PETER COOPER'S LOCOMOTIVE, 
TOM THUMB, 1830

     This engine was built by Mr. Peter Cooper of New York, at the Mount Clare Shops of the B. & O. R. R. at Baltimore and was built to demonstrate its adaptability to a curved road and was the first locomotive for railroad purposes ever built in America.

     The first actual experimental trip occurred on Saturday Aug 28th 1830. The boiler sat upright on the car and was filled above the furnace with vertical tubes, a blowing apparatus driven by a drum attached to one of the car wheels created a draft to keep up steam.

     The engine had one cylinder 3¼" dia. x 14½" stroke, the wheels were 2½ ft. in diameter, and it hauled 4½ tons at a speed of 12 miles per hour.