| Samson | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Samson with its coal tender and passenger coach, The Nova Scotia Pioneer, circa 1880 | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
The Samson is an English-built railroad steam locomotive made in 1838 that ran on the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is preserved at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and is the oldest locomotive in Canada.
The locomotive was built in 1838 by Timothy Hackworth at his Soho Works in Durham, England. Samson represents an early design of steam locomotive with a return-flue boiler. The fireman and engineer worked separately on open platforms at either end of the locomotive. It was commissioned for the General Mining Association along with two other locomotives, Hercules and John Buddle, for the Albion Mines Railway to serve mines in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
The locomotives arrived unassembled aboard the brig Ythan in May 1839. [2] Two engineers arrived with the locomotives (the Samson, the John Buddle and the Hercules), including George Davidson, who helped build the locomotives in England and would settle in Nova Scotia to work with Samson for the rest of his career. Also accompanying the locomotives on the journey was John Brown Stubbs (Stobbs), Hackworth's master mechanic. He too helped build the locomotives and when the job was complete, he returned to Hackworth's employ in England. The new railway officially opened with a large celebration on 19 September 1839, although the tracks were not actually completed to the coal pier until May 1840.
Samson served from 1839 to 1867 carrying coal on the six-mile line from the mines around Stellarton and New Glasgow to the East River loading pier. It proved a strong and reliable locomotive, considered "slow but of great power" by railway workers of the day. [3] One former engineer recalled how it moved a heavy string of coal cars from a crooked siding on a wet day when a more modern locomotive failed to move them. [4] In addition to its regular duties moving coal cars, Samson also saw service carrying passengers in an early design of a passenger coach. The locomotive was semi-retired in 1867 but continued to operate when necessary until 1885. [5] It was sent to Chicago to the National Exhibition of Railway Appliances in 1883.
Samson was stored for scrap until 1893 when it was displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair as an antique, and acquired along with one of its passenger coaches by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad where it was preserved. It was returned to Nova Scotia in 1927. [3] The passenger coach stayed behind and put on display at the B&O Railroad Museum. Samson was displayed beside the Halifax train station until 1950 when the locomotive was moved to New Glasgow. Today it is displayed in the Age of Steam Gallery at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, part of the Nova Scotia Museum system where it is restored to its appearance at the end of its working life.
A careful survey of the structure of the locomotive before restoration found it remarkably well preserved, retaining 90% of its end-of-service parts. Examination of the parts shows various repairs and evolutionary modifications that were added to the original Hackworth assembly by the shops of the Albion Mines Railway during the locomotive's long working career. A small number of parts such as the steel tires were added by the B&O Railroad Museum after the locomotive retired. [6]
Samson was the first locomotive in Canada to run on iron rails. It is the oldest surviving locomotive in Canada, one of the oldest in North America and one of only four surviving locomotives designed by engineer Timothy Hackworth (the others being Bradyll, Derwent and Sans Pareil ).
Pictou County is a county in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1835, and was formerly a part of Halifax County from 1759 to 1835. It had a population of 43,657 people in 2021, a decline of 0.2 percent from 2016. Furthermore, its 2016 population is only 88.11% of the census population in 1991. It is the sixth most populous county in Nova Scotia.
Timothy Hackworth was an English steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait.
Westville is a town in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located immediately west of Stellarton and about four kilometres southwest of New Glasgow, the major town in the area.
Pictou is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km north of the larger town of New Glasgow.
Stellarton is a town located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is adjacent and to the south of the larger town of New Glasgow. In pioneer times the area was called Coal Mines Station, and from 1833 until 1889, it was known as Albion Mines. The town was incorporated as Stellarton in 1889 and owes its name to a specific type of torbanite which came to be known as "stellarite" because of the "stars of fire" given off by its sparky flame.
Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first station, built in 1825, and locomotive works on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a short line railway that operates in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. CBNS operates of main line and associated spurs between Truro in the central part of the province to Point Tupper on Cape Breton Island.
This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks.
The EMD Model 40 was a two-axle diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC), and its corporate successor, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) between August 1940 and April 1943. Nicknamed "critters", eleven examples of this locomotive were built. Powered by twin General Motors Detroit Diesel 6-71 diesel engines, which produce a combined 300 horsepower (224 kW), its drivetrain is unusual because the two diesel engines are used to drive the electric DC generator from both sides, one with clockwise rotation and the other with counter-clockwise rotation.
The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger of the Dominion Coal Company, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and the Nova Scotia Steel Company. DOSCO was one of the largest private employers in Canada during the 1930s–1950s. In 1957, DOSCO was purchased as a subsidiary of A.V. Roe Canada Ltd.
Peter Crerar was a Scottish-Nova Scotian civil engineer. He designed the first railway in British North America, and the first standard gauge railroad in North America, at Stellarton, near Pictou, Nova Scotia.
The Trenton Generating Station or Trenton GS is a 310 MW Canadian thermal generating station located in the town of Trenton, Nova Scotia.
John Buddle was a prominent self-made mining engineer and entrepreneur in North East England. He had a major influence on the development of the Northern Coalfield in the first half of the 19th century, contributing to the safety of mining coal by innovations such as the introduction of the Davy Lamp, the keeping of records of ventilation, and the prevention of flooding. He was also interested in shipping as an owner, and built Seaham Harbour, establishing an important trade dock. He was chairman of the company that built the Tyne Dock at South Shields, and was also involved in the creation of two harbours and the development of a tunnel.
The Nova Scotia Museum of Industry is a provincial museum located in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, dedicated to the story of Nova Scotia work and workers. Part of the Nova Scotia Museum system, the museum aims to explain how Nova Scotia was affected by the opportunities and challenges of the Industrial Age.
Pictou Harbour is a natural harbour in Nova Scotia on the Northumberland Strait.
The East River of Pictou is a Canadian river located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
The Middle River of Pictou is a Canadian river located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
Springhill Coal Mining is a National Historic Site of Canada located on the corner of Industrial Park Drive and Memorial Crescent in Springhill, Nova Scotia. The Historic Site, designated in 1998, consists of a museum and the land that once contained the Springhill Coal Mines. Springhill was once one of the most important coalfields in Canada, along with those in Pictou and Cape Breton. Springhill coal was shipped and marketed throughout the Maritimes and Quebec. The surviving mining features in Springhill are among the most complete in Canada. The Springhill Mines were made infamous by a number of disasters that occurred underground, including the 1891 explosion, the 1956 explosion and the 1958 bump.
The General Mining Association was a London coal mining company operating in Nova Scotia. It was formed by Rundell & Bridge in 1827. It held a mining monopoly in Nova Scotia until 1858.
