09/10/2025
What a dummy (car)!
During the 2025 Sacramento Archives Crawl, the California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives will show off this illustration of a City of New Orleans dummy engine. Sometimes referred to as a steam dummy, this contraption was an early attempt by the railroad industry to prevent horses from being spooked by the appearance of locomotives on city streets. From the 1830s to the early 1860s, railroad companies incorrectly assumed horses were frightened by the look of an engine. Builders placed the shell of an empty passenger car over the locomotive to disguise the mysterious iron beast. Don’t worry horsies, nothing to see here!
Schenectady Locomotive Works built this dummy car around the 1850s, using a streetcar facade to hide almost all of the engine. You can easily spot the necessary smokestack and bell of a locomotive on the top of the “car.” The drawing was recently archived in the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society’s Graphic Materials Collection on loan to the California State Railroad Museum.
The railroad industry caught on just before the Civil War that the sounds and vibrations of an oncoming locomotive, not the site of the locomotive, scared horses as trains passed through towns. Dummy engines disappeared and became railroad lore.
Stop by our Sacramento Archives Crawl table at the Central Library located at 828 I Street from 10am to 4pm. Felines, dogs, horses, and more will be featured as we share stories of “Tails on the Rails.” We have photographs, drawings, and broadsides highlighting the adorable, dependable, and unusual furry friends of the railroad.
Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives (MS 962 - RLHS Graphic Materials Collection, CSRM_46925_p)
