The "Tom Thumb" locomotive races a horse-drawn railroad car - August 28th, 1830

On this day in 1830, American engineer Peter Cooper raced his "Tom Thumb” locomotive against a horse-drawn railroad car. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that rides the rails of history every day of
the week. I'm Gabeluesier, and in this episode, we're looking
at a peculiar piece of American folklore about the age

(00:22):
old battle between muscles and machines. The day was August
twenty eighth, eighteen thirty. American engineer Peter Cooper raced his
Tom Thumb locomotive against a horse drawn railroad car. The

(00:45):
impromptu showdown was meant to prove the superiority of steam power,
and while the Tom Thumb didn't actually win the race
due to a mechanical failure, the locomotive's early lead still
convinced railroad officials that steam powered track really was the
wave of the future. The groundwork for that historic event

(01:05):
had been laid several years earlier, when the city of Baltimore, Maryland,
found itself at an economic crossroads. For more than a decade,
the National Road had linked Baltimore's harbor to the vital
transportation hub of Wheeling, Virginia now West Virginia, which lies
along the Ohio River. The federally financed wagon road was

(01:28):
the fastest, cheapest way to transport goods and raw materials
from the East Coast to the western territory. But in
the late eighteen twenties, a new competitor began to eat
into Baltimore's profits canals. The newly opened Erie Canal had
given New York City access to the Great Lakes, and

(01:49):
the planned construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal would
link the nation's capital to the major trade artery of
the Ohio River. Baltimore official worried that the new water
routes might tank the city's economy in the process. Why
ship your goods through the Baltimore Harbor and then pay
to have them hauled all the way over to Wheeling

(02:11):
when you could simply float them through the Chesapeake Bay
and right into the Ohio River. To combat this financial threat,
the city's fathers decided to cast their lot with another
budding form of transportation, the railroad. Former Maryland Senator Charles
Carroll led the charge, and in eighteen twenty eight he

(02:32):
teamed with a group of local merchants and bankers to
create the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or the B and
O for short. At the time, rail transport was still
in its infancy. England had just opened its first steam
railway in eighteen twenty five, but most American business owners
weren't ready to invest in the experimental and expensive new technology. Instead,

(02:57):
they built small commercial tracks like the Granite Railway in Massachusetts,
and used horses to pull wagons with special wheels designed
to ride on rails. The B and O intended to
do the same, believing that the sharp curves of its
route were unsuitable for high speed locomotives, which were typically
operated over straight lines. The railroad briefly considered using wind

(03:22):
powered sail cars instead, but when the cars kept tipping
over in high winds, officials circled back to using trustee
sturdy horses. The railroad's decision to fore go steam power
altogether drew concern from Peter Cooper. After making a small
fortune in glue manufacturing and New York City, Cooper purchased

(03:43):
three thousand acres of land in Baltimore and developed it
as the Canton Iron Works. He knew that his property
would be worth far more if the B and O
line were successful, so when he saw it struggling along
with horse drawn carriages, he decided to step in to
protect his investment. Cooper approached the B and O directors

(04:04):
and tried to convince them to switch to steam engines,
but they remained unconvinced that the machines could function along
their curving tracks. There was also the added cost of
steam power to consider. At the time, the only steam
locomotives in the United States had been shipped over from England,
a much costlier prospect than wrangling up a few horses.

(04:26):
To prove that steam power really was up to the challenge,
Cooper volunteered to build a small demonstration locomotive right there
in Baltimore. B and O took him up on the offer,
and in the summer of eighteen thirty he began piecing
together a diminutive steam engine, which he nicknamed Tom Thumb.
Cooper repurposed an old brass engine for the job, along

(04:48):
with a set of discarded wheels from the B and
O Railroad shop. He also constructed a small upright boiler,
but because he couldn't find iron pipes to fit it,
he had to fashion boil biler tubes from the barrels
of a pair of muskets. The makeshift locomotive wasn't much
to look at, but it proved it could get the
job done. During its first test run on August twenty fourth,

(05:12):
eighteen thirty, Cooper's engine carried a dozen passengers along a
seven mile run from Baltimore to Relay, Maryland, marking the
first time that an American built steam locomotive had ever
operated on a commercial track. Four days later, on August
twenty eighth, Cooper took B and O officials and local

(05:32):
dignitaries for another ride aboard the Tom Thumb. This time
they would run the entire thirteen miles of track that
B and O had completed thus far for its projected
three hundred and seventy nine mile route. The locomotive itself
carried six people, including Cooper the engineer, and another eighteen
passengers were towed behind in an open car. They cruised

(05:56):
along the track from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills at a
time top speed of eighteen miles per hour, almost twice
as fast as a horse drawn wagon, and at every
curve and bend in the track, the passengers thrilled at
Tom Thumb's graceful handling. The journey was smooth and uneventful
all the way there, but on the return trip the

(06:17):
train was flagged down by a horse drawn railroad car
waiting on the adjacent twin track. Apparently, the owners of
the Stockton and Stokes stagecoach company had watched the tom
Thumb chug by earlier, and knowing it would pass their
way again, they decided to challenge its driver to a
race to show that horses still ruled the rails. Cooper

(06:41):
accepted the challenge, and once the tom Thumb had built
up ahead of steam, it quickly pulled ahead of its
equine competitor. The tiny engine proceeded to lead the race
for several minutes, rounding curves at fifteen miles per hour.
Its victory seemed assured, but then out of nowhere, a
belt slipped off the blower pulley, causing the engine to

(07:03):
lose power. Cooper worked as fast as he could to
make the repair, burning his hand on the red hot
engine in the process, but by the time he got
the belt reattached, it was too late. The horse drawn
car had already crossed the finish line. Tom Thumb had
lost the race, but the railroad directors didn't let it

(07:24):
dampen their new found enthusiasm for steam power, they were
still immensely pleased with the locomotive speed, power, and handling,
and they knew that with a little tinkering they could
reduce the chance of another mechanical mishap. The following year,
B and O showed its commitment to steam power by
retiring all of its horses and replacing them with a

(07:46):
new and improved locomotive. The railroad continued its aggressive expansion,
and by eighteen thirty two its track stretched one hundred
and thirty seven miles west from Baltimore, making it the
world's longest stretch of railway at the time. As for
the Tom Thumb, it was never put into regular service,

(08:07):
but it continued to carry passengers until B and O's
new train was ready. After that, Tom Thumb was deemed
too small to continue using and was ultimately disassembled in
eighteen thirty four. Luckily for train enthusiasts, Peter Cooper later
wrote a detailed description of his contraption, allowing for the
creation of several scale replicas, including the one at the

(08:31):
B and O Museum in Baltimore. All that said, it's
worth noting that the story of Tom Thumb's big race
has never been verified through documentation. The first mention of
the story was at an eighteen sixty eight lecture at
the Maryland Institute given by John H. B. Latrobe. He
was one of the B and O officials who would

(08:52):
rode the train during its test runs in the summer
of eighteen thirty. Admittedly, it is a bit odd that
neither La Trobe nor anyone else who was supposed to
be there ever mentioned the race until nearly four decades later.
But on the other hand, the horse drawn car is
said to have won that day, so maybe it's no

(09:12):
surprise that people connected to the railroad wouldn't be in
a rush to bring it up. Cooper himself later alluded
to the race in an eighteen eighty two interview, but
he didn't go into detail, merely saying that quote it
didn't amount to anything. It was rather funny, and the
locomotive got out of gear. The race on August twenty

(09:34):
eighth may not have amounted to anything, if it even
happened at all, but there's no question that Peter Cooper
and Tom Thumb helped get the B and O Railroad
back on track, setting the stage for the Industrial Revolution
to come. I'm Gay Blues gay, and hopefully you now

(09:55):
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you'd like to keep up with the show, you
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HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,
feel free to send them my way by writing to
This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias

(10:17):
for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day
in History class.