The Samson

George Abdill, A Locomotive Engineers Album, Bonanza Books 1965

 The Samson, built in 1838 in England by Timothy Hackworth for the General Mining Association of Nova Scotia. This 0-6-0 with her two identical sisters, hauled coal 6 miles from the mines to the docks at Pictou. This primitive locomotive design was somewhat unique, it had no frame, the axles located in brackets riveted to the bottom of the boiler and cylinders were mounted vertically behind the engineer. The engineer's cab (note the two chairs in the first photo) and fireman occupied opposite ends of the reverse flue boiler that featured the stack exiting above the firebox, pretty much in the fireman's face. Although this layout was not successful enough to be developed further, the Samson was still around for these 1880s photos.