VIRGINIA
THE AMERICAN
STANDARD
The steam locomotive arrived in America with sufficient force and perfect timing to do precisely the job needed for an emerging nation with a considerable task to perform. America was not the first to develop steam locomotion - that had been the privilege of the English - but in the burgeoning states of America the problems that this monster of industrial development faced were far greater and more dramatic than the British pioneer engines were required to surmount. America was a vast, untouched landscape, with distances that no "civilizing" nation had previously encountered, and the terrain itself was more varied and less tamed than anywhere in the world at that time.
One of the most popular and successful vehicles to set this national force in motion was an American type 4-4-0, the definitive early form which first appeared during the 1830s, when much of the early pioneering track was well underway. The most famous example of this locomotive was called the"General," built by Thomas Rogers of Paterson, New Jersey. The type formed the most numerously-built of all the engines in this great growing country. Rogers incorporated the latest of Stephenson's developments - a gearing system that permitted more than the "full forward" and "full backward" movements, giving the opportunity to use the steam power to its complete extent. Additionally, the new design brought improved features, such as the provision of adequate space between the cylinders and the drive wheels, thus reducing the maximum angularity of the connecting rods and therefore the up-and-down forces of the slide bars.
In the rugged and varied lands of the Americas, flexibility was needed on curves, and the slightly later versions of the General contained side movement on the leading "trucks" or "bogies," producing a greater facility to handle curves at speed.
In these early days of US pioneering, the "extras" available were many and varied, with beautiful adornments such as brass name-plates and fancy trim. But as the competition increased, and the financial restrictions of the latter part of the nineteenth century grew, the "American" became the "American Standard" - which had a tougher style with less trim and with more severe lines. It was a locomotive type which nevertheless sold more than twenty-five thousand engines.
Model is 46 inches long x 7 ½ inches wide x 13 inches high
Live Steam model 4 - 4- 0
Comes complete with tender shown and 5 feet of track for display
Scale - 3/4 inches = 1 foot
