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Sandusky was the name of a steam railroad locomotive, a 4-2-0, built in the United States. 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.
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 United States, the Best Friend of Charleston 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 wheels to offset the force of the piston stroke and the combined weight of the axle, wheels and piston rod against the railroad track. Rogers filed a patent for the engine's counterbalance on July 12, 1837. Sandusky also featured the first use of hollow oval-shaped spokes in its driving wheels. [1]
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 (MR&LE), the first railroad built in Ohio. Through this purchase, Sandusky earned a couple more firsts — it became the first locomotive to cross the Allegheny Mountains (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.
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-10-4 locomotive has two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a bissel truck, ten coupled driving wheels on five axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles, usually in a bogie. These were referred to as the Texas type in most of the United States, the Colorado type on the Burlington Route and the Selkirk type in Canada.
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's former terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie. It expanded west to Chicago with its 1941 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier of New York State, including cities such as Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell, and were Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's main line split into two routes, one north to Buffalo and the other west to Cleveland.
The Little Miami Railroad was a railway of southwestern Ohio, running from the eastern side of Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. By merging with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad in 1853, it created the first through-rail route from the important manufacturing city of Cincinnati to the state capital, Columbus. In this period, railroads were important for creating connections between the important waterways of the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, which were major transportation routes for products to other markets.
The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served a large area, including trackage in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Its primary connections included Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Toledo.
The Arcade & Attica Railroad is a shortline railroad that hauls freight between Arcade and North Java, New York. The railroad originally connected Arcade with Attica, however the right of way from North Java north to Attica was abandoned in 1947 due to flooding on the Tonawanda Creek.
Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between the Erie Railroad main line, the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati-Toledo main line and the Nickel Plate Road main line and shops.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-0 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 Jervis type, the name of the original designer.
The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad is a class II railroad that operates in northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.
Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a 19th-century manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, in Passaic County, New Jersey, in the United States. It built more than six thousand steam locomotives for railroads around the world. Most railroads in 19th-century United States rostered at least one Rogers-built locomotive. The company's most famous product was a locomotive named The General, built in December 1855, which was one of the principals of the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage is still used as a major rail transportation corridor and hosts Amtrak passenger trains, with the ownership in 1998 split at Cleveland between CSX to the east, and Norfolk Southern in the west.
Thomas Rogers was an American mechanical engineer and founder of Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey. Fellow locomotive designer and builder, Zerah Colburn said that "Thomas Rogers maybe fairly said to have done more for the modern American locomotive than any of his contemporaries."
The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was the second railroad to be built and operated in the U.S. state of Ohio. It was also the first railroad company chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C) was a railroad that ran from Cleveland to Columbus in the U.S. state of Ohio in the United States. Chartered in 1836, it was moribund for the first 10 years of its existence. Its charter was revived and amended in 1845, and construction on the line began in November 1847. Construction was completed and the line opened for regular business in February 1851. The CC&C absorbed a small bankrupt railroad in 1861, and in May 1868 merged with the Bellefontaine Railway to form the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway.
Sandusky Bay is a bay on Lake Erie in northern Ohio, formed at the mouth of the Sandusky River. It was identified as Lac Sandouské on a 1718 French map, with early variations recorded that suggest the name was derived from Native American languages. The Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge was constructed across it in the 20th century to connect highways in Erie and Ottawa counties.
The Ohio Central Railroad System is a network of short line railroads operating in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. It is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway was a Class I railroad mostly within the U.S. state of Ohio. It was leased to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad in 1949, and merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1988. A new regional railroad reused the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway name in 1990 when it acquired most of the former W&LE from the N&W.
The Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad is a 3 ft narrow gauge amusement park heritage railroad and attraction located in the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.
Henry Roe Campbell was an American surveyor and civil engineer. Campbell contributed to American railroading and bridge-building in the first half of the 19th century. Campbell patented his 4-4-0 design in February 1836, just a few months before the patent law was changed to require that claims include proof of originality or novelty.
The PS Anthony Wayne was an early wooden-hulled sidewheel steamship that sank on April 28, 1850, in Lake Erie off the coast of Vermilion, Ohio, after two of her starboard side boilers exploded. There was an estimated 50 to 69 people on board, but the ship's passenger manifest was unclear about how many passengers boarded the Wayne at each location. Although the ship's clerk reported that there were 80 to 100 people on board, which included the crew, with about 30 of them surviving.