Samson, Steam locomotive at Nova Scotia Museum of Industry, Canada.
Samson is a steam locomotive built in 1838 and shipped to Nova Scotia to haul coal cars in the Pictou County mining region. The engine uses a return-flue boiler and has separate platforms at each end where the fireman and the engineer worked.
Timothy Hackworth built this locomotive at his workshop in Shildon, England, and it was shipped to Nova Scotia in 1839 for coal mining work. It became the first steam locomotive to run on iron rails in Canada.
The name Samson was chosen to reflect the raw pulling power the engine was expected to bring to the coal mines of Pictou County. Today the locomotive is on display in a museum setting in New Glasgow, where visitors can walk around it and get a close look at its working parts.
The locomotive is on display at a museum in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, where visitors can walk around it and examine it up close. Combining the visit with other nearby sites related to the local mining history gives a broader sense of the region.
About 90 percent of the original parts are still in place, which sets this locomotive apart from most survivors of its era. Only 4 locomotives built by Timothy Hackworth are known to exist in the world today, and this one is among them.
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