25th Anniversary Steam Locomotive Project

This 1837 Norris engine incorporated all of the following properties of early steam engines:

• A horizontal boiler
• A circular domed firebox
• A leading bogie (a four-wheel swiveling pilot truck)
• Cylinders outside of the wheels and frame
• Cam-operated valves on top of the cylinders
• A bar frame
• Driving wheels in front of the firebox rather than behind, thus increasing the proportion of the engine's weight being carried on the wheels

This locomotive design was considered to be the best in this period of railroad development.  Norris produced nearly 1000 locomotives from 1832-1861.  While most of these were used in early United States' railroads, seventeen were exported to Europe between 1839 and 1842.  The "Lafayette" was named after the Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de LaFayette, and was the first of eight Norris locomotives purchased by the B&O Railroad in 1837 and may have been the first standardized production model locomotive in the entire world.