at a cost of about $10,000, for the General Mining Associa- 

 tion of Nova Scotia. (Despite statements that the Albion, also 

 preserved in Nova Scotia, was built by Hackworth before 

 1840, it was actually built by Rayne and Burn in Newcastle 

 in 1854.) 



The Samson was not, as has so often been claimed, the first 

 locomotive in Canada. It had been preceded in 1836 by the 

 Stephenson-built Dorchester employed on the Champlain and 

 St. Lawrence Railroad, running between St. Johns and 

 Laprairie, south of Montreal. The Dorchester exploded and 

 was demolished near Joliette in 1864. Also antedating the 

 Samson was the Jason C. Pierce, built in 1837 by William 

 Norris for the same railroad, and destroyed in a fire in about 

 1890. 



The Samson was one of three identical Hackworth loco- 

 motives built for the General Mining Association, whose 

 railroad was known unofficially as the Albion Mines Rail- 

 way, and the South Pictou Railroad. Each had an 0-6-0 

 wheel arrangement, 56V2-inch gauge, 48-inch cast iron plate 

 wheels, and vertical cylinders with a bore and stroke of 15^/4 

 and 18 inches. Each weighed 17 tons. The other two, the 

 John Buddie and the Hercules, were scrapped in 1885 and 

 1892, respectively. 



The Samson made a trial run in December 1838, and was 

 put into regular service on September 19, 1839, hauling cars 

 of coal from the Albion mines at Stellarton to the harbor at 

 Pictou, a distance of about 6 miles. According to one early 

 report, a train of 30 coal cars, weighing 3 tons each, was the 

 usual load pulled to the harbor. The Samson made about 3 

 round trips a day at a speed of a little less than 10 miles an 



Figure 54. — Samson at Chicago in 1883, during Exposition of Railway Ap- 

 pliances. George Davidson, long its engineer, stands at controls on right. 



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