This photograph of the John Bull locomotive and its cars was taken in 1893, but this is what an American passenger train would have looked like circa 1840.
A drawing that could be based on this photograph appeared in the New York Times on April 17, 1893, accompanying a story about the John Bull making a trip to Chicago. The article, headlined "John Bull On the Rails," began:
An antique locomotive and two antique passenger coaches will leave Jersey City at 10:16 this forenoon for Chicago over the Pennsylvania Railroad, and they will form part of the World's Fair exhibit of that company.The following day the New York Times reported on the locomotive's progress:The locomotive is the original machine built by George Stephenson in England for Robert L. Stevens, the founder of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. It arrived in this country in August 1831, and was christened John Bull by Mr. Stevens.
The two passenger coaches were built for the Camden and Amboy Railroad fifty-two years ago.
The engineer in charge of the locomotive is A.S. Herbert. He handled the machine when it made its first run in this country in 1831."Do you think you'll ever reach Chicago with that machine?" asked a man who had been comparing the John Bull with a modern locomotive that was hitched to an express train.
"Do I?" answered Mr. Herbert. "Certainly I do. She can go at the rate of thirty miles per hour when pressed, but I shall run her at about half that speed and give everybody a chance to see her."
In the same article the newspaper reported that 50,000 people had lined the rails to watch the John Bull by the time it reached New Brunswick. And when the train reached Princeton, "about 500 students and several professors from the College" greeted it. The train stopped so students could board and inspect the locomotive, and the John Bull then proceeded onward to Philadelphia, where it was met by cheering crowds.
The John Bull did make it all the way to Chicago, where it would be a top attraction at the World's Fair, the 1893 Columbian Exhibition.
