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Horse vs.

the Tom Thumb

From www.eyewitnesstohistory.com

t was a bright summer’s day and full of promise. Syndicate members
and friends piled into an open car pulled by a diminutive steam
Ilocomotive appropriately named the Tom Thumb with its inventor
at the controls. Passengers thrilled at the heart-pumping sensation of
traveling at the then un-heard speed of 18 mph. The outbound journey Illustration of Horse vs. the Tom Thumb
took less than an hour. On the return trip, an impromptu race with a
horse-drawn car developed. The locomotive came out the loser. It was
an inauspicious beginning. However, within a few years the railroad But the triumph of this Tom Thumb engine was not altogether
would become the dominate form of long-distance transportation and without a drawback. The great stage proprietors of the day were
relegate the canals to the dustbin of commercial history. Stockton & Stokes; and on this occasion a gallant gray of great beauty
John Latrobe was a lawyer for the B&O Railroad from its inception. and power was driven by them from town, attached to another car
He was present on that eventful day as the locomotive’s builder piloted on the second track—for the Company had begun by making two
the Tom Thumb into history: tracks to the Mills—and met the engine at the Relay House on its
way back. From this point it was determined to have a race home;
The boiler of Mr. Cooper’s engine was not as large as the kitchen and the start being even, away went horse and engine, the snort of
boiler attached to many a range in modern mansions. It was of about the one and the puff of the other keeping time and tune.
the same diameter, but not much more than half as high. It stood
upright in the car, and was filled, above the furnace, which occupied At first the gray had the best of it, for his steam would be applied
the lower section, with vertical tubes. The cylinder was but three- to the greatest advantage on the instant, while the engine had to wait
and-a half inches in diameter, and speed was gotten up by gearing. until the rotation of the wheels set the blower to work. The horse was
No natural draught could have been sufficient to keep up steam perhaps a quarter of a mile ahead when the safety valve of the engine
in so small a boiler; and Mr. Cooper used therefore a blowing- lifted and the thin blue vapor issuing from it showed an excess of
apparatus, driven by a drum attached to one of the car wheels, over steam. The blower whistled, the steam blew off in vapory clouds, the
which passed a cord that in its turn worked a pulley on the shaft of pace increased, the passengers shouted, the engine gained on the
the blower... horse, soon it lapped him - the silk was plied - the race was neck and
neck, nose-and-nose – then the engine passed the horse, and a great
Mr. Cooper’s success was such as to induce him to try a trip to hurrah hailed the victory.
Ellicott’s Mills; and an open car, the first used upon the road,
already mentioned, having been attached to his engine, and filled But it was not repeated; for just at this time, when the gray’s mas-
with the directors and some friends, the speaker among the rest, the ter was about giving up, the band which drove the pulley, which
first journey by steam in America was commenced. “The trip was drove the blower, slipped from the drum, the safety valve ceased to
most interesting. The curves were passed without difficulty at a speed scream, and the engine for want of breath began to wheeze and pant.
of fifteen miles an hour; the grades were ascended with comparative In vain Mr. Cooper, who was his own engineman and fireman, lac-
ease; the day was fine, the company in the highest spirits, and some erated his hands in attempting to replace the band upon the wheel:
excited gentlemen of the party pulled out memorandum books, and in vain he tried to urge the fire with light wood; the horse gained on
when at the highest speed, which was eighteen miles an hour, wrote the machine, and passed it; and although the band was presently
their names and some connected sentences, to prove that even at that replaced, and steam again did its best, the horse was too far ahead to
great velocity it was possible to do so. The return trip from the Mills— be overtaken, and came in the winner of the race.
a distance of thirteen miles—was made in fifty-seven minutes.

Replicas of Tom Thumb, Pioneer,
and the horse recreate the race at the
B&O Railroad Museum

Of note: the naming
of the “Tom Thumb”
horse bit was derived
from the Tom Thumb
locomotive. Like the
engine, the bit
looks small and
humane but can
command the horse harshly if
in the wrong hands. Some
riders turn to the Tom Thumb for trail riding as its
snaffle mouth and swivel cheek pieces allow for
great directional cues when riding on trails – when
used gently.

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