www.timothyhackworth.com
A magnificent achievement...
The Exposition brought to Chicago 27 million visitors. It covered 700 acres of grounds. There were pavilions for each of the American States, each vying with the other for attention. Through it all spread the means of transport for visitors - the electric railway that covered the extent of the grounds, the motor launches and gondolas for transport across the lakes, the moving chairs that ran the length of the piers. Singled out were the departments of Manufacture, Fishing, Art, Electricity and Transportation housed in their huge buildings.
There were restaurants aplenty and the entertainments of the Midway Plaisance - a one mile long celebration of the countries of the world. Ireland's Blarney Castle, the streets of Vienna, the Arab Quarter and towering above it all the Ferris Wheel that topped the Eiffel Tower.
It was the work of months by three men that brought the pioneering times to life and made the locomotive display in the Transportation Department a show-stopping success.
Samuel Holmes, the eldest of Timothy Hackworth's grandsons, opened up the family history. Major Pangborn with his 50 replicas of the first locomotives gave substance to the early struggles. Timothy Young, the youngest grandson, applied the diligence of a railroad man to the task at hand.
Between these three, there came for the first time a clear understanding of the merit, inventiveness and standing of one man - Timothy Hackworth.