construction was carried out in the machine shop of George W. Johnson, where the 18-year-old James Millholland was apprenticed. Millholland would later become a prominent locomotive designer in his own right.