Exhibits of the "Pioneer" 



The Pioneer has been a historic relic since 

 1901. In the fall of that year minor repairs 

 were made to the locomotive so that it 

 might be used in the sesquicentennial cele- 

 bration at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On October 

 22, 1901, the engine was ready for service, 

 but as it neared Carlisle a copper flue burst. 

 The fire was extinguished and the Pioneer was 

 pushed into town by another engine. In the 

 twentieth century, the Pioneer was displayed 

 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. 

 Louis, Missouri, in 1904, and at the Wheeling, 

 West Virginia, semicentennial in 1913. In 

 1927 it joined many other historic locomotives 

 at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's "Fair 

 of the Iron Horse" which commemorated the 

 first one hundred years of that company. 

 From about 1913 to 1925 the Pioneer also 

 appeared a number of times at the Apple- 

 blossom Festival at Winchester, Virginia. In 

 1933-1934 it was displayed at the World's 

 Fair in Chicago, and in 1948 at the Railroad 

 Fair in the same city. Between 1934 and 

 March 1947 it was exhibited at the Franklin 

 Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 



The Cumberland Valley Railroad 



The Cumberland Valley Railroad (C.V.R.R.) was 

 chartered on April 2, 1831, to connect the Susque- 

 hanna and Potomac Rivers by a railroad through 

 the ( lumberland Valley in south-central Pennsylvania. 

 The Cumberland Valley, with its rich farmland and 

 iron-ore deposits, was a natural north-south route long 

 used as a portage between these two rivers. Con- 

 struction began in 1836, and because of the level 

 valley some 52 miles of line was completed between 

 Harrisburgand Chambersburg by November 16, 1837. 

 In 1860, by way of the Franklin Railroad, the line 

 extended to Hagerstown, Maryland. It was not 

 until 1871 that the Cumberland Valley Railroad 

 reached its projected southern terminus, the Potomac 

 River, by extending to Powells Bend, Maryland. 

 Winchester, Virginia, was entered in 1890 giving the 



Cumberland Valley Railroad about 165 miles of line. 

 The railroad which had become associated with the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859, was merged with 

 that company in 1919. 



By 1849 the Cumberland Valley Railroad was in 

 poor condition; the strap-rail track was worn out and 

 new locomotives were needed. Captain Daniel Tyler 

 was hired to supervise rebuilding the line with T-rail, 

 and easy grades and curves. Tyler recommended 

 that a young friend of his, Alba F. Smith, be 

 put in charge of modernizing and acquiring new 

 equipment. Smith recommended to the railroad's 

 Board of Managers on June 25, 1851, that "much 

 lighter engines than those now in use may be sub- 

 stituted for the passenger transportation and thereby 

 effect a great saving both in point of fuel and road 

 repairs ... ." 1 Smith may well have gone on to 

 explain that the road was operating 3- and 4-car 

 passenger trains with a locomotive weighing about 

 20 tons; the total weight was about 75 tons, equalling 

 the uneconomical deadweight of 1200 pounds per 

 passenger. Since speed was not an important con- 

 sideration (30 mph being a good average), the use of 

 lighter engines would improve the deadweight-to- 

 passenger ratio and would not result in a slower 

 schedule. 



The Board of Managers agreed with Smith's 

 recommendations and instructed him ". . . to ex- 

 amine the two locomotives lately built by Mr. 

 Wilmarth and now in the [protection?] of Captain 

 Tyler at Norwich and if in his judgment they are 

 adequate to our wants . . . have them forwarded to 

 the road." 2 Smith inspected the locomotives not 

 long after this resolution was passed, for they were 

 on the road by the time he made the following re- 

 port 3 to the Board on September 24, 1851: 



In accordance with a resolution passed at the last 

 meeting of your body relative to the small engines built 

 by Mr. Wilmarth I proceeded to Norwich to make 

 trial of their capacity — fitness or suitability to the 

 Passenger transportation of our Road — and after as 

 thorough a trial as circumstances would admit (being 

 on another Road than our own) I became satisfied 

 that with some necessary improvements which would 

 not be expensive (and are now being made at our shop) 



i Minutes of the Board of Managers of the Cumberland Valley 

 Itaihnail. This book may he found in the other of the Secretary, 

 Pennsylvania Railroad. Philadelphia, Pa., June 25, 1851. 

 Hereafter cited as "Minutes C.V.R.R." 



• Ibid. 



; Minutes C.V.R.R. 



244 



BULLETIN 240: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



