No. 1 "Mariposa"
Stockton Terminal & Eastern R.R.
Steam-Powered Locomotive
Built by:
Norris Locomotive Works – 1864
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Wheel Arrangement:
4-4-0 “American”
Weight:
33 Tons
Donated by:
Stockton Terminal & Eastern R.R. – 1953
A.53.10.10
Travel Town’s oldest locomotive has a very long and storied history in railroading, beginning with a ride to San Francisco aboard a sailing ship around Cape Horn! When this engine was built in Pennsylvania in 1864, railroad tracks connecting America’s industrial East with its frontier settlements on West Coast had yet to be built. So once in California, this little locomotive was soon put to work helping to build just such a railroad – America’s first transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869.
Now more than 150 years later, the Mariposa is one of only three locomotives that survive from this monumental construction project that profoundly shaped the development of our country. Be sure to take a look at the TTMF website for more detailed information about the locomotive and its rich history!
Scroll down for more of the story below!
Please be a friend to the Trains!
Consider making a donation to help our museum volunteers restore the trains and improve your Travel Town experience!
More Interesting Information:
Early locomotives were often given a name in addition to an identification number . Our engine was one of ten built in 1864 by the E. S. Norris Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a fledgling California railroad known as the Western Pacific. It was numbered “G” and given the name “Mariposa” – Spanish for ‘butterfly’. This Western Pacific ran out of money in 1867 and was absorbed by the powerful Central Pacific Railroad, then in the process of building tracks east from Sacramento towards an eventual meeting with the tracks of westward-building Union Pacific Railroad.
