Mechanical Modifications and Early Exhibitions
Stephenson built the locomotive originally as an 0-4-0 (an 0-4-0 is the Whyte notation for a steam locomotive with two powered axles and no unpowered leading or trailing axles). The locomotive's power was transmitted to the driving axles through pistons that were mounted under the boiler between the two front wheels and in front of the front axle. These inside cylinders' main rods were connected to a rear crank axle with a connecting rod between the two axles to power the front axle.
Due to poorer quality track than was the norm in its native England, the locomotive had much trouble with derailment; the C&A's engineers added a leading truck (an assembly consisting of an unpowered axle with smaller diameter wheels that was connected to the frame and pushed in front of the locomotive) to help guide the engine into curves. The leading truck's mechanism necessitated the removal of the coupling rod between the two main axles, leaving only the rear axle powered. Effectively, the John Bull became a 4-2-0 (a locomotive with two unpowered axles, one powered main axle, and no trailing axles). Later, the C&A also added a pilot ("cowcatcher") to the lead truck. The cowcatcher is an angled assembly designed to deflect animals and debris off of the railroad track in front of the locomotive. To protect the locomotive's crew from the weather, the C&A also added walls and a roof (a cab) to the rear of the locomotive where the controls were located. C&A workshop crews also added safety features such as a bell and headlight.
After several years serving as a switching engine (a locomotive used for moving railroad cars around within a railroad yard; also known as a shunter) and stationary boiler, the John Bull was retired in 1866 and stored in Bordentown, New Jersey. Toward the end of its life in revenue service, the locomotive worked as a pump engine and as the power for a sawmill.
The C&A was soon absorbed into the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (1869) which itself was merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1871. The PRR saw the potential publicity to be gained by exhibiting such an old engine, showing it at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; PRR workshop staff then "back-dated" the engine (by replacing some original parts with parts that "looked" old or by removing them entirely). The exhaust stack was replaced with a straight tube of metal and the cab walls and roof were removed. The PRR then exhibited the engine in 1883 at the National Railway Appliance Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. In 1885, the Smithsonian Institution purchased the John Bull from the PRR as the Institution's first large engine purchase.
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