1875 NY CHEAP TRANSPORTATON ASS'N. DINNER CARD - 1st STEAM TRAIN IN AMERICA 1831

Description

We are offering a
RARE
card that was presented to the guests of the 1st Annual Dinner of the "N. Y. Cheap Transportation Association" that was held on Feb. 5th, 1875.  4 1/2" x 5 1/2".  This card describes the "First Steam Train in America", whose first excursion on the Mohawk & Hudson River Railroad, was from Albany, NY to Schenectady,  NY in 1831.
This first steam train, which is pictured on the front of the card, only had two coaches.
Described here is the engine, "The John Bull", which was imported from England in 1831.
Also given are the cylinders and wheel diameters; copper tubes in the boiler; connecting rods, etc., and the weight of 4 tons.  Given are the names of nine of the people on that first excursion iin 1831 - influential and well-to-do businessmen and elected officials of New York,
including Thurlow Weed, New York newspaper publisher and Whig and Republican politician.  Printed below the dinner information is "W. H. Barnes, Grandson of Thurlow Weed", whom we believe may have been the head of this Association.
On the other side of the card, are the details of an excursion on the steam train a year after it was built, (in 1832), which is written in the first person by W. H. Barnes, Weed's grandson (we believe).  He gives the details of his excursion on the "3-coach steam train" (pictured on the back of the card) - "In 1832 I traveled five days on the Erie Canal, Buffalo to Schenectdy,  N.Y., 313 miles where I took this train of three coaches to Albany, N.Y, length of Railraod 17 miles, thence Hudson River Steamboat to New York and Steamboat Long Island Sound to Bridgeport, Conn., receiving and discharging passengers, freight, horses and carriages at the principal towns enroute, which caused slow travel."  Written in ink at the bottom is the date of 1913 and the name "Robert A. Beers".
CONDITION: Very Good.