"Digging Up" History

I was wondering if anybody has a copy of, or knows of a place on the web where the following document can be found:

A publication by the U.S. Congress, Document No. 51, 1839, contains a
list of locomotives then in the United States, recording thirty-five as
made by Robert Stephenson & Co; twenty-one by Bury; four by
Braithwaite; seven by Tayleur & Co., and a few by other makers.

Tried the LOC website without any luck. Maybe someone here knows how to get such documents. In any case, any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Thomas

P.S. If you know of another forum where this question should go, please let me know.

....DO A GOOGLE SEARCH
....LOOK ON EBAY OR OTHER AUCTION LINE
....LOOK FOR RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE AND HISTORY SOCIETY
....LOOK FOR NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
....LOOK IN U.S. CONGRESS AND ASSOCIATED LIBRARIES OF OUR ERSTWHILE GOVERNMENT INCLUDING THE SMITHSONIAN
....AND GOOD LUCK

Thomas-

In lieu of any better suggestions, your best bet may be the National Archives II at College Park, MD. It probably would require a phone call to track down somebody who can help, but the document is likely to be there somewhere.

The listing you quote seems confined to English builders, since obviously there were many other locomotives running around here in 1839. Not knowing your purpose in wanting this particular document, I may be telling you things you're well aware of, but there are numerous other good, relatively available sources. Jack White's book is pretty much the bible for the subject. It's "American Locomotives: An Engineering History, 1830-1880, by John H. White, Jr., Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, 1968 (reprinted about ten years ago). Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin 101 (August 1959) is devoted to locomotives up to 1840 and is another basic source. Also, of course, there's the massive English translation of Franz Anton Von Gerstner's study of American railroads made in the 1838-40 period, published as "Early American Railroads" by Stanford Univ. Press in 1997.

Herb Harwood

Thanks for the information and suggestions. A number of us had been scouring the Internet and any books we could find. But the world is a big place, and unless you get lucky, looking in the right place at the right time can be a huge challenge. That is why we were looking for people with specific information to help narrow down the search area. Not because we were lazy, but because there weren’t enough of us to search everywhere. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

As to why Document #51, further explanation is due. About two months ago a guy posted a (bad)photo of a painting to a list and asked if anybody could tell him more about it. It appeared to be a very early 0-4-0 pulling three “wagons”. About all the information that was available was the name of the railroad and the date of 1838. A number of us took up the challenge. No member of this international Internet research team has ever met any other member face to face. However, everybody has been chipping in their two cents worth, including the fact that this railroad supposedly never had an 0-4-0. We had been slowly eliminating possibilities one by one. One of the few left is this Document #51. When I posted, we were kind of hoping it would shed some light on the 0-4-0. Now it will hopefully confirm that the railroad didn’t have an 0-4-0. A couple of days ago one of the team ran across a bank note for the railroad with what appears to be a mirror image of the painting engraved upon the note. We now feel that the painter, not knowing what the locomotives of the railroad would look like, used what he could find to produce the painting. Which would then be used as a template for the engraving on the bank notes to fund the building of the railroad. But we are still trying to tie up any loose ends. Including the plausibility of having a painting done as a template for bank notes and the infamous Document #51. So your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Thomas

Document 51-missing.
Area 51-doesn't exist.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.

Thomas- What's the railroad you're trying to track down? I can look it up easily enough in R&LHS Bulletin 101 and/or Von Gerstner to confirm or deny.

Herb Harwood

Herb that would be greatly appreciated. I didn't mention the name before because I'm always misspelling it. It’s the West Feliciana Railroad, which became part of the IC system. I have a copy of issue #140 which lists locomotives Woodville, Feliciana, Escape, M.W. Baldwin, Laurel Hill, G.H. Gordon, and Bayou Sara. But additional checks elsewhere are worth the effort.

The bank note can be seen in the following on-line pdf file. Page four on the right side. Like the photo of the painting, it is not the best.

http://www.smytheonline.com/prices_real ... 82-93R.pdf

Thanks,
Thomas

P.S. As for the correlation between Document #51 and Area #51, we kind of chuckled at that too. But thought it best not to talk about it too loudly.

...and following your directions and rereading what you have said, PD, it is very possible that your railroad only existed on paper and never did own this or anyother locomotive or equipment. It was maybe built and sold or merged before it ever operated. Or it was sold or merged before it ever was built! There are thousands of railroad and stock and charter stories like that across the country. So, you might actually be looking for someting that never existed except in somebody's dream and lithograph a long time ago!

Thomas - I think you're already ahead of me, but I'll add in what I can. There's a slight difference between what's shown for the West Feliciana in Bulletin 101 and in Bill Edson's IC roster in 140, but it's not consequential for your question. Bulletin 101 actually shows three Baldwin 2-4-0s -- two built in 1836 (Woodville and [West?] Feliciana) and another, (West?) Feliciana in 1839. There's a notation that the first was sold sometime before the second arrived. All of these would have looked roughly similar to the Norris 2-4-0s of the same period, as exemplified by the "Lafayette" replica at the B&O Museum. As you know from the IC roster, a Baldwin 2-4-0 was added in 1844. I'm a bit surprised that Bill Edson didn't include that second 1836 engine, since he had the Baldwin records, but since he died a couple of years ago it's difficult for me to ask.

Von Gerstner isn't much help. His report on this line is very brief and mentions only one Baldwin, type unspecified. But at the time he got his data, only four miles were in operation.

In any event, that drawing on the banknote looks like a fantasy to me. I suspect somebody found a print of one of those early English mining engines (like the Stockton & Darlington's Locomotion) and replanted it in Mississippi.

Herb

Thanks for everybody's help, especially you Herb. As for whether the line was built, I know what "Henry" is saying, but this one was. It has actually had quite a bit written about it, and the following paraphrasing by me doesn't begin to scratch the known history.

The West Feliciana was the oldest part of the Illinois Central System. It ran 26 miles between Bayou Sara, Louisiana and Woodville, Mississippi. The first section was completed in 1835, and construction was finally completed in 1842. It would have been completed sooner, but the railroad encountered more than its fair share of obstacles, from determined opposition to its building to losing uninsured rails in a shipwreck. The railroad became part of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railroad in 1888, and part of the Illinois Central System in 1892 when the LNO&T was consolidated with the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad.

Thomas