¡Let-'Er-Roll! Ballads Of The Railroads

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Label: Mount Vernon Music

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In the United States the first line of rails in the New England states is said to have been laid down in 1826 and 1827 at Quincy, Mass., to serve a granite quarry. Early roads were worked either by gravity or by horses and mules. On 8 August 1829, an English-built locomotive, the Sourbridge Lion, was tried out in Honesdales, Pa. A year later Peter Cooper of New York, successfully operated his small experimental engine, rated at about one horsepower, on the B & O Railroad. It traveled 13 miles in less than an hour, going 18 mph at some points and pulling a carriage with 36 passengers. American-made locomotives gradually took on characteristics that have distinguished them from those of Europe. Typically early American innovations were the pilot, or cowcatcher, placed to remove obstacles from the track, the bell and the heavy whistle, the cab to protect enginemen from severe winters, the sandbox from which sand was spread on the tracks to maintain traction on heavy grades, and the use of leading tracks for guiding locomotives on sharply winding tracks.

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