''Sandusky'' was the name of a steam

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

, a

4-2-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle and no trailing wheels. This type of locomotive is often called a ...

, built in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. This locomotive included engineering features that hadn't been used before in locomotive construction and it played an integral role in the railroad history of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

History

''Sandusky'' was the first locomotive built by Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor; it was completed in 1837. Thomas Rogers, the manufacturing company's founder, designed the locomotive. While some references cite ''Sandusky'' as the first locomotive built in the

, the ''

Best Friend of Charleston The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the United St ...

'' is more widely accepted as the first; the ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was built in 1831. The ''Sandusky'', however, was the first locomotive to feature counterweights in its

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

s to offset the force of the piston stroke and the combined weight of the axle, wheels and piston rod against the

railroad track A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...

. Rogers filed a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for the engine's counterbalance on July 12, 1837. ''Sandusky'' also featured the first use of hollow oval-shaped spokes in its driving wheels.{{White - History of the American locomotive p 177 While ''Sandusky'' was built for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, that railroad never actually purchased the engine. It was eventually sold to the

Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was the second railroad to be built and operated in the U.S. state of Ohio (the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was first, beginning operations in Toledo during the Toledo War in 1836). It was also the first railro ...

(MR&LE), the first railroad built in

. Through this purchase, ''Sandusky'' earned a couple more firsts — it became the first locomotive to cross the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

(although this crossing was made by river ferry and not by rail) and it was the first locomotive to operate in Ohio. Its transportation to Ohio was supervised by Thomas Hogg. The ''Sandusky'' pulled the first train on the MR&LE from Sandusky to

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

Timeline

* October 3 or October 6, 1837: The ''Sandusky'' makes its first trial run between Paterson,

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Some references cite October 3 while others cite October 6 as the locomotive's first trial operations. * October 14, 1837: The Mad River & Lake Erie railroad purchases ''Sandusky''. * December 2, 1837: ''Sandusky'' makes its first run on the MR&LE in

References

* Moshein, Peter and Rothfus, Robert R., (1992) Rogers locomotives: A brief history and construction list, ''Railroad History'' (167) 13-147.
''Steam Locomotive Builders''

''The Evolution of the American Locomotive''

Individual locomotives of the United States 4-2-0 locomotives Early steam locomotives Steam locomotives of the United States

History

Timeline

See also

References