Steam dummy
Encyclopedia
A steam dummy or dummy engine, in the United States of America and Canada
, was a steam engine
enclosed in a wood
en box structure made to resemble a railroad passenger coach.
Steam dummies had some popularity in the first decades of railroading in the U.S., from the 1830s but passed from favor after the Civil War.
It was thought that the more familiar appearance of a coach presented by a steam dummy, as compared to a conventional engine, would be less likely to frighten horses when these trains had to operate in city
street
s. Later it was discovered that it was actually the noise and motion of the operating gear of a steam engine that frightened horse
s, rather than the unfamiliar outlines of a steam engine.
Many steam dummies were simply locomotive
s enclosed in coach's clothing, but some combined an actual railroad coach in the same body with the locomotive, creating an all-in-one vehicle that was a predecessor of later self-propelled rail cars, usually powered by electricity
or petrol.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, was a steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
enclosed in a wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
en box structure made to resemble a railroad passenger coach.
Steam dummies had some popularity in the first decades of railroading in the U.S., from the 1830s but passed from favor after the Civil War.
It was thought that the more familiar appearance of a coach presented by a steam dummy, as compared to a conventional engine, would be less likely to frighten horses when these trains had to operate in city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
s. Later it was discovered that it was actually the noise and motion of the operating gear of a steam engine that frightened horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, rather than the unfamiliar outlines of a steam engine.
Many steam dummies were simply locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s enclosed in coach's clothing, but some combined an actual railroad coach in the same body with the locomotive, creating an all-in-one vehicle that was a predecessor of later self-propelled rail cars, usually powered by electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
or petrol.
See also
- DoodlebugDoodlebug (rail car)In the United States, doodlebug was the common name for a self-propelled railroad car . While such a coach typically had a gasoline-powered engine that turned a generator which provided electricity to traction motors, which turned the axles and wheels on the trucks, versions with mechanical...
- Multiple unitMultiple unitThe term multiple unit or MU is used to describe a self-propelled carriages capable of coupling with other units of the same or similar type and still being controlled from one driving cab. The term is commonly used to denote passenger trainsets consisting of more than one carriage...
- Tram engineTram engineA tram engine is a locomotive specially built, or modified, to work on a street, or roadside, tramway.-Steam tram engines:In the steam locomotive era, tram engines had to comply with certain legal requirements, although these varied from country to country:* The engine must be governed to a maximum...
- Steam RailmotorRailmotorRailmotor is a term which was used by several British railway companies for a steam railcar.-Overview:William Bridges Adams started building railmotors as early as 1848, but only in small numbers...