Baltimore & Ohio Railroad No. 13 "Lafayette" is a type of 4-2-0 "American Standard", steam locomotive.
History[]
This 4-2-0 type locomotive is a replica which was built at the Mt. Clare workshops in 1927 for the Fair of the Iron Horse where it was displayed as the "William Galloway". It had driven the first, horse-drawn train from Mt. Clare to Elllicott's Mills in 1830. He later became an engineer on the B&O and apparently worked in that capacity for over fifty years.
The "William Galloway" then appeared at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair and the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.
The replica engine also appeared at the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair, by which time it had been renamed the "Lafayette".
Today the locomotive is on static display at the B&O Railroad Museum.
Trivia[]
- The original Lafayette was built by Norris in 1837, and was one of the first locomotives ordered by the railroad from an external builder, the first horizontal boilered locomotive built for the B&O, the first commercially produced with a swivelling four wheel pilot truck and may have been the first standardised production model.
- It also worked out of Hollidaysburg. Norris built nine locomotives for the railroad
- It last steamed at the Railfest held at the museum in 2013.
- The "Lafayette" is an example of what were quickly nicknamed "one armed billies" probably after the builder, William Norris, but also possibly because of their characteristic single connecting rod from the piston to the drivers.
- The 1927 replica appeared in films such as "Wells Fargo", "Stand Up and Fight", "The Great Locomotive Chase" as The Yonah, and "Amistad".
- Another replica of the Lafayette which is on display at the Visitor Center of the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania was built by Baltimore & Ohio engineer Joseph York for display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL, and was also displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis, MO.