DeWitt Clinton, 1831

The "DeWitt Clinton", 1831. This Engine was the third built by the West Point Foundry Association, New York for the Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad in 1831. It had two cylinders 5½" dia. by 16" stroke, four wheels all drivers, 4½ ft. dia., with all the spokes turned and finished. The spokes were wrought iron, hubs cast iron, and the wheels tired with wrought iron, inside crank and outside connecting rods to connect all four drivers; a tubular boiler with drop furnace two fire doors one above the other, copper tubes 2½" dia. and about 6 ft. long, cylinders on an incline and the pumps worked vertically by bell crank. This engine weighed about 3½ tons without water and would run 30 miles an hour with 3 or 5 cars on a level with anthracite coal and was the first engine in the State of New York on a railroad.

From John White:

Similar in its general arrangement, the De Witt Clinton was built in the same year as the West Point. Also a product of the West Point Foundry, the Clinton was the first locomotive on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. The engraving shown here is after the replica built by the New York Central for the 1893 Chicago Exposition. The replica stands today in the Ford Museum. The original was retired after one year's service.

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November 2009