Samson: Canada's Oldest
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- čas přidán 9. 11. 2022
- Samson is the oldest preserved locomotive in Canada: built in Shildon by Timothy Hackworth in 1838, it began work in Nova Scotia in September 1839 hauling coal trains. It is an icon of Canadian Railway history.
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![The Building of a Transcontinental Railway in Canada: [extract] (1910)](/img/n.gif)
That's a beutiful old engine, it's amazing it survived that long.
I went to the industrial museum at Stellarton a few years ago just to see Sampson. I was also allowed into the museum store to see the Albion, but sadly wasn't allowed to photograph it. Albion is worth a video given its anachronistic Hackworth style and being if the 1850s a bit like the anachronism Lyon of Hetton colliery,.
If the design worked, it worked.
I was hoping you would get to this locomotive. I have seen this one in Stellarton in Nova Scotia. Considering its age it is remarkable that it is still around.
Thank you, Anthony. From memory I recall mentioning this is a comment about a year or so ago, so I'm glad to see the new film. I'd seen odd old photos of this engine, and its very curious 'coach' tender, but kneww knothing about it, so thank you for enlightening me
Glad you enjoyed it!
George Davidson is my 3 times great grandfather. The descendants have been connected with railways in Canada to this day.
That is AMAZING. You sire are Railway Royalty!😍
We should meet up, lol. John Brown Stubbs is my 4th great grandfather. He was Hackworth's mechanic, and helped George Davidson assemble the locomotive when it arrived in NS.
Yay I was wondering when Samson would come up! Its a shame we didn't take better care of it. I heard that an American had it restored to running condition and took it on a tour of the states before returning it to Canada. Then it was just put under a shelter without walls or that leaked and it was damaged by rust. Pronounced "Pict-O" btw :)
Thanks - and thanks for the pronounciation clarification too. Always appreciated 🙂
Thanks for this- I have wondered about the oddly off- balance design and it was very interesting to see the possible original format/s. A remarkably intact survivor!
Thanks for this! Literally a couple of weeks ago I was hoping you would do a video on Sampson. I was even thinking about suggesting it in a comment. I always thought the position of the wheels on Sampson was wrong.
And thanks to you , I learned that Canada's railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, began with wooden rails.
Glad it was helpful! You'll like next weeks offering :-)
There's no reason, except for money, that both the coal and water tenders couldn't be fabricated to make her more complete.
So glad this one finally happened. I may live across the country from it, but seeing you cover a Canadian engine (at least, in locale) gives me some pride. Greetings from Alberta!
A fellow albertan!!
This locomotive looks like a perfect in-between phase of Timothy Hackworth's Sans Pareil and Derwent. In fact, it is just crazy that all three of them survive!
It's basically a stretched Sans Pareil. Given that this was built in the same year as Lion, and how much more modern Lion is, Hackworth's designs really stagnated to tbe honest.
As an enthusiastic modeller of Stockton and Darlington era railways, i was delighted with this posting. Regarding the strange appearance, I tend to agree that the wheels were originally placed under the boiler and the vertical cylinders coupled to them via a jackshaft link which would have permitted all-wheel springing. Not exactly elegant, but quite adequate for the low speeds attained by these locomotives. Thank you for posting.
Very much a Hackworth design.
It could be used to make drawings for a new-build Majestic or Wilberforce.
I live in America so this might be the only Hackworth engine I will be able to see for myself. There's enough museums I want to see in Nova Scotia to justify a visit one day.
Do it!!!
Another excellent film, thank you 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it
The rail story, or rather rail history, videos are indeed interesting. Can’t wait for more to be unearthed. Every country in the world that has a railway also have a first locomotive with its own ( hi)story. Many are covered, but it’s super interesting to learn more about the deliveries of the early British locomotive builders where most of the early and “firsts” are coming from.
That was truly fascinating.
Thankyou
I'm just curious if you thought of covering the General and Texas locomotives?
The only reason either one exists is because of their part in the Andrews raid
It's a maybe. I'm sure others more familiar with the engines have done?
fantastic video Anthony, really insightful! will Albion be on the list too?
yes
Glad it was preserved. Great video!
Absolutely. Fantastic beastie that she is!
Awesome as always! Have you though of covering the Philadelphia and Reading's "Lion" of 1831? I'm not sure if there's enough information on it but it is preserved.
I have, and the Rocket.
Very interesting and informative video as always, Anthony. Keep up the good work!
Glad you enjoyed it!
How about a story on the Garrett . locomotive why where so not well received by British but flourished in sth Africa and my home of Australia . My father was a engine drive here in Australia in NSW where the Garrett's where used on heavy coal trains . There some good CZcams videos to watch on that.
I have a book that features this locomotive. I’d wager this locomotive may have had the original tender doghouse.
Interesting looking locomotive. It looks like one of those self assembly beds from Ikea where half the parts come from two other beds and much of the instructions are not present. Having said that it saus something about it that it lasted so long.
Please make a video about the Caroline locomotive, it is very beautiful and rare, it deserves a lot of respect! Thanks.
I thought this loco looked very unbalanced but the suggestion that it originally had a jackshaft drive explains that nicely; except that there is no indication of any alternative fastening positions on the boiler plates. I wonder what would have prompted such an alteration? Breakage of the jackshaft would need to be repaired anyway as it carries the eccentrics. Perhaps a plain axle broke (it does have odd wheels) but again would hardly justify moving the mounting fixed to the boiler.
The leading wheels look identical to those on Nelson (Bradyll) so perhaps they are original Shildon products, i see the middle axle has a different pattern of 2 part plug wheel on each side.
I'm inclined to think that it was originally a Wilberforce.
It would certainly yield measurements to help re-create one.
Very informative video Anthony there are a lot of old engines out there.
Thanks 👍
Depending on the exact date of its retiring in Nova Scotia, it may not have ever worked in Canada. Until 1867, Nova Scotia wasn't part of Canada nor the Canadas.
Yes CANADIAN LOCO TIME BABYYYYYY
Quite amazing how much of the engine is preserved. The oldest engine in sweden, "Förstlingen" from 1853, was cut up, only leaving a few parts of it left to preserve. Yet we do still have our second ever loco, and oldest preserved, "Fryckstad" from 1855, and she to my knowledge is pretty much original. Though, the Munktells museum did built a replica on "Förstlingen", appropriately named "Förstlingen II"
Forstlingen II is amazing. The Swedish Railawy Museum in Gavle has some fantastic nineteenth century locomotives. I really need to visit.
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory yes, i do highly reccomend going there. Only problem though is that its closed due to renovations and a rebuild of the entarance, but if im not mistaken, ive heard its meant to open in thw coming year. The museum closed for the renevations in 2017 and was since then unclear when it was going to start, but since last year it seems its going in the right direction.
😊👍
Amazing how long this locomotive was in active service as most of these early locomotives lasted for only 5-10 years because development went so fast.
Its long service time contributing to its survival!
I also like how the wheels are a cast disc and ring connected with wooden dowels and 4 rivets, was this done because they couldn't be done in one casting? Or was it intentionally to proved a level of shock absorbing properties and stress relief?
The cast iron wheels like ther were developed because there werent lalthes sufficiently large enough to turn them true. So the inner wheel was cast and turned true, but the outer was just cast and a tyre put on. The two sections wer then secured with wooden dowels with iron pins which were hammered in. They would spread the dowels, causing it to grip both halves. It made the wheels easier to cast and also meant that the outer wheel could adjusted until it made a perfect it. very clever if laborious.
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory Very clever indeed, by adjusting the thickness of each dowel the outer part could be made true.
@@Tom-Lahaye Yeah. Such a clever idea and simple fix to overcome technological barriers.
The design makes me suspect that it was intended for Samson to have a leading pilot truck, but for some reason the Canadians never installed it.
Hackworth always used fixed-wheel base locomotives. Bogies were not used in Britain, and there's no evidence for it to have ever been considered to be fitted with a bogie or pony truck. Just for some reason when it was rebuilt in Canda the wheels were set to the back.
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory I understand, I just look at some of the framing under it, and wonder if the Canadians themselves didn't do so. Not unlike how the US added one to the Planet Class (John Bull) when it reached their shores. The other reason for that suspicion, comes from my own research. I'm a 3D modeler for a historic railroads simulation game, and was working on very early locomotives of North America (canada and the US) and came across a reference to an 0-6-2 design that was popular around the time, but no specific details about it.
@@KibuFox It hasn't got a frame. Everything is fastened to the boiler. All I can say is that the archaeological research by Drs Bailey and Glithero never threw up the suggestion of the use of a bogie or pony truck, and such a fitment would be very unusual, especially since this locomotive had two tenders and didn't really have a "front" or "back" being designed to work equally well in either direction.
Anthony, could you please clarify; Samson was built by T.Hackworth under licence from Rennie but to Hackworth's design. How did this come about ?
The Rennies had been commissioned to supply the Albion Mines with locomotives and materiel. At that point the Rennies didn't have locomotive building capacity, so they simply outsourced to Hackworth in Darlington - perhaps at the suggestion of John Buddle. The Rennies would go on to be civil engineers and contractors, building their own locomotives.
Thank you !@@AnthonyDawsonHistory
I'm also a Canadian and isn’t the Dorchester the oldest steam locomotive in Canada even though the one we have now is just a replica of the original. With the Champlain and Saint-Lawrence Railroad being the first railway line in Canada officially opening on the 21th of July 1836.
There's a difference between oldest and first. Yes Dorchester was the first but it doesn't survive. Samson is the oldest to survive in Canada. All that's left of Dorchester is a name plate!
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory i think some components from the original Dorchester survived that being it's name plates.
@@lbsc108gb5 Yeah there's one nameplate.
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory we even have an LNER Gresley class A4 Pacific Dominion of Canada and an LBSCR A1X Terrier no.54 Waddon at the Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec.
@@lbsc108gb5 I know :-) And Dominion of Canada came back to York for the 'Great Gathering'. Such a good event.
what kind of coal would they had fired Samson on? did the engine haul steam coal during her working life,
way is Samson pictured with that small passenger carriage?
Interesting
Thankyou
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory your welcome
The design makes it seem like bits are missing lol
how did the driver get on or off Samson? it doesn't look like there was never a water or pressure gauge on this engine
Probably by a ladder. I would have had a water gauge, at the firebox end. The pressure gauges as we understand them hadn't been invented yet when Samson was built.
@@AnthonyDawsonHistory so they would have had to guess what pressure there was inside the boiler then and when the safety valve released the steam they would know then that steam was up?
I like the dinky little single compartment carriage, for the crew I presume ?!
It's actually a passenger coach, not for the crew.
Wouldn't this guy technically be a cab forward?
It's more a centre-cab really as it has no 'forward' with a tender at each end.