Samson

The Samson is an English-built railroad steam locomotive made in 1838 that ran on the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is preserved at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and is the oldest locomotive in Canada. Construction The locomotive was built in 1838 by Timothy Hackworth at his Soho Works in Durham, England. Samson represents an early design of steam locomotive with a return-flue boiler. The fireman and engineer worked separately on open platforms at either end of the locomotive. It was commissioned for the General Mining Association along with two other locomotives, Hercules and John Buddle, for the Albion Mines Railway to serve mines in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Arrival The locomotives arrived unassembled aboard the brig Ythan in May 1839. Two engineers arrived with the locomotives (the Samson, the John Buddle and the Hercules), including George Davidson, who helped build the locomotives in England and would settle in Nova Scotia to work with Samson for the rest of his career. Also accompanying the locomotives on the journey was John Brown Stubbs (Stobbs), Hackworth's master mechanic. He too helped build the locomotives and when the job was complete, he returned to Hackworth's employ in England. The new railway officially opened with a large celebration on 19 September 1839, although the tracks were not actually completed to the coal pier until May 1840. Career Samson served from 1839 to 1867 carrying coal on the six-mile line from the mines around Stellarton and New Glasgow to the East River loading pier. It proved a strong and reliable locomotive, considered "slow but of great power" by railway workers of the day. One former engineer recalled how it moved a heavy string of coal cars from a crooked siding on a wet day when a more modern locomotive failed to move them. In addition to its regular duties moving coal cars, Samson also saw service carrying passengers in an early design of a passenger coach. The locomotive was semi-retired in 1867 but continued to operate when necessary until 1885. It was sent to Chicago to the National Exhibition of Railway Appliances in 1883.