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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT OF
Ralph S. Twosood
HISTORY
OF
THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
1831-1920
DIRECTORS
WILLIAM L. AUSTIN, Rosemont, Pa.
ALBA B. JOHNSON, Rosemont, Pa.
SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN, Rosemont, Pa.
SAMUEL F. PRYOR, New York, N. Y.
WILLIAM E. COREY, New York, N. Y.
SYDNEY E. HUTCHINSON, Philadelphia, Pa.
SIDNEY F. TYLER, Philadelphia, Pa.
B. DAWSON COLEMAN, Lebanon, Pa.
HAROLD T. WHITE, New York, N. Y.
THOMAS G. ASHTON, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARTHUR W. SEW ALL, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARTHUR E. NEWBOLD, Philadelphia, Pa.
OFFICERS
ARTHUR E. NEWBOLD. . . Chairman of the Board
WILLIAM L. AUSTIN . . Vice-Chairman of the Board
SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN . . President
JOHN P. SYKES . . . Vice-President in Charge of Manufacture
WILLIAM DEKRAFFT . . Vice-President in Charge of Finance,
and Treasurer
GRAFTON GREENOUGH . Vice-President in Charge of Domestic Sales
F. DE ST. PHALLE . . Vice-President in Charge of Foreign Sales
JAMES MCNAUGHTON . . Consulting Vice-President
ARTHUR L. CHURCH . . Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
A. B. EHST . . . Comptroller
Engineering
Library
TJ
THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
1831
MATTHIAS W. BALDWIN
1839
BALDWIN, VAIL & HUFTY
M. W. BALDWIN* GEORGE VAIL* GEORGE W. HUFTY*
1841
BALDWIN & VAIL
M. W. BALDWIN* GEORGE VAIL*
1842
BALDWIN & WHITNEY
M. W. BALDWIN* ASA WHITNEY*
1846
M. W. BALDWIN
1854
M. W. BALDWIN & CO.
M. W. BALDWIN* MATTHEW BAIRD*
1867
M. BAIRD & CO.
MATTHEW BAIRD* GEORGE BURNHAM* CHARLES T. PARRY*
1870
M. BAIRD & CO.
MATTHEW BAIRD* GEORGE BURNHAM* CHARLES T. PARRY*
EDWARD H. WILLIAMS* WILLIAM P. HENSZEY* EDWARD LONGSTRETH*
1873
BURNHAM, PARRY, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* CHARLES T. PARRY* EDWARD H. WILLIAMS*
WILLIAM P. HENSZEY* EDWARD LONGSTRETH* JOHN H. CONVERSE*
1886
BURNHAM, PARRY, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* CHARLES T. PARRY* EDWARD H. WILLIAMS*
WILLIAM P. HENSZEY* JOHN H. CONVERSE* WILLIAM C. STROUD*
WILLIAM H. MORROW* WILLIAM L. AUSTIN
1891
BURNHAM, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* EDWARD H. WILLIAMS* WILLIAM P. HENSZEY*
JOHN H. CONVERSE* WILLIAM C. STROUD* WILLIAM L. AUSTIN
1896
BURNHAM, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* EDWARD H. WILLIAMS* WILLIAM P. HENSZEY*
JOHN H. CONVERSE* WILLIAM L. AUSTIN SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN
ALBA B. JOHNSON GEORGE BURNHAM, JR.
1901
BURNHAM, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* WILLIAM P. HENSZEY* JOHN H. CONVERSE*
WILLIAM L. AUSTIN SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN ALBA B. JOHNSON
GEORGE BURNHAM, JR.
1907
BURNHAM, WILLIAMS & CO.
GEORGE BURNHAM* WILLIAM P. HENSZEY* JOHN H. CONVERSE*
WILLIAM L. AUSTIN SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN ALBA B. JOHNSON
1909
Incorporated under the Laws of Pennsylvania
Incorporated under the Laws of Pennsylvania as
BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
1911
Incorporated under the Laws of Pennsylvania as
THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
*NOW DECEASED
498128
The Baldwin Locomotive Works
THESE Works occupy nineteen and three-tenths acres in the
heart of Philadelphia and five hundred and ninety-six acres
at Eddystone, on the Delaware River, twelve miles below
the city. The offices and principal machine shops are situated in
the rectangle bounded on the north by Spring Garden Street, on
the east by Broad Street, on the south by the Philadelphia and
Reading Railway Subway and on the west by Nineteenth Street.
There are also shops located on the line of the Philadelphia and
Reading Railway at Twenty-sixth to Twenty-ninth Streets.
The Works dates its origin from the inception of steam
railroads in America. Called into existence by the early require-
ments of the railroad interests of the country, it has grown with
their growth and kept pace with their progress. It has reflected
in its career the successive stages of American railroad practice,
and has itself contributed largely to the development of the loco-
motive as it exists today. A history of The Baldwin Locomotive
Works, therefore, is in a great measure, a record of the progress
of locomotive engineering in this country, and as such cannot
fail to be of interest to those who are concerned in this important
element of our material progress.
MATTHIAS W. BALDWIN, the founder of the establishment,
learned the trade of a jeweler, and entered the service of Fletcher
& Gardiner, Jewelers and Silversmiths, Philadelphia, in 1817.
Two years later he opened a small shop, in the same line of
business, on his own account. The demand for articles of this
character falling off, however, he formed a partnership in 1825,
with David Mason, a machinist, in the manufacture of book-
binders' tools and cylinders for calico printing. Their shop was
in a small alley which runs north from Walnut Street, above
Fourth. They afterward removed to Minor Street, below Sixth.
The business was so successful that steam power became neces-
sary in carrying on their manufactures, and an engine was bought
for the purpose. This proving unsatisfactory, Mr. Baldwin
decided to design and construct one which should be specially
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
MR. BALDWIN'S FIRST ENGI
adapted to the requirements of his shop. One of these require-
ments was that it should occupy the least possible space, and this
was met by the construction of an upright engine on a novel and
ingenious plan. On a bed-plate about five feet square an upright
cylinder was placed ; the piston rod con-
nected to a cross-bar having two legs,
turned downward, and sliding in grooves
on the sides of the cylinder, which thus
formed the guides. To the sides of
these legs, at their lower ends, was con-
nected by pivots an inverted U-shaped
frame, prolonged at the arch into a
single rod, which took hold of the crank
of a fly wheel carried by upright stand-
ards on the bed-plate. It will be seen
that the length of the ordinary separate
guide-bars was thus saved, and the
whole engine was brought within the
smallest possible compass. The design
of the machine was not only unique, but its workmanship was
so excellent, and its efficiency so great, as readily to procure for
Mr. Baldwin orders for additional stationary engines. His
attention was thus turned to steam engineering, and the way
was prepared for his grappling with the problem of the locomo-
tive when the time should arrive.
This original stationary engine, constructed prior to 1830, is
still in good order and carefully preserved at the Works. It has
successively supplied the power in six different departments as
they have been opened, from time to time, in the growth of the
business.
The manufacture of stationary steam engines thus took a
prominent place in the establishment, and Mr. Mason shortly
afterward withdrew from the partnership.
In 1829-30 the use of steam as a motive power on railroads
had begun to engage the attention of American engineers. A
few locomotives had been imported from England, and one
(which, however, was not successful) had been constructed at
the West Point Foundry, in New York City. To gratify the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
public interest in the new motor, Mr. Franklin Peale, then
proprietor of the Philadelphia Museum, applied to Mr. Baldwin
to construct a miniature locomotive for exhibition in his establish-
ment. With the aid only of the imperfect published descriptions
and sketches of the locomotives which had taken part in the
Rainhill competition in England, Mr. Baldwin undertook the
work, and on the 25th of April, 1831, the miniature locomotive
was put in motion on a circular track made of pine boards
covered with hoop iron, in the rooms of the Museum. Two
small cars, containing seats for four passengers, were attached
to it, and the novel spectacle attracted crowds of admiring
spectators. Both anthracite and pine-knot coal were used as
fuel, and the exhaust steam was discharged into the chimney,
thus utilizing it to increase the draught.
The success of the model was such that, in the same year,
Mr. Baldwin received an order for a locomotive from the Phila-
delphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company, whose
short line of six miles to Germantown was operated by horse
power. The Camden and Amboy Railroad Company had
shortly before imported a locomotive from England, which was
stored in a shed at Bordentown. It had not yet been put
together; but Mr. Baldwin, in company with his friend Mr.
Peale, visited the spot, inspected the detached parts, and made a
few memoranda of some of its principal dimensions. Guided by
these figures and his experience with the Peale model, Mr.
Baldwin commenced the task. The difficulties to be overcome
in filling the order can hardly be appreciated at this day. There
were few mechanics competent to do any part of the work on
a locomotive. Suitable tools were with difficulty obtainable.
Cylinders were bored by a chisel fixed in a block of wood and
turned by hand. Blacksmiths able to weld a bar of iron exceed-
ing one and one-quarter inches in thickness were few, or not to
be had. It was necessary for Mr. Baldwin to do much of the
work with his own hands, to educate the workmen who assisted
him, and to improvise tools for the various processes.
The work was prosecuted, nevertheless, under all these
difficulties, and the locomotive was fully completed, christened
"Old Ironsides," and tried on the road, November 23, 1832.
10 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
The circumstances of the trial are fully preserved, and are given,
farther on, in the extracts from the journals of the day. Despite
some imperfections, naturally occurring in a first effort, and
which were afterward to a great extent remedied, the engine was,
for that early day, a marked and gratifying success. It was put
at once into service, as appears from the company's advertise-
ment three days after the trial, and did duty on the Germantown
road and others for over a score of years.
The "Ironsides" was a four-wheeled engine, modeled essen-
tially on the English practice of that day, as shown in the
"Planet" class, and weighed, in running order, something over
five tons. The rear or driving wheels were fifty-four inches in
THE "OLD IRONSIDES," 1832
diameter on a crank axle placed in front of the firebox. The
cranks were thirty-nine inches from center to center. The front
wheels, which were simply carrying wheels, were forty-five inches
in diameter, on an axle placed just back of the cylinders. The
cylinders were nine and one-half inches in diameter by eighteen
inches stroke, and were attached horizontally to the outside of
the smokebox, which was D-shaped, with the sides receding
inwardly, so as to bring the center line of each cylinder in line
with the center of the crank. The wheels were made with heavy
cast-iron hubs, wooden spokes and rims, and wrought-iron tires.
The frame was of wood, placed outside the wheels. The boiler
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 11
was thirty inches in diameter, and contained seventy-two copper
flues, one and one-half inches in diameter and seven feet long.
The tender was a four-wheeled platform, with wooden sides and
back, carrying an iron box for a water tank, inclosed in a wooden
casing, and with a space for fuel in front. The engine had no
cab. The valve motion was at first given by a single loose
eccentric for each cylinder, placed on the axle between the crank
and the hub of the wheel. On the inside of the eccentric was
a half-circular slot, running half way around. A stop was
fastened to the axle at the arm of the crank, terminating in a
pin which projected into the slot. The engine was reversed by
changing the position of the eccentric on the axle by a lever
operated from the footboard. This form of valve motion was,
however, shortly afterward changed, and a single fixed eccentric
for each cylinder substituted. The rock shafts, which were
under the footboard, had arms above and below, and the eccen-
tric straps had each a forked rod, with a hook, or an upper and
lower latch or pin, at their extremities, to engage with the upper
or lower arm of the rock shaft. The eccentric rods were raised
or lowered by a double treadle, so as to connect with the upper
or lower arm of the rock shaft, according as forward or backward
gear was desired. A peculiarity in the exhaust of the "Ironsides"
was that there was only a single straight pipe running across from
one cylinder to the other, with an opening in the upper side of
the pipe, midway between the cylinders, to which was attached
at right angles the perpendicular pipe into the chimney. The
cylinders, therefore, exhausted against each other; and it was
found, after the engine had been put in use, that this was a
serious objection. This defect was afterward remedied by turn-
ing each exhaust pipe upward into the chimney substantially
as it is now done. The steam joints were made with canvas
and red lead, as was the practice in English locomotives, and in
consequence much trouble was caused, from time to time, by
leaking.
The price of the engine was to have been $4000, but some
difficulty was found in procuring a settlement. The company
claimed that the engine did not perform according to contract;
and objection was also made to some of the defects alluded to.
12 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
After these had been corrected as far as possible, however, Mr.
Baldwin finally succeeded in effecting a compromise settlement,
and received from the Company $3500 for the machine.
The results of the trial and the impression produced by it on
the public mind may be gathered from the following extracts
from the newspapers of the day :
The United States Gazette, of November 24, 1832, remarked:
"A most gratifying experiment was made yesterday afternoon on the
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad. The beautiful loco-
motive engine and tender, built by Mr. Baldwin, of this city, whose repu-
tation as an ingenious machinist is well known, were for the first time placed
on the road. The engine traveled about six miles, working with perfect
accuracy and ease in all its parts, and with great velocity."
The Chronicle of the same date noticed the trial more at
length, as follows:
"It gives us pleasure to state that the locomotive engine built by our
townsman, M. VV. Baldwin, has proved highly successful. In the presence of
several gentlemen of science and information on such subjects, the engine
was yesterday placed upon the road for the first time. All her parts had been
previously highly finished and fitted together in Mr. Baldwin's factory. She
was taken apart on Tuesday, and removed to the Company's depot, and
yesterday morning she was completely together, ready for travel. After
the regular passenger cars had arrived from Germantown in the afternoon,
the tracks being clear, preparation was made for her starting. The placing
fire in the furnace and raising steam occupied twenty minutes. The engine
(with her tender) moved from the depot in beautiful style, working with
great ease and uniformity. She proceeded about half a mile beyond the
Union Tavern, at the township line, and returned immediately, a distance
of six miles, at a speed of about twenty-eight miles to the hour, her speed
having been slackened at all the road crossings, and it being after dark, but
a portion of her power was used. It is needless to say that the spectators
were delighted. From this experiment there is every reason to believe this
engine will draw thirty tons gross, at an average speed of forty miles an hour,
on a level road. The principal superiority of the engine over any of the
English ones known consists in the light weight — which is but between four
and five tons — her small bulk, and the simplicity of her working machinery.
We rejoice at the result of this experiment, as it conclusively shows that
Philadelphia, always famous for the skill of her mechanics, is enabled to pro-
duce steam engines for railroads combining so many superior qualities as to
warrant the belief that her mechanics will hereafter supply nearly all the public
works of this description in the country."
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 13
On subsequent trials, the "Ironsides" attained a speed of
thirty miles per hour, with its usual train attached. So great
were the wonder and curiosity which attached to such a prodigy,
that people flocked to see the marvel, and eagerly bought the
privilege of riding after the strange monster. The officers of the
road were not slow to avail themselves of the public interest to
increase their passenger receipts, and the following advertisement
from Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, of November 26,
1832, will show that as yet they regarded the new machine rather
as a curiosity and a bait to allure travel than as a practical every-
day servant.
I
PHILADELPHIA, OBRMANTOWN. AND
NORHISTOWN RAIL-ROAD.
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE.
— The Locomotive Engine, (built by
M. W. Baldwin, of this city,) will depart
ILY, when the.weaiher is fair, with a TBAIN OF
PASSENGER CAHJS, commencing cm Mondav the 26ib
inst., at the following hours, viz:—.
FBOM 'PailADBLFlUA. • I SUOM GEBMAHTOWK.
At 11 o'clock, A» M. I At 1 2 o'clock M.
)" I o'clock, H. M. f " 2 o'clock. P. M.
3 o'clock, P. M. I » 4 o'clock, P. M.
The Cars drawn by hor
epart
usual, from Philadelphia at 9 o'clock, A. M.,
from Geriaantown at !0 o'clock, A, M., and at the
above mentioned hours when the weather it not fair.
The points of starting, are from the Depot, at the
corner of Green and Ninth street,, Philadelphia; and
From the Main street, near *he centre, of (ierroan-
town. Whole Cars can be tdkea. Tickets, 25
eents. nov 24«3t
This announcement did not mean that in wet weather horses
•would be attached to the locomotive to aid it in drawing the train,
but that the usual horse cars would be employed in making the
trips upon the road without the engine.
Upon making the first trip to Germantown with a passenger
train with the "Ironsides," one of the drivers slipped upon the
axle, causing the wheels to track less than the gauge of the road
and drop in between the rails. It was also discovered that the
14 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
valve arrangement of the pumps was defective, and they failed
to supply the boiler with water. The shifting of the driving
wheel upon the axle fastened the eccentric, so that it would not
operate in backward motion. These mishaps caused delay, and
prevented the engine from reaching its destination, to the great
disappointment of all concerned. They were corrected in a few
days, and the machine was used in experimenting upon its
efficiency, making occasional trips with trains to Germantown.
The road had an ascending grade, nearly uniform, of thirty-two
feet per mile, and for the last half mile of forty-five feet per mile,
and it was found that the engine was too light for the business
of the road upon these grades.
Such was Mr. Baldwin's first locomotive; and it is related of
him that his discouragement at the difficulties which he had
undergone in building it, and in finally procuring a settlement for
it, was such that he remarked to one of his friends, with much
decision, "That is our last locomotive."
It was some time before he received an order for another, but
meanwhile the subject had become singularly fascinating to him,
and occupied his mind so fully that he was eager to work out his
new ideas in a tangible form.
Shortly after the "Ironsides" had been placed on the Ger-
mantown road, Mr. E. L. Miller, of Charleston, S. C., came to
Philadelphia and made a careful examination of
the machine. Mr. Miller had, in 1830, contracted
to furnish a locomotive to the Charleston and
Hamburg Railroad Company, and accordingly
the engine "Best Friend" had been built under
his direction at the West Point Foundry, New
York. After inspecting the "Ironsides," he sug-
gested to Mr. Baldwin to visit the Mohawk and
Hudson Railroad, and examine an English loco-
motive which had been placed on that road in
July, 1831, by Messrs. Robert Stephenson & Co.,
of Newcastle, England. It was originally a four-
HALF-CRANK wheeled engine of the "Planet" type, with hori-
zontal cylinders and crank axle. The front wheels of this engine
were removed about a year after the machine was put at work,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN* LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
15
and a four-wheeled swiveling or "bogie" truck substituted. The
result of Mr. Baldwin's investigations was the adoption of this
design, but with some important improvements. Among these
was the "half-crank," which he devised on his return from this
trip, and which he patented September 10, 1834. In this form
of crank, the outer arm is omitted, and the wrist is fixed in a
spoke of the wheel. In other words, the wheel itself formed one
arm of the crank. The result sought and gained was that the
cranks were strengthened, and, being at the extremities of the
axle, the boiler could be made larger in diameter and placed
lower. The driving axle could also be placed back of the fire-
box; the connecting rods passing by the sides of the firebox
and taking hold inside of the wheels. This arrangement of the
crank also involved the placing of the cylinders outside the
smokebox, as was done on the "Ironsides."
By the time the order for the second locomotive was received,
Mr. Baldwin had matured this device and was prepared to
embody it in practical form. The order came from Mr. E. L.
Miller, in behalf of the
Charleston and Hamburg
Railroad Company, and the
engine bore his name, and
was completed February 18,
1834. It was on six wheels ;
one pair being drivers, four
and one-half feet in diam-
eter, with half-crank axle
placed back of the firebox
as above described, and the
four front wheels combined
in a swiveling truck. The driving wheels, it should be observed,
were cast in solid bell metal. The combined wood and iron
wheels used on the "Ironsides" had proved objectionable,
and Mr. Baldwin, in his endeavors to find a satisfactory sub-
stitute, had recourse to brass. June 29, 1833, he took out a patent
for a cast-brass wheel, his idea being that by varying the hardness
of the metal the adhesion of the drivers on the rails could be
increased or diminished at will. The brass wheels on the "Miller,"
BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE, 1834
16 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
however, soon wore out, and the experiment with this metal was
not repeated. The "E. L. Miller" had cylinders ten inches in
diameter; stroke of piston, sixteen inches; and weighed, with
water in the boiler, seven tons eight hundred-weight. The
boiler had a high dome over the firebox; and this form of con-
struction, it may be noted, was followed, with a few exceptions,
for many years.
The valve motion was given by a single fixed eccentric for
each cylinder. Each eccentric strap had two arms attached to
it, one above and the other below, and, as the driving axle was
back of the firebox, these arms were prolonged backward under
the footboard, with a hook on the inner side of the end of each.
The rock shaft had arms above and below its axis, and the hooks
of the two rods of each eccentric were moved by hand levers
so as to engage with either arm, thus producing backward or
forward gear. This form of single eccentric, peculiar to Mr.
Baldwin, was in the interest of simplicity in the working parts,
and was adhered to for some years. It gave rise to an animated
controversy among mechanics as to whether, with its use, it was
possible to get a lead on the valve in both directions. Many
maintained that this was impracticable; but Mr. Baldwin demon-
strated by actual experience that the reverse was the case.
Meanwhile the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had given
Mr. Baldwin an order for a locomotive for the State Road, as it
was then called, from Philadelphia to Columbia, which, up to that
time, had been worked by horses. This engine, called the "Lan-
caster," was completed in June, 1834. It was similar to the
"Miller," and weighed seventeen thousand pounds. After it
was placed in service, the records show that it hauled at one time
nineteen loaded burden cars over the highest grades between
Philadelphia and Columbia. This was characterized at that time
by the officers of the road as an "unprecedented performance."
The success of the machine on its trial trips was such that the
Legislature decided to adopt steam power for working the road ,
and Mr. Baldwin received orders for several additional locomo-
tives. Two others were accordingly delivered to the State in
September and November respectively of that year, and one was
also built and delivered to the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
17
Company during the same season. This latter engine, which was
put in service October 21, 1834, averaged twenty-one thousand
miles per year to September 15, 1840.
Five locomotives were thus completed in 1834, and the new
business was fairly under way. The building in Lodge Alley, to
which Mr. Baldwin had removed from Minor Street, and where
BALDWIN COMPOUND WOOD AND IRON WHEELS, 1834
these engines were constructed, began to be found too contracted,
and another removal was decided upon. A location on Broad
and Hamilton Streets (the site, in part, of the present works)
was selected, and a three-story L-shaped brick building, fronting
on both streets, erected. This was completed and the business
removed to it during the following year (1835). Mr. Baldwin's
stationary engine, described on page 8, was placed in service in
18 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
the new shop by Mr. Andrew C. Vauclain, father of Mr. Samuel
M. Vauclain, who is now President of the Company. The
original building was partially destroyed by fire in 1884, and was
replaced by a four-story brick structure.
These early locomotives, built in 1834, were the types of Mr.
Baldwin's practice for some years. All, or nearly all of them,
embraced several important devices, which were the results of
his study and experiments up to that time. The devices referred
to were patented September 10, 1834, and the same patent
covered the following four inventions, viz.:
1. The half-crank, and method of attaching it to the driving
wheel. (This has already been described.)
2. A new mode of constructing the wheels of locomotive
engines and cars. In this the hub and spokes were of cast iron,
cast together. The spokes were cast without a rim, and ter-
minated in segment flanges, each spoke having a separate flange
disconnected from its neighbors. By this means, it was claimed,
the injurious effect of the unequal expansion of the materials
composing the wheels was lessened or altogether prevented. The
flanges bore against wooden felloes, made in two thicknesses, and
put together so as to break joints. Tenons or pins projected
from the flanges into openings made in the wooden felloes, to
keep them in place. Around the whole the tire was passed and
secured by bolts. The sketch on page 17 shows the device.
3. A new mode of forming the joints of steam and other
tubes. This was Mr. Baldwin's invention of ground joints for
steam pipes, which was a very valuable improvement over pre-
vious methods of making joints with red-lead packing, and
which rendered it possible to carry a much higher pressure of
steam.
4. A new mode of forming the joints and other parts of the
supply pump, and of locating the pump itself. This invention
consisted in making the single guide bar hollow and using it for
the pump barrel. The pump plunger was attached to the piston
rod at a socket or sleeve formed for the purpose, and the hol-
low guide bar terminated in the vertical pump chamber. This
chamber was made in two pieces, joined about midway between
the induction and eduction pipes. This joint was ground steam-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
19
tight, as were also the joints of the induction pipe with the
bottom of the lower chamber, and the flange of the eduction pipe
with the top of the upper chamber. All these parts were held
together by a stirrup with a set-screw in its arched top, and the
arrangement was such that by simply unscrewing this set-screw
the different sections of the chamber, with all the valves, could
be taken apart for cleaning or adjusting. The cut below illus-
trates the device.
It is probable that the five engines built during 1834 em-
bodied all, or nearly all, these devices. They all had the half-
PUMP AND STIRRUP
crank, the ground joints for steam pipes (which were first made
by Mr. Baldwin in 1833), and the pump formed in the guide bar,
and all had the four-wheeled truck in front, and a single pair of
drivers back of the firebox. On this position of the driving
wheels Mr. Baldwin laid great stress, as it made a more even
distribution of the weight, throwing about one-half on the drivers
and one-half on the four-wheeled truck. It also extended the
wheel base, making the engine much steadier and less damaging
to the track. Mr. William Norris, who had established a loco-
motive works in Philadelphia in 1832, was at this time building
a six-wheeled engine with a truck in front and the driving wheels
20 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
placed in front of the firebox. Considerable rivalry naturally
existed between the two manufacturers as to the comparative
merits of their respective plans. In Mr. Norris' engine, the posi-
tion of the driving axle in front of the firebox threw on it more
of the weight of the engine, and thus increased the adhesion and
the tractive power. Mr. Baldwin, however, maintained the
superiority of his plan, as giving a better distribution of the weight
and a longer wheel base, and consequently rendering the machine
less destructive to the track. As the iron rails then in use were
generally light, and much of the track was of wood, this feature
was of some importance.
To the use of the ground joint for steam pipes, however,
much of the success of his early engines was due. The English
builders were making locomotives with canvas and red-lead joints,
permitting a steam pressure of only sixty pounds per square inch
to be carried, while Mr. Baldwin's machines were worked at one
hundred and twenty pounds with ease. Several locomotives
imported from England at about this period by the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania for the State Road (three of which were
made by Stephenson) had canvas and red-lead joints, and their
efficiency was so much less than that of the Baldwin engines,
on account of this and other features of construction, that they
were soon laid aside or sold.
In June, 1834, a patent was issued to Mr. E. L. Miller, by
whom Mr. Baldwin's second engine was ordered, for a method of
increasing the adhesion of a locomotive by throwing a part of the
weight of the tender on the rear of the engine, thus increasing
the weight on the drivers. Mr. Baldwin adopted this device
on an engine built for the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad
Company, May, 1835, and thereafter used it largely, paying one
hundred dollars royalty for each engine. Eventually (May 6,
1839) he bought the patent for nine thousand dollars, evidently
considering that the device was especially valuable, if not indis-
pensable, in order to render his engine as powerful, when required,
as other patterns having the driving wheels in front of the fire-
box, and therefore utilizing more of the weight of the engine for
adhesion.
In making the truck and tender wheels of these early locomo-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 21
tives, the hubs were cast in three pieces and afterward banded
with wrought iron, the interstices being filled with spelter. This
method of construction was adopted on account of the difficulty
then found in casting a chilled wheel in one solid piece.
Early in 1835, the new shop on Broad Street was completed
and occupied. Mr. Baldwin's attention was thenceforward given
to locomotive building exclusively, except that a stationary
engine was occasionally constructed.
In May, 1835, his eleventh locomotive, the "Black Hawk,"
was delivered to the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Com-
pany. This was the first outside-connected engine of his build.
It was also the first engine on which the Miller device of attach-
ing part of the weight of the tender to the engine was employed.
On the eighteenth engine, the "Brandywine," built for the Phila-
delphia and Columbia Railroad Company, brass tires were used
on the driving wheels, for the purpose of obtaining more adhesion ;
but they wore out rapidly and were replaced with iron.
April 3, 1835, Mr. Baldwin took out a patent for certain im-
provements in the wheels and tubes of locomotive engines. That
relating to the wheels provided for casting the hub and spokes
together, and having the spokes terminate in segments of a rim,
as described in his patent of September 10, 1834. Between the
ends of the spokes and the tires, wood was interposed, and the
tire might be either of wrought iron or of chilled cast iron. The
intention was expressed of making the tire usually of cast iron
chilled. The main object, however, was declared to be the inter-
position between the spokes and the rim of a layer of wood or
other substance possessing some degree of elasticity. This
method of making driving wheels was followed for several years,
the tires being made with a shoulder. See illustration on page 22.
The improvement in locomotive tubes consisted in driving a
copper ferrule or thimble on the outside of the end of the tube,
and soldering it in place, instead of driving a ferrule into the
tube as had previously been the practice. The object of the latter
method had been to make a tight joint with the tube sheet; but
by putting the ferrule on the outside of the tube, not only was
the joint made as tight as before, but the tube was strengthened,
and left unobstructed throughout to the full extent of its diam-
22
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
eter. This method of setting flues has been generally followed in
the Works from that date to the present, the only difference
being that, at this time, with iron or steel tubes, the end is
swedged down, the copper ferrule brazed on, and the end of the
tube turned or riveted over against the copper thimble and the
flue sheet to make the joint perfect.
DRIVING WHEELS, PATENTED SEPTEMBER, 1834
Fourteen engines were constructed in 1835; forty in 1836;
forty in 1837; twenty-three in 1838; twenty-six in 1839, and
nine in 1840. During all these years the general design con-
tinued the same; but, in compliance with the demand for more
power, three sizes were furnished, as follows:
First class— Cylinders, 12^ X 16; weight loaded, 26,000 pounds.
Second class— " 12 X 16; " " 23,000 "
Third class— " 10K X 16; " " 20,000 "
Mr. Baldwin fully believed, in 1838, that the first class
engine was as heavy as would be called for, and he declared that
it was as large as he intended to make. Most of the engines
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 23
were built with the half-crank, but occasionally an outside-con-
nected machine was turned out. These latter, however, failed
to give as complete satisfaction as the half-crank machine. The
drivers were generally four and one-half feet in diameter.
A patent was issued to Mr. Baldwin, August 17, 1835, for
his device of cylindrical pedestals. In this method of con-
struction, the pedestal was of cast iron, and was bored in a lathe
so as to form two concave jaws. The boxes were also turned in
a lathe so that their vertical ends were cylindrical, and they were
thus fitted in the pedestals. This method of fitting up pedestals
and boxes was cheap and effective, and was used for some years
for the driving and tender wheels.
As showing the estimation in which these early engines were
held, it may not be out of place to refer to the opinions of some
of the railroad managers of that period.
Mr. L. A. Sykes, engineer of the New Jersey Transportation
Company, under date of June 12, 1838, wrote that he could draw
with his engines twenty four-wheeled cars with twenty-six pass-
engers each, at a speed of twenty to twenty-five miles per hour,
over grades of twenty-six feet per mile. "As to simplicity of
construction," he adds, "small liability to get out of order,
economy of repairs, and ease to the road, I fully believe Mr.
Baldwin's engines stand unrivalled. I consider the simplicity of
the engine, the arrangement of the working parts, and the distri-
bution of the weight, far superior to any engine I have ever seen,
either of American or English manufacture, and I have not the
least hesitation in saying that Mr. Baldwin's engine will do the
same amount of work with much less repairs, either to the engine
or the track, than any other engine in use."
L. G. Cannon, President of the Rensselaer and Saratoga
Railroad Company, writes: "Your engines will, in performance
and cost of repairs, bear comparison with any other engine made
in this or any other country."
Some of Mr. Baldwin's engines on the State Road, in 1837,
cost, for repairs, only from one and two-tenths to one and
six-tenths cents per mile. It is noted that the engine "West
Chester," on the same road, weighing twenty thousand seven
hundred and thirty-five pounds (ten thousand four hundred and
24 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
seventy-five on drivers), drew fifty-one cars (four-wheeled),
weighing two hundred and eighty-nine net tons, over the road,
some of the track being of wood covered with strap-rail.
The financial difficulties of 1836 and 1837, which brought
ruin upon so many, did not leave Mr. Baldwin unscathed. His
embarrassments became so great that he was unable to proceed,
and was forced to call his creditors together for a settlement.
After offering to surrender all his property, his shop, tools, house
and everything, if they so desired — all of which would realize
only about twenty-five per cent, of their claims — he proposed
to them that they should permit him to go on with the business,
and in three years he would pay the full amount of all claims,
principal and interest. This was finally acceded to, and the
promise was in effect fulfilled, although not without an extension
of two years beyond the time originally proposed.
In May, 1837, the number of hands employed was three
hundred, but this number was reduced weekly, owing to the
falling off in the demand for engines.
These financial troubles had their effect on the demand for
locomotives, as will be seen in the decrease in the number built
in 1838, 1839 and 1840; and this result was furthered by the
establishment of several other locomotive works, and the intro-
duction of other patterns of engines.
The changes and improvements in details made during these
years may be summed up as follows:
The subject of burning anthracite coal had engaged much
attention. In October, 1836, Mr. Baldwin secured a patent for a
grate or fireplace which could be detached from the engine at
pleasure, and a new one with a fresh coal fire substituted. The
intention was to have the grate with freshly ignited coal all ready
for the engine on its arrival at a station, and placed between the
rails over suitable levers, by which it could be attached quickly
to the firebox. It is needless to say that this was never prac-
ticed. In January, 1838, however, Mr. Baldwin was experiment-
ing with the consumption of coal on the German town road, and in
July of the same year the records show that he was making a
locomotive to burn coal, part of the arrangement being to blow
the fire with a fan.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 25
The first locomotives for export were built during this year.
They were shipped to Cuba, to the order of Alfred Cruger, and
bore the builder's numbers 104 and 105. These locomotives were
completed in the spring and summer, and were followed by a
third later in the year.
Up to 1838, Mr. Baldwin had made both driving and truck
wheels with wrought tires, but during that year chilled wheels
for engine and tender trucks were adopted. His tires were
furnished by Messrs. S. Vail & Son, Morristown, N. J., who
made the only tires then obtainable in America. They were
very thin, being only one inch to one and one-half inches thick;
and Mr. Baldwin, in importing some tires from England at that
time, insisted on their being made double the ordinary thickness.
The manufacturers at first objected and ridiculed the idea, the
practice being to use two tires when extra thickness was wanted,
but finally they consented to meet his requirements.
All his engines thus far had the single eccentric for each
valve, but at about this period double eccentrics were adopted,
each terminating in a straight hook, and reversed by hand levers.
At this early period, Mr. Baldwin had begun to feel the
necessity of making all like parts of locomotives of the same class
in such manner as to be absolutely interchangeable. Steps were
taken in this direction, but it was not until many years after-
ward that the system of standard gauges was perfected, which
soon became a distinguishing feature in the establishment.
In March, 1839, Mr. Baldwin's records show that he was
building a number of outside-connected engines, and had suc-
ceeded in making them strong and durable. He was also making
a new chilled wheel, and one whichjie thought would not break.
On the one hundred and thirty-sixth locomotive, completed
October 18, 1839, for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norris-
town Railroad, the old pattern of wooden frame was abandoned,
and no outside frame whatever was employed — the machinery,
as well as the truck and the pedestals of the driving axles, being
attached directly to the naked boiler. The wooden frame thence-
forward disappeared gradually, and an iron frame took its place.
Another innovation was the adoption of eight-wheeled tenders,
the first of which was built at about this period.
26 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
On April 8, 1839, Mr. Baldwin associated with himself Messrs.
Vail & Hufty, and the business was conducted under the firm
name of Baldwin, Vail & Hufty until 1841, when Mr. Hufty with-
drew, and Baldwin & Vail continued the copartnership until 1842.
The time had now arrived when the increase of business on
railroads demanded more powerful locomotives. It had for some
years been felt that for freight traffic the engine with one pair of
drivers was insufficient. Mr. Baldwin's engine had the single
pair of drivers placed back of the firebox; that made by Mr.
Norris, one pair in front of the firebox. An engine with two
pairs of drivers, one pair in front and one pair behind the firebox,
was the next logical step, and Mr. Henry R. Campbell, of Phila-
delphia, was the first to carry this design into execution. Mr.
Campbell was the Chief Engineer of the Germantown Railroad
when the "Ironsides" was placed on that line, and had since
given much attention to the subject of locomotive construction.
February 5, 1836, Mr. Campbell secured a patent for an eight-
wheeled engine with four drivers connected, and a four-wheeled
truck in front; and subsequently contracted with James Brooks,
of Philadelphia, to build for him such a machine. The work
was begun March 16, 1836, and the engine was completed
May 8, 1837. This was the first eight-wheeled engine of this
design, and from it the American type locomotive of today
takes its origin. The engine lacked, however, one essential
feature; there were no equalizing beams between the drivers,
and nothing but the ordinary steel springs over each journal
of the driving axles to equalize the weight upon them. It
remained for Messrs. Eastwick & Harrison to supply this
deficiency; and in 1837 that firm constructed at their shop in
Philadelphia, a locomotive on this plan, but with the driving
axles running in a separate square frame, connected to the main
frame above it by a single central bearing on each side. This
engine had cylinders twelve by eighteen, four coupled driving
wheels, forty-four inches in diameter, carrying eight of the twelve
tons constituting the total weight. Subsequently, Mr. Joseph
Harrison, Jr., of the same firm, substituted "equalizing beams"
on engines of this plan afterward constructed by them, sub-
stantially in the same manner as since generally employed.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 27
In the American Railroad Journal of July 30, 1836, a wood-
cut showing Mr. Campbell's engine, together with an elaborate
calculation of the effective power of an engine on this plan, by
William J. Lewis, Esq., Civil Engineer, was published, with a
table showing its performance upon grades ranging from a dead
level to a rise of one hundred feet per mile. Mr. Campbell
stated that his experience at that time (1835-36) convinced him
that grades of one hundred feet rise per mile would, if roads
were judiciously located, carry railroads over any of the moun-
tain passes in America, without the use of planes with stationary
steam power, or, as a general rule, of costly tunnels — an opinion
very extensively verified by the experience of the country since
that date.
A step had thus been taken toward a plan of locomotive
having more adhesive power. Mr. Baldwin, however, was slow
to adopt the new design. He naturally regarded innovations
with distrust. He had done much to perfect the old pattern of
engine, and had built over a hundred of them, which were in suc-
cessful operation on various railroads. Many of the details were
the subjects of his several patents, and had been greatly simplified
in his practice. In fact, simplicity in all the working parts had
been so largely his aim, that it was natural that he should
distrust any plan involving additional machinery, and he regarded
the new design as only an experiment at best. In November,
1838, he wrote to a correspondent that he did not think there
was any advantage in the eight-wheeled engine. There being
three points in contact, it could not turn a curve, he argued,
without slipping one or the other pair of wheels sideways.
Another objection was in the multiplicity of machinery and the
difficulty in maintaining four driving wheels all of exactly the
same size. Some means, however, of getting more adhesion
must be had, and the result of his reflections upon this subject
was the project of a "geared engine." In August, 1839, he
took steps to secure a patent for such a machine, and December
31, 1840, letters patent were granted him for the device. In this
engine an independent shaft or axle was placed between the two
axles of the truck, and connected by cranks and coupling rods
with cranks on the outside of the driving wheels. This shaft
28 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
had a central cog-wheel engaging on each side with intermediate
cog-wheels, which in turn geared into cog-wheels on each truck
axle. The intermediate cog-wheels had wide teeth, so that the
truck could pivot while the main shaft remained parallel with the
driving axle. The diameters of the cog-wheels were, of course,
in such proportion to the driving and truck wheels that the
latter should revolve as much oftener than the drivers as their
smaller size might require. Of the success of this machine for
freight service, Mr. Baldwin was very sanguine. One was
put in hand at once, completed in August, 1841, and eventually
sold to the Sugarloaf Coal Company. It was an inside-con-
nected engine, weighing thirty thousand pounds, of which eleven
thousand seven hundred and seventy-five pounds were on the
drivers, and eighteen thousand three hundred and thirty-five on
the truck. The driving wheels were forty-four and the truck
wheels thirty-three inches in diameter. The cylinders were thir-
teen inches in diameter by sixteen inches stroke. On a trial of
the engine upon the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, it hauled
five hundred and ninety tons from Reading to Philadelphia —
a distance of fifty-four miles — in five hours and twenty-two
minutes. The superintendent of the road, in writing of the
trial, remarked that this train was unprecedented in length
and weight both in America and Europe. The performance
was noticed in favorable terms by the Philadelphia newspapers,
and was made the subject of a report by the Committee on
Science and Arts of the Franklin Institute, who strongly recom-
mended this plan of engine for freight service. The success
of the trial led Mr. Baldwin at first to believe that the geared
engine would be generally adopted for freight traffic; but in
this he was disappointed. No further demand was made for
such machines, and no more of them were built.
In 1840, Mr. Baldwin received an order, through August
Belmont, Esq., of New York, for a locomotive for Austria, and
had nearly completed one which was calculated to do the work
required, when he learned that only sixty pounds pressure of
steam was admissible, whereas his engine was designed to use
steam at one hundred pounds and over. He accordingly con-
structed another, meeting this requirement, and shipped it in the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 29
following year. This engine, it may be noted, had a kind of
link motion, agreeably to the specification received, and was the
first of his make upon which the link was introduced.
Mr. Baldwin's patent of December 31, 1840, already referred
to as covering his geared engine, embraced several other devices,
as follows:
1. A method of operating a fan, or blowing wheel, for the
purpose of blowing the fire. The fan was to be placed under
the footboard, and driven by the friction of a grooved pulley in
contact with the flange of the driving wheel.
2. The substitution of a metallic stuffing consisting of
wire, for the hemp, wool, or other material which had been
employed in stuffing boxes.
3. The placing of the springs of the engine truck so as to
obviate the evil of the locking of the wheels when the truck
frame vibrates from the center pin vertically. Spiral as well as
semi-elliptic springs, placed at each end of the truck frame, were
specified. The spiral spring is described as received in two cups,
one above and one below. The cups were connected together
at their centers, by a pin upon one and a socket in the other, so
that the cups could approach toward or recede from each other
and still preserve their parallelism.
4. An improvement in the manner of constructing the iron
frames of locomotives, by making the pedestals in one piece with,
and constituting part of, the frames.
5. The employment of spiral springs in connection with
cylindrical pedestals and boxes. A single spiral was at first
used, but, not proving sufficiently strong, a combination or nest
of spirals curving alternately in opposite directions was after-
ward employed. Each spiral had its bearing in a spiral recess
in the pedestal.
In the specification of this patent a change in the method of
making cylindrical pedestals and boxes is noted. Instead of
boring and turning them in a lathe, they were cast to the required
shape in chills. This method of construction was used for a
time, but eventually a return was made to the original plan, as
giving a more accurate job.
In 1842, Mr. Baldwin constructed, under an arrangement
30
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
with Mr. Ross Winans, three locomotives for the Western Rail-
road of Massachusetts, on a plan which had been designed by
that gentleman for freight traffic. These machines had upright
BALDWIN SIX-WHEELS-CONNECTED ENGINE, 1842
boilers and horizontal cylinders, which worked cranks on a shaft
bearing cog-wheels engaging with other cog-wheels on an inter-
mediate shaft. This latter shaft had cranks coupled to four
driving wheels on each side. These engines were constructed
to burn anthracite coal. Their peculiarly uncouth appearance
earned for them the name of "crabs," and they were but short-
lived in service.
BALDWIN FLEXIBLE BEAM TRUCK, 1842 — ELEVATION
But to return to the progress of Mr. Baldwin's locomotive
practice. Only eight engines were built in 1841. The geared
engine had not proved a success. It was unsatisfactory, as well
to its designer as to the railroad community. The problem of
utilizing more or all of the weight of the engine for adhesion
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 31
remained, in Mr. Baldwin's view, yet to be solved. The plan
of coupling four or six wheels had long before been adopted in
England, but on the short curves prevalent on American railroads
he felt that something more was necessary. The wheels must not
only be coupled, but at the same time must be free to adapt
themselves to a curve. These two conditions were apparently in-
compatible, and to reconcile these inconsistencies was the task
which Mr. Baldwin set himself to accomplish. He undertook it,
too, at a time when his business had fallen off greatly and he was
involved in the most serious financial embarrassments. The
problem was constantly before him, and at length, during a
sleepless night, its solution flashed across his mind. The plan
so long sought for, and which, subsequently more than any other
of his improvements or inventions, contributed to the foundation
of his fortune, was his well-known six-wheels-connected locomo-
D U U
BALDWIN FLEXIBLE BEAM TRUCK, 1842 — HALF PLAN
tive with the four front drivers combined in a flexible truck. For
this machine Mr. Baldwin secured a patent, August 25, 1842.
Its principal characteristic features are now matters of history,
but they deserve here a brief mention. The engine was on six
wheels, all connected as drivers. The rear wheels were placed
rigidly in the frames, usually behind the firebox, with inside
bearings. The cylinders were inclined, and with outside connec-
tions. The four remaining wheels had inside journals running
in boxes held by two wide and deep wrought-iron beams, one on
each side. These beams were unconnected, and entirely independ-
ent of each other. The pedestals formed in them were bored out
cylindrically, and into them cylindrical boxes, as patented by him
in 1835, were fitted. The engine frame on each side was directly
over the beam, and a spherical pin, running down from the frame,
bore in a socket in the beam midway between the two axles. It
32 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
will thus be seen that each side beam independently could turn
horizontally or vertically under the spherical pin, and the cylin-
drical boxes could also turn in the pedestals. Hence, in passing a
curve, the middle pair of drivers could move laterally in one
direction — say to the right — while the front pair could move in
the opposite direction, or to the left; the two axles all the while
remaining parallel to each other and to the rear driving axle.
The operation of these beams was therefore like that of the
parallel ruler. On a straight line the two beams and the two
axles formed a rectangle; on curves, a parallelogram, the angles
varying with the degree of curvature. The coupling rods were
made with cylindrical brasses, thus forming ball-and-socket
joints, to enable them to accommodate themselves to the lateral
movements of the wheels. Colburn, in his "Locomotive Engi-
neering," remarks of this arrangement of rods as follows:
"Geometrically, no doubt, this combination of wheels could only work
properly around curves by a lengthening and shortening of the rods which
served to couple the principal pair of driving wheels with the hind truck
wheels. But if the coupling rods from the principal pair of driving wheels
be five feet long, and if the beams of the truck frame be four feet long (the
radius of curve described by the axle boxes around the spherical side bearings
being two feet), then the total corresponding lengthening of the coupling rods,
in order to allow the hind truck wheels to move one inch to one side, and the
front wheels of the truck one inch to the other side of their normal position
on a straight line would be /602 + 12— 60+24— ^24*— 1* =0.0275 inch, or
less than one thirty-second of an inch. And if only one pair of driving wheels
were thus coupled with a four-wheeled truck, the total wheel base being nine
feet, the motion permitted by this slight elongation of the coupling rods (an
elongation provided for by a trifling slackness in the brasses) would enable
three pairs of wheels to stand without binding in a curve of only one hundred
feet radius."
The first engine of the new plan was finished early in Decem-
ber, 1842, being one of fourteen engines constructed in that year,
and was sent to the Georgia Railroad, on the order of Mr. J.
Edgar Thomson, then Chief Engineer and Superintendent of
that line. It weighed twelve tons, and drew, besides its own
weight, two hundred and fifty tons up a grade of thirty-six feet to
the mile.
Other orders soon followed. The new machine was received
generally with great favor. The loads hauled by it exceeded
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN7 LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 33
anything so far known in American railroad practice, and saga-
cious managers hailed it as a means of largely reducing operating
expenses. On the Central Railroad of Georgia, one of these
twelve-ton engines drew nineteen eight-wheeled cars, with seven
hundred and fifty bales of cotton, each bale weighing four hun-
dred and fifty pounds, over maximum grades of thirty feet per
mile, and the manager of the road declared that it could readily
take one thousand bales. On the Philadelphia and Reading Rail-
road a similar engine of eighteen tons weight drew one hundred
and fifty loaded cars (total weight of cars and lading, one thou-
sand one hundred and thirty tons) from Schuylkill Haven to
Philadelphia, at a speed of seven miles per hour. The regular
load was one hundred loaded cars, which were hauled at a speed
of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour on a level.
The following extract from a letter, dated August 10, 1844,
of Mr. G. A. Nicolls, then superintendent of that line, gives the
particulars of the performance of these machines, and shows the
estimation in which they were held :
"We have had two of these engines in operation for about four weeks.
Each engine weighs about forty thousand pounds with water and fuel, equally
distributed on six wheels, all of which are coupled, thus gaining the whole
adhesion of the engine's weight. Their cylinders are fifteen by eighteen inches.
"The daily allotted load of each of these engines is one hundred coal
cars, each loaded with three and six-tenths tons of coal, and weighing two
and fifteen one-hundredths tons each, empty; making a net weight of three
hundred and sixty tons of coal carried, and a gross weight of train of five
hundred and seventy-five tons, all of two thousand two hundred and forty
pounds.
"This train is hauled over the ninety-four miles of the road, half of
which is level, at the rate of twelve miles per hour; and with it the engine
is able to make fourteen to fifteen miles per hour on a level.
"Were all the cars on the road of sufficient strength, and making the
trip by daylight, nearly one-half being now performed at night, I have no
doubt of these engines being quite equal to a load of eight hundred tons
gross, as their average daily performance on any of the levels of our road,
some of which are eight miles long.
"In strength of make, quality of workmanship, finish, and proportion
of parts, I consider them equal to any, and superior to most, freight engines
I have seen. They are remarkably easy on the rails, either in their vertical
or horizontal action, from the equalization of their weight, and the improved
truck under the forward part of the engine. This latter adapts itself to all
34 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
the curves of the road, including some of seven hundred and sixteen feet
radius in the main track, and moves with great ease around our turning Y
curves at Richmond, of about three hundred feet radius.
"I consider these engines as near perfection, in the arrangement of
their parts, and their general efficiency, as the present improvements in
machinery and the locomotive engine will admit of. They are saving us
thirty per cent, in every trip on the former cost of motive or engine power."
But the flexible beam truck also enabled Mr. Baldwin to
meet the demand for an engine with four .drivers connected.
Other builders were making engines with four drivers and a four-
wheeled truck, of the present American standard type. To
compete with this design, Mr. Baldwin modified his six- wheels-
connected engine by connecting only two of the three pairs
of wheels as drivers, making the forward wheels of smaller
diameter as leading wheels, but combining them with the front
drivers in a flexible beam truck. The first engine on this plan
was sent to the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, in October, 1843,
and gave great satisfaction. The superintendent of the road was
enthusiastic in its praise, and wrote to Mr. Baldwin that he
doubted "if anything could be got up which would answer the
business of the road so well." One was also sent to the Utica
and Schenectady Railroad a few weeks later, of which the super-
intendent remarked that "it worked beautifully, and there were
not wagons enough to give it a full load." In this plan the
leading wheels were usually made thirty-six and the drivers fifty-
four inches in diameter.
This machine, of course, came in competition with the
eight-wheeled engine having four drivers, and Mr. Baldwin
claimed for his plan a decided superiority. In each case about
two-thirds of the total weight was carried on the four drivers,
and Mr. Baldwin maintained that his engine, having only six
instead of eight wheels, was simpler and more effective.
At about this period Mr. Baldwin's attention was called by
Mr. Levi Bissell to an "Air-spring" which the latter had devised,
and which it was imagined was destined to be a cheap, effective,
and perpetual spring. The device consisted of a small cylinder
placed above the frame over the axle box, and having a piston
fitted air-tight into it. The piston rod was to bear on the axle
box and the proper quantity of air was to be pumped into the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 35
cylinder above the piston, and the cylinder then hermetically
closed. The piston had a leather packing which was to be
kept moist by some fluid (molasses was proposed) previously
introduced into the cylinder. Mr. Baldwin at first proposed to
equalize the weight between the two pairs of drivers by connect-
ing two air springs on each side by a pipe, the use of an equaliz-
ing beam being covered by Messrs. Eastwick & Harrison's patent.
The air springs were found, however, not to work practically,
and were never applied. It may be added that a model of an
equalizing air spring was exhibited by Mr. Joseph Harrison, Jr.,
at the Franklin Institute, in 1838 or 1839.
With the introduction of the new machine, business began
at once to revive, and the tide of prosperity turned once more in
Mr. Baldwin's favor. Twelve engines were constructed in 1843,
all but four of them of the new pattern; twenty-two engines in
1844, all of the new pattern; and twenty-seven in 1845. Three
of this number were of the old type, with one pair of drivers,
but from that time forward the old pattern with the single pair
of drivers disappeared from the practice of the establishment,
save occasionally for exceptional purposes.
In 1842, the partnership with Mr. Vail was dissolved, and
Mr. Asa Whitney, who had been superintendent of the Mohawk
and Hudson Railroad, became a partner with Mr. Baldwin, and
the firm continued as Baldwin & Whitney until 1846, when the
latter withdrew to engage in the manufacture of car wheels,
establishing the firm of A. Whitney & Sons, Philadelphia.
Mr. Whitney brought to the firm a railroad experience and
thorough business talent. He introduced a system in many
details of the management of the business, which Mr. Baldwin,
whose mind was devoted more exclusively to mechanical sub-
jects, had failed to establish or wholly ignored. The method at
present in use in the establishment, of giving to each class of
locomotives a distinctive designation, composed of a number and
a letter, originated very shortly after Mr. Whitney's connection
with the business. For the purpose of representing the different
designs, sheets with engravings of locomotives were employed.
The sheet showing the engine with one pair of drivers was
marked B; that with two pairs, C; that with three, D; and that
36 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
with four, E. Taking its rise from this circumstance, it became
customary to designate as B engines those with one pair of
drivers; as C engines, those with two pairs; as D engines, those
with three pairs ; and as E engines, those with four pairs. Shortly
afterward, a number, indicating the weight in gross tons, was
added. Thus the 12 D engine was one with three pairs of
drivers and weighing twelve tons; the 12 C, an engine of same
weight, but with only four wheels connected. A modification
of this method of designating the several plans and sizes is still
in use.
It will be observed that the classification as thus established
began with the B engines. The letter A was reserved for an
engine intended to run at very high speeds, and so designed that
the driving wheels should make two revolutions for each recipro-
cation of the pistons. This was to be accomplished by means of
gearing. The general plan of the engine was determined in Mr.
Baldwin's mind, but was never carried into execution.
The adoption of the plan of six-wheels-connected engines
opened the way at once to increasing their size. The weight
being almost evenly distributed on six points, heavier machines
were admissible, the weight on any one pair of drivers being
little, if any, greater than had been the practice with the old
plan of engine having a single pair of drivers. Hence, engines
of eighteen and twenty tons weight were shortly introduced, and
in 1844, three of twenty tons weight, with cylinders sixteen and
one-half inches diameter by eighteen inches stroke, were con-
structed for the Western Railroad of Massachusetts, and six of
eighteen tons weight, with cylinders fifteen by eighteen, and
drivers forty-six inches in diameter, were built for the Philadel-
phia and Reading Railroad. It should be noted that three of
these latter engines had iron flues. This was the first instance
in which Mr. Baldwin had employed tubes of this material,
although they had been previously used by others. Lap-welded
iron flues were made by Morris, Tasker & Co., of Philadelphia,
about 1838, and butt-welded iron tubes had previously been made
by the same firm. Ross Winans, of Baltimore, had also made
iron tubes by hand for locomotives of his manufacture, before
1838. The advantage found to result from the use of iron tubes,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN* LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
apart from their less cost, was that the tubes and boiler shell,
being of the same material, expanded and contracted alike, while
in the case of copper tubes, the expansion of the metal by heat
varied from that of the boiler shell, and as a consequence there
was greater liability to leakage at the joints with the tube sheets.
The opinion prevailed largely at that time that some advantage
resulted in the evaporation of water, owing to the superiority of
copper as a conductor of heat. To determine this question, an
experiment was tried with two of the six engines referred to
above, one of which, the "Ontario," had copper flues, and
another, the "New England," iron flues. In other respects they
were precisely alike. The two engines were run from Richmond
to Mount Carbon, August 27, 1844, each drawing a train of one
hundred and one empty cars, and returning from Mount Carbon
to Richmond on the following day, each with one hundred
loaded cars. The quantity of water evaporated and wood con-
sumed was noted, with the result shown in the following table:
Up Trip, Aug. 27, 1844
Down Trip, Aug. 28, 1844
"Ontario"
(Copper
Flues)
"New
England"
(Iron Flues)
"Ontario"
(Copper
Flues)
"New
England "
(Iron Flues)
Time, running
Time, standing at stations . . .
9h. 7m.
4h. 2m.
6.68
925.75
138.57
7h. 41m.
3h. 7m.
5.50
757.26
137.68
10h. 44m.
2h. 12m.
6.94
837.46
120.67
8h. 19m.
3h. 8m.
6.00
656.39
109.39
Cubic feet of water evaporated
Ratio, cubic feet of water to
a cord of wood
The conditions of the experiments not being absolutely the
same in each case, the results could not of course be accepted
as entirely accurate. They seemed to show, however, no con-
siderable difference in the evaporative efficacy of copper and iron
tubes.
The period under consideration was marked also by the intro-
duction of the French & Baird stack, which proved at once to
be one of the most successful spark-arresters thus far employed,
and which was for years used almost exclusively wherever, as
on the cot ton -carry ing railroads of the South, a thoroughly
38 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
effective spark-arrester was required. This stack was introduced
by Mr. Baird, then a foreman in the Works, who purchased
the patent right of what had been known as the Grimes stack,
and combined with it some of the features of the stack made
by Mr. Richard French, then Master Mechanic of the German-
town Railroad, together with certain improvements of his own.
The cone over the straight inside pipe was made with volute
flanges on its under side, which gave a rotary motion to the
sparks. Around the cone was a casing about six inches smaller
in diameter than the outside stack. Apertures were cut in the
sides of the casing, through which the sparks in their rotary
motion were discharged, and thus fell to the bottom of the space
between the straight inside pipe and the outside stack. The
opening in the top of the stack was fitted with a series of V-shaped
iron circles perforated with numerous holes, thus presenting
an enlarged area, through which the smoke escaped. The
patent right for this stack was subsequently sold to Messrs.
Radley & Hunter, and its essential principle is still used in
the Radley & Hunter stack. The Rushton wood-burning stack,
as now built, is a further improvement on the Radley & Hunter,
in that the design has been simplified, the draft obstruction
reduced, and the stack made more effective as a spark arrester.
During the year 1844 another important feature in locomo-
tive construction — the cut-off valve — was added to Mr. Baldwin's
practice. Up to that time the valve motion had been the two
eccentrics, with the single flat hook for each cylinder. Since
1841, Mr. Baldwin had contemplated the addition of some device
allowing the steam to be used expansively, and he now added
the "half-stroke cut-off." In this device the steam chest was
separated by a horizontal plate into an upper and a lower com-
partment. In the upper compartment, a valve, worked by a
separate eccentric, and having a single opening, admitted steam
through a port in this plate to the lower steam chamber. The
valve rod of the upper valve terminated in a notch or hook,
which engaged with the upper arm of its rock shaft. When
thus working, it acted as a cut-off at a fixed part of the stroke,
determined by the setting of the eccentric. This was usually at
half the stroke. When it was desired to dispense with the cut-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 39
off and work steam for the full stroke, the hook of the valve rod
was lifted from the pin on the upper arm of the rock shaft by a
lever worked from the footboard, and the valve rod was held in
a notched rest fastened to the side of the boiler. This left the
opening through the upper valve and the port in the partition
plate open for the free passage of steam throughout the whole
stroke. The first application of the half-stroke cut-off was made
on the engine "Atlantic" (20 D), built for the Western Rail-
road of Massachusetts in 1844. It at once became the practice
to apply the cut-off on all passenger engines, while the six- and
eight-wheels-connected freight engines were, with a few excep-
tions, built for a time longer with the single valve admitting steam
for the full stroke.
In 1845, Mr. Baldwin built three locomotives for the Royal
Railroad Company of Wiirtemberg. They were of fifteen tons
weight, on six wheels, four of them being sixty inches in diameter
and coupled. The front drivers were combined by the flexible
beams into a truck with the smaller leading wheels. The
cylinders were inclined and outside, and the connecting rods took
hold of a half-crank axle back of the firebox. It was specified
that these engines should have the link motion which had shortly
before been introduced in England by the Stephensons. Mr.
Baldwin accordingly applied a link of a peculiar character to
suit his own ideas of the device. The link was made solid, and
of a truncated V-section, and the block was grooved so as to fit
and slide on the outside of the link.
After building, during the years 1843, 1844 and 1845, ten
four-wheels-connected engines on the plan above described, viz. :
six wheels in all, the leading wheels and the front drivers being
combined into a truck by the flexible beams, Mr. Baldwin finally
adopted the present design of four drivers and a four-wheeled
truck. Some of his customers who were favorable to the latter
plan had ordered such machines of other builders, and Colonel
Gadsden, President of the South Carolina Railroad Company,
called on him in 1845 to build for that line some passenger
engines of this pattern. He accordingly bought the patent right
for this plan of engine of Mr. H. R. Campbell, and for the equaliz-
ing beams used between the drivers, of Messrs. Eastwick &
40 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Harrison, and delivered to the South Carolina Railroad Com-
pany, in December, 1845, his first eight-wheeled engine with
four drivers and a four-wheeled truck. This machine had cylin-
ders thirteen and three-quarters by eighteen inches, and drivers
sixty inches in diameter, with the springs between them arranged
as equalizers. Its weight was fifteen tons. It had the half-crank
axle, the cylinders being inside the frame but outside the smoke-
box. The inside-connected engine, counterweighting being as
yet unknown, was admitted to be steadier in running, and hence
more suitable for passenger service. With the completion of
the first eight-wheeled "C" engine, Mr. Baldwin's feelings
underwent a revulsion in favor of this plan, and his partiality for
it became as great as had been his antipathy before. Comment-
ing on the machine, he recorded himself as "more pleased with its
appearance and action than any engine he had turned out." In
addition to the three engines of this description for the South
Carolina Railroad Company, a duplicate was sent to the Camden
and Amboy Railroad Company, and a similar but lighter one
to the Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, shortly
afterward. The engine for the Camden and Amboy Railroad
Company, and perhaps the others, had the half-stroke cut-off.
From that time forward all of his four-wheels-connected
machines were built on this plan, and the six-wheeled "C" engine
was abandoned, except in the case of one built for the Phila-
delphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company, in
1846, and this was afterward rebuilt into a six-wheels-connected
machine. Three methods of carrying out the general design
were, however, subsequently followed. At first the half-crank
was used; then horizontal cylinders inclosed in the chimney
seat and working a full-crank axle, which form of construction
had been practiced at the Lowell Works ; and eventually outside
cylinders with outside connections.
Meanwhile, the flexible truck machine maintained its popu-
larity for heavy freight service. All the engines thus far built on
this plan had been six- wheeled, some with the rear driving axle
back of the firebox, and others with it in front. The next step,
following logically after the adoption of the eight- wheeled "C"
engine, was to increase the size of the freight machine, and dis-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
41
tribute the weight on eight wheels all connected, the two rear
pairs being rigid in the frame, and the two front pairs combined
into the flexible-beam truck. This was first done in 1846, when
seventeen engines on this plan were constructed on one order for
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. Fifteen of
these were of twenty tons weight, with cylinders fifteen and one-
half by twenty inches, and wheels forty-six inches in diameter; and
two of twenty-five tons weight, with cylinders seventeen and one-
quarter by eighteen inches, and drivers forty-two inches in diam-
BALDWIN EIGHT-WHEELS-CONNECTED ENGINE, 1846
eter. These engines were the first on which Mr. Baldwin placed
sand boxes, and they were also the first built by him with roofs.
On all previous engines the footboard had only been inclosed by a
railing. On these engines for the Reading Railroad four iron
posts were carried up, and a wooden roof supported by them.
The engine men added curtains at the sides and front, and Mr.
Baldwin on subsequent engines added sides, with sash and glass.
The cab proper, however, was of New England origin, where
the severity of the climate demanded it, and where it had been
used previous to this period.
Forty-two engines were completed in 1846, and thirty-nine
in 1847. The only novelty to be noted among them was the
engine "M. G. Bright," built for operating the inclined plane on
the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. The rise of this incline
was one in seventeen, from the bank of the Ohio River at Madison.
The engine had eight wheels, forty-two inches in diameter, con-
nected, and worked in the usual manner by outside inclined
42 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
cylinders, fifteen and one-half inches diameter by twenty inches
stroke. A second pair of cylinders, seventeen inches in diameter
with eighteen inches stroke of piston was placed vertically over
the boiler, midway between the furnace and smoke arch. The
connecting rods, worked by these cylinders, connected with
cranks on a shaft under the boiler. This shaft carried a single
cog-wheel at its center, and this cog-wheel engaged with another
of about twice its diameter on a second shaft adjacent to it and
in the same plane. The cog-wheel on this latter shaft worked
in a rack-rail placed in the center of the track. The shaft
itself had its bearings in the lower ends of two vertical rods, one
on each side of the boiler, and these rods were united over the
boiler by a horizontal bar, which was connected by means of a
bent lever and con-
necting rod to the
piston worked by a
small horizontal cylin-
der placed on top of
the boiler. By means
of this cylinder, the
yoke carrying the
shaft and cog-wheel
BALDWIN ENGINE FOR RACK RAIL, 1847 COuld be depressed
and held down so as
to engage the cogs with the rack-rail, or raised out of the way
when only the ordinary drivers were required. This device was
designed by Mr. Andrew Cathcart, Master Mechanic of the
Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. A similar machine, the
"John Brough," for the same plane, was built by Mr. Baldwin
in 1850. The incline was worked with a rack-rail and these
engines until it was finally abandoned and a line with easier
gradients substituted.
The use of iron tubes in freight engines grew in favor, and
in October, 1847, Mr. Baldwin noted that he was fitting his flues
with copper ends, "for riveting to the boiler."
The subject of burning coal continued to engage much atten-
tion, but the use of anthracite had not as yet been generally
successful. In October, 1847, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 43
Company advertised for proposals for four engines to burn
Cumberland coal, and the order was taken and partially filled by
Mr. Baldwin with three eight-wheels-connected machines. These
engines had a heater on top of the boiler for heating the feed
water, and a grate with a rocking bar in the center, having fingers
on each side which interlocked with projections on fixed bars, one
in front and one behind. The rocking bar was operated from the
footboard. This appears to have been the first instance of the
use of a rocking grate in the practice of these Works.
The year 1848 showed a falling off in business, and only
twenty engines were turned out. In the following year, however,
there was a rapid recovery, and the production of the Works
increased to thirty, followed by thirty-seven in 1850, and fifty in
1851. These engines, with a few exceptions, were confined to
three patterns: the eight-wheeled four-coupled engine, from
twelve to nineteen tons in weight, for passengers and freight, and
the six and eight-wheels-connected engines, for freight exclusively,
the six-wheeled machine weighing from twelve to seventeen tons,
and the eight-wheeled from eighteen to twenty-seven tons. The
drivers of these six- and eight-wheels-connected machines were
made generally forty-two, with occasional variations up to forty-
eight inches in diameter.
The exceptions referred to above were the fast passenger
engines built by Mr. Baldwin during this period. Early in 1848,
the Vermont Central Railroad was approaching completion,
and Governor Paine, the President of the Company, conceived
the idea that the passenger service on the road required loco-
motives capable of running at very high velocities. Henry
R. Campbell, Esq., was a contractor in building the line, and
was authorized by Governor Paine to come to Philadelphia
and offer Mr. Baldwin ten thousand dollars for a locomotive
which could run with a passenger train at a speed of sixty
miles per hour. Mr. Baldwin at once undertook to meet these
conditions. The work was begun early in 1848, and in March
of that year Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat for his design. The
engine was completed in 1849, and was named the "Governor
Paine." It had one pair of driving wheels, six and one-half feet
in diameter, placed back of the firebox. Another pair of wheels,
44
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
but smaller and unconnected, was placed directly in front of
the firebox, and a four-wheeled truck carried the front of the
engine. The cylinders were seventeen and one-quarter inches
diameter and twenty inches stroke, and were placed horizontally
between the frames and the boiler at about the middle of the
waist. The connecting rods took hold of "half-cranks" inside
of the driving wheels. The object of placing the cylinders at the
middle of the boiler was to lessen or obviate the lateral motion
of the engine, produced when the cylinders were attached to the
smoke arch. The bearings on the two rear axles were so con-
trived that by means of a lever, a part of the weight of the
engine usually carried on the wheels in front of the firebox could
be transferred to the driving axle. The "Governor Paine" was
BALDWIN FAST PASSENGER ENGINE, 1848
used for several years on the Vermont Central Railroad, and
then rebuilt into a four-coupled machine. During its career, it
was stated by the officers of the road that it had run a mile in
forty-three seconds. Three engines on the same plan, but with
cylinders fourteen by twenty inches, and six-feet driving wheels,
the "MifBin," "Blair" and "Indiana," were also built for the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1849. They weighed each
about forty-seven thousand pounds, distributed as follows:
Eighteen thousand on the drivers, fourteen thousand on the pair
of wheels in front of the firebox, and fifteen thousand on the
truck. By applying the lever, the weight on the drivers could be
increased to about twenty-four thousand pounds, the weight
on the wheels in front of the firebox being correspondingly
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 45
reduced. A speed of four miles in three minutes is recorded for
them, and upon one occasion President Taylor was taken in a
special train over the road by one of these machines at a speed of
sixty miles an hour. One other engine of this pattern, the "Sus-
quehanna," was built for the Hudson River Railroad Company
in 1850. Its cylinders were fifteen inches diameter by twenty
inches stroke, and drivers six feet in diameter. All these engines,
however, were short-lived, and died of insufficient adhesion.
Eight engines, with four drivers connected and half-crank
axles, were built for the New York and Erie Railroad Company
in 1849, with seventeen by twenty-inch cylinders; one-half of the
number with six-feet and the rest with five-feet drivers. These
machines were among the last on which the half-crank axle was
used. Thereafter, outside-connected engines were constructed
almost exclusively.
In May, 1848, Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat for a four-cylinder
locomotive, but never carried the design into execution. The
first instance of the use of steel axles in the practice of the
establishment occurred during the same year — a set being placed
as an experiment under an engine constructed for the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad Company. In 1850, the old form of dome boiler,
which had characterized the Baldwin engine since 1834, was
abandoned, and the wagon-top form substituted.
The business in 1851 had reached the full capacity of the
shop, and the next year marked the completion of about an equal
number of engines (forty-nine). Contracts for work extended
a year ahead, and to meet the demand, the facilities in the
various departments were increased, and resulted in the con-
struction of sixty engines in 1853, and sixty-two in 1854.
At the beginning of the latter year, Mr. Matthew Baird, who
had been connected with the Works since 1836, as one of its fore-
men, entered into partnership with Mr. Baldwin, and the style of
the firm was made M. W. Baldwin & Co.
The only novelty in the general plan of engines during this
period was the addition of a ten-wheeled engine to the patterns
of the establishment. The success of Mr. Baldwin's engines with
all six or eight wheels connected, and the two front pairs com-
bined by the parallel beams into a flexible truck, had been so
46 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
marked that it was natural that he should oppose any other
plan for freight service. The ten-wheeled engine, with six
drivers connected, had, however, now become a competitor.
This plan of engine was first patented by Septimus Norris, of
Philadelphia, in 1846, and the original design was apparently to
produce an engine which should have equal tractive power with
the Baldwin six-wheels-connected machine. This the Norris
patent sought to accomplish by proposing an engine with six
drivers connected, and so disposed as to carry substantially the
whole weight, the forward drivers being in advance of the center
of gravity of the engine, and the truck only serving as a guide,
the front of the engine being connected with it by a pivot pin,
but without a bearing on the center plate. Mr. Norris's first
engine on this plan was tried in April, 1847, and was found not
to pass curves as readily as was expected. As the truck carried
little or no weight, it would not keep the track. The New
York and Erie Railroad Company, of which John Brandt was
then Master Mechanic, shortly afterward adopted the ten-wheeled
engine, modified in plan so as to carry a part of the weight on
the truck. Mr. Baldwin filled an order for this company, in
1850, of four eight- wheels-connected engines, and in making the
contract he agreed to substitute a truck for the front pair of
wheels if desired after trial. This, however, he was not called
upon to do.
In February, 1852, Mr. J. Edgar Thomson, President of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, invited proposals for a number
of freight locomotives of fifty-six thousand pounds weight each.
They were to be adapted to burn bituminous coal, and to have
six wheels connected and a truck in front, which might be either
of two or four wheels. Mr. Baldwin secured the contract, and
built twelve engines of the prescribed dimensions, viz.: cylinders
eighteen by twenty-two; drivers forty-four inches diameter, with
chilled tires. Several of these engines were constructed with a
single pair of truck wheels in front of the drivers, but back of
the cylinders. It was found, however, after the engines were put
in service, that the two truck wheels carried eighteen or nineteen
thousand pounds, and this was objected to by the company as
too great a weight to be carried on a single pair of wheels. On
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 47
the rest of the engines of the order, therefore, a four-wheeled
truck in front was employed.
The ten-wheeled engine thereafter assumed a place in the
Baldwin classification, but it was not until after 1860 that this
type wholly superseded Mr. Baldwin's old plan of freight engine
on six or eight wheels, all connected.
In 1855-56, two locomotives of twenty-seven tons weight,
with nineteen by twenty-two inch cylinders and forty-eight inch
drivers, were built for the Portage Railroad, and three for the
Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1855, '56 and '57, fourteen of the
same dimensions were built for the Cleveland and Pittsburg Rail-
road; four for the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad;
and one for the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. In 1858 and
'59, one was constructed for the South Carolina Railroad, of the
same size, and six lighter ten-wheelers, with cylinders fifteen and
one-half by twenty-two inches, and four-feet drivers, and two
with cylinders sixteen by twenty-two inches, and four-feet drivers
were sent out to railroads in Cuba.
On three locomotives — the "Clinton," "Athens," and
"Sparta" — completed for the Central Railroad of Georgia in
July, 1852, the driving boxes were made with a slot or cavity in
the line of the vertical bearing on the journal. The object was to
produce a more uniform distribution of the wear over the entire
surface of the bearing. This was the first instance in which this
device, which has since come into general use, was employed in
the Works, and the boxes were so made by direction of Mr.
Charles Whiting, then Master Mechanic of the Central Railroad
of Georgia. He subsequently informed Mr. Baldwin that this
method of fitting up driving boxes had been in use on the road
for several years previous to his connection with the company.
As this device was subsequently made the subject of a patent by
Mr. David Matthew, these facts may not be without interest.
In 1853, Mr. Charles Ellet, Chief Engineer of the Virginia
Central Railroad, laid a temporary track across the Blue Ridge,
at Rock Fish Gap, for use during the construction of a tunnel
through the mountain. This track was twelve thousand five
hundred feet in length on the eastern slope, ascending in that
distance six hundred and ten feet, or at the average rate of one
48 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
in twenty and one-half feet. The maximum grade was calculated
for two hundred and ninety-six feet per mile, and prevailed for
half a mile. It was found, however, in fact, that the grade in
places exceeded three hundred feet per mile. The shortest radius
of curvature was two hundred and thirty-eight feet. On the
western slope, which was ten thousand six hundred and fifty
feet in length, the maximum grade was two hundred and eighty
feet per mile, and the ruling radius of curvature three hundred
feet. This track was worked by two of the Baldwin six-wheels-
connected flexible-beam truck locomotives constructed in 1853-
54. From a description of this track, and the mode of working
it, published by Mr. Ellet, in 1856, the following is extracted:
"The locomotives mainly relied on for this severe duty were designed
and constructed by the firm of M. W. Baldwin & Company, of Philadelphia.
The slight modifications introduced at the instance of the writer, to adapt
them better to the particular service to be performed in crossing the Blue
Ridge, did not touch the working proportions or principle of the engines,
the merits of which are due to the patentee, M. W. Baldwin, Esq.
"These engines are mounted on six wheels, all of which are drivers,
and coupled, and forty-two inches diameter. The wheels are set very close,
so that the distance between the extreme points of contact of the wheels
and the rail, of the front and rear drivers, is nine feet four inches. This
closeness of the wheels, of course, greatly reduces the difficulty of turning
the short curves of the road. The diameter of the cylinders is sixteen and
a half inches, and the length of the stroke twenty inches. To increase the
adhesion, and at the same time avoid the resistance of a tender, the engine
carries its tank upon the boiler, and the footboard is lengthened out and pro-
vided with suspended side boxes, where a supply of fuel may be stored.
By this means the weight of wood and water, instead of abstracting from the
effective power of the engine, contributes to its adhesion and consequent
ability to climb the mountain. The total weight of these engines is fifty-five
thousand pounds, or twenty-seven and a half tons, when the boiler and tank
are supplied with water, and fuel enough for a trip of eight miles is on board.
The capacity of the tank is sufficient to hold one hundred cubic feet of water,
and it has storage room on top for one hundred cubic feet of wood, in addition
to what may be carried in the side boxes and on the footboard.
"To enable the engines to better adapt themselves to the flexures of
the road, the front and middle pairs of drivers are held in position by wrought-
iron beams, having cylindrical boxes in each end for the journal bearings,
which beams vibrate on spherical pins fixed in the frame of the engine on each
side, and resting on the centers of the beams. The object of this arrangement
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 49
is to form a truck, somewhat flexible, which enables the drivers more readily
to traverse the curves of the road.
"The writer has never permitted the power of the engines on this moun-
tain road to be fully tested. The object has been to work the line regularly,
economically, and above all, safely; and these conditions are incompatible
with experimental loads subjecting the machinery to severe strains. The
regular daily service of each of the engines is to make four trips, of eight miles,
over the mountain, drawing one eight-wheel baggage car, together with two
eight-wheel passenger cars, in each direction.
"In conveying freight, the regular train on the mountain is three of
the eight-wheel house cars, fully loaded, or four of them when empty or
partly loaded.
"These three cars when full, weigh with their loads, from forty to
orty-three tons. Sometimes, though rarely, when the business has been
unusually heavy, the loads have exceeded fifty tons.
"With such trains the engines are stopped on the track, ascending or
descending, and are started again, on the steepest grades, at the discretion
of the engineer.
"Water for the supply of the engines has been found difficult to obtain
on the mountain; and since the road was constructed a tank has been estab-
lished on the eastern slope, where the ascending engines stop daily on a grade
of two hundred and eighty feet per mile, and are there held by the brakes while
the tank is being filled, and started again at the signal and without any
difficulty.
"The ordinary speed of the engines, when loaded, is seven and a half miles
an hour on the ascending grades, and from five and a half to six miles an hour
on the descent.
"When the road was first opened, it speedily appeared that the differ-
ence of forty-three feet on the western side, and fifty-eight on the eastern side,
between the grades on curves of three hundred feet radius and those on straight
lines, was not sufficient to compensate for the increased friction due to such
curvature. The velocity, with a constant supply of steam, was promptly
retarded on passing from a straight line to a curve, and promptly accelerated
again on passing from the curve to the straight line. But, after a little
experience in the working of the road, it was found advisable to supply a
small amount of grease to the flange of the engine by means of a sponge,
saturated with oil, which, when needed, is kept in contact with the wheel
by a spring. Since the use of the oil was introduced, the difficulty of turning
the curves has been so far diminished that it is no longer possible to determine
whether grades of two hundred and thirty-seven and six-tenths feet per mile
on curves of three hundred feet radius, or grades of two hundred and ninety-
six feet per mile on straight lines, are traversed most rapidly by the engine.
"When the track is in good condition, the brakes of only two of the
cars possess sufficient power to control and regulate the movement of the
train — that is to say, they will hold back the two cars and the engine. When
50 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
there are three or more cars in the train, the brakes on the cars, of course,
command the train so much the more easily.
"But the safety of the train is not dependent on the brakes of the car.
There is also a valve or air cock in the steam chest, under the control of
the engineer. This air cock forms an independent brake, exclusively at the
command of the engineer, and which can always be applied when the engine
itself is in working order. The action of this power may be made ever so
gradual, either slightly relieving the duty of the brakes on the cars, or bringing
into play the entire power of the engine. The train is thus held in complete
command."
The Mountain Top Track, it may be added, was worked
successfully for several years by the engines described in the
above extract, until it was abandoned on the completion of the
tunnel. The exceptionally steep grades and short curves which
characterized the line afforded a complete and satisfactory test
of the adaptation of these machines to such peculiar service.
But the period now under consideration was marked by
another and a most important step in the progress of American
locomotive practice. We refer to the introduction of the link
motion. Although this device was first employed by William
T. James, of New York, in 1832, and eleven years later by the
Stephensons, in England, and was by them applied thence-
forward on their engines, it was not until 1849 that it was adopted
in this country. In that year Mr. Thomas Rogers, of the Rogers
Locomotive and Machine Company, introduced it in his practice.
Other builders, however, strenuously resisted the innovation, and
none more so than Mr. Baldwin. The theoretical objections
which confessedly apply to the device, but which practically have
been proved to be unimportant, were urged from the first by Mr.
Baldwin as arguments against its use. The strong claim of the
advocates of the link motion, that it gave a means of cutting off
steam at any point of the stroke, could not be gainsaid, and this
was admitted to be a<consideration of the first importance. This
very circumstance undoubtedly turned Mr. Baldwin's attention
to the subject of methods for cutting off steam, and one of the
first results was his "Variable Cut-off," patented April 27, 1852.
This device consisted of two valves, the upper sliding upon the
lower, and worked by an eccentric and rock shaft in the usual
manner. The lower valve fitted steam-tight to the sides of the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 51
steam chest and the under surface of the upper valve. When
the piston reached each end of its stroke, the full pressure of
steam from the boiler was admitted around the upper valve, and
transferred the lower valve instantaneously from one end of the
steam chest to the other. The openings through the two valves
were so arranged that steam was admitted to the cylinder only
for a part of the stroke. The effect was, therefore, to cut off
steam at a given point, and to open the induction and exhaust
ports substantially at the same instant and to their full extent.
The exhaust port, in addition, remained fully opened while the
induction port was gradually closing, and after it had entirely
closed. Although this device was never put in use, it may be
noted in passing that it contained substantially the principle of
the steam pump, as since patented and constructed.
Early in 1853 Mr. Baldwin abandoned the half-stroke cut-off
previously described, and which he had been using since 1845,
and adopted the variable cut-off, which was already employed by
other builders. One of his letters, written in January, 1853,
states his position as follows:
"I shall put on an improvement in the shape of a variable cut-off, which
can be operated by the engineer while the machine is running, and which will
cut off anywhere from six to twelve inches, according to the load and amount
of steam wanted, and this without the link motion, which I could never be
entirely satisfied with. I still have the independent cut-off, and the additional
machinery to make it variable will be simple and not liable to be deranged."
This form of cut-off was a separate valve, sliding on a parti-
tion plate between it and the main steam valve, and worked by an
independent eccentric and rock shaft. The upper arm of the
rock shaft was curved so as to form a radius arm, on which a
sliding block, forming the termination of the upper valve rod,
could be adjusted and held at varying distances from the axis,
thus producing a variable travel of the upper valve. This device
did not give an absolutely perfect cut-off, as it was not operative
in backward gear, but when running forward it would cut off
with great accuracy at any point of the stroke, was quick in its
movement, and economical in the consumption of fuel.
After a short experience with this arrangement of the cut-off,
the partition plate was omitted, and the upper valve was made to
52 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
slide directly on the lower. This was eventually found objec-
tionable, however, as the lower valve would soon cut a hollow in
the valve face. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to
remedy this defect by making the lower valve of brass, with long
bearings, and making the valve face of the cylinder of hardened
steel; finally, however, the plan of one valve on the other was
abandoned, and recourse was again had to an interposed par-
tition plate, as in the original half-stroke cut-off.
VARIABLE CUT-OFF ADJUSTMENT
Mr. Baldwin did not adopt this form of cut-off without some
modification of his own, and the modification in this instance con-
sisted of a peculiar device, patented September 13, 1853, for rais-
ing and lowering the block on the radius arm. A quadrant was
placed so that its circumference bore nearly against a curved arm
projecting down from the sliding block, and which curved in
the reverse direction from the quadrant. Two steel straps, side
by side, were interposed between the quadrant and this curved
arm. One of the straps was connected to the lower end of the
quadrant and the upper end of the curved arm; the other, to the
upper end of the quadrant and the lower end of the curved arm.
The effect was the same as if the quadrant and arm geared into
each other in any position by teeth, and theoretically the block
was kept steady in whatever position placed on the radius arm of
the rock shaft. This was the object sought to be accomplished,
and was stated in the specification of the patent as follows:
"The principle of varying the cut-off by means of a vibrating arm and
sliding pivot block has long been known, but the contrivances for changing
the position of the block upon the arm have been very defective. The radius
of motion of the link by which the sliding block is changed on the arm, and
the radius of motion of that part of the vibrating arm on which the block is
placed, have, in this kind of valve gear, as heretofore constructed, been
different, which produced a continual rubbing of the sliding block upon the
arm while the arm is vibrating; and as the block, for the greater part of the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 53
time, occupies one position on the arm, and only has to be moved toward either
extremity occasionally, that part of the arm on which the block is most used
soon becomes so worn that the block is loose, and jars."
This method of varying the cut-off was first applied on the
engine "Belle," delivered to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany, December 6, 1854, and thereafter was for some time em-
ployed by Mr. Baldwin. It was found, however, in practice,
that the steel straps would stretch sufficiently to allow them to
buckle and break, and hence they were soon abandoned, and
chains substituted between the quadrant and curved arm of the
sliding block. These chains in turn proved little better, as they
lengthened, allowing lost motion, or broke altogether, so that
eventually the quadrant was wholly abandoned, and recourse
was finally had to the lever and link for raising and lowering the
sliding block. As thus arranged, the cut-off was substantially
what was known as the "Cuyahoga Cut-off," as introduced by
Mr. Ethan Rogers, of the Cuyahoga Works, Cleveland, Ohio,
except that Mr. Baldwin used a partition plate between the upper
and the lower valve.
But while Mr. Baldwin in common with many other builders,
was thus resolutely opposing the link motion, it was nevertheless
rapidly gaining favor with railroad managers. Engineers and
master mechanics were everywhere learning to admire its sim-
plicity, and were manifesting an enthusiastic preference for en-
gines so constructed. At length, therefore, he was forced to suc-
cumb; and the link was applied to the "Pennsylvania," one of
two engines completed for the Central Railroad of Georgia, in
February, 1854. The other engine of the order, the "New
Hampshire," had the variable cut-off, and Mr. Baldwin, while
yielding to the demand in the former engine, was undoubtedly
sanguine that the working of the latter would demonstrate the
inferiority of the new device. In this, however, he was dis-
appointed, for in the following year the same company ordered
three more engines, on which they specified the link motion. In
1856 seventeen engines for nine different companies had this form
of valve gear, and its use was thus incorporated in his practice.
It was not, however, until 1857 that he was induced to adopt it
exclusively.
54 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
February 14, 1854, Mr. Baldwin and Mr. David Clark,
Master Mechanic of the Mine Hill Railroad, took out conjointly
a patent for a feed-water heater, placed at the base of a locomo-
tive chimney, and consisting of one large vertical flue, surrounded
by a number of smaller ones. The exhaust steam was discharged
from the nozzles through the large central flue, creating a draft
of the products of combustion through the smaller surrounding
flues. The pumps forced the feed water into the chamber around
these flues, whence it passed to the boiler by a pipe from the back
of the stack. This heater was applied on several engines for the
Mine Hill Railroad, and on a few other roads; but its use was
exceptional, and lasted only for a year or two.
In December of the same year, Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat
for a variable exhaust, operated automatically by the pressure of
steam, so as to close when the pressure was lowest in the boiler,
and open with the increase of pressure. The device was never
put in service.
The use of coal, both bituminous and anthracite, as a fuel
for locomotives, had by this time become a practical success.
The economical combustion of bituminous coal, however, engaged
considerable attention. It was felt that much remained to be
accomplished in consuming the smoke and deriving the maxi-
mum of useful effect from the fuel. Mr. Baird, who was now
associated with Mr. Baldwin in the management of the business,
made this matter a subject of careful study and investigation.
An experiment was conducted under his direction, by placing a
sheet iron deflector in the firebox of an engine on the German-
town and Norristown Railroad. The success of the trial was
such as to show conclusively that a more complete combustion
resulted. As, however, a deflector formed by a single plate of
iron would soon be destroyed by the action of the fire, Mr. Baird
proposed to use a water-leg projecting upward and backward
from the front of the firebox under the flues. Drawings and a
model of the device were prepared, with a view of patenting it,
but subsequently the intention was abandoned, Mr. Baird con-
cluding that a firebrick arch as a deflector to accomplish the same
object was preferable. This was accordingly tried on two loco-
motives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1854,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 55
and was found so valuable an appliance that its use was at once
established, and it was put on a number of engines built for rail-
roads in Cuba and elsewhere. For several years the firebricks
were supported on side plugs; but in 1858, in the "Media," built
for the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad Company, water-
pipes extending from the crown obliquely downward and curving
to the sides of the firebox at the bottom, were successfully used
for the purpose.
The adoption of the link motion may be regarded as the
dividing line between the present and the early and transitional
stage of locomotive practice. Changes since that event have been
principally in matters of detail, but it is the gradual perfection
of these details which has made the locomotive the symmetrical,
efficient, and wonderfully complete piece of mechanism it is today.
The production of the establishment during the six years
from 1855 to 1860, inclusive, was as follows: forty-seven engines
in 1855; fifty-nine in 1856; sixty-six in 1857; thirty-three in 1858;
seventy in 1859; and eighty- three in 1860. The greater number
of these were of the ordinary type: four drivers coupled, and a
four-wheeled truck, and varying in weight from fifteen-ton
engines, with cylinders twelve by twenty-two inches, to twenty-
seven-ton engines, with cylinders sixteen by twenty-four inches.
A few ten-wheeled engines were built, as has been previously
noted, and the remainder were the Baldwin flexible truck six- and
eight-wheels-connected engines. The demand for these, however,
was now rapidly falling off, the ten-wheeled and heavy "C"
engines taking their place, and by 1859 they ceased to be built,
save in exceptional cases, as for some foreign roads, from which
orders for this pattern were still occasionally received.
A few novelties characterizing the engines of this period
may be mentioned. Several built in 1855 had cross-flues placed
in the firebox, under the crown, in order to increase the heating
surface. This feature, however, was found impracticable and
was soon abandoned. The intense heat to which the flues
were exposed converted the water contained in them into highly
superheated steam, which would force its way out through the
water around the firebox with violent ebullitions. Four engines,
the "Tiger," "Leopard," "Hornet" and "Wasp," were built for
56 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in 1856-57, with straight
boilers and two domes. The "Delano" grate, by means of
which the coal was forced into the firebox from below, was
applied on four ten-wheeled engines for the Cleveland and
Pittsburg Railroad in 1857. In 1859 several engines were built
with the form of boiler introduced on the Cumberland Valley
Railroad, in 1851, by Mr. A. F. Smith, and which consisted of a
combustion chamber in the waist of the boiler next the firebox.
This form of boiler was for some years thereafter largely used
in engines for soft coal. It was at first constructed with the
"water-leg" which was a vertical water space, connecting the
top and bottom sheets of the combustion chamber, but even-
tually this feature was omitted, and an unobstructed combustion
chamber employed. Several engines were built for the Philadel-
phia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, in 1859 and
thereafter, with the "Dimpfel" boiler, in which the tubes con-
tain water, and starting downward from the crown sheet, are
curved to the horizontal, and terminate in a narrow water space
next to the smokebox. The whole waist of the boiler, therefore*
forms a combustion chamber, and the heat and gases, after
passing for their whole length along and around the tubes,
emerge into the lower part of the smokebox.
In 1860 an engine was built for the Mine Hill Railroad, with
a boiler of a peculiar form. The top sheets sloped upward from
both ends toward the center, thus making a raised part or hump
in the center. The engine was designed to work on heavy grades,
and the object sought by Mr. Wilder, the superintendent of the
Mine Hill Railroad, was to have the water always at the same
height in the space from which steam was drawn, whether going
up or down grade.
All these experiments are indicative of the interest then pre-
vailing upon the subject of coal burning. The result of experi-
ence and study had meantime satisfied Mr. Baldwin that to
burn soft coal successfully required no peculiar devices ; that the
ordinary form of boiler with plain firebox was right, with perhaps
the addition of a firebrick deflector; and that the secret of the
economical and successful use of coal was in the mode of firing,
rather than in a different form of furnace.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 57
The year 1861 witnessed a marked falling off in the produc-
tion. The breaking out of the Civil War at first unsettled busi-
ness, and by many it was thought that railroad traffic would
be so largely reduced that the demand for locomotives must cease
altogether. A large number of hands were discharged from the
Works, and only forty locomotives were turned out during the
year. It was even seriously contemplated to turn the resources
of the establishment to the manufacture of shot and shell, and
other munitions of war, the belief being entertained that the
building of locomotives would have to be altogether suspended.
So far was this from being the case, however, that after the first
excitement had subsided, it was found that the demand for trans-
portation by the General Government, and by the branches of
trade and production stimulated by the war, was likely to tax the
carrying capacity of the principal Northern railroads to the fullest
extent. The Government itself became a large purchaser of loco-
motives, and it is noticeable, as indicating the increase of travel
and freight transportation, that heavier machines than had ever
before been built became the rule. Seventy-five engines were
sent from the Works in 1862; ninety-six in 1863; one hundred
and thirty in 1864; and one hundred and fifteen in 1865. During
two years of this period, from May, 1862, to June, 1864, thirty-
three engines were built for the United States Military Railroads.
The demand from the various coal-carrying roads in Penn-
sylvania and vicinity was particularly active, and large numbers
of ten-wheeled engines, and of the heaviest eight-wheeled four-
coupled engines, were built. Of the latter class, the majority
had fifteen- and sixteen-inch cylinders ; and of the former, seven-
teen- and eighteen-inch cylinders.
The introduction of several important features in construc-
tion marks this period. Early in 1861 four eighteen-inch cyl-
inder freight locomotives, with six coupled wheels, fifty-two
inches in diameter, and a Bissell pony truck with radius bar in
front, were sent to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Com-
pany. This was the first instance of the use of the Bissell truck in
the Baldwin Works. These engines, however, were not of the
regular Mogul type, as they were only modifications of the ten-
wheeler, the drivers retaining the same position well back, and
58
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
a pair of pony wheels on the Bissell plan taking the place of
the ordinary four-wheeled truck. Other engines of the same pat-
tern, but with eighteen and one-half inch cylinders, were built
in 1862-63, for the same company, and for the Dom Pedro II.
Railway of Brazil.
The introduction of steel in locomotive construction was a
distinguishing feature of the period. Steel tires were first used
in the Works in 1862, on some engines for the Dom Pedro II.
Railway of South America. Their general adoption on American
Railroads followed slowly. No tires of this material were then
made in this country, and it was objected to their use that, as it
took from sixty to ninety days to import them, an engine, in
case of a breakage of one of its tires, might be laid up useless
for several months. To obviate this objection, M. W. Baldwin
& Co. imported five hundred steel tires, most of which were kept
in stock, from which to fill orders.
The steel tires as first used in 1862, on
the locomotives for the Dom Pedro
Segundo Railway, were made with a
shoulder at one edge of the internal
periphery, and were shrunk on the
wheel centers. The accompanying
sketch shows a section of the tire as
then used.
Steel fireboxes were first built for
some engines for the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, in 1861. English
steel of a high temper was used, and
at the first attempt the fireboxes
cracked in fitting them in the boilers,
and it became necessary to take them
out and substitute copper. American homogeneous cast steel
was then tried on engines 231 and 232, completed for the
Pennsylvania Railroad in January, 1862, and it was found to
work successfully. The fireboxes of nearly all engines thereafter
built for that road were of this material, and in 1866 its use for
the purpose became general. It may be added that while all steel
sheets for fireboxes or boilers are required to be thoroughly
STEEL TIRE WITH SHOULDE
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 59
annealed before delivery, those which are flanged or worked in
the process of boiler construction are a second time annealed
before riveting.
Another feature of construction gradually adopted was the
placing of the cylinders horizontally. This was first done in the
case of an outside-connected engine, the "Ocmulgee," which
was sent to the Southwestern Railroad Company, of Georgia, in
January, 1858. This engine had a square smokebox, and the
cylinders were bolted horizontally to its sides. The plan of
casting the cylinder and half-saddle in one piece and fitting
it to the round smokebox was introduced by Mr. Baldwin,
and grew naturally out of his original method of construction.
Mr. Baldwin was the first American builder to use an outside
cylinder, and he made it for his early engines with a circular
flange cast to it, by which it could be bolted to the boiler. The
cylinders were gradually brought lower, and at a less angle, and
the flanges prolonged and enlarged. In 1852, three six-wheels-
connected engines, for the Mine Hill Railroad Company, were
built with the cylinder flanges brought around under the smoke-
box until they nearly met, the space between them being filled
with a sparkbox. This was practically equivalent to making
the cylinder and half-saddle in one casting. Subsequently, on
other engines on which the sparkbox was not used, the half-
saddles were cast so as almost to meet under the smokebox, and,
after the cylinders were adjusted in position, wedges were fitted
in the interstices and the saddles bolted together. It was finally
discovered that the faces of the two half-saddles might be planed
and finished so that they could be bolted together and bring
the cylinders accurately in position, thus avoiding the trouble-
some and tedious job of adjusting them by chipping and fitting
to the boiler and frames. With this method of construction,
the cylinders were placed at a less and less angle, until at length
the truck wheels were spread sufficiently, on all new or modified
classes of locomotives in the Baldwin list, to admit of the cylin-
ders being hung horizontally, as is the present almost universal
American practice. By the year 1865, horizontal cylinders were
made in all cases where the patterns would allow it. The ad-
vantages of this arrangement are manifestly in the interest of
60 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
simplicity and economy, as the cylinders are thus rights or lefts,
indiscriminately, and a single pattern answers for either side.
In July, 1866, the engine "Consolidation" was built for the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, on the plan and specification furnished
by Mr. Alexander Mitchell, Master Mechanic of the Mahanoy
Division of that Railroad. This engine was intended for working
the Mahanoy plane, which rises at the rate of one hundred and
thirty-three feet per mile. The
"Consolidation" had cylinders
twenty by twenty-four inches,
four pairs of drivers connected ,
forty-eight inches in diameter,
and a Bissell pony truck in
LOCOMOTIVE -CONSOLIDATION" front, equalized with the front
drivers. The weight of the
engine, in working order, was ninety thousand pounds, of which all
but about ten thousand pounds was on the drivers. This engine
constituted the first of a class to which it gave its name, and
Consolidation engines have since been constructed for a large
number of railways, not only in the United States, but also in
many foreign countries. The heaviest of these locomotives weigh
over three times as much as the original "Consolidation."
It has already been noted, that as early as 1839 Mr. Baldwin
felt the importance of making all like parts of similar engines
absolutely uniform and interchangeable. It was not attempted
to accomplish this object, however, by means of a complete
system of standard gauges, until many years later. In 1861
a beginning was made of organizing all the departments of
manufacture upon this basis, and from it grew an elaborate
and perfected system, embracing all the essential details of
construction. An independent department of the Works,
having a separate foreman and an adequate force of skilled work-
men with special tools adapted to the purpose, is organized as
the Department of Standard Gauges. A system of standard
gauges and templets for every description of work to be done is
made and kept by this department. The original templets are
kept as "standards," and are never used on the work itself, but
from them exact duplicates are made, which are issued to the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN* LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 61
foremen of the various departments, and to which all work is
required to conform. The working gauges are compared with
the standards at regular intervals, and absolute uniformity is
thus maintained. The result of this system is interchange-
ableness of like parts in engines of the same class, insuring to the
purchaser the minimum cost of repairs, and rendering possible,
by the application of this method, the large production which
these Works have accomplished.
Thus had been developed and perfected the various essential
details of existing locomotive practice when Mr. Baldwin died,
September 7, 1866. He had been permitted, in a life of unusual
activity and energy, to witness the rise and wonderful increase of
a material interest which had become the distinguishing feature
of the century. He had done much-, by his own mechanical
skill and inventive genius, to contribute to the development of
that interest. His name was as "familiar as household words"
wherever on the American continent the locomotive had pene-
trated. An ordinary ambition might well have been satisfied
with this achievement. But Mr. Baldwin's claim to the remem-
brance of his fellow-men rests not alone on the results of his
mechanical labors. A merely technical history, such as this, is
not the place to do justice to his memory as a man, as a Christian,
and as a philanthropist; yet the record would be manifestly
imperfect, and would fail properly to reflect the sentiments of
his business associates who so long knew him in all relations of
life, were no reference made to his many virtues and noble traits
of character. Mr. Baldwin was a man of sterling integrity and
singular conscientiousness. To do right, absolutely and unre-
servedly, in all his relations with men, was an instinctive rule of
his nature. His heroic struggle to meet every dollar of his
liabilities, principal and interest, after his failure, consequent
upon the general financial crash in 1837, constitutes a chapter of
personal self-denial and determined effort which is seldom paral-
leled in the annals of commercial experience. When most men
would have felt that an equitable compromise with creditors was
all that could be demanded in view of the general financial
embarrassment, Mr. Baldwin insisted upon paying all claims in
full, and succeeded in doing so only after nearly five years of
62 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
unremitting industry, close economy, and absolute personal sacri-
fices. As a philanthropist and a sincere and earnest Christian,
zealous in every good work, his memory is cherished by many
to whom his contributions to locomotive improvement are com-
paratively unknown. From the earliest years of his business life
the practice of systematic benevolence was made a duty and a
pleasure. His liberality constantly increased with his means.
Indeed, he would unhesitatingly give his notes, in large sums, for
charitable purposes, when money was absolutely wanted to carry
on his business. Apart from the thousands which he expended
in private charities, and of which, of course, little can be known,
Philadelphia contains many monuments of his munificence.
Early taking a deep interest in all Christian effort, his contri-
butions to missionary enterprise and church extension were on
the grandest scale, and grew with increasing wealth. Numerous
church edifices in this city, of the denomination to which he
belonged, owe their existence largely to his liberality, and two at
least were projected and built by him entirely at his own cost.
In his mental character, Mr. Baldwin was a man of remarkable
firmness of purpose. This trait was strongly shown during his
mechanical career, in the persistency with which he would work
at a new improvement or resist an innovation. If he were led
sometimes to assume an attitude of antagonism to features of
locomotive construction which after-experience showed to be
valuable, (and a desire for historical accuracy has required the
mention, in previous pages, of several instances of this kind) it
is at least certain that his opposition was based upon a consci-
entious belief in the mechanical impolicy of the proposed changes.
After the death of Mr. Baldwin the business was reorganized ,
in 1867, under the title of "The Baldwin Locomotive Works,"
M. Baird & Co., proprietors. Messrs. George Burnham and
Charles T. Parry, who had been connected with the establish-
ment from an early period, the former in charge of the finances,
and the latter as General Superintendent, were associated with
Mr. Baird in the copartnership. Three years later Messrs. Edward
H. Williams, William P. Henszey and Edward Longstreth became
members of the firm. Mr. Williams had been connected with
railway management on various lines since 1850. Mr. Henszey
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 65
had been Mechanical Engineer, and Mr. Longstreth the General
Superintendent of the Works for several years previously.
A class of engines known as Moguls, with three pairs of
drivers connected, and a swinging pony truck in front equalized
with the forward drivers, took its rise in the practice of this
establishment from the "E.
A. Douglas," built for the
Thomas Iron Company in
1867. Mogul locomotives were
soon extensively employed
in heavy freight service on
American railways, and their
use continued for many years
after the building of the "Douglas." They have now, how-
ever, been generally replaced, in main line work, by locomotives
of more powerful types. Large numbers of Mogul locomotives
have been built for export, and in plantation and other forms
of special service, this type is deservedly popular.
In 1867, on a number of eight-wheeled four-coupled engines
for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the four-wheeled swing bolster
truck was first applied, and thereafter a large number of engines
have been so constructed. The two- wheeled or "pony truck"
has been built both on the Bissell plan, with double inclined
slides, and with the ordinary swing bolster, and in both cases
with the radius bar pivoting from a point about four feet back
from the center of the truck. In the case of both the two-wheeled
and the four-wheeled truck, however, the swing bolster is now the
rule; the four-wheeled truck being made without a radius bar.
Of the engines above referred to as the first on which the swing
bolster truck was applied, four were for express passenger serv-
ice, with drivers sixty-seven inches in diameter, and cylinders
seventeen by twenty-four inches. One of them, placed on the
road September 9, 1867, was in constant service until May 14,
1871, without ever being off its wheels for repairs, making a total
mileage of one hundred and fifty-three thousand two hundred and
eighty miles. All of these engines had their driving wheels
spread eight and one-half feet between centers.
Steel flues were first used in three ten-wheeled freight engines,
64 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
numbers 211, 338 and 368, completed for the Pennsylvania Rail-
road in August, 1868. Steel boilers were first made in 1868 for
locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and the use
of this material for the barrels of boilers as well as for the fire-
boxes subsequently became universal in American practice.
In 1866, the straight boiler with two domes, first used in
1856, was again introduced; and until about 1880 the practice of
the establishment included both the wagon-top boiler with single
dome, and the straight boiler with one or two domes. Since
1880, the use of two domes has been exceptional, both wagon-
top and straight boilers being constructed with one dome.
In 1868, »a locomotive of three and one half feet gauge was
constructed for the Averill Coal and Oil Company, of West
Virginia. This was the first narrow gauge locomotive in the
practice of the Works. In 1869, three locomotives of the same
gauge were constructed for the Uniao Valenciana Railway of
Brazil and were the first narrow gauge locomotives constructed
at these Works for general passenger and freight traffic. In the
following year the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, of Colorado,
was projected on the three-feet gauge, and the first locomotives
for the line were designed and built in 1871. Two classes, for
passenger and freight, respectively, were constructed. The
former were six-wheeled with four wheels coupled forty inches in
diameter, and nine by sixteen-inch cylinders. They weighed each,
loaded, about twenty-five thousand pounds. The latter were
eight-wheeled, with six wheels coupled, thirty-six inches in diam-
eter, and eleven by sixteen-inch cylinders. These locomotives
weighed each, loaded, about thirty-five thousand pounds. Both
types had a swinging truck with a single pair of wheels in front
of the cylinders. The six-coupled design was for freight service,
and was subsequently built in larger sizes. The four-coupled
type for passenger service was found to be too small and to be
unsteady on the track, owing to its comparatively short wheel
base. It was therefore abandoned, and the ordinary American
pattern, eight-wheeled, four coupled, substituted. Following
the engines for the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, others for
other narrow gauge lines were called for, and the manufacture
of this description of rolling stock soon assumed importance.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 65
The Consolidation type, as first introduced for the four
feet eight and one-half inches gauge in 1866, was adapted to the
three feet gauge in 1873. In 1877, a locomotive on this plan,
weighing in working order about sixty thousand pounds, with
cylinders fifteen by twenty inches, was built for working the
Garland extension of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, which
crossed the Rocky Mountains with maximum grades of two hun-
dred and eleven feet per mile, and minimum curves of thirty
degrees. The performance of this locomotive, the "Alamosa," is
given in the following extract from a letter from the then General
Superintendent of that railway:
DENVER, COL., August 31, 1877
"On the 29th inst. I telegraphed you from Veta Pass — Sangre de Cristo
Mountains — that engine 'Alamosa' had just hauled from Garland to the
Summit one baggage car and seven coaches, containing one hundred and
sixty passengers. Yesterday I received your reply asking for particulars, etc.
"My estimate of the weight was eighty-five net tons, stretched over a
distance of three hundred and sixty feet, or including the engine of four hun-
dred and five feet.
"The occasion of this sized train was an excursion from Denver to
Garland and return. The night before, in going over from La Veta, we
had over two hundred passengers, but it was but 8 p. M., and fearing a
slippery rail, I put on engine No. 19 as a pusher, although the engineer of
the 'Alamosa' said he could haul the train, and I believe he could have done so.
The engine and train took up a few feet more than the half circle at 'Mule Shore, '
where the radius is one hundred and ninety-three feet. The engine worked
splendidly, and moved up the two hundred and eleven feet grades and
around the thirty degree curves seemingly with as much ease as our passenger
engines on seventy-five feet grades with three coaches and baggage cars.
"The 'Alamosa' hauls regularly eight loaded cars and caboose, about
one hundred net tons; length of train about two hundred and thirty feet.
"The distance from Garland to Veta Pass is fourteen and one-quarter
miles, and the time is one hour and twenty minutes.
"Respectfully yours,
(Signed) W. W. BORST, Supt."
In addition to narrow gauge locomotives for the United
States, this branch of the product has included a large number of
three feet, meter, and three and one-half feet gauge locomotives,
which have been shipped to various parts of the world.
Locomotives for single-rail railroads were built in 1878 and
early in 1879, adapted respectively to the systems of General
Roy Stone and Mr. W. W. Riley.
66 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Mine locomotives, generally of narrow gauge, for under-
ground work, and not over five and one-half feet in height, were
first built in 1870. These machines were generally four-wheels-
connected, with inside cylinders and a crank axle. The width
over all of this plan was only sixteen inches greater than the
gauge of the track. A number of outside-connected mine loco-
motives were also constructed, the width being thirty-two inches
greater than the gauge of the track. A locomotive of twenty
inches gauge for a gold mine in California was built in 1876, and
was found entirely practicable and efficient.
In 1870, in some locomotives for the Kansas Pacific Railway,
the steel tires were shrunk on without being secured by bolts or
rivets in any form, and since that time this method of putting on
tires has been usually employed.
In 1871, forty locomotives were constructed for the Ohio and
Mississippi Railway, the gauge of which was changed from six
feet to four feet nine inches. The entire lot of forty locomotives
was completed and delivered in about twelve weeks. The gauge
of the road was changed on July 4, and the forty locomotives went
at once into service in operating the line on the standard gauge.
During the same year two "double-ender" locomotives of
Class 10-26-J^-C were constructed for the Central Railroad of
New Jersey, and were the first of this pattern at these Works.
The product of the Works, which had been steadily increas-
ing for some years in sympathy with the requirements of the
numerous new railroads which were constructing, reached three
hundred and thirty-one locomotives in 1871, and four hundred
and twenty- two in 1872. Orders for ninety locomotives for the
Northern Pacific Railroad were entered during 1870-71, and for
one hundred and twenty-four for the Pennsylvania Railroad
during 1872-73, and mostly executed during those years. A con-
tract was also made during 1872 with the Veronej-Rostoff Rail-
way of Russia for ten locomotives to burn Russian anthracite coal.
Six were Moguls, with cylinders nineteen by twenty-four inches
and driving wheels four and one-half feet diameter; and four were
passenger locomotives, American pattern, with cylinders seven-
teen by twenty-four inches, and driving wheels five and one-half
feet diameter. Nine American pattern locomotives, with fifteen
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 67
by twenty-four inch cylinders, and five feet driving wheels, were
also constructed in 1872-73 for the Hango-Hyvinge Railway of
Finland.
Early in 1873, Mr. Baird retired from the business, having
sold his interest in the Works to his five partners. Mr. Baird
died May 19, -1877. A new firm was formed under the style of
Burnham, Parry, Williams & Co., dating from January 1, 1873,
and Mr. John H. Converse, who had been connected with the
Works since 1870, became a partner. The product of this year
was four hundred and thirty-seven locomotives, the greatest in
the history of the business up to that time. During a part of the
year ten locomotives per week were turned out. Nearly three
thousand men were employed. Forty-five locomotives for the
Grand Trunk Railway of Canada were built in August, September
and October, 1873, and all were delivered in five weeks after ship-
ment of the first. These locomotives were built to meet the re-
quirements of a change of gauge from five and one-half feet to four
feet eight and one-half inches. In November, 1873, under cir-
cumstances of special urgency, a small locomotive for the Meier
Iron Company of St. Louis, was wholly made from the raw
material in sixteen working days.
The financial difficulties which prevailed throughout the
United States, beginning in September, 1873, and affecting chiefly
the railroad interests and all branches of manufacture connected
therewith, operated, of course, to curtail the production of loco-
motives for quite a period. Hence, only two hundred and five
locomotives were built in 1874, and one hundred and thirty in
1875. Among these may be enumerated two sample locomo-
tives for burning anthracite coal (one passenger, sixteen by
twenty-four inch cylinders, and one Mogul freight, eighteen by
twenty-four inch cylinders) for the Technical Department of the
Russian Government; also twelve Mogul freight locomotives,
nineteen by twenty-four inch cylinders, for the Charkoff
Nicolaieff Railroad of Russia. A small locomotive to work by
compressed air, for drawing street cars, was constructed during
1874 for the Compressed Air Locomotive and Street Car Com-
pany, of Louisville, Ky. It had cylinders seven by twelve inches,
and four wheels coupled, thirty inches in diameter. Another
68 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
and smaller locomotive, to work by compressed air, was con-
structed three years later for the Plymouth Cordage Company,
of Massachusetts, for service on a track in and about their works.
It had cylinders five by ten inches, four wheels coupled, twenty-
four inches diameter, and weighed seven thousand pounds; and
was successfully employed for the work required.
In 1875 the Baldwin Locomotive Works acquired a control-
ling interest in the Standard Steel Works, located at Burnham,
Pennsylvania.
The year 1876, noted as the year of the Centennial Inter-
national Exhibition, in Philadelphia, brought some increase of
business, and two hundred and thirty-two locomotives were con-
structed. An exhibit consisting of eight locomotives was pre-
pared for this occasion. With the view of illustrating not only
the different types of American locomotives, but the practice of
different railroads, the exhibit consisted chiefly of locomotives
constructed to fill orders from various railroad companies of the
United States and from the Imperial Government of Brazil. A
Consolidation locomotive for burning anthracite coal, for the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, for which line the first locomotive of this
type was designed and built in 1866; a similar locomotive, to
burn bituminous coal, and a passenger locomotive for the same
fuel for the Pennsylvania Railroad; a Mogul freight locomotive,
the "Principe do Grao Para," for the Dom Pedro Segundo Rail-
way of Brazil, and a passenger locomotive (anthracite burner) for
the Central Railroad of New Jersey, comprised the larger loco-
motives contributed by these Works to the Exhibition of 1876.
To these were added a mine locomotive and two narrow (three
feet) gauge locomotives, which were among those used in working
the Centennial Narrow Gauge Railway. As this line was in
many respects unique, we subjoin the following extracts from an
account by its General Manager of the performance of the two
three feet gauge locomotives:
"The gauge of the line was three feet, with double track three and a
half miles long, or seven miles in all. For its length, it was probably the
most crooked road in the world, being made up almost wholly of curves,
in order to run near all the principal buildings on the Exhibition grounds.
Many of these curves were on our heaviest grades, some having a radius of
215, 230 and 250 feet on grades of 140 and 155 feet per mile. These are
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 69
unusually heavy grades and curves, and when combined as we had them,
with only a thirty-five pound iron rail, made the task for our engines exceed-
ingly difficult.
"Your locomotive 'Schuylkill,' Class 8-18-C (eight-wheeled, four wheels
coupled three and a half feet diameter; cylinders, twelve by sixteen; weight,
forty-two thousand six hundred and fifty pounds), began service May 13th, and
made one hundred and fifty-six days to the close of the Exhibition. The loco-
motive 'Delaware,' Class 8-18-D (eight- wheeled, six wheels coupled three feet
diameter; cylinders, twelve by sixteen; weight, thirty-nine thousand pounds),
came into service June 9th, and made one hundred and thirty-one days to the
close of the Exhibition. The usual load of each engine was five eight-wheeled
passenger cars, frequently carrying over one hundred passengers per car.
On special occasions, as many as six and seven loaded cars have been drawn
by one of these engines.
"Each engine averaged fully sixteen trips daily, equal to fifty-six miles,
and as the stations were but a short distance apart, the Westinghouse air
brake was applied in making one hundred and sixty daily stops, or a total of
twenty-five thousand for each engine. Neither engine was out of service
an hour, unless from accidents for which they were in no way responsible."
[NoxE. — Average weight of each loaded car about twelve gross tons.]
The year 1876 was also marked by an extension of locomo-
tive engineering to a new field in the practice of these Works.
In the latter part of the previous year an experimental steam
street car was constructed for the purpose of testing the appli-
cability of steam to street railways. This car was completed in
November, 1875, and was tried for a few days on a street railway
in Philadelphia. It was then sent to Brooklyn, December 25,
1875, where it ran from that time until June, 1876. One engineer
ran the car and kept it in working order. Its consumption of
fuel was between seven and eight pounds of coal per mile run.
It drew regularly, night and morning, an additional car, with
passengers going into New York in the morning, and returning
at night. On several occasions, where speed was practicable,
the car was run at the rate of sixteen to eighteen miles per hour.
In June, 1876, this car was withdrawn from the Atlantic
Avenue Railway of Brooklyn, and placed on the Market Street
Railway of Philadelphia. It worked on that line with fair success,
and very acceptably to the public, from June till nearly the close
of the Centennial Exhibition.
This original steam car was built with cylinders under the
body of the car, the connecting rods taking hold of a crank axle,
70 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
to which the front wheels were attached. The rear wheels of the
car were independent, and not coupled with the front wheels.
The machinery of the car was attached to an iron bed plate
bolted directly to the wooden frame work of the car body. The
experiment with this car demonstrated to the satisfaction of its
builders the mechanical practicability of the use of steam on
street railways, but the defects developed by this experimental
car were: first, that it was difficult, or impossible, to make a
crank axle which would not break, the same experience being
reached in this respect which had already presented itself in
locomotive construction; second, it was found that great objec-
tion existed to attaching the machinery to the wooden car body,
which was not sufficiently rigid for the purpose, and which
STEAM STREET CAR
suffered by being racked and strained by the working of the
machinery.
For these reasons this original steam car was reconstructed,
in accordance with the experience which nearly a year's service
had suggested. The machinery was made outside-connected,
the" same as an ordinary locomotive, and a strong iron frame-
work was designed entirely independent of the car body, and
supporting the boiler and all the machinery.
The car as thus reconstructed was named the "Baldwin,"
and is shown by the accompanying illustration.
The next step in this direction was the construction of a
separate motor, to which one or more cars could be attached.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 71
Such a machine, weighing about sixteen thousand pounds, was
constructed in the fall of 1876, and sent to the Citizen's Railway
of Baltimore, which had a maximum grade of seven feet per
hundred, or three hundred and sixty-nine and six-tenths feet per
mile. It ascended this grade drawing one loaded car, when the
tracks were covered with mixed snow and dirt to a depth of eight
to ten inches in places. Another and smaller motor, weighing
only thirteen thousand pounds, was constructed about the same
time for the Urbano Railway, of Havana, Cuba. Orders for other
similar machines followed, and during the ensuing years, 1877-80,
one hundred and seven separate motors and twelve steam cars
were included in the product. Various city and suburban railways
STEAM MOTOR FOR STREET CAR
were constructed with the especial view of employing steam
power, and were equipped with these machines. One line, the
Hill and West Dubuque Street Railway, of Dubuque, Iowa,
was constructed early in 1877, of three and one half feet gauge
with a maximum gradient of nine in one hundred, and was
worked exclusively by two of these motors. The details and
character of construction of these machines were essentially the
same locomotive work, but they were made so as to be sub-
stantially noiseless, and to show little or no smoke and steam
in operation.
Steel fireboxes with vertical corrugations in the side sheets
were first made by these Works early in 1876, in locomotives for
the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and for the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railway.
The first American locomotives for New South Wales and
Queens were constructed by the Baldwin Locomotive Works
in 1877, and have since been succeeded by additional orders.
72 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Six locomotives of the Consolidation type for three and one-
half feet gauge were also constructed in the latter year for the
Government Railways of New Zealand, and two freight locomo-
tives, six- wheels-connected, with forward truck, for the Govern-
ment of Victoria. Four similar locomotives (ten-wheeled, six
coupled, with sixteen by twenty-four inch cylinders) were also
built during the same year for the Norwegian State Railways.
Forty heavy Mogul locomotives (nineteen by twenty-
four inch cylinders, driving wheels four and one-half feet in diam-
eter) were constructed early in 1878 for two Russian Railways
(the Koursk Charkoff Azof, and the Orel Griazi). The definite
order for these locomotives was received on the sixteenth of
December, 1877, and as all were required to be delivered in
Russia by the following May, especial despatch was necessary.
The working force was increased from eleven hundred to twenty-
three hundred men in about two weeks. The first of the forty
engines was erected and tried under steam on January 5th, three
weeks after receipt of order, and was finished, ready to dismantle
and pack for shipment, one week later. The last engine of this
order was completed February 13th. The forty engines were
thus constructed in about eight weeks, besides twenty-eight
additional engines on other orders, which were constructed,
wholly or partially, and shipped during the same period.
Four tramway motors of twelve tons weight were built early
in 1879, on the order of the New South Wales Government, for
a tramway having grades of six per cent., and running from the
railway terminus to the Sydney Exhibition Grounds. Subse-
quent orders followed for additional motors for other tramways
in Sydney.
The five thousandth locomotive, finished in April, 1880,
presented some novel features. It was designed for fast passen-
ger service on the Bound Brook line between Philadelphia and
New York, and to run with a light train at a speed of sixty miles
per hour, using anthracite coal as fuel. It had cylinders eighteen
by twenty-four inches, one pair of driving wheels six and one-half
feet in diameter, and a pair of trailing wheels forty-five inches in
diameter, and equalized with the driving wheels. Back of the
driving wheels and over the trailing wheels space was given for
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
73
a wide firebox (eight feet long by seven feet wide inside) as
required for anthracite coal. By an auxiliary steam cylinder
placed under the waist of the boiler, just in front of the firebox,
the bearings on the equalizing beams between trailing and
driving wheels could be changed to a point forward of their
normal position, so as to increase the weight on the driving
wheels when required. The adhesion could thus be varied
between the limits of thirty-five thousand and forty-five thousand
pounds on the single pair of driving wheels. This feature of the
locomotive was made the subject of a patent.
In 1881, a compressed air locomotive was constructed for
the Pneumatic Tramway Engine Company, of New York, on
plans prepared by Mr. Robert
Hardie. Air tanks of steel, one-
half inch thick, with a capacity
of four hundred and sixty-five
cubic feet, were combined with
an upright cylindrical heater,
thirty-two and five-eighths
inches in diameter. The weight
of the machine was thirty-five
thousand pounds, of which
twenty-eight thousand pounds
were on four driving wheels,
forty-two inches in diameter.
The cylinders were twelve and one-half inches diameter by
eighteen inches stroke. Another novelty of the year was a
steam car to take the place of a hand car. The accompanying
illustration shows the design. Its cylinders were four by ten
inches, and wheels twenty-four inches diameter. Built for
standard gauge track, its weight in working order was five
thousand one hundred and ten pounds. Similar cars have since
been constructed.
During this year the largest single order placed on the books
to that date was entered for the Mexican National Construction
Company. It was for one hundred and fifty locomotives, but
only a portion of them were ever built.
The year 1882 was marked by a demand for locomotives
STEAM INSPECTION CAR
74 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
greater than could be met by the capacity of existing locomotive
works. Orders for one thousand three hundred and twenty-one
locomotives were entered on the books during the year, deliveries
of the greater part being promised only in the following year.
Early in 1882 an inquiry was received from the Brazilian
Government for locomotives for the Cantagallo Railway, which
were required to meet the following conditions: to haul a train
of forty gross tons of cars and lading up a grade of eight and
three-tenths per cent. (four hundred and thirty-eight feet
per mile), occurring in combination with curves of forty metres
radius (one hundred and thirty-one feet radius, or forty-three and
eight-tenths degrees). The line was laid with heavy steel rails,
to a gauge of one and one-tenth metres, or three feet seven and
one-third inches. The track upon which it was proposed to
run these locomotives was a constant succession of reverse curves,
it being stated that ninety-one curves of the radius named oc-
curred within a distance of three thousand four hundred and
twenty-nine metres, or about two miles. The line had previously
been operated on the "Fell" system, with central rack-rail, and it
wras proposed to introduce locomotives working by ordinary
adhesion, utilizing the central rail for the application of brake
power. An order was eventually received to proceed with the
construction of three locomotives to do this work. The engines
built were of the following general dimensions, viz.: cylinders,
eighteen by twenty inches; six driving wheels, connected, thirty-
nine inches in diameter; wheel base, nine feet six inches; boiler,
fifty-four inches in diameter, with one hundred and ninety flues
two inches diameter, ten feet nine inches long; and with side
tanks, carried on the locomotive. In March, 1883, they were
shipped from Philadelphia, and on a trial made October 17, in
the presence of the officials of the road and other prominent
railway officers, the guaranteed performance was accomplished.
One of the engines pulled a train weighing forty tons, composed
of three freight cars loaded with sleepers, and one passenger car,
and made the first distance of eight kilometres to Boca do Mato
with a speed of twenty-four kilometres per hour; from there it
started, making easily an acclivity of eight and five-tenths per cent,
in grade, and against a curve of forty metres in radius. Eight
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 75
additional locomotives for this line were constructed at intervals
during the following ten years, and the road has been worked by
adhesion locomotives since their adoption as above described.
In 1885 a locomotive was built for the Dom Pedro Segundo
Railway of Brazil, having five pairs of driving wheels connected,
and a leading two-wheeled truck. From this has arisen the
title "Decapod" (having ten feet) as applied to subsequent loco-
motives of this type. Its cylinders were twenty-two by twenty-
six inches; driving wheels forty-five inches diameter, and grouped
in a driving wheel base of seventeen feet. The rear flanged
driving wheels, however, were given one-quarter of an inch more
total play on the rails than the next adjacent pair; the second
DECAPOD LOCOMOTIVE
For the Dom Pedro Segundo Railway of Brazil
and third pairs were without flanges, and the front pair was
flanged. The locomotive could therefore pass a curve of a radius
as short as five hundred feet, the rails being spread one-half inch
wider than the gauge of track, as is usual on curves. The flanges
of the first and fourth pairs of driving wheels making practically
a rigid wheel base of twelve feet eight inches, determined the
friction on a curve. The weight of the engine, in working order,
was one hundred and forty-one thousand pounds, of which one
hundred and twenty-six thousand pounds were on the driving
wheels. During this year the first rack-rail locomotive in the
practice of these Works was constructed for the Ferro Principe
do Grao Para Railroad of Brazil. Its general dimensions were :
cylinders, twelve by twenty inches; pitch line of cog-wheel,
forty-one and thirty-five one-hundredths inches; weight, fifteen
and seventy-four one-hundredths tons. Several additional similar
76 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
locomotives, but of different weights, have since been constructed
for the same line.
At the close of this year Mr. Edward Longstreth withdrew
from the firm on account of ill health, and a new partnership
was formed, adding Messrs. William C. Stroud, William H.
Morrow, and William L. Austin. Mr. Stroud had been connected
with the business since 1867, first as bookkeeper, and subse-
quently as Financial Manager. Mr. Morrow, since entering
the service in 1871, had acquired a varied and valuable experi-
ence, first in the accounts, then in the department of extra
work, and subsequently as Assistant Superintendent, becoming
General Manager on Mr. Longstreth's retirement. Mr. Austin,
who entered the works in 1870, had for several years been assist-
ant to Mr. Henszey in all matters connected with the designing
of locomotives.
On February 11, 1886, Mr. S. M. Vauclain, who had been
connected with the Works since 1883, was appointed General
Superintendent. The retirement of Mr. Longstreth was neces-
sarily followed by a number of changes in the organization. Mr.
Edwin W7. Heald, who had been assisting Mr. Longstreth and
was in line for promotion to the position of General Super-
intendent, was unable to assume the duties of the office on
account of poor health, hence Mr. Vauclain's appointment.
A locomotive for the Antofogasta Railway (thirty inches
gauge) of Chili, constructed with outside frames, was completed
LOCOMOTIVE WITH OUTSIDE FRAMES
For the Antofogasta Railway, Chili
in November, 1886, and is shown by the illustration herewith.
The advantages of this method of construction of narrow gauge
locomotives in certain cases were evidenced in the working of
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 77
this machine, in giving a greater width of firebox between the
frames, and a greater stability of the engine due to the outside
journal bearings.
In 1887, a new form of boiler was brought out in some ten-
wheeled locomotives constructed for the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad. A long wagon-top was used, extending sufficiently
forward of the crown sheet to allow the dome to be placed in
front of the firebox and near the center of the boiler, and the
crown sheet was supported by radial stays from the outside shell.
Many boilers of this type have since been constructed.
Mr. Charles T. Parry, who had been connected with the
Works almost from their beginning, and a partner since 1867,
died on July 18, 1887, after an illness of several months.
The first locomotives for Japan were shipped in June, 1887.
These were two six-wheeled engines of three feet six inches gauge
for the Mie Kie mines.
Mr. William H. Morrow, a partner since January 1, 1886,
and who had been previously associated with the business since
1871, died February 19, 1888.
The demand for steam motors for street railway service
attained large proportions at this period, and ninety-five were
built during the years 1888
and 1889. Two rack-rail loco-
motives on the Riggenbach
system, one with a single
cog-wheel and four carrying
wheels, and weighing in work-
ing order thirty-two thousand
pounds, for the Corcovado
Railway of Brazil, and the RACK LocOMOTIVE, RIGGENBACH SYSTEM
other having two cog-wheels
and eight carrying wheels, and weighing in working order seventy-
nine thousand pounds, for the Estrada de Ferro Principe do Grao
Para of Brazil, were constructed during this year. Illustrations
of these locomotives are presented herewith.
The ten thousandth locomotive was built in June, 1889,
for the Northern Pacific Railroad. This locomotive had twenty-
two by twenty-eight inch cylinders, and weighed one hundred
78 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
and forty-seven thousand five hundred pounds in working order.
It was representative of the heaviest class of Consolidation loco-
motive built at that time.
In October, 1889, the first compound locomotive in the
practice of the Works was
completed and placed on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
It was of the four-cylinder
type, as designed and patented
by Mr. S. M. Vauclain. The
economy in fuel and water
RACK LOCOMOTIVE WITH Two COG-WHEELS and the efficiency of this de-
sign in both passenger and
freight service led to its introduction on many leading railroads,
and Vauclain compound locomotives were built in large numbers
during the fifteen years following the construction of the first one.
In 1889 a test case was made to see in how short a time a
locomotive could be built. On June 22d, Mr. Robert Coleman
ordered a narrow gauge locomotive of the American type, which
was to be ready for service on his railroad in Lebanon County,
Pa., by July 4th following. The locomotive was actually com-
pleted on July 2d, having been built from the raw material
in eight working days.
The manufacture of wrought iron wheel centers for both
truck and driving wheels was begun at this time under patents
of Mr. S. M. Vauclain, Nos. 462,605, 462,606 and 531,487.
During the year 1890, the Erecting Shop, which fronted
on Broad Street, adjoining the main office, was entirely recon-
structed. The new shop was a single-story building, 42 feet
high to the eaves, and measuring 160 feet wide by 337 feet long.
It contained nineteen tracks, each capable of accommodating
four locomotives. All the machinery in the shop wras driven by
electric motors, and material was handled by two electric travel-
ling cranes of 100 tons capacity each. This is the first instance
on record of a shop being electrically equipped throughout.
In 1890 the first rack-rail locomotive on the Abt system was
constructed for the Pike's Peak Railroad, and during this year
and 1893 four locomotives were built for working the grades
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
RACK LOCOMOTIVE, ABT SYSTEM
of that line, which vary from eight to twenty-five per cent.
One of these locomotives, weighing in working order fifty-two
thousand six hundred and eighty pounds, pushes twenty-five
thousand pounds up the maximum grades of one in four. An
illustration is here given of
one of these locomotives,
which is a four-cylinder
compound.
Three Mogul locomo-
tives, of one metre gauge,
fifteen by eighteen inch
cylinders, driving wheels
forty-one inches diameter,
were completed and shipped
in July, 1890, for working
the Jaffa and Jerusalem Railway in Palestine, and two additional
locomotives for the same line were constructed in 1892.
In 1891 the name of the firm was changed to Burnham,
Williams & Co., the partners being George Burnham, Edward
H. Williams, William P. Henszey, John H. Converse, William
C. Stroud, and William L. Austin.
In 1891 the largest locomotives in the practice of the Works,
to that date, were designed and constructed for the St. Clair
Tunnel of the Grand Trunk Railway, under the St. Clair River.
Four tank locomotives
were supplied, each
with cylinders twenty-
two by twenty-eight
inches; five pairs of
driving wheels con-
nected, fifty inches di-
ameter; and side tanks
of twenty-one hundred
and ten gallons capacity. The weight in working order of each
engine was one hundred and eighty-six thousand eight hundred
pounds without fire in the firebox. The tunnel is six thousand
feet long, with grades of two per cent, at each entrance, twenty-
five hundred, and nineteen hundred and fifty feet long respec-
TEN COUPLED TANK LOCOMOTIVE
80 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
tively. Each locomotive was required to take a train load of seven
hundred and sixty tons exclusive of its own weight, and in actual
operation each of these locomotives has hauled from twenty-
five to thirty-three loaded cars in one train through the tunnel.
For the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, five
compound locomotives of the Decapod class were completed
in December, 1891. Their general dimensions were as follows:
cylinders, high-pressure sixteen inches, low-pressure twenty-
seven inches diameter, stroke twenty-eight inches; five pairs of
driving wheels coupled, fifty inches diameter, in a wheel base of
eighteen feet ten inches; boiler, seventy-six inches diameter,
of theWootten type; weight in working order, one hundred and
ninety-five thousand pounds; and weight on driving wheels, one
hundred and seventy-two thousand pounds. The first, fourth
and fifth pairs of driving
wheels were flanged, but
the fifth pair had one-
fourth inch additional play
on the track. These lo-
comotives were used as
pushers on the Susque-
hanna Hill, where curves of
five degrees are combined
RACK-RAIL LOCOMOTIVE FOR ITALY with grades of sixty feet
per mile, doing the work of
two ordinary Consolidation locomotives. From one thousand
two hundred and fifty to one thousand three hundred net tons
of cars and lading, making a train of forty-five loaded cars, were
hauled by one of these locomotives in connection with a twenty
by twenty-four inch cylinder Consolidation.
Mr. William C. Stroud, who had been a partner since 1886,
died on September 21, 1891.
The first locomotives for Africa were constructed during this
year. They were of the Mogul type, with cylinders eighteen
by twenty-two inches, driving wheels forty-eight inches diameter,
and of three feet six inches gauge.
The product of 1892 and 1893 included, as novelties, two
rack-rail locomotives for a mountain railway near Florence,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 81
Italy, and twenty-five compound Forney locomotives for the
South Side Elevated Railroad of Chicago. At the World's
Columbian Exposition in Chicago, May to October, 1893, in-
clusive, an exhibit was made, consisting of seventeen locomo-
tives, as follows:
STANDARD GAUGE. — A Decapod locomotive, similar to those
previously described, built in 1891 for the New York, Lake Erie
and Western Railroad. A high-speed locomotive of new type, with
Vauclain compound cylinders, a two-wheeled leading truck, two
pairs of driving wheels, and a pair of trailing wheels under the
firebox. This locomotive was named "Columbia," and the same
name has been applied to the type. An express passenger loco-
motive of the pattern used by the Central Railroad of New Jersey;
one of the pattern used by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad,
and one of the pattern used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The three roads mentioned together operated the "Royal Blue
Line" between New York and Washington. A saddle tank
double-ender type locomotive, with steam windlass, illustrating
typical logging locomotive practice. A single expansion Ameri-
can type locomotive with cylinders eighteen by twenty-four
inches. A single expansion Mogul locomotive with cylinders
nineteen by twenty-four inches. A single expansion ten-wheeled
freight locomotive with cylinders twenty by .twenty-four inches,
for the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad. A compound
ten-wheeled passenger locomotive shown in connection with a
train exhibited by the Pullman Car Company. A compound
Consolidation locomotive for the Norfolk and Western Railroad.
Three locomotives were shown in connection with the
special exhibit of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, viz.: one com-
pound, one single-expansion, and one ten-wheeled passenger
locomotive.
NARROW GAUGE. — A metre gauge compound American
type locomotive ; a three feet gauge ten-wheeled compound loco-
motive with outside frames, for the Mexican National Railroad;
and a thirty inch gauge saddle tank locomotive for mill or
furnace work.
The depression of business which began in the summer
of 1893, reduced the output of the Works for that year to seven
82
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
hundred and seventy-two, and in 1894 to three hundred and
thirteen locomotives. Early in 1895, a new type of passenger
locomotive, illustrated herewith, was brought out for the Atlantic
Coast Line. To this the name "Atlantic" type was given. The
advantages of this design are a large boiler, fitting the engine for
ATLANTIC TYPK LOCOMOTIVE
high speed; a firebox of liberal proportions and of desirable
form placed over the rear frames, and having ample depth
and width; and the location of the driving wheels in front of
the firebox, allowing the boiler to be placed lower than in the
ordinary American or Ten-wheeled type. For the enginemen,
who, in this class of locomotive, ride behind, instead of over the
driving wheels, greater ease in riding, and greater safety in case
of the breakage of a side-rod, are important advantages.
The first electric locomotive was constructed in 1895, and
was intended for experimental work for account of the North
American Company. The
;jj|K"SiHn*iii^j -. electrical parts were
m f^^lP^ designed by Messrs.
Sprague, Duncan &
Hutchison, Electrical En-
gineers, New York. Two
other electric locomotives
for use in connection with
ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE mining operations were
built in 1896, in co-opera-
tion with the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Com-
pany, which supplied the electrical parts.
A high speed passenger locomotive, embracing several novel
features, was built in 1895, for service on the New York division
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 83
of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The boiler was of
the Wootten type, the cylinders were compound, thirteen and
twenty-two by twenty-six inches, and the driving wheels (one
pair) were eighty-four and one-quarter inches diameter. The
cut below shows the general design.
The weight of the engine in working order was as follows:
On front truck, thirty-nine thousand pounds; on trailing wheels,
twenty-eight thousand pounds; on the driving wheels, forty-
eight thousand pounds. This locomotive and a duplicate built
in the following year were regularly used in passenger service,
HIGH SPEED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Philadelphia and Reading Railway
hauling five cars and making the distance between Jersey City
and Philadelphia, ninety miles, in one hundred and five minutes,
including six stops.
In July, 1895, a combination rack and adhesion locomotive
was constructed for the San Domingo Improvement Company.
This locomotive was designed by Messrs. Wm. P. Henszey and
S. M. Vauclain, and was made the subject of a patent. It
had compound cylinders eight inches and thirteen inches
diameter by eighteen inches stroke to operate two pairs
of coupled adhesion wheels,
and a pair of single expansion
cylinders, eleven inches by
eighteen inches, to operate a
single rack wheel constructed
upon the Abt system. It was
furnished with two complete
f , . . , COMBINATION RACK AND ADHESION LOCOMOTIVE
sets of machinery, entirely For the San Domingo improvement Co.
independent of each other,
and was built with the view eventually to remove the rack
attachments and operate the locomotive by adhesion alone.
84
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
During the years 1895 and 1896 contracts were executed for
several railroads in Russia, aggregating one hundred and thirty-
eight locomotives of the four-cylinder compound type.
On January 1, 1896,
Messrs. Samuel M. Vau-
clain, Alba B. Johnson, and
George Burnham, Jr., were
admitted to partnership.
Two combination rack
and adhesion locomotives,
for the Penoles Mining
COMBINATION RACK AND ADHESION LOCOMOTIVE Companv of Mexico, were
For the Penoles Mining Co. . *
built in 1896, having com-
pound cylinders nine and one-half and fifteen inches diameter
by twenty-two inches stroke, connected to the driving wheels
through walking beams.
Each locomotive had three coupled axles, which carried rack
pinions of the Abt system. When operating on the rack section
of the line, all the wheels ran loose on the axles, and acted as
CLUTCH USED ON LOCOMOTIVE FOR PENOLES MINING Co.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 85
carrying wheels only. When, however, it was necessary to
propel the locomotive by adhesion alone, two pairs of wheels
could be secured to their respective axles, and thus made to
turn with them, by means of clutches. These clutches were
controlled by a hand lever placed in the cab. This device was
made the subject of a patent, which was granted to Messrs.
S. M. Vauclain and J. Y. McConnell. The drawing of the
clutch mechanism on page 84 is reproduced from the patent
specification.
In the latter part of the year 1896, six locomotives were
built for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, for express passenger
service. One of these locomotives, No. 1312, is here illustrated.
They were of the Ten-wheeled type, with cylinders twenty-one by
twenty-six inches, driving wheels seventy-eight inches diameter,
and weighed each, in working order, about one hundred and
TEN-WHEELED LOCOMOTIVE
For Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
forty-five thousand pounds, about one hundred and thirteen
thousand pounds of which were on the driving wheels. These
locomotives handled the fast passenger trains on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad running between Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Washington with great efficiency for about fifteen years, when
they were replaced by heavier power.
Early in 1897, a group of unusually interesting locomotives
were shipped to the Nippon Railway (Japan). These loco-
motives were all designed to burn a most inferior quality of coal,
requiring large grate area and a firebox of ample depth and
volume. They were of two types — the Atlantic, for passenger
service, and a modified design of Consolidation for freight
service. The latter had a wide, deep firebox, which was placed
86
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
entirely back of the driving wheels and over a rear truck. The
accompanying illustration represents the design. All these
locomotives proved highly successful. Freight locomotives of a
design similar to those built for the Nippon Railway, were
subsequently introduced in the United States, and were ap-
propriately designated the "Mikado" type.
THE FIRST MIKADO TYPE LOCOMOTIVE BUILT FOR THE NIPPON RAILWAY
In the summer of 1897, the Reading Railway placed a fast
train on its Atlantic City Division, allowing fifty- two minutes
for running time from Camden to Atlantic City, a distance of
fifty-five and one-half miles, making the average rate of speed
sixty-four miles per hour. The trains averaged five and six cars,
having a total weight of about two hundred tons, not including
the engine and tender. This train was hauled by a locomo-
tive of the Atlantic type, having Vauclain compound cylinders,
thirteen and twenty-two inches in diameter by twenty-six inches
stroke, with driving wheels eighty-four and one-quarter inches in
diameter. The weight in working order on driving wheels was
ATLANTIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For Philadelphia and Reading Railway
seventy-eight thousand six hundred pounds, the total weight of
engine and tender complete being two hundred and twenty-seven
thousand pounds. The records show that for fifty-two days from
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN' LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 87
July 2d to August 31, 1897, the average time consumed on the
run was forty-eight minutes, equivalent to a uniform rate of
speed from start to stop of sixty-nine miles per hour. On one
occasion the distance was covered in forty-six and one-half
minutes, an average of seventy-one and six-tenths miles per hour.
The Railway Company's official record of the train for the season
is reproduced on the following page. The service proved so
popular that additional trains, making equally high speed, were
subsequently established.
In 1898, the first cast steel frames used by the Baldwin
Locomotive Works were applied to a consignment of Consolida-
tion locomotives built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Railway Company.
In November, 1898, a locomotive was built for the Lehigh
Valley Railroad for use on the mountain cut-off between Coxton
and Fairview, near Wilkesbarre. This locomotive was of the
Consolidation type, with Vauclain compound cylinders, and of
the following general dimensions: cylinders, eighteen and thirty
inches diameter, thirty inches stroke; driving wheels, fifty-five
inches outside diameter; weight in working order, on drivers,
two hundred and two thousand two hundred and thirty-two
pounds; weight, total engine, two hundred and twenty-six
thousand pounds; weight of engine and tender about three
hundred and forty-six thousand pounds. This locomotive was
CONSOLIDATION LOCOMOTIVE
For Lehigh Valley Railroad
guaranteed to haul a load of one thousand net tons exclusive of
the weight of the engine and tender, on a grade of sixty-six feet
per mile, at an average speed of seventeen miles per hour. It
fulfilled this guarantee and fourteen similar locomotives were
subsequently ordered by this Company.
88
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
89
In March, 1899, two locomotives were built for the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad, for the fast mail service west of
Chicago. These were of the Atlantic type with Vauclain com-
pound cylinders, thirteen and one-half and twenty-three inches
in diameter, and twenty-six inches stroke; driving wheels eighty-
four and one-quarter inches in diameter; weight, in working
ATLANTIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
order, eighty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds on
driving wheels, and one hundred and fifty-nine thousand pounds
total of engine. The total weight of engine and tender complete
was about two hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds. An
illustration of one of these locomotives is shown above.
Dr. Edward H. Williams, who had been connected with the
Works as a partner since 1870, died December 21, 1899, at Santa
Barbara, California.
The year 1899 was marked by a large increase in foreign
business, notably in England and France. Contracts were made
in England covering thirty locomotives for the Midland Railway,
twenty locomotives for the Great Northern Railway, and twenty
locomotives for the Great Central Railway. Ten locomotives
were also ordered by the French State Railways, and ten by the
Bone Guelma Railway, in the French colonies of Algiers.
COMPOUND ATLANTIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Bavarian State Railways
90 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
In the fall of this year two Vauclain compound Consolidation
freight locomotives were built for the Bavarian State Railways.
These were ordered as samples, the company practically announc-
ing its intention of modeling future locomotives for their freight
traffic after these engines. So well did these sample locomotives
perform, that in the following year, the management decided to
order two passenger engines of the compound Atlantic type, and
also embody in their passenger motive power the new features
contained in these machines.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works exhibited two locomotives
at the Paris Exposition of 1900 — a "goods" locomotive of the
Mogul type for the Great Northern Railway, of England, and
an Atlantic type passenger locomotive for the French State
Railways. The exhibit of the French State Railways also in-
cluded a compound American type passenger locomotive built
by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. These engines were built
in the regular course of business for the companies whose names
they bore, and went into service on these roads immediately after
the Exposition was over. In this year also large orders were filled
for the Chinese Eastern Railroad, the Paris-Orleans Railway, the
Finland State, the Egyptian State and the Belgian State Rail-
ways.
The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed great
industrial prosperity in America and large demands for rail-
way freight transportation. The introduction of cars of large
capacity became general on American railroads, a tendency
COMPOUND PRAIRIE TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
which had been gradually developing for some years. This
involved increased train tonnage, improved road beds, heavier
rails, stronger bridges and more powerful locomotives. The
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN* LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 91
locomotive has always reflected the changes in railroad prac-
tice. Just as the demand for increased horse power, involving
greater steaming capacity and a larger grate area, evolved the
Atlantic type engine from the American or eight-wheeled pas-
senger engine; so, in order to secure a locomotive with ample
heating surface and suitable firebox to handle heavy trains at
high speed, the Prairie type was designed, being a logical develop-
ment of the Mogul and Ten-wheeled engines. The Prairie type
engine has a leading pony truck, three pairs of driving wheels,
and a wide firebox extending over the frames and placed back of
the driving wheels. To support this overhanging weight, a pair
of trailing wheels is placed underneath the firebox. Fifty loco-
motives of this type were built for the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy Railroad, and forty-five for the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railway, in 1901.
At the Pan-American Exposition, held at Buffalo, N. Y.,
during 1901, a new departure in locomotive practice was ex-
hibited by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. This was a Ten-
wheeled locomotive, built for the Illinois Central Railroad,
the firebox and tender of which were of special construction,
embodying the inventions of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, M.E.
The firebox was cylindrical in form, with annular corrugations,
TEN-WHEELED LOCOMOTIVE
With Vanderbilt Boiler and Tender
its axis eccentric to that of the boiler. It was riveted to the back
head of the boiler, and was supported at the bottom by the mud
rings; but otherwise was entirely disconnected from the outer
shell, thus eliminating stay bolts and crown bars, necessary to
flat surfaces in usual construction. It was supposed that the
ease with which the firebox could be removed, and the absence
of the usual repairs incidental to the renewal of stay bolts, would
92 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
commend it. Defects developed, however, which caused this
type of boiler to be abandoned after a few years' trial. The
feature of the tender was a cylindrical instead of the ordinary
U-shaped tank placed back of the coal space, the advantage being
a better distribution of weight, and a smaller proportion of dead
weight to carrying capacity. These tenders are still being built
when specified by railroad companies.
The year 1901 was especially noticeable for the large volume
of domestic business handled, there being great demand for
motive power from the railroads of the West and Southwest.
Large orders were placed with the Baldwin Locomotive Works
in this year by the Union Pacific; Chicago, Burlirrgton and
Quincy; Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf; Toledo, .St. Louis and
Western; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe; Chicago and Alton;
Missouri, Kansas and Texas; Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul,
and Southern Pacific Railroads. The Pennsylvania Railroad in
this year, ordered over one hundred and fifty locomotives of
various types from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad also placed an order for over one
hundred locomotives.
The locomotives built for export, during 1901, included ten
for the New Zealand Government Railways, which were designed
to use lignite as fuel. They had three pairs of coupled driving-
wheels, a four-wheeled leading truck, and a two-wheeled trailing
truck, over which was placed a deep, wide firebox. This type
subsequently became known as the "Pacific," and because of its
high steaming capacity and adhesion, was built in large numbers
for heavy passenger service in the United States.
The month of February, 1902, witnessed the completion of
the twenty thousandth locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomo-
tive Works. This engine embodied several interesting features,
including a new arrangement of Vauclain compound cylinders.
In the compound locomotives previously constructed, a high and
a low pressure cylinder had been used on each side of the locomo-
tive, the two cylinders on the same side being placed one above the
other. In locomotive No. 20,000 the axes of the four cylinders
were placed in the same horizontal plane, the two high pressure
cylinders being between the frames and the two low pressure
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
93
outside. The high pressure pistons were connected to cranks,
placed on the axle of the first pair of driving wheels; while the
low pressure pistons were connected to crank pins outside the
BALANCED COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE
Baldwia Engine No. 20,000
wheels, in the usual manner. With this construction there were
of course four sets of guides, as well as four crossheads and main
rods. The two cranks on the axle were placed ninety degrees
apart, and each of them was one hundred and eighty degrees
from the corresponding crank pin on the outside of the wheel.
The two pistons on the same side of the locomotive thus opposed
one another in movement, starting their strokes simultaneously
CROSS SECTION OF BALANCED COMPOUND CYLINDERS
from opposite ends of their respective cylinders. With this con-
struction, the disturbing effects of the reciprocating weights are
94 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
partially neutralized; and no excess weight need be used in
counterbalancing the driving wheels. This obviates the so-
called "hammer blow," which is always present in locomotives
having outside cylinders only. Balanced compound locomotives,
as described above, can carry a maximum load on driving wheels
without detriment to the track, as the greatest pressure on the
rail is that due to the static wheel load.
In balanced compound locomotives of the Vauclain type,
the steam distribution to each pair of cylinders is controlled by
a single piston valve, so that the valve gear is no more compli-
cated than that of a single expansion locomotive. Upward of
five hundred of these locomotives had been built up to the close
of 1912, the majority of them for fast passenger service. With
the advent of high temperature superheating, however, the build-
ing of this type of locomotive for American railroads practically
ceased .
The construction of the twenty thousandth locomotive and
the completion of seventy years of continuous operation were
celebrated on the evening of February 27, 1902, at the Union
League, of Philadelphia, by a banquet at which two hundred
and fifty guests, including many of the most representative men
in the United States, were present.
In May, 1902, a Decapod locomotive was built for the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. This was the first
tandem compound in the experience of the Works and the
heaviest locomotive built up to that time. The total weight of
the engine alone was two hundred and sixty-seven thousand
eight hundred pounds, of which two hundred and thirty-seven
thousand eight hundred pounds were on the five pairs of driving
wheels. It was designed for heavy freight hauling on the steep
grades encountered on one section of this road.
The first locomotive built in the United States to burn
lignite fuel was constructed in this year for the Bismarck,
Washburn and Great Falls Railway. The Mikado type was
selected in order to secure sufficient grate area and firebox volume.
The design is illustrated on page 95. Mikado type locomotives
were subsequently built in large numbers for heavy freight
service in the United States.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN' LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
95
MIKADO TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Bismarck, Washburn and Great Falls Railway
The discovery of large quantities of crude petroleum in
gushers located in the Beaumont oil fields, of Texas, caused
the railroads tapping this field to adopt, to some extent, this fuel
on their locomotives. Oil-burning locomotives were built for the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific, and the
Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroads, in 1902. Since
that date, oil has practically replaced coal as a locomotive fuel
in the Southwest. Oil-burning locomotives have also been in-
troduced in the Pacific Coast District and the far Northwest.
With the increased use of electrically driven trains for inter-
urban, elevated and subway traffic, many orders were received
for electric motor trucks in this year. Electrical locomotives,
both for surface and mine haulage, showed a marked increase
in this year also, both in variety of design and the number con-
structed.
In the year 1903 the Baldwin Locomotive Works completed
two thousand and twenty-two locomotives, its largest annual
TANDEM COMPOUND SANTA FE TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
output up to that time. Among these were four four-cylinder
96 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
balanced compound Atlantic type locomotives for the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which proved highly successful.
The same road received twenty-six single-expansion Pacific type
locomotives for heavy passenger service, and also a consignment
of tandem compound locomotives for freight service. These
engines were similar to the Decapod locomotive previously-
described, except that a trailing truck was added. This improved
the curving qualities of the engines when running backward.
To this type the name Santa Fe was given.
During the year 1903, standard locomotive designs were
prepared at these Works for the Associated Lines, which at that
time comprised the Southern Pacific Company, Union Pacific
Railroad, Oregon Short Line Railroad, Oregon Railroad and
Navigation Company, and the Chicago and Alton Railway.
As the various lines were already equipped with sufficient light
power, only heavy designs for common standards were adopted.
Six such designs were prepared: an Atlantic and a Pacific type
locomotive for passenger service, two sizes of Consolidation
engines for freight service, a Mogul locomotive for fast freight,
and a six- wheeled switcher.
Owing to the rapid increase in the production of the Works,
additional erecting facilities were required; and in 1903 a new
erecting shop, arranged on a novel plan, was completed at
Twenty-sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. This shop was
built in the form of a round house, having twenty-seven stalls,
with an eighty foot turntable in the center. It was used prin-
cipally for finishing and testing purposes.
In 1904 there was a temporary falling off in production, one
thousand four hundred and eighty-five locomotives being com-
pleted during that year. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
held at St. Louis, from May to November of this year, the
Baldwin Locomotive Works exhibited the following locomotives:
STANDARD GAUGE. — A balanced compound Atlantic type
locomotive, for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
(Illustrated on page 97). A four-cylinder compound Atlantic
type locomotive for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Rail-
road. (This engine had been built two years previously, and
was withdrawn from service to be placed on exhibition). A
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 97
tandem compound Santa Fe type locomotive for the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. An Atlantic type locomotive
for the Chicago and Alton Railway. A Pacific type locomotive
BALANCED COMPOUND ATLANTIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
for the Union Pacific Railroad. A Consolidation type locomotive
for the Southern Pacific Company. A Pacific type locomotive
for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad. A two-cylinder
compound Consolidation type locomotive for the Norfolk and
Western Railway. A single-expansion Consolidation type loco-
motive for the Norfolk and Western Railway. A ten-wheeled
locomotive for the Norfolk and Western Railway. An Atlantic
type locomotive for the Norfolk and Western Railway. A
Consolidation type locomotive with Wootten firebox, for the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. A Mogul type
locomotive for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway.
There were also shown four examples of electric trucks,
which were designed for standard gauge track.
NARROW GAUGE. — An electric mining locomotive for the
Norfolk Coal and Coke Company. (Gauge three feet six
inches). An electric mining locomotive for the Berwind-White
Coal Mining Company. (Gauge three feet). An electric loco-
motive for industrial haulage. (Gauge two feet). The electric
locomotives and trucks were exhibited in the Palace of Electricity
in conjunction with the Westinghouse Electric and Manufactur-
ing Company, which furnished the electrical equipment.
During this year three Mallet compound articulated loco-
motives, designed for meter gauge, were built for the American
Railroad of Porto Rico. One of these engines is illustrated
on page 98. These locomotives had three pairs of driving
98
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
wheels, thirty-seven inches in diameter, in each group
The total weight was one hundred and six thousand six hundred
and fifty pounds, and the tractive force twenty thousand two
MALLET ARTICULATED COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE
For the American Railroad of Porto Rico
hundred pounds working compound. These were the first Mallet
articulated locomotives built in the experience of the Works.
Among other interesting locomotives exported during 1904,
may be mentioned sixteen tank engines for the Imperial Govern-
ment Railways of Japan. These locomotives had three pairs of
driving wheels and a two-wheeled rear truck. They were con-
Six COUPLED TANK LOCOMOTIVE
For the Imperial Government Railways of Japan
structed with plate frames, in accordance with specifications
furnished by the railway company. One hundred and fifty
additional locomotives of the same type were built during the
following year.
Toward the close of the year 1904 the output began to in-
crease, and in 1905, two thousand two hundred and fifty locomo-
tives were turned out. Among these were five hundred and
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 99
seventy- two engines for the Pennsylvania Railroad System,
including the lines east and west of Pittsburg. One hundred
and sixty of these locomotives, all of the Consolidation type, were
completed between October 10th and November 22d. This year
witnessed the introduction of the Walschaerts valve motion on
several American railroads. It was applied to a large number of
the Pennsylvania Railroad engines above referred to, and also to
thirty-eight ten-wheeled locomotives for the Chicago, Rock Island
and Pacific Railway.
Among the locomotives exported during the year 1905, may
be mentioned twenty of the ten-wheeled type, built for the New
South Wales Government Railways. These engines were built
to the railway company's drawings and specifications. A large
number of special features, including plate frames and the Allen
valve motion, entered into their construction.
During the year 1906 a number of large electric locomotives
were furnished to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail-
road Company, for the purpose of replacing steam locomotives in
the vicinity of New York City. Each of these locomotives was
mounted on two four-wheeled trucks, and equipped with four
single phase alternating current motors, which rotated the axles
without intermediate gearing. The nominal capacity of each
unit was one thousand horsepower.
In 1906, the Great Northern Railway received five Mallei
articulated locomotives, which were the heaviest, at that time,
MALLET COMPOUND ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Great Northern Railway
in the experience of the Works. These locomotives were carried
on six pairs of driving wheels divided into two groups, and a two-
wheeled truck front and back. They weighed three hundred and
100
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
fifty-five thousand pounds, of which three hundred and sixteen
thousand pounds were carried on the driving wheels. One of
these locomotives is illustrated on the previous page.
During this year an order was also received for fifty-seven
balanced compound Prairie type locomotives for the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. These locomotives were de-
signed for fast freight service, and had inside high-pressure
BALANCED COMPOUND PRAIRIE TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
cylinders, inclined at an angle of seven degrees, in order that their
main rods could clear the first driving axle. The total weight
in working order was two hundred and forty-eight thousand
two hundred pounds, of which the driving wheels carry one
hundred and seventy-four thousand seven hundred pounds.
One of them is illustrated above. Thirty-one similar locomotives
were built in 1907.
Among the important foreign orders filled during the year
1906, may be mentioned one from the Italian Government Rail-
BALANCED COMPOUND TEN-WHEELED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Italian Government Railways
ways for twenty locomotives. The number was equally divided
between balanced compound ten-wheeled locomotives for pass-
•
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN1 LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 101
enger service, and single-expansion Consolidation locomotives
for freight service. One of the passenger locomotives is illus-
trated on the previous page.
Owing to the increasing demand for electric trucks, a new
shop equipped with the most approved machinery for turning
out this class of work, was built early in 1906. This shop had
a capacity of one hundred trucks per week.
During the same year, a tract of one hundred and eighty-
four acres was purchased at Eddystone, Pa., about twelve miles
from the city, where extensive foundries and blacksmith shops
were erected. The removal of these shops from the Philadelphia
plant, allowed room for additional machine and erecting shops.
A life size bronze statue of Matthias W. Baldwin was
unveiled on June 2, 1906, and presented by the Baldwin Loco-
motive Works to the Park Commission of the City of Philadel-
phia. This statue occupies a prominent position in front of the*
main office.
On December 31, 1906, Mr. George Burnham, Jr., who
had been a member of the firm since 1896, retired from the
partnership.
On January 29, 1907, fire partially destroyed the shop
building located at the southeast corner of Fifteenth and Spring
Garden Streets. The several departments affected were at once
moved into other quarters, and work was continued with but
little delav.
SANTA FE TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad
In February, 1907, the thirty-thousandth locomotive was
completed. This engine was of the Santa Fe type, having
single-expansion cylinders and a smokebox superheater. It
102 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
was built for the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad
Company, and is illustrated on the previous page.
In May and June, 1907, twenty balanced compound loco-
motives of the ten-wheeled type were completed for the Paris-
Orleans Railway of France. The compound features were
arranged on the deGlehn system, and the engines were built
throughout to drawings and specifications furnished by the rail-
way company. All measurements were made on the metric
system, this being the first instance in the experience of the
Works where metric standards were used exclusively in the con-
BALANCED COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE
For tht Paris-Orleans Railway of France
struction of a locomotive. An illustration of one of these engines
is presented herewith.
At the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition, held at Nor-
folk, Va., in 1907, the Works exhibited five steam locomotives,
three Baldwin-Westinghouse electric locomotives, and three
electric trucks.
During this same year (1907), twenty Consolidation type
locomotives and two inspection cars were built for the South
Manchurian Railways. All these locomotives were of standard
gauge.
The financial depression, which began during the fall of 1907,
resulted in a greatly decreased demand for railway supplies of all
kinds, and the year 1908 witnessed the completion of only six
hundred and seventeen locomotives, of which one hundred and
seventy-four were exported. Among the latter may be mentioned
a Mallet articulated compound locomotive of the 2-6-6-2 type,
which was built for plantation service in San Domingo. This
locomotive developed a tractive force of ten thousand five hun-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 103
dred pounds, which was remarkable in consideration of the fact
that it was of only two feet six inches gauge, and was suitable for
use on twenty-five pound rails.
Mr. William P. Henszey, who had been identified with the
Works since March 7, 1859, and a member of the firm since 1870,
died on March 23, 1909. Mr. Henszey had had an unusually
WILLIAM P. HENSZEY
wide experience in all branches of locomotive engineering, and
even after his retirement as Chief Mechanical Engineer, he spent
much time in the draughting room at the Works, and his advice
was constantly sought. He was largely responsible for the
standardization of locomotive details and for the perfecting of
a system of manufacture, whereby like parts of engines of the
same class were made interchangeable. Many successful loco-
motives of unusual types, which were built to meet difficult
service requirements, were the direct result of his ingenuity and
skill as a designer.
At the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held at Seattle,
Washington, in 1909, two locomotives were exhibited: a Mallet
104 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
articulated compound for the Great Northern Railway, and a
balanced compound Atlantic type for the Spokane, Portland
and Seattle Railway.
During this year, an important change in organization was
effected. On July 1, 1909, the partnership of Burnham, Williams
& Co. was dissolved, and a stock company under the name of
JOHN H. CONVERSE
Baldwin Locomotive Works was incorporated under the laws of
the State of Pennsylvania with the following officers:
John H. Converse, President
Alba B. Johnson, Vice-President and Treasurer
William L. Austin, Vice-President and Engineer
Samuel M. Vauclain, General Superintendent
William deKrafft, Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
The above officers constituted the Board of Directors.
The great growth of the business and its need for a larger
working capital, led to the issue on April 1, 1910, of ten million
dollars first mortgage five per cent, bonds.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 105
John H. Converse, who had been connected with the Works
since 1870 and a partner since 1873, died at his home in Philadel-
phia on May 3, 1910. Throughout the forty years of his con-
nection with the Works, whilst Mr. Converse was occupied pri-
marily with the general financial and commercial administration
of the business, he was also deeply interested in every improve-
ment in locomotive engineering. He took an active part in
civic, philanthropic and religious interests. He was succeeded
as President of the Company by William L. Austin.
On July 1, 1911, the entire property owned by Baldwin
Locomotive Works was sold to a new corporation known as the
Philadelphia Locomotive Works. This was immediately re-
organized as The Baldwin Locomotive Works. This is a public
joint stock company, organized under the laws of Pennsylvania,
and capitalized subject to the mortgage bonds above mentioned
at 840,000,000 ($20,000,000 cumulative preferred stock and
820,000,000 common stock). The stock is listed on the Phila-
delphia and New York Exchanges.
The first Board of Directors of the new company was com-
posed as follows:
William L. Austin, Chairman; Roland L. Taylor, Alba B.
Johnson, Samuel MacRoberts, Samuel M. Vauclain, Charles D.
Norton, Edward T. Stotesbury, Otis H. Cutler, Edmund C. Con-
verse, Francis M. Weld, T. deWitt Cuyler, William Burnham.
The officers of the new company were as follows:
William L. Austin, Chairman of the Board
Alba B. Johnson, President
Samuel M. Vauclain, Vice President
William deKrafft, Secretary and Treasurer
In 1910, the first Baldwin internal combustion locomotives,
built in accordance with patents granted to A. H. Ehle, were
constructed ; and thereafter these machines assumed a permanent
place among the products of the Works. These locomotives are
distinctive, principally in that they employ no chains whatever;
the final drive being through specially designed side-rods. This
allows freedom of the driving-wheels and spring suspension of
all the principal parts, including the motor, frames and trans-
mission. There are no sliding gears in the -transmission, the
106 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
different gear ratios being obtained by the engagement of positive
jaw clutches; while the gears remain constantly in mesh. These
locomotives are specially suitable for industrial, contractors'
and light switching service. They were first built in four standard
sizes, weighing respectively three and one-half, five, seven and
nine tons. Subsequently a larger size, weighing twenty-three
tons, and suitable for standard gauge only, was added. In 1919,
the designs were revised to include five sizes, weighing from five
to twenty-five tons.
An illustration of a Baldwin internal combustion locomotive
is presented on page 120.
In 1911, the Board of Directors authorized the purchase of a
tract of three hundred and seventy acres at East Chicago, Indiana.
Plans were subsequently developed for the construction of works
for the manufacture of tires and wheels, as part of the business
of the Standard Steel Works Co., and for the building of locomo-
tives, as part of the business of The Baldwin Locomotive Works.
Up to 1919, however, these shops had not been constructed.
The subject of superheating was receiving much attention
at this time, and a large number of superheaters were applied
to locomotives built during 1911 and 1912. In the majority
BALANCED COMPOUND PACIFIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
of cases superheaters of the fire-tube type were used, in accordance
with patents controlled by the Locomotive Superheater Co.
The Vauclain type of smokebox superheater, originally designed
in 1905, was also used to some extent, but service tests firmly
established the economies due to high superheat, and the use of
the fire-tube superheater, on large locomotives, is now practically
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 107
universal. Superheaters in conjunction with compound cylinders
are employed on Mallet locomotives; and they have also been
used, to a limited extent, on balanced compound locomotives
built for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. An illustration of a
Pacific type locomotive, so equipped, is shown on the previous page.
The successful introduction of the superheater in American
locomotive practice, was followed by the construction of locomo-
tives for all classes of service, of materially greater capacity
than those previously built. This increase in capacity was ac-
companied by the extensive use of such labor-saving devices as
mechanical stokers, coal pushers on tenders, and power operated
fire-doors and grate shakers. In fact, without the use of these
devices it would be difficult to operate, at full capacity, the
largest locomotives now in service.
Reference has been made to a design of heavy freight
locomotive known as the Mikado, which has four pairs of coupled
driving-wheels with a two-wheeled leading and two-wheeled
trailing truck. Since 1909, this type has come into extensive
use on American railroads, and, because of its increased steaming
capacity, has largely replaced the Consolidation type for main-
SANTA FE TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
line service. A development of the Mikado type is found in the
Santa Fe, with five pairs of coupled driving-wheels. Locomotives
of the Santa Fe type, as has been mentioned, were built for the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. in 1903; but it was about
ten years later before this type began to be used, to any consider-
able extent, on other roads. In the spring of 1912, the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy R. R. placed in service five locomotives of
108 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
the Santa Fe type, one of which is illustrated on page 107. These
locomotives had cylinders thirty inches in diameter by thirty-
two inches stroke, and driving-wheels sixty inches in diameter.
They weighed, in working order, three hundred and seventy-eight
thousand seven hundred pounds, of which three hundred and one
thousand eight hundred pounds were carried on the driving-
wheels. These locomotives were followed by a large number of
others of similar type, which were built not only for the Bur-
lington System, but also for various other roads throughout
the country.
In 1910, a Mikado type locomotive, designed to burn lignite
fuel, was built for the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Com-
pany. This locomotive was constructed in accordance with
specifications prepared by Mr. J. F. Graham, Superintendent of
Motive Power, and the design was based on that of the standard
Consolidation type locomotives for the Associated Lines. The
new Mikado had cylinders twenty-three and three-quarters
inches in diameter by thirty inches stroke, and driving-wheels
fifty-seven inches in diameter; and it weighed in working order,
exclusive of tender, two-hundred and sixty-three thousand
pounds. This locomotive proved highly successful, and the
Mikado type locomotives subsequently built for the Union and
Southern Pacific Systems and their associated lines, were directly
based upon it.
LIGNITE-BURNING MIKADO TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co.
A large number of Mallet locomotives were built during
this period, for pushing and heavy road service on steep grades.
Among the most interesting of these were two groups of locomo-
tives, one of the 2-8-8-2 type and the other of the 2-6-6-2 type,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
109
constructed for the Southern Pacific Co. and used in freight and
passenger service respectively. In order to give the engine-
men a better view when running through tunnels and snow-sheds,
these locomotives were operated with the cab end leading, the
MALLET ARTICULATED FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE
For the Southern Pacific Co.
tender being coupled to the smoke-box end. As oil was used
for fuel, this arrangement was entirely practicable. An illus-
tration of one of the freight locomotives is presented herewith.
In the years 1910 and 1911, six locomotives of the 2-6-6-2
type, which were included in a large number built for the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., were fitted with articulated boilers.
The front boiler section, instead of being supported on sliding
bearings, was rigidly mounted on the frames, and was attached
ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE WITH FLEXIBLE BOILER
For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
to the rear boUer section by a flexible connection. The illustra-
tion shows one of these locomotives, in which the flexible con-
nection consisted of a series of rings, fastened together to form
a bellows-shaped structure. This arrangement was built in
accordance with patents granted to Samuel M. Vauclain.
110
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
An interesting group of eighteen Mallet locomotives was
completed in 1912 for the Imperial Government Rys. of Japan.
These locomotives were of the 0-6-6-0 type, and had a gauge of
three feet six inches. They were equipped with superheaters,
MALLET ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Imperial Government Railways of Japan
and weighed, exclusive of tenders, one hundred and forty-two
thousand six hundred and fifty pounds each. The accompany-
ing illustration shows the design.
Locomotive number forty thousand was completed in June,
1913. It was of the Pacific (4-6-2) type, and was built for the
Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh, to drawings and speci-
fications furnished by the Railway Company. Since 1903,
Pacific type locomotives have been built to a constantly in-
creasing extent, for heavy passenger service; and locomotive
PACIFIC TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Pennsylvania Lines. Baldwin Locomotive No. 40,000
number forty thousand was, at the time of its construction,
among the largest in service. This locomotive had cylinders
measuring twenty-six by twenty-six inches, and driving wheels
eighty inches in diameter; and it weighed, in working order,
three hundred and two thousand pounds. It was equipped with
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 111
a superheater and was fired by a mechanical stoker of the
Crawford under-feed type. An illustration of the locomotive is
presented on page 110.
In September, 1913, the Erie Railroad ordered a locomotive
of the triple articulated type, which was designed and built
in accordance with patents granted to George R. Henderson, who
at that time was Consulting Engineer of The Baldwin Locomo-
tive Works. This locomotive has the 2-8-8-8-2 wheel arrange-
ment, and is practically a Mallet, with a steam driven tender. In
this way, a tractive force equal to that of three Consolidation
or Mikado type locomotives can be developed in a single unit.
The triple locomotive has six cylinders, all of which are of the
same size and cast from the same pattern. The two cylinders
which drive the middle group of wheels receive superheated
steam direct from the boiler and thus act as the high pressure
cylinders; and they exhaust into the front and rear cylinders,
which act as the low pressure. The exhaust from the front
cylinders is discharged up the stack to create a draught for
the fire, while that from the rear cylinders, after passing through
a feed-water heater, escapes up a pipe at the rear of the tank.
Pumps are used to force the heated feed-water into the boiler.
The first locomotive of this type was completed in April,
1914, and was placed in pushing service on a heavy grade near
Susquehanna, Penna. It was named "Matt H. Shay," after the
TRIPLE ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Erie R. R.
oldest living engineer then in the service of the Erie. The
cylinders of this locomotive are thirty-six inches in diameter by
thirty-two inches stroke, and the driving-wheels are sixty-three
inches in diameter. The total weight of the locomotive in working
order is eight hundred and fifty-three thousand pounds, and
112
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
the maximum tractive force exerted is one hundred and sixty
thousand pounds. On a test run to determine its hauling capacity
on practically level track, the "Matt H. Shay" has hauled a train
of two hundred and fifty loaded cars having a length of one and
six-tenths miles and weighing seventeen thousand nine hundred
and twelve tons. This load was hauled up a maximum grade of
0.09 per cent., combined with a curve of five degrees.
After this locomotive had been fully tried out, two more
of similar dimensions were built for the Erie R. R. and completed
in 1916. Another of the same general type was built for the
Virginian Railway.
While these developments were taking place in the field
of steam locomotive engineering, Baldwin-Westinghouse electric
locomotives were becoming increasingly prominent in the prod-
uct of the Works. Among these locomotives may be men-
tioned five, which were built in 1910 for service in the Hoosac
Tunnel, Mass., on the line of the Boston & Maine R. R. This
tunnel is four and three-quarters miles long, and its operation
with steam locomotives had become difficult because of the ac-
cumulation of smoke and gas, which made it impossible to
fully utilize the track capacity of the tunnel. The results
ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES
For the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 113
obtained with electric traction have been most satisfactory,
and the capacity of the tunnel has been greatly increased.
Up to the close of 1912, one hundred Baldwin-Westinghouse
single-phase locomotives had been built for the New York, New
Haven & Hartford R. R. for service on the electrified section
of the line between New York and Stamford, Conn. The electri-
fication was subsequently extended to New Haven. The electric
locomotives built for this road are of various types, and are used
in passenger, freight and switching service. The illustration
on page 112 represents ten large New Haven electric locomo-
tives of the articulated type, ready for shipment from The
Baldwin Locomotive Works to Pittsburgh, to receive their
electrical equipment at the Westinghouse plant.
Another interesting group of electric locomotives were
those built for the Norfolk & Western Ry. for service between
Bluefield and East Vivian, West Virginia, a distance of thirty
miles. This line handles a heavy coal traffic, and its capacity,
under steam operation, was limited by the number of trains
which could be moved through Elkhorn Tunnel, where the line
is single tracked. The tunnel has a length of thirty-one hundred
feet, and is approached from the West by a two per cent, grade,
and from the East by a grade of two and thirty-six-hundredths
per cent. When the road was electrified, twenty steam locomo-
tives of the Mallet type were replaced by twelve electric locomo-
tives, and the capacity of the line was greatly increased because
of the higher speed at which the trains could be handled. Each
electric locomotive consists of two units having a combined
weight of two hundred and seventy tons, each unit being of the
2-4-4-2 type. Two of these locomotives handle a train weighing
thirty-two hundred and fifty tons through the tunnel in three
minutes; while with steam operation, on account of slow speeds
and frequent stalling, it was necessary to allow twenty minutes
for three Mallet locomotives to take a train through the tunnel.
The development of electric mine and industrial locomo-
tives, during this period, was characterized by refinement in
general design and detailed construction. These Works were
pioneers in developing and standardizing plate steel and cast
steel bar frames for mine locomotives. The accompanying
114
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
ELECTRIC MINING LOCOMOTIVE
With Cast Steel Bar Frames
illustration shows one
of these locomotives,
equipped with a cast
steel frame of the
bar type. Greater
strength and accessi-
bility were secured
with this construc-
tion, and also, in
many cases, lighter
mechanical parts,
thus allowing the use of heavier and more powerful electrical
equipment for a given total weight of locomotive.
During the past few years a large number of storage battery-
locomotives have been built for mine and industrial service.
The Edison storage battery, because of its light weight and dur-
ability, has proved particularly well suited for this kind of work.
The completion at Eddystone, in 1912, of a large erecting
shop, provided additional erecting facilities much needed to
relieve congestion at the Philadelphia plant. This shop was
specially designed for the construction of locomotives of the
largest size; it covers over seven and one-half acres of ground,
EDDVSTOXE ERECTING SHOP
HTSTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 115
and has over-all dimensions of four hundred and eighty by eight
hundred and eighty feet. The building has a steel frame-work,
with concrete foundations and side walls of hollow tile. The
roof is laid with reinforced cement tile and the floor is of wooden
blocks laid on concrete. An illustration of this shop is presented
on the preceding page.
George Burnham, Sr., who entered the Works in 1836, died
at his home in West Philadelphia on December 10, 1912, in the
ninety-sixth year of his age. Mr. Burnham had been a member
of the firm since 1867.
Since the financial panic of 1907, the volume of business
handled by the Works had been exceedingly fluctuating; and
when the European war broke out in August, 1914, the Baldwin
Plants were operating at only about one-third of their full
capacity. The significance of the conflict was at once perceived
by the officials of The Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the
manufacturing facilities of the Company were promptly placed
at the disposal of the Allied Governments.
The pressing needs for ordnance, ammunition and other
supplies by France and Great Britain, were such that all efforts
in these early days of the war were directed towards the develop-
ment of armament and munitions. In Russia, however, greater
distances and a desperate shortage of motive power and equip-
ment necessitated the purchase of locomotives. Mr. S. M.
Vauclain, then Vice-President of The Baldwin Locomotive
Works, visited Russia in the fall of 1914 and also early in 1915,
and was instrumental in securing a large part of this business.
The first order thus obtained called for thirty Mallet locomotives
of the 0-6-6-0 type, for the Vologda-Archangel Railway. These
MALLET ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Vologda-Archangel Railway, Russia
116
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
locomotives were of three feet, six inches gauge, and they were
successfully and rapidly completed and shipped. One of them
is illustrated on page 115. This order was followed by others,
placed later by the Russian Government, and covering large
DECAPOD TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Russian Government
numbers of heavy Decapod locomotives of five feet gauge,
gasoline locomotives of seventy-five centimetres (2' 51") gauge,
gasoline trucks and gasoline tractors. The locomotives are
illustrated on this page. One hundred of the Decapod loco-
motives, which could not be delivered in Russia because of the
Bolshevik revolution, were subsequently purchased by the United
States Government and so modified that they could be used
temporarily on the railroads of the United States.
The gasoline locomotives were intended for trench service, a
class of work for which they are well fitted, since as they emit no
smoke they are comparatively inconspicuous.
GASOLINE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Russian Government
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 117
The French Government, late in the summer of 1914, sent a
mission to the United States to make certain purchases. Early
in November, 1914, the mission received cable instructions from
France to purchase twenty tank locomotives of a gauge of sixty
centimetres (!' Us"), which were to be built to American
designs and shipped as promptly as possible. The Baldwin
Locomotive Works took this order on November 3rd, and the
twenty locomotives, boxed and ready for shipment overseas, left
the Works on November 21st. This was the beginning of a
series of orders from the French Government which included both
steam and gasoline locomotives totalling over one thousand in
number. Among these were two-hundred and eighty locomotives
of the Pechot type, designed for service on the narrow (sixty
centimetres) gauge lines in the advanced areas. These locomo-
tives were built throughout to the metric system of measurement,
in accordance with designs furnished by the French Government.
They are carried on two steam driven trucks or bogies, thus
providing unusual flexibility and excellent tracking and riding
qualities. The boiler has two fireboxes, placed in the middle
between the bogies; and there is a separate boiler barrel, smoke-
box and stack at each end of the locomotive. The total weight
in working order, with water- tanks and coal-boxes filled, is
twenty-eight thousand one-hundred pounds. These locomotives
were built during the years 1915 and 1916. The accompanying
illustration represents the design.
The locomotives built for the British Government, for service
similar to that performed by the Pechot locomotives, were of the
PECHOT TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the French Government
118 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
ten-wheeled (4-6-0) type with side tanks. A total of four-
hundred and ninety-five of these were built during the latter
part of 1916 and the Spring of 1917. The design generally
followed American practice, as shown in the accompanying
illustration; and the locomotives weighed, in working order,
thirty-two thousand five hundred pounds each.
The British Government also received four hundred and sixty-
five standard gauge locomotives of various types. Conspicuous
among these were one hundred and fifty locomotives of the
Consolidation (2-8-0) type, which were built in 1917. These
locomotives had cylinders twenty-one inches in diameter by
TEN-WHEELED LOCOMOTIVE
For the British Government
twenty-eight inches stroke, and the weight in working order was
one hundred and sixty-two thousand five hundred pounds.
The remainder of the standard gauge locomotives built for the
British Government were of the 0-4-0, 0-6-0, 2-6-2 and 4-6-0
types. The last named had separate tenders, while the others
were tank engines.
In addition to the locomotives built for strictly military pur-
poses, large orders for Mikado (2-8-2) type freight locomotives
were also received, during the war period, from two prominent
French railways — the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean, and the
Nord. These locomotives were built throughout to the metric
system, in accordance with specifications furnished by the pur-
chasing companies. They use superheated steam and are of the
balanced compound type, with inside high-pressure cylinders
driving the second pair of coupled wheels and outside low-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 119
pressure cylinders driving the third pair. The total weight of
one of these locomotives, exclusive of tender, is two hundred and
two thousand pounds, of which the driving-wheels carry one
hundred and forty-nine thousand four hundred pounds.
The construction of all of these locomotives for military service
abroad, together with those ordered by domestic railways, soon
placed the Works on a full capacity basis. Moreover, during this
period orders were received from the British and French Govern-
ments for the machining of a large number of shells, varying in
calibre from four and seven-tenths inches to twelve inches. These
shells were manufactured in such of the locomotive shops as were
available for the purpose, and also in new shops, specially built
and equipped for this kind of work. The principal additions
made to the Philadelphia plant were a four-story extension of the
truck shop, measuring ninety by ninety-seven feet, and an eight-
story building of re-enforced concrete, measuring ninety-eight
feet six inches, by three hundred and ninety-six feet. A group of
large shops one story in height, was also built at the Eddystone
plant and utilized for the completion of the shell order from the
French Government.
With the entrance of the United States into the war, in April,
1917, all industries manufacturing war supplies of any kind
received a great stimulus. The presence of the American Army
in France required the immediate construction of a great amount
of motive power and rolling stock; and to meet the demand for
locomotives, The Baldwin Locomotive Works were entrusted
with what were probably the largest and most urgent orders ever
placed in the history of locomotive building. The first of these
orders was placed on July 17, 1917, and called for one hundred
and fifty locomotives of the Consolidation (2-8-0) type. These
locomotives, in general design, were similar to the Consolidation
engines built for the British Government, the principal difference
being that they were equipped with superheaters, whereas the
British locomotives used saturated steam. The first of the
locomotives for the United States Government was completed on
August 10th, less than a month after the receipt of the order, and
the last of the one hundred and fifty, on October 1st. These
"Pershing Engines," as they became known, were subsequently
120 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
CONSOLIDATION TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the United States Government. The first "Pershing Locomotive" built
ordered in large numbers; and when hostilities closed they were
being shipped from the Works at the rate of three hundred per
month.
Additional erecting capacity was required in order to handle
all this work, and a second erecting shop, generally similar to
that constructed in 1912, was built at Eddystone during the
winter of 1917-1918.
Through the initiative of Mr. S. M. Felton, Director of
Military Railways, and his mechanical aide, Colonel Milliken,
an interesting method was developed of shipping the Pershing
locomotives to France, erected complete with the exception of
the headlight, smokestack and cab. The locomotives and
tenders were placed in the holds of the vessels on their own
wheels, and after unloading them at St. Nazaire, France, com-
paratively little work was required before they were ready for
service. Much time and trouble were saved in this way.
In addition to the Pershing locomotives, narrow gauge steam
locomotives of the 2-6-2 type, and gasoline locomotives of the
GASOLINE LOCOMOTIVE
For the United States Government
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 121
five, seven and one-half and twenty-five ton sizes, were also built
for the United States Government. One of the gasoline loco-
motives, weighing seven and one-half tons, is illustrated on page
120.
On September 6, 1917, Mr. S. M. Vauclain was appointed
Senior Vice-President of The Baldwin Locomotive Works, Mr.
Grafton Greenough Vice-President in Charge of Sales, and Mr.
John P. Sykes Vice-President in Charge of Manufacture.
Mr. Vauclain, as has been mentioned in these pages, had been
connected with the Works since 1883. The great increase in the
size and capacity of the plant which occurred during his term of
service was due, to a large extent, to his untiring energy and to
his exceptional ability as an organizer and executive. He also
took an active interest in the development of the locomotive, and
became recognized the world over as a locomotive expert and
designer. It is safe to say that the production record made by the
Works during the period of the war would not have been attained
had it not been for his courage, energy and ability.
Mr. Greenough entered the service of the Company on Decem-
ber 28, 1885, as an employee of the Engineering Department.
In August, 1899, he was transferred to the Operating Depart-
ment in the capacity of Assistant Superintendent. At the time
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 he was placed in
charge of the St. Louis Office, later assuming charge of the sales
organization in Philadelphia as General Sales Manager.
Mr. Sykes was apprenticed to The Baldwin Locomotive Works,
entering service in 1879. He served in the capacities of Con-
tractor, Assistant Foreman and General Foreman until 1905
when he was appointed Superintendent of the (then new)
Eddystone Shops. In 1907 he left the parent company to become
General Superintendent of the Standard Steel Works Company
at Burnham, Pa., later returning to The Baldwin Locomotive
Works as Assistant General Superintendent. In July, 1911, he
was appointed General Superintendent, which position he held
until his selection as Vice-President in Charge of Manufacture.
One of the most notable achievements of The Baldwin Loco-
motive Works during the war, was the building of a group of
railway gun mounts for the United States Navy. These mounts
122 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
carried fourteen-inch naval guns, which were available for shore
service; and the original idea was to use them against a number
of long-range German guns which were mounted near Ostend and
firing into Dunkirk. The designs for the mounts were prepared
at the Naval Gun Factory, Washington, under the direction of
Captain A. L. Willard, Superintendent; Commander Harvey
Delano, U. S. N., and George A. Chadwick, Chief Draftsman.
When the designs were submitted to the bidders on January 25,
1918, Mr. S. M. Vauclain, who was then Chairman of the Muni-
tions Committee of the War Industries Board, agreed that The
Baldwin Locomotive Works would build the mounts, with the
assistance of the American Bridge Company, in from one
hundred to one hundred and twenty days. Five mounts were
thereupon ordered; the first one, scheduled for delivery on May
15, 1918, was completed on April 25, while the last, which was
scheduled for June 15, was completed May 25. Considering the
fact that the design was new throughout, that there was a
shortage of labor, and that many serious obstacles had to be
overcome, this was an exceptionally creditable piece of work.
FOURTEEN-INCH RAILWAY GUN MOUNT
Each of these mounts is carried on twenty-four wheels,
grouped in four trucks of six wheels each. The maximum firing
elevation of the guns is forty-three degrees; but when firing at
angles of fifteen degrees and upward, a structural steel foundation,
surrounding a pit, is necessary, for the purpose of absorbing a
portion of the shock and providing room for the recoil of the
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 123
gun. These foundations were also supplied by The Baldwin
Locomotive Works.
By the time the mounts were completed, conditions in Europe
had changed to such an extent that it was impossible to send
them to the Belgian Coast as first intended; hence they were
shipped to the West Front, and were in service several weeks
prior to the signing of the armistice. In all, the five batteries
were fired seven hundred and eighty-two times on twenty-five
different days, at ranges which averaged from thirty thousand to
forty thousand yards; and while it was not possible, in the
majority of cases, to make observations, it is known that severe
damage was done.
These first five mounts were followed by six others, of similar
construction; and after the signing of the armistice, the. Works
completed two additional mounts of an improved type, so
designed that the gun can be fired at all angles without trans-
ferring the weight to a separate foundation. The new mounts
were given thorough tests and proved highly satisfactory.
The Works also built thirty-eight caterpillar mounts, designed
to carry seven-inch rifles. These were also constructed for the
Navy, having been designed at the Naval Gun Factory. This
type of mount has broad caterpillar treads, and can be run over
rough roads and soft soil. In the field, these mounts are hauled
about by tractors of one hundred and twenty horsepower.
In addition to building complete mounts, The Baldwin Loco-
motive Works constructed several styles of railway trucks for
gun and howitzer mounts. At the time hostilities closed, prep-
arations were being made for the manufacture, on a large scale,
of heavy tanks equipped with Liberty motors. These were
intended to destroy the wire defenses and machine gun nests put
up by the Germans in their retreat. After the signing of the
armistice, however, the order for these tanks was cancelled.
The war activities of The Baldwin Locomotive Works also
included the construction of two large plants on their property at
Eddystone for the manufacture of rifles and ammunition, and
accomplishments in this connection constitute a series of achieve-
ments worthy of record.
On April 30, 1915, the British Government placed a contract
124 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
with the Remington Arms Company of Delaware for one million
five hundred thousand rifles to be manufactured in one of the
plants mentioned above, under the general direction of Mr. S. M.
Vauclain. The work of constructing, equipping and organizing
this enormous plant was fully accomplished, and production
established by December 31, 1915, continuing until the close of
1918.
Mr. Charles H. Schlacks was engaged as General Manager on
May 1, 1915, and to him great credit is due for the completion of
the organization and the remarkable manufacturing results
obtained.
The main building of the Rifle Plant covered fourteen acres of
ground, and had a length of ten hundred and forty feet and a
maximum width of eight hundred and sixteen feet. Great
difficulty was experienced in obtaining delivery of equipment and
machinery in time to meet the terms of the British contract, and
some idea of the extent of the installation may be had from the
fact that ten thousand machines, forty thousand two hundred
feet of shafting, and four hundred and twenty-four thousand feet
of belting were required.
The first British contract, mentioned above, was followed by
another, signed August 2, 1915, and calling for five hundred
thousand rifles, necessitated additional equipment. Because of
the complexity of rifle manufacture, it was impossible to obtain
experienced workmen; hence it was some time after the com-
pletion of the Plant before it could be operated at capacity. In
consequence, an extension of time was granted for the com-
pletion of these contracts.
Soon after the United States entered the war, April 6, 1917, and
in view of its prospective rifle requirements, cancellation of the
British contracts, after the completion of six hundred thousand
rifles, was arranged. Later, the British owned machinery and
equipment passed by agreement to the United States Government
who continued the British arrangement with the Remington
Arms Company for its operation in the manufacture of rifles for
the United States Army.
The first contract for rifles for the United States Government
was signed on July 12, 1917; and during the twelve months
HISTORY OF THE' BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 125
Hi
fi
i
i
126 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
beginning September, 1917, one million rifles were completed,
the greatest known achievement in rifle production. These rifles
differed slightly from those manufactured for the British Govern-
ment, in that they fired a .300 calibre rimless cartridge; whereas
the British rifle, which was an Enfield (model of 1914) fired a
.303 calibre rim cartridge.
On January 2, 1918, the Remington Arms Company of Dela-
ware was absorbed by the Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company
(Eddystone Rifle Plant). The latter company operated the plant
until after the close of the war.
The completion of rifle number one million for the United
States Government was celebrated by a mass meeting held on
September 23, 1918. The meeting was attended by a number of
notable army, navy and industrial officials, and by more than
fourteen thousand employees of the plant.
Operations at the plant ceased on January 11, 1919, at which
time nearly three hundred thousand rifles were in process of
manufacture. The Government then leased the premises for a
storage plant.
The total number of rifles manufactured in this plant was one
million nine hundred and fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and
fifty-four, in addition to spare parts equivalent to two hundred
thousand rifles. The greatest production exceeded six thousand
rifles per day, and the maximum number of employees was
fifteen thousand two hundred and ninety-four. When it is
remembered that nearly two-thirds of all the rifles used in combat
by the American Army in France were manufactured at Eddy-
stone, the value of the work done can, to some extent, be appre-
ciated ; and the achievement was the more remarkable in view of
the exceptional difficulties encountered in equipping the plant
and securing labor and material.
The second plant referred to was built primarily for the
production of Russian ammunition ordered by the British
Government. Early in 1915, Messrs. J. P. Morgan and Company,
representing His Britannic Majesty's Government, were re-
quested to negotiate with American manufacturers for the pro-
duction of three-inch Russian shrapnel, and Mr. S. M. Vauclain
made a tentative agreement for the manufacture of two million
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 127
five hundred thousand of such shells. As the Charter of The
Baldwin Locomotive Works did not permit it to handle explo-
sives, the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation was formed on
June 10, 1915, for the purpose of carrying out the contract.
The new Company was organized with S. M. Vauclain as
Managing Director, Andrew Fletcher as President, Captain
Walter M. Wilhelm as Vice-President and General Manager, and
John P. Sykes as Consulting Manager. The stock of the Com-
pany was held and owned outside of The Baldwin Locomotive
Works because of provisions in the Charter to which previous
reference has been made.
A contract, calling for two million five hundred thousand
rounds of three-inch Russian artillery ammunition with shrapnel
shells, was executed on July 23, 1915, for completion by December
31, 1916. Work was immediately started on the construction of
the plant, which was located along the river front on what was
originally swamp lands. The main buildings consisted of two
shops each four hundred and fifty by seven hundred and fifty
feet, connected to an office building fifty by four hundred and
fifty feet, which was placed between them. These buildings were
of steel and tile construction, two stories high ; the upper floors of
the shop buildings being removable, so that cranes could be sub-
sequently installed for after-war production. A large number of
smaller structures, which were used for powder loading buildings,
storehouses, magazines, etc., were also erected. The office build-
ing was completed and occupied November first.
In connection with this plant, a modern wharf was built
along the Delaware River front. This wharf was equipped with
a fifty-ton gantry crane, and had a minimum depth of thirty feet
of water alongside, so that large cargo steamers could dock and
load.
Some difficulty was experienced in equipping the plant, and
much of the heavy machinery was manufactured by The Baldwin
Locomotive Works since it could not be obtained elsewhere. In
addition to this, The Baldwin Locomotive Works installed the
heat-treating plant and supervised its operation.
Additional time was allowed on the contracts, and the order
was finally completed on August 10, 1917.
128 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
In connection with this work the Eddystone Ammunition
Corporation secured the contract for proving Russian ammunition
of their own and other makes, and a proving ground for this
purpose was established at Lakehurst, New Jersey, with Captain
C. K. Rockwell in charge, who distinguished himself in over-
coming what appeared to be insurmountable difficulties in
record time.
By this arrangement the Eddystone Ammunition Corpora-
tion were required to test ammunition for other manufacturers,
and lots representing some seven million six hundred thousand of
three-inch Russian shrapnel and high explosive shells with their
component parts were tested.
The work done at the proving ground was of the greatest
value, and was an unqualified success. The last shot was fired
December 24, 1917.
The work done in the plant of the Eddystone Ammunition
Corporation was necessarily of a dangerous character, and while
every precaution was taken to safe-guard the workers, there was
one serious disaster. On April 10, 1917, four days after the United
States declared war on Germany, an explosion occurred in "F"
building, a loading shop isolated from the main building on
account of the large amount of powder used. The building was
completely demolished, and one hundred and twenty-eight
people were killed, while a large number of others were injured.
Heroic work was done at the rescue, both by employees and also by
outsiders who happened to be in the vicinity and who could reach
the spot. The cause of the explosion has never been determined.
In May, 1917, the United States Government requested the
Eddystone Ammunition Corporation to submit a proposition
covering the manufacture of a large amount of three-inch shrap-
nel. Because of British and Russian interests represented,
however, the proposed program could not be accepted by the
Directors of the Corporation. After some negotiation, the United
States Government agreed to purchase the machinery and equip-
ment of the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation; and The
Baldwin Locomotive Works, the owners of the buildings, organ-
ized a subsidiary company to manufacture the shrapnel. This
subsidiary was organized on September 27, 1917, as the Eddy-
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 129
stone Munitions Company.
The officers of the Company were as follows : —
Charles H. Schlacks, Chairman of the Board.
James McNaughton, President.
Captain Walter M. Wilhelm, Vice-President.
J. L. Tate, Secretary and Treasurer.
W. C. Stagg, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer.
For nearly a year previous to the organization of the Eddy-
stone Munitions Company, Mr. McNaughton had been directing
the affairs of the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation as personal
representative of Mr. Vauclain. He was thus peculiarly well
qualified to assume the presidency of the new Company. On
October 1, 1917, he was also appointed Consulting Vice-President
of The Baldwin Locomotive Works.
The original order, placed by the United States Government,
called for seven hundred and fifty thousand complete rounds of
three-inch shrapnel. After the work had been started, the size
of the shells was changed to seventy-five millimetres, which
materially retarded delivery. Difficulty was experienced in
maintaining the output of these shells, on account of failure to
receive the component parts promptly.
On April 1, 1918, a contract was signed for one million
seventy-five millimetre high explosive shells. The cartridge case
shop, in the meantime, was manufacturing cartridge cases of high
quality at the rate of sixty thousand per week. In addition there
were loaded, assembled and packed over one million six hundred
thousand rounds of seventy-five millimetre shrapnel, the com-
ponent parts of which were furnished by the Government.
During the early months of 1918 the Government also
ordered large quantities of various kinds of fuses, boosters and
adapters, necessitating a number of changes in the shop lay-out
and the installation of new machinery. This was accomplished,
however, in an incredibly short space of time.
In addition to the work for the United States Government, a
contract was made with the British Government for five hundred
thousand six-inch high explosive shells. The armistice was
signed before this contract was finished, but four hundred and
seventy-five thousand of the shells were actually completed, the
130 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
maximum production reaching four thousand two hundred per
day.
The epidemic of influenza, which swept the country early in
the fall of 1918, seriously affected the work of the Company on
account of the great amount of illness among the employees.
Among the first to succumb was Captain Walter M. Wilhelm,
Vice-President, who died on October third. This was a severe
loss, as owing to his wide experience in the manufacture of
.munitions, his services were of exceptional value.
The maximum number of employees of the Eddystone
Munitions Company was six thousand five hundred and eighty-
three, and the average number four thousand two hundred and
thirteen. The labor situation presented many problems, due to
the heavy labor turn-over and the difficulty of securing skilled
workers. Excellent wages, backed by a bonus system and con-
siderate, tactful management, did much to hold employees who
would otherwise have sought employment elsewhere.
After the signing of the armistice, on November 11, 1918,
production rapidly slackened, and on December 31st of that year
manufacturing ceased. The machinery and equipment were
sold, and the buildings turned over to The Baldwin Locomotive
Works, to be subsequently re-equipped as locomotive shops.
An idea of the extent of the war activities of The Baldwin
Locomotive Works and its associated companies, may be obtained
from the following summary of material supplied to the Allied
Nations and the United States:
Locomotives built 5551
Gun Mounts (seven and fourteen-inch) 51
Foundations for fourteen-inch mounts 20
Trucks for gun and howitzer mounts 5 sets
Total number of shells (including those manu-
factured by Eddystone Ammunition Cor-
poration and Eddystone Munitions Com-
pany) 6,565,355
Cartridge cases 1,863,900
Miscellaneous ammunition items 1,905,213
The aggregate value of the war contracts executed and
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 131
delivered by The Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Standard Steel
Works Company, the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation, and
the Eddystone Munitions Company, was approximately
$250,000,000.
In connection with the war activities of The Baldwin Loco-
motive Works, it should be recorded, as a matter of historical
interest, that among those lost on board the Cunard steamer
"Lusitania," when that vessel was torpedoed by a German
submarine on May 7, 1915, were W. Sterling Hodges and his
family. Mr. Hodges, at the time, was en route for Paris, where
he was to act as one of the representatives of The Baldwin
Locomotive Works.
While the greater part of the product of the Works, during
the war, was for military purposes, a record should also be made
of a number of interesting locomotives for railway service. At
the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Fran-
cisco during 1915, an exhibit of five steam locomotives was
presented as follows:
A Mikado type locomotive for the Southern Pacific Co.;
A locomotive of similar construction for the San Pedro,
Los Angeles and Salt Lake R. R. ;
A Pacific type locomotive for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe Ry. ;
A Santa Fe type locomotive for the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy R. R., and a stock locomotive of the Mikado type designed
for logging service. Two electric trucks were also exhibited;
and an exhibit, made by the McCloud River R. R., included a
Baldwin locomotive built for that line. The Works received the
Grand Prize for locomotives and electric trucks.
MOUNTAIN TYPE LOCOMOTIVE
For the Jamaica Government Railways
132 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
In July, 1916, the first locomotives of the Mountain (4-8-2)
type to be built by The Baldwin Locomotive Works, were
completed. They were of standard gauge, for the Jamaica
Government Rys. The illustration on page 131 shows the
general design. This type of locomotive was subsequently
built in considerable numbers, for heavy passenger service in the
United States.
The Government assumed control of all the trunk line railways
of the United States, December 28, 1917, at a time when the
various lines were taxed to their capacity. The operation of the
railways was intrusted to the United States Railroad Administra-
tion, which body immediately assumed the right to centralize
the purchases of all railroad equipment, including locomotives.
The Director General of the Railroad Administration immediately
appointed a committee to standardize the specifications for
locomotives and in accordance with his ruling, that committee
and a committee of railway officials collaborated with the repre-
sentatives of the locomotive builders in preparing twelve speci-
fications and designs of locomotives comprising twelve sizes of
engines divided among eight types. The locomotive builders
sharing in this work were The Baldwin Locomotive Works, the
American Locomotive Company and the Lima Locomotive
Works, Incorporated. The first conference was held at the
office of The Baldwin Locomotive Works, March 13, 14 and 15,
1918, and subsequent meetings were held in the Interstate Com-
merce Building, Washington, with the result that an order for
standard locomotives was placed and divided among the three
builders April 30, 1918, and subsequent orders were placed with
the last two companies named. Some locomotives of each of the
twelve standard specifications were built by both The Baldwin
Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company,
whereas the activities of the Lima Locomotive Works were con-
fined to two types of engines.
The standard locomotives were distributed to the various
railroads of the country as directed by the Railroad Administra-
tion, and it will be interesting to note if the lower costs of loco-
motives made possible through standardization can overcome, in
the mind of the railroad world, the advantages which may be
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
133
obtained through the use of locomotives particularly designed
and adapted to the individual service of the railroads on which
they operate.
Heavy Mikado Type
Only one order for standard locomotives was placed with these
Works, because the capacity of the plant was practically ab-
sorbed by the Government's demand for Military Railway
locomotives and for military and naval equipment.
Locomotive Number 50,000 was completed in September,
1918. This engine is of the Mallet type, with 2-8-8-2 wheel
arrangement, and is one of a group of twelve, specially designed
for service on the Appalachia Division of the Southern Ry.
System. These locomotives had been ordered before the standard-
ization program was decided upon. Locomotive number 50,000
MALLET ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE
For the Southern Railway. Baldwin Locomotive No. 50.000
is equipped with a superheater and mechanical stoker, and weighs,
in working order, four hundred and twenty-seven thousand
pounds, exclusive of tender. The accompanying illustration
represents the design.
When the armistice was signed and it became necessary to
turn attention to the problems of peace, it was found that the
removal of war business, however gradually accomplished, would
reveal a lack of balance in the general organization of the Works.
134 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
As a consequence of this business being obtained direct from the
United States and Allied Governments, the Commercial and
Financial Departments remained undeveloped, while the In-
dustrial Department had been enormously increased to take care
of the emergencies of war. This lack of balance was particularly
noticeable in the Sales Department, as war work had been
obtained with practically no solicitation.
In adjusting to meet the new conditions, it was obviously
necessary to expand the Commercial Organization so as to be
able to obtain the business necessary for greatly enlarged shops
and manufacturing facilities. The opportunity for sales was
especially attractive in foreign countries where Germany,
formerly the most active competitor, had lost ground.
In order to inaugurate a more vigorous selling campaign, the
Sales Department, in March, 1919, was reorganized, and two
distinct departments were created — a Domestic Sales Depart-
ment and a Foreign Sales Department. The long established
Extra Work Department, with its record of past successes, was
abolished; and the work formerly committed to its care was
divided between the two Sales Departments. Mr. Grafton
Greenough, formerly Vice-President in Charge of Sales, was made
Vice-President in Charge of Domestic Sales. Mr. Francois de St.
Phalle, who had been connected with the Works since 1903, and
who during the war had acted as Manager of Munitions, was
appointed Vice-President in Charge of Foreign Sales. Both
departments were organized on the basis of zone management,
with sections especially devoted to sales in certain determined
districts and countries. Twelve direct Baldwin offices were
opened in foreign countries, and men of the highest capacity
selected and equipped to act as Baldwin Managers in those
countries.
On May 19, 1919, Mr. Alba B. Johnson resigned from the
presidency. Mr. Johnson first entered the service of the Works
as junior clerk on May 14, 1877. He left the following year to
enter the employment of the Edge Moor Iron Works of Wilming-
ton, Delaware, returning to The Baldwin Locomotive Works on
September 1, 1879. From that time until his resignation, he
served the Works continuously; first as assistant to Mr. John H.
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 135
Converse, as a member of the firm of Burnham, Williams and
Company from January 1, 1896; as Vice-President and Treasurer
from July 1, 1909, and finally as President from July 1, 1911. Mr.
Johnson's contribution to the succass of The Baldwin Locomotive
Works was steady and important throughout these many years.
His efforts to develop the foreign business of the Company were
untiring, and his abilities in the executive capacities in which he
was engaged were strengthened by an exceptional memory for the
facts of important transactions throughout the period of his long
service.
Mr. Johnson w#s succeeded as President by Mr. S. M. Vauc-
lain. He continued to serve, however, as a member of the Board
of Directors.
On May 19, 1919, Mr. William de Krafft was appointed
Vice-President in Charge of Finance, and Treasurer. Mr. de
Krafft had been connected with the Works since March 29, 1895.
After serving in a number of the shop offices, he was transferred
to the Purchasing Department, and subsequently to the Finan-
cial Department in the Main office. When the Company was
first incorporated, on July 1, 1909, Mr. de Krafft was appointed
Secretary and Assistant Treasurer. At the time of the second
incorporation, July 1, 1911, he was appointed Secretary and
Treasurer, which position he held until his appointment as
Vice-President.
Two orders of special interest, which were filled for export
during the winter of 1919-1920, called respectively for one hun-
dred and fifty locomotives for the Polish Government and thirty
for the South African Railways. The Polish locomotives are of
standard gauge, and are practically duplicates of the "Pershing"
Consolidation engines previously described. The South African
locomotives are of three feet six inches gauge, and are of the
Mountain (4-8-2) type. They have a total weight, exclusive of
tender, of two hundred and five thousand pounds, and are of
exceptional capacity in view of the narrow gauge and the re-
stricted clearance limits imposed. They were built in accord-
ance with drawings and specifications furnished by the railway,
and the design incorporates plate frames and various other
special features. One of these locomotives is illustrated herewith.
136 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
MOUNTAIN TYPE LOCOMOTIVE, SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS
In this connection, special reference should be made to the
shipping and receiving facilities, both domestic and foreign, which
have been developed by The Baldwin Locomotive Works. The
Eddystone Plant, where locomotives are erected and prepared
for shipment, has track connection with three important railways.
The Washington main line and a branch of the Pennsylvania
Railroad system, the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad,
and the Philadelphia & Reading Railway all run directly to the
plant, and connect with a system of industrial railways covering
all material yards, shops and docks. The Baldwin Locomotive
Works is thus not only fitted with full facilities for railway and
deep water shipping, but also for the receiving of materials direct
from all parts of the country or from foreign ports.
The Eddystone Plant is located on the west bank of the
Delaware River about fourteen miles below the City of Phila-
delphia, which stands second to New York only among the ports
of the United States, the total movement of freight through the
port in 1919 amounting to 9,314,755 tons. To accommodate
this traffic the Delaware has been dredged to provide a ship
channel eight hundred feet in width and thirty-five feet in depth
at low water. At Eddystone the channel lies about two thousand
feet off shore. In 1915, when the port facilities at Eddystone were
planned, Crum Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet wide and
from two to six feet deep, flowed through the land selected as the
development site, which was low and marshy, being under water
at high tide. In general terms the project contemplated the
diversion of Crum Creek to a new channel farther to the north-
ward, the reclamation of the marshy area through which it
formerly flowed, the construction upon the reclaimed land of a
system of wharves with suitable storage yards and railroad
PLAN VIEW or EDDYSTONE PLANT, 1920. SHOWING RAILROAD CONNECTIONS AND
DOCKING FACILITIES
138 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
connections, and the provision of a turning basin and a dredged
channel affording access from the wharves to the ship channel
as well as ample space for maneuvering vessels at the docks.
Reference to the plan of the Eddystone Works as thus far
developed, which appears on page 137, will serve to fix in mind
the features of this installation as well as the general layout of
the plant and its location with reference to the railroads running
through or adjacent to it.
Mention has been made of the wharf built during the War,
adjoining the plant which was leased to the Eddystone Ammuni-
tion Corporation. The north-east front of this wharf is five
hundred and sixty feet long, and is served by a gantry portal
crane of fifty tons capacity. The south-east front, six hundred
and forty feet in length, is used for package freight which can be
loaded by ship's tackle. Both fronts are served by adequate
trackage. A turning basin eleven hundred feet in diameter, and
having a minimum depth of thirty feet of water, is located along-
side the wharf. This basin communicates with the main ship
channel by a connecting channel three hundred feet wide, having
a minimum depth of twenty-two feet at low tide, and a maximum
depth of twenty-eight at high tide. Sea-going steamers can thus
be loaded at the plant, for direct shipment to any foreign port.
These docking facilities, which will be increased as occasion
requires, constitute the nucleus of a modern loading port at
Eddystone. They have been provided in accordance with the
policy of the Works to offer the most improved and complete
service possible. The Branch Offices and Agencies of the Com-
pany, listed on page 144, are so located as to cover the world's
territory to the best possible advantage, and are prepared to
render the most prompt and efficient service. This service
includes the superintendence of shipment under the expert and
individual attention of a specially organized shipping department
and the erection and trial of locomotives on arrival at their
destination.
The illustration on page 139, shows the loading of locomo-
tives on the steamship "Kosciuszko," and is interesting for the
reason that this vessel flies the flag of the recently formed Polish
Republic, and was the first steamer of Polish registry to clear
140
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
from any American port. She docked at Eddystone, December
1, 1919, and departed December 11, having loaded twelve
locomotives for the Polish Government. Shortly thereafter she
sailed direct for Danzig, the newly acquired Polish port. The
engraving below shows a small part of the river frontage, with
two steamers docked for loading. On page 141, is shown a
portion of the wharf served by the gantry crane and piled high
with packing cases ready for shipment.
STEAMERS MOORED AT THE EDDYSTONE WHARVES
Philadelphia's location is peculiarly favorable, in that it is in
proximity to the principal coal mining and steel manufacturing
sections of the country. The city, moreover, has a large per-
manent population of skilled mechanics, engaged in machine
and engine building, thus giving an abundant force of expert
workmen from which to draw when necessary.
The Works are fully equipped to build all types of locomotives
and to supply locomotive duplicate and repair parts of every
description. With the exception of the boiler and tank plates,
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
141
ON THE WHARF AT EDDYSTONE, SHOWING PACKING CASES READY FOR SHIPMENT
chilled wheels, boiler tubes and special patented appliances, all
parts of locomotives and tenders are made in the main or adjunct
plants from the raw materials. The Works are also prepared to
furnish such general engineering supplies and equipment as can
be manufactured in a large locomotive building plant.
Beginning with "Old Ironsides," built in 1831-32, consecutive
construction numbers have been applied to the locomotives built
at these Works. The growth of the business is indicated by the
following statement, giving the years for the completion of loco-
motives numbered in even thousands:
No. 1,000,
1861
No. 13,000,
1892
No. 25,000,
1905
" 2,000,
1869
" 14,000,
1894
" 26,000,
1905
" 3,000,
1872
" 15,000,
1896
" 27,000,
1905
" 4,000,
1876
" 16,000,
1898
" 28,000,
1906
" 5,000,
1880
" 17,000,
1899
" 29,000,
1906
" 6,000,
1882
" 18,000,
1900
" 30,000,
1907
" 7,000,
1883
" 19,000,
1901
" 31,000,
1907
" 8,000,
1886
" 20,000,
1902
" 32,000,
1907
" 9,000,
1888
" 21,000,
1902
" 33,000,
1908
" 10,000,
1889
" 22,000,
1903
" 34,000,
1909
" 11,000,
1890
" 23,000,
1903
" 35,000,
1910
" 12,000,
1891
" 24,000,
1904
" 36,000,
1911
142
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
No.
37,000,
38,000,
39,000,
40,000,
41,000,
42,000,
1911
1912
1912
1913
1913
1915
No.
43,000,
44,000,
45,000,
46,000,
47,000,
48,000,
1916
1916
1917
1917
1917
1918
No. 49,000,
" 50,000,
" 51,000,
" 52,000,
" 53,000,
1918
1918
1918
1919
1920
The production during the years 1866-1919 was as follows:
Year
1866.
1867.
1868.
1869.
1870.
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
1883.
Locomotives Year
..118
1884.
.127
1885.
.124
1886.
.235
1887.
.280
1888.
.331
1889.
.422
1890
.437
1891.
.205
1892.
.130
1893
.232
1894
.185
1895.
.292
1896.
.298
1897.
.517
1898
.554
1899.
.563
1900.
.557
1901.
Locomotives
Year
Locomotives
. .429
1902 . .
1533
. .242
1903 . .
2022
. .550
1904. .
1485
. .653
1905 .
2250
. .737
1906. .
2666
. .827
1907 .
2655
. .946
1908. .
617
. .899
1909.
1024
.731
1910. .
1675
. .772
1911.
1606
.313
1912.
1618
. .401
1913.
2061
. .547
1914.
804
. .501
1915. .
867
. .755
1916. .
1989
. .901
1917.
2737
.1217
1918. .
3580
.1375
1919. .
..1722
The present organization, based upon an annual capacity of
three thousand five hundred locomotives, is as follows:
Number of men employed
Hours of labor, per man, per day
Principal departments run continuously, hours per
day
Horse-power employed jStremSgines:.
Electric power purchased (horse-power)
Number of buildings comprised in the Works . . .
Acreage comprised in the Works j ^^a ; ; ;
Acreage of floor space comprised in buildings
21,500
10
23
16,700
3,400
8,500
137
19.33
595.65
143
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 143
Horse-power of electric motors employed for power
transmission, aggregate 57,400
Number of incandescent electric lamps in service. . 14,000
Number of electric motors in service 3,450
Consumption of coal, in net tons, per week, about 4,200
" fuel oil, in gallons, per week, about 175,000
" iron and steel, in net tons, per
week, about 6,500
Consumption of other materials, in net tons, per
week, about 3,000
The future holds out many prospects of trade expansion,
and The Baldwin Locomotive Works are fully prepared to meet
any demands, either domestic or foreign, which may be made
upon them.
144
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
The Baldwin Locomotive Works
General Offices of the Company
500 North Broad Street, Philadelphia
REPRESENTATIVES AND AGENTS
New York, N. Y.
RICHARD SANDERSON
120 Broadway
Chicago, 111.
CHARLES RIDDELL
627 Railway Exchange
St. Louis, Mo.
A. S. GOBLE
1210 Boatmen's Bank Building
Richmond, Va.
G. F. JONES
407 Travelers Building
Pittsburgh, Pa.
E. CONVERSE PEIRCE
279 Union Arcade Building
Houston, Texas
PAUL G. CHEATHAM
401 Carter Building
St. Paul, Minn.
HENRY BLANCHARD
908 Merchants National Bank
Building
Portland, Ore.
A. J. BEUTER
312 Northwestern Bank Building
San Francisco, Cal.
WILLIAMS, DIMOND & Co.
310 Sansome Street
Argentine Republic
WALLACE R. LEE
Buenos Aires, Paseo Colon 185
Balkan States
E. ST.J. GREBLE
Bucharest, Roumania
Brazil
C. H. CRAWFORD
Rio de Janeiro, Rua Alfandega, S
Brazil
CORY BROS. & Co., LTD.
Bahia
Brazil
EDWARD C. HOLDEN
Para
Brazil
MONTEATH & CO.
Pernambuco
Chile
WESSEL, DUVAL & Co.
Valparaiso
China
ANDERSEN, MEYER & Co., LTD.
Shanghai
Dutch East Indies
J. O. FEENSTRA
Bandoeng, Java
France
H. A. F. CAMPBELL
Paris, 14 Rue Duphot
Great Britain
R. P. C. SANDERSON
London, 34 Victoria Street,
S. W. 1
Hawaiian Islands
C. BREWER & Co., LTD.
Honolulu
Japan
SALE & FRAZAR, LTD.
Tokio
Mexico
CARL HOLT SMITH
Mexico City
New South Wales
R. TOWNS & Co.
Sydney
New Zealand
PHILIPS & PIKE
Wellington
Peru
C. R. CULLEN
Lima
Poland
FRANK W. MORSE
Warsaw, Krolewska, 1
Porto Rico and
Santo Domingo
R. CARRION
San Juan, American Colonial
Bank Building
Portugal
E. PINTO BASTO & Co., LTD.
Lisbon
Portuguese East
Africa
MANN, GEORGE & Co., LTD.
Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay
Scandinavia
OLAV BELSHEIM
Christiania, Norway (Toldboga-
den, 8)
Southern Africa
F. V. GREEN
Johannesburg
Spain
H. P. AUSTIN
Madrid, Apartado 473
Victoria
NEWELL & Co.
Melbourne
Western Australia
LESLIE & Co.
Perth
West Indies
G. R. PEREZ
Havana, 520 National Bank of
Cuba Building
HISTORY
OF THE
Standard Steel Works Company
STANDARD STEEL WORKS Co,
OFFICES:
500 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
WORKS: Burnham, Pa.
TRADE MARK
DIRECTORS
ALBA B. JOHNSON, Rosemont, Pa.
SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN, Rosemont, Pa.
SYDNEY E. HUTCHINSON, Philadelphia, Pa.
SIDNEY F. TYLER, Philadelphia, Pa.
B. DAWSON COLEMAN, Lebanon, Pa.
ARTHUR W. SEWALL, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARTHUR E. NEWBOLD, Philadelphia, Pa.
OFFICERS
ARTHUR E. NEWBOLD
SAMUEL M. VAUCLAIN
ROBERT RADFORD
A. A. STEVENSON
WM. H. PUGH, JR.
A. B. EHST
Chairman of the Board
. President
Vice-President and Treasurer
. Vice-President and Engineer
Secretary
. Comptroller
HISTORY
OF THE
Standard Steel Works Company
The executive offices of the Standard Steel Works Company
are located at 500 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania. The Works are situated at Burnham, on the Kisha-
coquillas Creek, about three miles from Lewistown, Mifflin
County, Pennsylvania; a locality long identified with the iron
and steel industry.
The land on which the Works are built is part of a tract
originally warranted by Everhart Martin on April 2, 1755.
Two hundred and twenty-five acres of the original warrant were
sold to George Hanawalt on July 4, 1795, for £1000. A forge
was established in 1795 by William Brown and William Maclay,
who petitioned the Court in August, 1795, for "a road from
Freedom Forge by the nearest and best way to the River Juniata,
near to or at McClelland 's Landing." In 1811 Freedom Forge
was acquired by Joseph Martin, Samuel Miller and John Brown,
who operated under the name of Miller, Martin and Company.
In 1827 John Norris purchased the interests of William Brown,
but resold it in 1833 to William Brown, Jr. The Plant was used
until 1834, when it was rebuilt with "one chafery and six refinery
fires" having a capacity of "eight hundred tons of blooms per
annum."
In 1847 the forge and furnace portion of the property was
purchased by Archibald Wright, John Wright and John A.
Wright, Philadelphia. In 1856 Messrs. Wright transferred the
property to the "Freedom Iron Company" with Joseph Thomas
as President. A tire mill with a capacity of two thousand tires
a year was added. In 1865 the Company installed two five- ton
Bessemer converters and rail mill, and built the Emma Furnace
with the intention of using the "Stone Creek" ores to supply the
Bessemer plant. The first heat was blown May 1, 1868. A tire
mill and a double acting ten-ton steam hammer were imported
150
STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY
from England. The use of the native ores proved unsuccessful,
and in 1870 the Bessemer plant was sold, some of the machinery
being removed to Joliet, Illinois, some to Johnstown, Pennsyl-
vania, and the remainder becoming the property of the Logan
Iron and Steel Company.
In 1870 William Butcher leased the tire mill and hammer
and the building erected for the Bessemer plant, and began the
manufacture of crucible steel tires. William Butcher took with
him from Philadelphia forty men for tire rollers, hammermen and
machinists. Some of these men who manufactured the first steel
tires made in America are still (1920) in the employ of the
Standard Steel Works.
The following year he failed, his creditors carrying on the
business until 1875, when they organized The Standard Steel
Works, which was incorporated in that year. The Standard
Steel Works purchased the property in 1895. The manufacture
of crucible steel tires was continued for some years. With the
advent of acid open-hearth steel for tires an arrangement was
made with the Otis Steel Company, then the leading manu-
facturer of steel, under
which tires were pro-
duced from Otis steel
ingots. This partnership
continued until, realizing
the necessity of pro-
ducing their own steel,
the Company established
a complete melting
plant, from which the
first heat was poured
March 19, 1895. This
furnace, which had a
capacity of fifteen tons,
was the first rolling open-
hearth furnace to be put
into operation. It was served by an electric-driven charging
machine, which was the first of its kind to be used, and is still
in operation.
STEEL TIRED WHEEL WITH PLATE CENTER
STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY
151
The manufacture of built-up steel tired wheels for engine
trucks, coaches, tenders and industrial purposes was begun in
1892. The centers were made of wrought or cast iron, and later
cast steel centers were added.
In 1895 the Company designed and introduced the bolted
type of steel tired wheel, which has proved to be the best type
for all purposes. It has been adopted by many railroads, to the
extent that other types of tire fastening have become practically
obsolete. The bolted type was adopted by the Master Car
Builders' Association in
June, 1912, as the
standard M. C. B. type
of tire fastening.
In 1911 the Com-
pany introduced the
rolled steel center,
placing five hundred
such centers with
bolted type tires in the
Pullman service. Since
then the majority of
steel tired wheels have
been fitted with rolled
Steel Centers. STEEL TIRED WHEEL WITH SI-OKE CENTER
The demand for steel castings being in excess of the supply,
a steel foundry was established in 1897 with two fifteen-ton open-
hearth furnaces, which furnaces have since been rebuilt as
stationary furnaces of twenty tons capacity. The demand for
steel castings kept increasing, so that it was necessary in 1910 to
erect No. 2 Steel Foundry, which doubled the capacity.
As the demand for locomotive forgings was in evidence the
Company built a Forge Shop in 1898. It was necessary to enlarge
in 1902; and in 1916, under the stress of war conditions, its
capacity and scope were increased by the installation of seven
steam hydraulic presses. At the present time (1920) the Com-
pany is equipped with a plant of the most modern type, and is
able to produce locomotive and marine forgings, shafts, rolls,
ordnance forgings and miscellaneous forgings of weights up to
forty tons, which can be handled under presses or hammers.
152 STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY
During the year 1900 plans for the systematic enlargement
of every department of the Standard Steel Works were instituted.
The bed of the Kishacoquillas Creek was changed to allow
uninterrupted space for additional buildings.
The advent of new and greater activities necessitated the
installation of increased facilities for the greater production of
steel. Consequently, in 1902 Open-Hearth Plant No. 2 was built
with one fifty-ton open-hearth furnace. Another fifty-ton open-
hearth furnace was added in 1905, a third in 1907, a fourth in 1910
and a fifth in 1916. Open-Hearth Plant No. 3 was built in 1917
with two seventy-five-ton open-hearth furnaces. The capacity at
this time (1920) is
approximately two hundred
thousand tons annually.
Previous to 1903 the
Company operated a small
iron foundry for the pro-
duction of its own cast iron
• ™ wheel centers and miscel-
laneous castings for its own
work. In 1903 two large
iron foundries were built for
the manufacture of mis-
cellaneous castings. Since
then the Company has
utilized the foundries for
the production of their
own centers, ingot moulds and other castings required for their
own use, and malleable iron for the trade.
In 1903 a Spring Shop was built with machinery of the
latest and most approved design, especially constructed to meet
requirements of this particular class of manufacture. It has been
kept modern with the most up-to-date machinery to supply the
most exacting demands.
In 1904 the manufacture of the "Standard" solid forged and
rolled steel wheels was begun. This was the introduction of this
type of wheel into America, and it was at that time offered as a
substitute for the cast iron chilled wheel which had become
STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY 153
inadequate for modern service. The demand for rolled wheels to
replace cast iron chilled wheels under the lightest as well as the
heaviest equipment constantly increased, so that in 1910 a second
plant was erected, doubling the capacity. In order to meet the
increased demands in 1917, a third mill was erected. The
preliminary forging operations for this mill are performed on two
four-cylinder hydraulic presses of ten thousand tons capacity,
especially designed for the work. The furnaces in this mill are
heated by pulverized coal supplied from a central pulverizing
station.
Realizing the necessity of improving the steel in every
possible manner in order to meet the most exacting demands, the
subject of heat treatment has been given careful consideration
and extensive experiments have been carried on. In 1910 a large
heating plant was built, with further extensive additions in 1911.
In 1916 the plant was doubled in capacity and provided with
vertical tanks that were required for annealing, quenching, and
tempering of gun and howitzer forgings, which were supplied by
the Company to the United States Government. The furnaces
are equipped with accurate pyrometer control.
The weight of electric equipment and the severity of service
were constantly increasing so that cast steel gears and pinions
were neither rendering adequate service, nor could they meet the
demands imposed upon them. In 1911, therefore, the Company
began the manufacture of forged steel gears, which have met all
expectations and proved very successful.
The production of the various products necessarily meant
constant increase in machine shop capacity, so that now the
main shop is one hundred and seventy-five feet wide by ten
hundred and fifty feet long, containing horizontal boring mills for
machining tires, wheels and driving-wheel centers, with additional
equipment of lathes, planers and other tools for finishing heavy
forgings ; and equipped with specially designed lathes for hollow
boring of driving-axles, wrist pins, etc.
Among the specialties produced by the Company, particular
mention must be made of built-up crank axles for locomotives.
This type of crank axle was originally designed to meet the
requirements of the four-cylinder balanced compound locomotive.
154
STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY
Solid forged crank axles are in extensive use in Europe, but for
lighter locomotives than are used in America. Even with the
lighter locomotives, the solid cranks have not proved entirely
satisfactory. In addition to the axle designed by the Company
for use in the United States, the Company during the war
designed and supplied a large number of crank axles built on the
same general principle but of different pattern. The majority of
these axles were built up of nine pieces, while others were made in
five pieces, the crank-pins and central web being made from a
single quenched and tempered forging.
The Standard Steel Works met the demands imposed upon
it by the extraordinary conditions caused by the World War.
FIVE-PIECE LOCOMOTIVE CRANK AXLE
It was found necessary to maintain a full volume of output and at
the same time to develop and manufacture shell and gun forgings.
Large quantities of 4.7" to 12" shells were supplied for the
British Government and equal quantities of 3" and 4.7" for the
United States Government. Upon the entrance of the United
States into the war the Government called upon the Company
to supply 155 millimeter gun and 155 millimeter howitzer
forgings.
The total area covered at the present time by buildings and
yard is 119 acres. The main plant lies along the east bank of
the Kishacoquillas Creek. Water pipes connected with a con-
STANDARD STEEL WORKS COMPANY
stant and abundant supply of water, are laid throughout the
Works, with convenient outlets at various points. A well-
drilled fire department is maintained, manned and officered by
the employees.
There are fifteen miles of track in and around the plant,
owned by the Company, on which are operated nine steam
locomotives, two electric locomotives, nine locomotive cranes,
one self-propelled hoisting engine and eighty-one cars.
The entire plant is thoroughly modern in every particular
with every labor-saving device incorporated. It represents the
progress of the iron and steel industry which has been con-
tinuous from the little forge of 1795, operated by water power
and distributing its products by wagon, river and canal, to the
extensively developed plant of 1920 with its diverse industries,
capable of producing two hundred thousand tons of steel yearly
and employing five thousand men.
156 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
INDEX
Abt system of rack-rail, locomotives for 79, 84
Adhesion, device for increasing 20
Africa, locomotives for 80, 135
Air-spring for locomotives 34
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, exhibit 103
American Bridge Co :. 122
American Railroad of Porto Rico, locomotive for 97
American type locomotive, first used 26, 39
Anthracite coal, first attempts to burn 24
Antofagasta Railway, locomotive with outside frames 76
Associated Lines Mikado type locomotives 108
Associated Lines, "Standard" locomotive designs 96
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Prairie type locomotives.. . .90, 100
Decapod type locomotive 94
Oil burning locomotives 95
Santa Fe type locomotives. ... 96
Atlantic type balanced com-
pound locomotive 97
" " " " Mallet locomotives with articu-
lated boilers 109
Pacific type balanced compound
locomotive 106, 107
Atlantic Avenue Railway motor 69
Atlantic City Railroad, fast time on 87, 88
Atlantic Coast Line, Atlantic type locomotives for 82
Atlantic type locomotives 82, 86, 89, 90, 97
Austin, WilHam L 76, 104, 105
Austria, locomotive for 28
Averill Coal and Oil Co., narrow gauge locomotive 64
Baird, Matthew . 45, 67
Balanced compound locomotives, description 92
Baldwin, M. W. & Co., new firm 45
Baldwin & Vail, new firm 26
Baldwin & Whitney, new firm 35
Baldwin compound locomotive, first 78
Baldwin Locomotive Works, incorporation of 104
Baldwin Locomotive Works, The, incorporation of 105
Baldwin, M. W 7, 61
Baldwin, Vail & Hufty 26
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, eight-wheeled connected locomotives 43
ten-wheeled locomotives 85
Banquet, Union League 94
Bavarian State Railways, Atlantic type locomotives 90
" Consolidation type locomotives 90
Belgian State Railways, locomotives for 90
Belmont, August, Austrian locomotive 28
Bismarck, Washburn and Great Falls Railway, Mikado type locomotive . 94
Bissell, Levi, air-spring 34
Bissell truck first used, 1861 57
Board of Directors 104, 105
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 157
Bo ler, articulated, for Mallet locomotives 109
Dimpfel 56
dome, abandoned 45
radial stay wagon-top, introduced . 77
straight, with two domes 56, 64
Vanderbilt. 91
wagon-top, introduced 45
Bonds, issue of 104
Bone Guelma Railway, locomotives for 88
Borst, W. W., report of performance of narrow gauge locomotives 65
Boston and Maine Railroad, electric locomotives 112
Bound Brook Line, fast passenger locomotive 72
Brass tires used on locomotive "Brandywine" 21
British Government, locomotives for 117, 118
rifles for 123
Burnham, George 62, 115
Burnham, George, Jr 84, 101
Burnham, Parry, Williams & Co., new firm 67
Burnham, Williams & Co., new firm . 79
Cabs, first use of 41
Camden and Amboy Railroad Co., locomotive imported 9
Campbell, Henry R., design of locomotive 26
Cannon, L. G., extract from letter 23
Cantagallo Railway, locomotives for 74
Cast steel frames first used 87
Caterpillar gun mounts for United States Navy 123
Cathcart, Andrew, design for rack-rail locomotive 42
Centennial International Exhibition 68
Centennial Narrow Gauge Railway 68
Central Railroad of Georgia, early locomotives 33, 47
Central Railroad of New Jersey, first double-ender locomotive 66
Chadwick, Geo. A 122
Charkoff Nicolaieff Railway, Russia, locomotives for 67
Charleston and Hamburg Railroad Co., locomotive "Miller" 15
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Atlantic type locomotives. ... 89
Santa Fe type locomotives. . . 107
Chicago plant 106
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, Walschaerts valve motion
adopted 99
Chicago Short Line, balanced compound locomotive 93
Chilled wheels first used 25
Chinese Eastern Railways, locomotives for 89
"Chronicle," extract from 12
Citizens' Railway of Baltimore, separate motor 71
Clark, David, feed-water heater 54
Classification first established . 35
Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, locomotives for 56
Coal, experiments in combustion of 24, 42, 54
Coleman, Robert, locomotive for 78
Columbian Exposition, exhibit 81
Combustion chamber introduced 56
Compressed air locomotive for street cars 67
Compressed air locomotives, first built 67
Consolidation locomotives 60, 65, 78, 87, 90, 118, 119
Converse, John H 67, 104, 105
Corcovado Railway, rack-rail locomotive 77
158 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Corrugated fireboxes 71
Crank-axles for locomotives 154
Cross flues placed in firebox 55
Ci uger, Alfred, order for locomotives 25
Cuba, first locomotives exported to 25
Cumberland Valley Railroad, locomotive with combustion chamber 56
Cut-off valve 38
Cut-off with separate valve and independent rock-shaft 51
Cuyahoga cut-off 53
Cylinder and half saddle in one piece 59
Cylinders, balanced compound, cross section 93
Cylindrical pedestals 23
Cylindrical pedestals and boxes cast in chills 29
Decapod type locomotives 75, 80, 94, 116
Deflecting plate in firebox 54
deGlehn compound locomotives 102
deKrafft, William 104, 105, 135
Delano grate 56
Delano, Harvey 122
Delaware, Lacka wanna and Western Railroad corrugated firebox sheets . . 71
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad extended wagon-top boiler. . 77
" narrow gauge locomotives 64, 65
Detachable firebox 24
Dimpfel boiler used 56
Docks at Eddystone Plant 138-140
Dom Pedro II Railway, first locomotives for 58
Decapod locomotive 75
" Mogul locomotive 68
Domestic Sales Department 134
Double eccentric adopted 25
Double-ender type locomotive, Central Railroad of New Jersey 66
Driving-axle, position of, Baldwin and Norris locomotives 19, 20
Driving-wheels, compound wood and iron 17, 18
Driving-wheels, patented, 1834 21, 22
Driving-wheels with wrought iron centers, Vauclain patent 78
Eastwick & Harrison equalizing beam 26
Eddystone Ammunition Corporation 126-128
Eddystone Munitions Co 128-130
Eddystone Plant, extensions at 101, 114, 119, 120
Eddystone Rifle Plant 123-126
Egyptian State Railways, locomotives for 90
Ehle, A. H., gasoline locomotives 105
Eight- wheeled C engines 40
connected locomotives 40, 41
locomotive, H' R. Campbell 26
tenders first built 25
Electric locomotive, first built 82
Electric locomotives, Boston and Maine Railroad >.- 112
New York, New Haven and I lartford Railroad . . 99, 113
Norfolk and Western Railway ' 113
Electric mine locomotives with steel frames 113
storage battery locomotiv es 114
truck shop completed 101
Ellet, Charles, operation of locomotives on heavy grades 48
Engine truck, flexible beam 30, 31
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 159
Engine truck, swing bolster 63
England, contracts in . . .• , 89
Equalization of eight-wheeled locomotives 26
Erecting shop, Eddystone Plant 114, 120
Erecting shop, electrically equipped 78
Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, four coupled locomotive 34
Erie Railroad, triple locomotive Ill
Extract from article by Charles Ellet 48
" on Centennial Narrow Gauge Railway 68
"Chronicle" 12
letter of G. A. Nicolls 33
" " M. W. Baldwin 51
"W. W. Borst... 65
"Locomotive Engineering" 32
patent specification of M. W. Baldwin 52
"United States Gazette" 12
Exhibit at Alaska- Yukon- Pacific Exposition 103
" Centennial Exhibition 68
" Columbian Exposition 81
" Jamestown Exposition 102
" Louisiana Purchase Exposition 96, 97
" Pan-American Exposition 91
" " Panama-Pacific International Exposition 131
" Paris Exposition 90
Fan for blowing fire 29
Fast passenger locomotive Central Vermont Railroad 44
Bound Brook Line 72
locomotives, Pennsylvania Railroad 44
Feed-water heater, Baltimore and Ohio locomotive 43
" " patented by Baldwin and Clark 54
Felton, S. M 120
Financial embarrassments 24
Finland State Railways, locomotives for 90
Firebox, detachable 24
Fireboxes, steel, first used 58
with corrugated sides 71
Firebrick arch used as a deflector 54
Firebricks supported on side plugs 55
" water-tubes 55
Five-thousandth locomotive completed 72
Fletcher, Andrew 127
Flexible beam truck 30, 31
Foreign Sales Department 134
Four-cylinder locomotive proposed by M. W. Baldwin 45
Frames, cast steel, first used 87
Frames, first made integral with pedestals 29
French and Baird smoke-stack 37
French Government, locomotives for 117
French State Railways, locomotives for 89
Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad, oil-burning locomotive. ... 95
Geared locomotive, design of M. W. Baldwin 27, 28
Georgia Railroad, first engine with flexible beam truck 32
Government Railways of New Zealand, Consolidation locomotives 72
Government of Victoria, ten-wheeled locomotives 72
Graham, J. F 108
160 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Grand Trunk Railway, Canada, locomotives for 67
Great Central Railway, England, locomotives for 89
Great Northern Railway, England, locomotives for 89
United States, Mallet compound locomotives. . 99
Greenough, Graf ton 121
Grimes patent smoke-stack 38
Ground joints for steam pipes 20
Half-crank axle 14
Half-stroke cut-off 39
Hango-Hyvinge Railway of Finland, locomotives for 67
Hardie, Robert, compressed air locomotive 73
Harrison, Joseph, Jr., equalizing beam 26
Heald, Edwin W 76
Henderson, George R Ill
Henszey, William P 62, 103
High speed passenger locomotive, Philadelphia and Reading Railway. . . 83
Hill and West Dubuque Street Railway, motors for 71
Hodges, W. Sterling . . 131
Hoosac Tunnel, electric locomotives for 112
Horizontal cylinders, first used on engine "Ocmulgee" 59
Hudson River Railroad, fast passenger locomotive 45
Illinois Central Railroad, ten-wheeled locomotive 91
Imperial Government Railways of Japan, locomotives for 98, 110
Incorporation 104
Internal combustion locomotives 105, 116, 120
Iron flues, first used, advantage of 36, 37
Italian Government locomotives for 100
affa and Jerusalem Railway, locomotives for 79
amaica Government Railways, mountain type locomotive 132
ames, W. T., link motion 50
amestown Exposition, exhibit 102
apan, first locomotives for 77
ohnson, Alba B 84, 104, 105, 134
Kansas Pacific Railway, first locomotives to have tires shrunk on 66
Koursk Charkoff Azof Railway, locomotives for 72
Lehigh Valley Railroad, Consolidation locomotives 60, 68, 87
Link motion, first applied by M. W. Baldwin 53
" " first use of 50
Locomotive, Baldwin No. 5,000 72
Baldwin No. 10,000 77
Baldwin No. 20,000 92
Baldwin No. 30,000 101
Baldwin No. 40,000 110
Baldwin No. 50,000 133
"Locomotive Engineering," extract from 32
Locomotive, first Baldwin compound, 1889 78
shortest time of construction 78
with outside frames 76
Locomotive "Alamosa," Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 65
"Athens," Central Railroad of Georgia 47
"Atlantic," Western Railroad of Massachusetts 39
"Belle," Pennsylvania Railroad 53
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
161
Locomotive "Best Friend," Charleston and Hamburg Railroad 14
"Black Hawk," Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad 21
'Blair," Pennsylvania Railroad 44
"Brandywine," Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad 21
'Clinton," Central Railroad of Georgia 47
"Columbia," Baldwin Locomotive Works 81
"Consolidation," Lehigh Valley Railroad 60
'Delaware," Centennial Narrow Gauge Railway 69
'E. A. Douglas," Thomas Iron Company 63
'E. L. Miller," Charleston and Hamburg Railroad 15
'Governor Paine," Vermont Central Railroad 43, 44
'Hornet," Pennsylvania Railroad 55
'Indiana," Pennsylvania Railroad 44
'John Brough," Madison and Indianapolis Railroad 42
'Lancaster," Pennsylvania State Railroad 16
'Leopard," Pennsylvania Railroad 55
"Matt H. Shay," Erie Railroad Ill
"Media," West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad 55
'M. G. Bright," Madison and Indianapolis Railroad 41
"Mifflin," Pennsylvania Railroad 44
'New England," Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 37
'New Hampshire," Central Railroad of Georgia 53
"Ocmulgee," Southwestern Railroad of Georgia 59
"Old Ironsides," Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown
Railroad
'Ontario," Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
'Pennsylvania," Central Railroad of Georgia
'Principe do Grao Para," Dom Pedro II Railway
'Schuylkill," Centennial Narrow Gauge Railway
'Sparta," Central Railroad of Georgia
'Susquehanna," Hudson River Railroad
'Tiger," Pennsylvania Railroad
'Wasp," Pennsylvania Railroad
'West Chester," Pennsylvania State Railroad
Locomotives, American type
Atlantic type
Balanced compound
compressed air.
Consolidation type
Decapod type
deGlehn compound
Electric
First Baldwin exported . .
Flexible beam truck
for Military Service
Geared
Internal combustion
Mallet type
Mikado type
Mogul type
Mountain type
Norris, 1834
Pacific type
Pechot type
Prairie type
Rack-rail
Santa Fe type
10
. 37
. 53
. 68
. 69
. 47
. 45
. 55
. 55
. 23
26,39
82, 86, 89, 90, 97
. .92, 97, 100, 102, 106
.67, 73
.60, 65, 78, 87,90, 118, 119
75,80,94, 116
102
82,99, 113
25
30-34,40,41
:.... 115-120
27, 28
105, 116, 120
97, 99, 108-110
. . .86, 95, 107, 108, 118
63,64
132
19, 20
...92, 106, 110
117
90,91, 100
. . .42, 77, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84
95, 101, 107
162
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Locomotives, Single rail
Tandem compound
Ten-wheeled 46,
to burn Cumberland coal
to burn Russian anthracite coal . . .
Triple articulated
with single pair of driving-wheels. .
with upright boilers and horizontal
Locomotives exported to Africa
Algiers
Austria
Bavaria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Chile
China
Cuba
Egypt
England
Finland
France
Italy
Jamaica . . :
Japan
Manchuria
Mexico
New South Wales
New Zealand
Norway
Palestine
Poland
Porto Rico
Queensland
Russia
San Domingo
Victoria
Wurtemberg
Longstreth, Edward
Louisville and Nashville Railroad, six-coupled
wheeled Bissell truck
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, exhibit
65
94,95
47, 85, 91, 93, 100, 102, 118
43
67
Ill
.......10, 15, 19,44, 72,83
cylinders 30
80, 135
89
28
90
90
58, 64, 68, 74, 75, 77
67
76
90
25, 71
90
89
67,89
89, 90, 102, 117, 118
80, 100
132
77,85,98, 110
102
73,84
72, 73, 99
72,92
72
79
135, 140
97
71
67, 72, 84, 115, 116
83, 102
72
39
62, 63, 76
locomotive with two-
57
96,97
Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, rack locomotive
Mallet compound locomotives, narrow gauge
broad gauge
Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, locomotive for. . .
Mason, David, partnership
McNaughton, James
Meier Iron Co., locomotive for
Metallic packing, 1840
Metric system, locomotives built to
Mexican National Construction Co., order from ....
Midland Railway, England, locomotives for
Midvale Steel and Ordnance Co
Mie Kie Mines locomotive, first for Japan
Mikado type locomotives
.99,
...41,42
110, 115
108, 109
47
7
129
67
29
102, 117
73
89
126
77
95, 107, 108, 118
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 163
"Miller, E. L.," locomotive for Charleston and Hamburg Railroad ..... 14-16
Mine Hill Railroad, locomotive with peculiar crown sheet ............. 56
Mine locomotives, inside and outside connected ...................... 66
Miniature locomotive, Philadelphia Museum ......................... 9
Mitchell, Alexander, first Consolidation type locomotive ............... 60
Mogul locomotives ........................................... 63, 64, 79
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, locomotive with leading truck ........ 14, 15
Morgan & Co., J. P ............................................... 126
Morrow, William H ............................................ 76, 77
Mountain top track ............................................ 50
Narrow gauge locomotive, first built ... ........................... 64
New Jersey Transportation Co., performance of locomotives ........... 23
New South Wales and Queensland, first locomotives for .............. 71, 72
New South Wales Government, tramway motors .................... 72
Ten-wheeled locomotives ............. 99
New York and Erie locomotives .................................. 45
New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, Decapod locomotives ..... 80
NewYork, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, electric locomotives, 99, 112, 113
New Zealand Government Railways, locomotives for ................ 72, 92
Nicolls, G. A., extract from letter ................................. 33
Norfolk and Western Railway, electric locomotives ................... 113
Nord Railway, France, locomotives for .............................. 118
Norris, Septimus, ten-wheeled locomotive patent ..................... 46
Norris, William . . . . ............................................. 19
Northern Pacific Railroad, order .............. ..................... 66
locomotive number ten-thousand ........... 77
Norwegian State Railway, ten- wheeled locomotives ................... 72
Number of locomotives constructed in 1834 .......................... 19
1835-1840 ..................... 22
1841-1842 .................... 30,32
1843-1845 ..................... 35
1846-1847 ..................... 41
1848-1851 ............. . ........ 43
1852-1854 .................... 45
1855-1860 ..................... 55
1861-1865 ..................... 57
1866-1919 ................. 141, 142
"Ocmulgee," first locomotive with horizontal cylinders ................ 59
Officers, Baldwin Locomotive Works ................................ 104
Officers, The Baldwin Locomotive Works ........................... 105
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, change in gauge ...................... 66
Oil-burning locomotives ......................................... 95, 109
"Old Ironsides," first Baldwin locomotive ......................... . .9-14
Orel Griazi Railway, Russia, locomotives for ......................... 72
Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co., locomotives for ................. 108
Outside cylinders, Mr. Baldwin the first American builder ............. 59
Pacific type locomotives .................................... 92, 106, 110
Pan-American Exposition, exhibit .................................. 91
Panama-Pacific International Exposition, exhibit ..................... 131
Paris Exposition, exhibit .......................................... 90
Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway, locomotives for ............. 118
Paris-Orleans Railway, locomotives for ............................ 90, 102
Parry, Charles T ................................................ 62, 77
Peale, Franklin, Philadelphia Museum .............................. 9
164 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Pedestals, cylindrical 23
Pennsylvania Lines, Pacific type locomotive 110
Pennsylvania Railroad, fast passenger locomotives 44
first locomotive with steel firebox 58
first to use steel boiler 64
four-wheeled swing-bolster truck 63
large orders from 66, 99
locomotive with firebrick arch 54
locomotive with remarkable mileage record 63
locomotive with steel flues 63
ten-wheeled locomotives 46
Pennsylvania State Railroad, locomotives for 16, 20, 23
steam power adopted on 16
Penoles Mining Co., rack and adhesion locomotive 84
Pershing type locomotives 119, 120
Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, locomotive "Brandywine" 21
Philadelphia and Reading Railway, Atlantic type locomotive 86
first locomotive with iron tubes 36
flexible beam truck locomotives, 33, 34, 41
" high speed locomotive 82
Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad, locomotive "Black Hawk" 21
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad,
locomotives for, 9-14, 25, 40, 54
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, time-table 13
Philadelphia Locomotive Works. . 105
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, Dimpfel boiler 56
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, locomotives for 47
Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern Railroad, Santa Fe type 101
Pike's Peak rack locomotive 78, 79
Plymouth Cordage Co., compressed air locomotive 68
Pneumatic Tramway Engine Co., locomotive for 73
Polish Government, locomotives for 135, 140
Portage Railroad, locomotives for 47
Principe do Grao Para, rack locomotives 77
Prairie type locomotives 90, 91, 100
Production statistics 141, 142
Proving Ground, Lakehurst, New Jersey 127
Pump and stirrup, design of 1834 19
Rack and adhesion locomotives 83, 84
Rack locomotive, first 42
Rack-rail locomotives, Abt system 78, 79, 83, 84
Riggenbach system 77
Radial stay wagon-top boiler 77
Radley and Hunter smoke-stack 38
Railway gun mounts for United States Navy 121, 122
Remington Arms Co. of Delaware 124
Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, locomotive for 23
Rifle Plant, Eddystone 123-126
Riggenbach system rack locomotive 77
Rock Fish Gap, temporary track 47
Rocking grate first introduced 43
Rockwell, C. K 128
Rogers, Thomas, link motion adopted 50
Rolled steel wheels 152
Royal Railroad Company of Wurtemburg 39
Rushton improved smoke-stack 38
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 165
Russian locomotives, compound 84
for Military Service 115, 116
Russian railways, Mogul locomotives 67, 72
Russian shrapnel 126, 127
Sand box, first used 41
San Domingo Improvement Co., rack and adhesion locomotive 83
" , narrow gauge Mallet locomotive for 102
Santa Fe type locomotives 95, 101, 107
Schlacks, Chas. H 124, 129
Shells for Great Britain and France 119-
Shops, location of, 1834 17
Shops partially destroyed 18, 101
Single rail locomotives 65
Six-wheels-connected locomotive, flexible beam truck 30
Smith, A. F., combustion chamber 56
Smoke-stack, French and Baird 37
' Radley and Hunter 38
' Rushton improved 38
South African Railways, mountain type locomotives 135
South Carolina Railroad, American type locomotive 39
South Manchurian Railways, locomotives for 102
South Side Elevated Railroad, Chicago, locomotives for 82
Southern Pacific Co., Mallet locomotives 109
' oil-burning locomotives 95, 109
Southern Railway, Mallet locomotives 133
Southwestern Railroad of Georgia, horizontal cylinders 59
Spiral springs for engine truck 29
Spiral springs in pedestal boxes 29
Sprague, Duncan and Hutchison, electric locomotive 82
Stagg, W. C 129
Standard gauges and templets 60
Standard gauges, first proposed 25
locomotive designs for Associated Lines 96
locomotives for United States Railroad Administration 132
Steel Works, acquisition by Baldwin Locomotive Works 68
Company, history of 149-155
Stationary engine 8,17
Statue pf'M. W. Baldwin unveiled 101
St. Clair Tunnel, Decapod locomotive 791
St. Phalle, Francois de 134
Steam-chest for cut-off 38
inspection car
motor for street cars 71
Steam street car 69
' reconstructed .- 70
Steel axles, first used
' boilers, first introduced 64
" fireboxes, first introduced 58
' flues, first introduced 64
" frames for electric mine locomotives 114
" in locomotive construction, 1862 58
" tired wheels 151
" tires, first used 58
" tires made with shoulder 58
Stephenson link motion 39
Robert & Co. . . 14
166 HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
Storage battery locomotives 114
Stroud, William C 76, 80
Sugarloaf Coal Co., geared locomotive 28
Superheating 106, 107
Swing bolster truck, four-wheeled plan 63
Sykes, John P., Vice-President 121, 127
L. A., opinion of Baldwin engines 23
Tandem compound locomotives : 94, 96
Tate, J. L 129
Tenders, eight-wheeled, first used 25
Ten-wheeled locomotive, introduction of . 45, 46
locomotives 85, 91, 93, 99, 100, 102, 118
Thomas Iron Co., Mogul locomotive 63
Thomson, J. Edgar, order from 32
Time-table, Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad 13
Tires for driving wheels, 1838 25
' shrunk on wheel centers 66
' steel, first used. . . , 58
Tramway motors, New South Wales 72
Triple articulated locomotives Ill
Truck and tender wheels, design of 1834 20, 21
Tubes of iron first used 36
" with copper ferrules 21, 42
Twenty-sixth street roundhouse completed 96
Uniao Valenciana Railway, Brazil, narrow gauge locomotives 64
"United States Gazette," extract 12
United States Government, locomotives for 57, 119, 120, 132
rifles for 124
Navy, gun mounts for 121-123
Railroad Administration, standard locomotives 132
Urbano Railway of Havana, motor 71
Utica and Schenectady Railroad, four-coupled locomotive 34
Vail and Hufty, partnership •. 26
Valve motion with single eccentric 16
Valve motion, Walschaerts, introduction of 99
Vanderbilt boiler and tender, locomotive with, Illinois Central Railroad. 91
Variable cut-off, adjustment 52
chains substituted for straps 53
patents .... 50
with lever and links 53
" exhaust, automatic 54
Vauclain compound locomotives 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 86, 87, 89, 90, 95
" Andrew C 18
Samuel M 76, 78, 84, 104, 105, 121, 122, 126, 127, 135
Vermont Central Railroad, fast passenger locomotive 44
Veronej Rostoff Railway, Russia, locomotives for 66
Virginia Central Railroad, locomotives for mountain service 48
Virginian Railway, triple locomotive for 1:
Vologda-Archangel Ry., locomotives for 115
Walschaerts valve-motion, adoption of 99
War activities, summary 130
Water leg in firebox 54
West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad, locomotive with brick arch. ... 55
HISTORY OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 167
Western Railroad of Massachusetts, locomotives for 30, 36
Wheel centers, wrought iron 78
Wheels, improvements in, 1835 21
Whitney, Asa, partnership 35
Wilhelm, Capt. Walter M 129, 130
Willard, A. L 122
Williams, Edward H 62, 89
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, locomotive for 40
Winans, Ross 30
Wooden frames abandoned . 25
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