Winans Camel
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began to look into developing high-powered steam locomotives in the early 1840s, and in 1844 - 1847 built a series of locomotives nicknamed "muddiggers". As with many early B&O locomotives, a spur gear drive was used to connect the main shaft to the driving wheels. The long 0-8-0 wheelbase pushed this connection to the back of the locomotive and caused the floor of the cab to be lifted up above the whole assembly.
In 1853 Ross Winans, who had designed the "muddiggers", built the first of a series of 0-8-0 camel locomotives. These had long cabs that ran from the back of the smokebox to the front of the firebox. The firebox itself sloped back on the earliest models; later models had longer "furnaces" which eliminated the slope, but which had a shallow curve from side to side. The firebox did not hang over the wheels, but it was wider than the main part of the boiler and would have obstructed the cab. The fireman worked from a large platform on the tender, and in some cases had a chute to allow him to deliver coal to the front of the grate.
Also in 1853, Samuel Hayes, the Master of Machinery for the railroad, had built a series of camel 4-6-0 locomotives for passenger service. The layout of the locomotive was roughly the same as for Winans' freight locomotives, except for the addition of the four wheel leading bogie. Copies and variations on these locomotives were built into the 1870s, with the last retirements coming in the 1890s.
The B&O examples burned conventional bituminous coal. The large fireboxes of these locomotives were made obsolete by better boiler design.