Illuminating Our Heritage - Southern's No. 1401

The majestic green and gold Pacific-type passenger locomotive No.1401 dominates the Railroad Hall of the Smithsonian Institution's new Museum of History and Technology. Its headlight and marker lamps are aglow and it seems to be vibrantly alive for it is once again surrounded by throngs of admirers, both young and old.

The new museum opened its doors to the public on January 23, 1964. The evening before, at the formal dedication, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed in an address: "If this museum did nothing more than illuminate our heritage so that others could see a little better our legacy, however small the glimpse, it would fulfill a most noble purpose."

Washingtonians and visitors are flocking to the new museum by the thousands. The first Sunday that it was open some 54,943 persons swarmed through the exhibit halls, setting a new record for a single-day's attendance at a Washington attraction of this kind. And, Smithsonian officials estimate that an average of three-and-a-half to five million people a year will see the great variety of educational displays in the $36 million building.

Two Skidmore College students cooperated with TIES' photographer and compared their heights with the 73-inch diameter of the "1401's" drive wheels.

"The 1401 is surely going to become the best known locomotive in the country," says John H. White, the Smithsonian's curator of land transportation and the man responsible for the Institution's Railroad Hall. The 188-ton Ps 4 locomotive donated by the Southern Railway System ( see January and July 1962 TIES for the story of the installation and presentation) is as far as White is concerned, "ideally suited for exhibit for two reasons.

A young couple get a close look at "1401," whose next-track neighbor in the Railroad Hall is the "Pioneer," a 12 1/2-ton wood burner built in 1851 for the Cumberland Valley Railroad.

With the top of its smokestack nearly 15 feet above the rails, locomotive No.1401 towers over some of the first visitors to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology in Washington, D. C.

A vistior studies the construction of the "1401's" firebox. Trhe sigm hanging under the cab tells of the majestic engine's history and lists its mechinical specifications.

The "1401" as seen at night outside the Smithsonian Institution's recently-opened Museum of History and Technology. Southern's 1401 "is surely going to become the best known locomotieve in the country" accoring to John H. white, the museum's curator of land transopration.

"First, it is a good, straightforward type of locomotive. There is nothing odd or freakish about it. The second reason," he says, "is that it was and is a colorful piece of machinery. Another engine of the same period would be black and very drab."

Because the 1401 - the largest single item in the museum - is on display in a new building equipped with air conditioning and humidity control, White thinks "it has the best survival chances of any existing steam locomotive. That is," he explains, "as opposed to those that are rusting away in open parks across the country ."

The gleaming black finish mirrors a visitor too young to be impressed by the size of the Southern locomotive.

Eleven years too young to have heard the thunder of a Southern steam locomotive, this first-grader, and thousands like him, now have the "1401" to see and tollch. Only the crack of exhausting steam and the wail of its whistle are left to a six-year-old's imagination.

A college student with some knowledge of locomotives explains how the "1401" converted steam to mechanical energy.

The new Museum of History and Technology will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day except Christmas. But the 1401, as THE WASHINGTON ( D. C. ) EVENING STAR pointed out, "is one of a relatively few exhibits which the public can see 24 hours a day . . . It faces a large window and will be lighted at night." .