EARLY LOCOMOTIVES.
RAILWAY construction never fails to excite intense interest
in the communities in which the startling process of making an
approximately level road by deep cuts, high embankments, expensive
tunnels, and the erection of lengthy viaducts or bridges, is witnessed
for the first time, and after the line has become a fixture the
next object to excite curiosity and attract earnest attention
is the locomotive.
PIONEER AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVES.
Current histories of locomotive development in the United States
usually speak of imported English locomotives as the basis of
all practical operations in this country. In one sense, this view
may be correct, but it scarcely does justice to the ideas developed
and labors performed here. The great sensation made by the successful
effort of Oliver Evans, in the early part of the century, to endow
a Steam engine with power to move itself over the streets of Philadelphia,
typified the germs of much that was first accomplished in England,
not on account of priority of invention, but because requisite
financial aid was lacking here, and attainable there. Mr. Horatio
Allen, who ordered and ran the first locomotive ever used on an
established American railway, in an interesting sketch, written
in 1884, of the first five years of the railroad era, says: "As
early as 1780, and before Watt had perfected and introduced the
condensing engine, Oliver Evans had matured his plan of a high-pressure
engine, and had applied it to do work as a stationary engine.
It is of interest to know that the boiler which Oliver Evans constructed
and used was a multitubular boiler, but differing from
the multitubular boiler now the established boiler of the locomotive
in the particular that in the Evans boiler the water was in the
tubes, and the products of combustion passed between the tubes,
whereas in the present locomotive boiler the products of combustion
pass through the tubes, and water surrounds them. What was accomplished
by Oliver Evans had all the elements of a permanent success. Had
Evans had a Boulton, as Watt had a co-operating Boulton, or a
Pease, as George Stephenson had his Pease, as a co-operator, the
high-pressure steam-engine would have had a position from that
time of great interest to the country, and, through this country,
to the world; but no such aid coming from individual or state,
vainly applied to, there is only the record of what might have
beenanother of the many cases where the inventor was ready,
but the age was not."
Another locomotive was made by an American citizen before any
English locomotives were imported. In George W. Smith's notes
to Wood's Treatise on Railroads, published in 1832, referring
to the tubes used on the Rocket engine, made for the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, he says: "Boilers, containing flues
or tubes, filled with water or heated air, have repeatedly been
used for steam engines, and frequently proposed for locomotive
engines. Their lightness and efficiency obviously adapted them
to this purpose. In 1825 Mr. John Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey,
constructed and used a locomotive engine, the boiler of which
was entirely composed of tubes of an extremely small diameter,
filled with water."
Soon after railway construction had advanced to the stage that
created a demand for locomotives, several Americans designed and
partially or wholly constructed them in accordance with plans
that differed in important respects from contemporaneous English
machines. The pioneers of this class include Peter Cooper, Long
and Norris, and Phineas Davis.
IMPORTED ENGLISH LOCOMOTIVES.
There had, however, been in England, during a score of years,
efforts to construct locomotives, intermingled to a moderate extent
with their practical use, and a succession of improvements, which
had been tested in working operations, chiefly on colliery railways,
before any American railway companies had finished lines with
the intention of using steam power, and it was natural that the
first machines intended for actual service should be imported.
Of the three English engines purchased by the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company in 1828-29, two were similar to the famous Rocket.
They were first put in working order at the West Point Foundry,
in New York, at which establishment the first American engine
ordered for actual service was constructed, but the English locomotives
bear little outward resemblance to that engine, which was the
"Best Friend," used on the South Carolina Railroad.
At that day, as at all subsequent periods, the locomotive was
preeminently a progressive machine, improvements being frequently
made, and it is supposed that a number of the early English locomotives
sent over to this country, soon after the arrival of those forwarded
to the Delaware and Hudson, were of the Planet type. It represented
important improvements on the Rocket, which won the prize offered
by the Liverpool and Manchester. As the Planet type may perhaps
be regarded as the model of practical American locomotive construction,
to a greater extent than any other type, the following contemporaneous
description of its first public performances, which originally
appeared in a Liverpool paper, is republished here:
"On Saturday last (4th December, 1830), the Planet engine,
Mr. Stephenson's, took the first load of merchandise which has
passed along the railway from Liverpool to Manchester. The team
consisted of 18 carriages, containing 135 bags and bales of American
cotton, 200 barrels of flour, 63 sacks of oatmeal, and 34 sacks
of malt, weighing altogether 51 tons, 11 cwt., 1 quarter. To this
must be added the weight of the wagons and oil-cloths, viz., 23
tons, 8 cwt., 3 quarters. Tender, water, and fuel, 4 tons, and
15 persons on the team, 1 ton, making a total of exactly eighty
tons, exclusive of the weight of the engine, about 6 tons.
The journey was performed in 2 hours and 54 minutes, excluding
three stoppages of 5 minutes each (only one being necessary under
ordinary circumstances), for oiling, watering, and taking in fuel;
under the disadvantages also of adverse wind, and of a great additional
friction on the wheels and axles, owing to their being entirely
new. The team was assisted up the Ramhill inclined plane by other
engines, at the rate of 9 miles an hour, and descended the Sutton
incline at the rate of 16½ miles an hour. The average rate
on the other parts of the road was 12½ miles an hour, the
greatest speed on the level being 15½ miles an hour, which
was maintained for a mile or two, at different periods of the
journey."
Mr. George W. Smith's appendix to Wood's Treatise on Railroads,
published in 1832, in referring to engines which were probably
of the Planet description, and also early American locomotives
made at the West Point foundry, says:
"A locomotive of the latest pattern (made by Robert Stephenson,
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England), has been imported by the New
Castle and Frenchtown. The spokes of the wheels are wrought-iron
tubes, bell-shaped at their extremities; the rim and hub cast
on themthe union being effected by means of boring. The
wheels are encircled by a wrought-iron tire and flange-the latter
is very diminutive, and will require enlargement. The weight of
the engine is not adapted to a railway of slender proportions,
composed of timber and light rails.
A locomotive, weighing 12,742 pounds, made by R. Stephenson,
at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, was tried on this road by the
company. The wheels are of wood, the tires wrought iron. The weight
injured the railway. Another locomotive, also owned by the company,
made at West Point, weight 6,7581 pounds, wheels 4 feet 8 inches
in diameter is in use; the average speed, with a load of 8 tons,
is 15 miles per hour, although 30 miles per hour have been accomplished
with this load on the railway.
Three locomotives are now in operation on the South Carolina
Railroad; one of them is supported on eight wheelsit was
made at West Point."
The very early eight-wheeled locomotive here referred to was
presumably constructed in compliance with a suggestion of Horatio
Allen, chief engineer of the South Carolina Railroad, to the effect
that by distributing the weight of the locomotive on eight wheels
the pressure upon the light wooden railway would be diminished.
DEFECTS OF ENGLISH LOCOMOTIVES.
The best of the English engines of that day were not intended
for use on the fragile wooden rails, the heavy grades, and sharp
curves of American lines, and as they were made to burn coke,
and not wood, and were not provided with the spark arresters necessary
for wood-burning locomotives, they failed to serve the intended
purpose to the desired extent. Modifications were evidently needed
to compensate for the difference between the fragile, cheap, and
crooked heavy-grade American lines, and the expensive and relatively
solid, straight, and level English lines, and for the difference
between wood-and coke-burning locomotives. One of the first of
the improvements, which has since been almost universally used
on American locomotives, was the introduction of the locomotive
truck, or bogie, of four wheels, underneath the front of the engine,
which was suggested by Mr. John B. Jervis, one of the most distinguished
of the early American civil engineers, when the first American
locomotives intended for actual service were being constructed
at the West Point Foundry. Its particular object was to support
and govern the machine in running over curves. It is claimed that
a similar device was embraced in a design of a locomotive by Long
and Norris in 1829. An excellent substitute was also applied by
Mr. Isaac Dripps to the English locomotives imported by the Camden
and Amboy. Many other improvements were introduced from time to
time, and the work of changing details is always progressing,
with varying results. But the increased aid attained in traversing
uneven or poorly constructed roads, by the use of the forward
trucks or bogies, the power to ascend heavy grades, and the construction
of spark arresters, were among the most notable of early American
achievements, and they were soon succeeded by numerous useful
inventions, which had the general effect of increasing the strength,
speed, and power of locomotives, as well as their weight. The
alteration or construction of locomotives was attempted, in a
crude fashion, at various places. In a few cases the foundation
was laid for gigantic establishments, while in other instances
the novel undertaking was abandoned. While these native industries
were being developed a few additional locomotives were also imported
from England. One of the earliest of these imported locomotives
was probably brought here for use on the New Castle and Frenchtown
Railroad, and one of the most famous is still in existence, and
it is claimed that at the time it was manufactured it was the
best engine that had been made. It is the John Bull, ordered by
Mr. Robert L. Stevens, for the use of the Camden and Amboy, in
the fall of 1830, and built by Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne.
It arrived at Bordentown, New Jersey, in August, 1831. A trial
trip was made early in September, 1831, and an exhibition of its
powers before members of the legislature of New Jersey in November
of that year facilitated the passage of a bill granting to the
company the privilege of using locomotive power. This locomotive
was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, and at the
Railway Exposition in 1883, and it has since been permanently
deposited in the National Museum at Washington. It was in active
service for more than thirty years.
The following statements relating to this engine are attributed
to Mr. J. Elfreth Watkins, who had charge of the railway curiousity
department of the National Museum at the time they were made:
"This engine when it arrived in the country was substantially
as it now iswith inside cylinders, four driving-wheels,
and multitubular boiler. The driving-wheels originally had cast-iron
hubs, and locust spokes and felloes, and a tire about five inches
wide and flanged, shrunk on like the tire of an ordinary cart-wheel.
There was no headlight, no bell, and no pilot. The steam-pipes
were inside the boiler, and the dome was right over the fire-box.
In the dome was a lock-up safety-valve, which the engineer could
not reach. There was no cab, and no tender came with the engine.
To take its place, when the first experiments were made, a tender
was made of an ordinary construction car, with a whisky barrel
to hold the water, which was fed to the engine through hose made
by a shoemaker out of leather, connected with the tank by waxed
thread. When this engine arrived in this country it was the most
perfect locomotive in the world. It had been built by George Stephenson's
firm as an improvement on the Planet, which, built in 1830, was
the first engine which had the combination of horizontal cylinders,
multitubular boiler, and the blast pipe. The 'John Bull' was the
first engine running in this country which possessed these three
essential features of a locomotive, for lack of which earlier
engines in both countries were comparative failures."
MR. DRIPPS APPLIES A PILOT TO THE JOHN BULL LOCOMOTIVE.
In preparing the John Bull and fourteen other engines of similar
design, the machinery of which was ordered and made in England,
for actual service, Mr. Isaac Dripps, who had from the outset
and during a protracted period the direction of motive power on
the Camden and Amboy, adopted a peculiar device to enable the
rigid English locomotives to turn curves, which differed from
that devised by Mr. Jervis, but was also very effective. It consisted
in the placing of two small wheels under a projection of the locomotive
which corresponds in location with the modern cow-catcher, and
formed the pilot. As an aid to this device, in facilitating the
turning of curves, one of the forward driving-wheels of the locomotive
was so arranged as to move around the axle instead of turning
with it. By these ingenious arrangements the curve-turning difficulty
was completely overcome, not only on the John Bull, but on fourteen
other engines of a similar pattern, which remained in active service
for about a score of years.
Another locomotive, called John Bull, was used on an early
New York railroad. The Baltimore and Susquehanna (now the Northern
Central) imported an English locomotive, called the Herald, at
an early date. Orders for a few other English locomotives continued
to be intermingled with contemporaneous orders for American machines
during several years, and at the outset considerable inconvenience
and disappointment resulted from the failure of the English works
to adopt devices necessary to meet the difficult conditions existing
on most of the early American lines, and from the lack of the
requisite facilities for satisfactory work in pioneer American
shops.
EARLY AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVES.
On the portion of the Baltimore and Ohio first constructed
and on various other early lines, notably the Mohawk and Hudson,
the Philadelphia and Germantown, the Camden and Amboy, and Philadelphia
and Columbia, horse power was originally used to draw cars. The
South Carolina Railroad is said to be the first railway in this
or any other country which was constructed from the outset with
the understanding that locomotives only were to be employed, but
even on it vehicles drawn by horses were used to a limited extent
before locomotives were procured. As the first section of the
Baltimore and Ohio abounded with sharp curves the question arose
whether, on such a line, locomotives could ever be successfully
substituted for horses. The prevailing opinion in England at that
time was that locomotives could neither ascend heavy grades nor
turn very sharp curves. It was mainly to demonstrate that this
view was erroneous, and that the curves on the Baltimore and Ohio
were not too sharp to permit the use of such forms of a locomotive
as could be constructed, that Peter Cooper made a locomotive which,
although it was so diminutive that it was little more than a working
model, fully accomplished its intended purpose. It is generally
regarded as the first American locomotive, and probably was, if
the previous efforts of Evans and Stevens, heretofore referred
to, are not considered. A locomotive of a size adapted for continuous
service was also made by Long & Norris, which was probably
designed and may or may not have been completed before
THE TRIAL TRIP OF THE COOPER LOCOMOTIVE.
That trial trip was made on August 28th, 1830, and a contemporaneous
account which, it is said, was written by Ross Winans, published
in the Baltimore Gazette, of September 2d, 1830, says it "tested
a most important principle, that curvatures of 400 feet radius
offer no material impediment to the use of steam power on railroads
when the wheels are constructed with a cone on the principles
ascertained by Mr. Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, to be applicable to such curvatures. The
engineers in England have been so decidedly of opinion that locomotive
steam engines could not be used on curved rails, that it was much
doubted whether the many curvatures on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad would not exclude the use of steam power. We congratulate
our fellow citizens on the conclusive proof which removes for
ever all doubt on this subject, and establishes the fact that
steam power may be used on our road with as much facility and
effect as that of horses, and at a much reduced expense."
PIONEER LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
Outlines of the history of the successful and enduring locomotive
works have been published, and if the rule of the survival of
the fittest can properly be applied to such subjects, it would
be difficult to give too much credit to the men identified with
the establishment and continuance of the Baldwin Locomotive Works,
and Rogers' works at Paterson. But it is noticeable that there
were a number of pioneers who have left no business successors
to eulogize their labors and perpetuate their memories. Colonel
W. Milner Roberts states that when he was instructed by the directors
of the Cumberland Valley road (of which 50.50 miles were in operation
in 1836) to procure the construction of a number of locomotives,
"there were comparatively few locomotive manufactories in
the United States, and they were on a small scale," and that
he "went to Alexandria, Virginia, where there was a locomotive
establishment, and made a contract for locomotives to be delivered
in a few months." He adds: "I then went to New Castle,
and made a contract for another locomotive, and then took the
boat for Philadelphia. There were two locomotive works in that
city, Baldwin's and Mr. Norris'. Baldwin had so much work in proportion
to his force that he could not engage to deliver any in the time
named. I made a contract with Norris for two at first, and two
more afterwards. I then proceeded to Boston and Lowell, and I
thought the Lowell road better than any I had yet traveled on.
Lowell, even then, was a great manufacturing town, although comparatively
in its infancy. I admired the appearance of the town, manufactories,
crowds of girls, and the fine machine shops. Major Whistler was
very obliging in showing me through the works, which, for that
early period in railroading, were on a large scale, and well worth
seeing. He soon informed me that they were so overrun with orders
that they could not attempt to make any engines for our company.
I then returned to Philadelphia and Carlisle, and then to New
Castle, where I tested the engine, and found it to work satisfactorily."
He also says that he witnessed the "first experiment of
applying steam to a trumpet. This was between 1831 and 1833,"
and that it was his impression "that this preceded the introduction
of the locomotive steam whistle."
The fact that Mr. Roberts found a locomotive establishment
at New Castle, with which he made a contract, at that period,
was due to the circumstance that locomotives forwarded from England
for use on the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad had first been
landed at that point, and their machinery put together there,
and this New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad was one of the first
lines in the United States, if not the first, on which regular
passenger movements in cars drawn by locomotives were commenced,
as it was an important link in a favorite Atlantic coast through
route between northern and southern sections of the country. It
was chartered February 7th, 1829, and opened in 1832, and a portion
of the road now forms part of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and
Baltimore. The Boston and Lowell Railroad, which he refers to
as one of the best of the early lines, was chartered June 8th,
1830, and opened June 26th, 1835. The main line extended from
Boston to Lowell, and was 26.35 miles in length. One of the most
important of the early locomotive works of New England was established
by Hinckley & Drury in Boston.
THE LONG & NORRIS AND NORRIS LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
In connection with early locomotive construction, the works
started by Col. Stephen H. Long and William Norris in Philadelphia,
deserve special mention. Septimus Norris, in a communication dated
Philadelphia, May 23d, 1856, and published in Colburn's Railroad
Advocate, of June 14th, 1856, after referring to movements in
England, says: "Now we have seen what England was doing,
let us see what was going on in the United States. Col. S. H.
Long, of the United States Topographical Corps of Engineers, and
William Norris, Esq., a gentleman of acknowledged scientific attainments,
were at this very time experimenting in the building of locomotives;
and as early as May, 1829, they designed a locomotive to burn
anthracite coal. The engine was arranged with two driving-wheels,
five feet in diameter, placed in front of the fire-box; the cylinders
outside, the front part of the engine resting upon a four-wheel
truck, turning and resting on a centre bearing, in
connection, and made fast to a bolster running across the truck
frame. The peculiarity of the boiler was in the arrangement of
the tubes, there being two sets, and between which was a space
of some twenty inches, forming a combustion chamber for the gases
and smoke. There was also attached to the boiler a fan-blower,
driven by the exhaust steam, which was operated upon by the engineman
at pleasure. This was used to produce artificial draught. . .
. Long & Norris built an engine called the Black Hawk, which
performed with only partial success on the Boston and Providence
Railroad, also upon the Philadelphia and Germantown road in 1830.
William Norris was undoubtedly the original designer of the accepted
and adopted American locomotive, and to him alone belongs the
credit of having built the first, and most thoroughly successful
locomotive in the United States. His plans were unlike anything
then known. The cylinders were placed outside, as in the Rocket,
using wrought-iron frames, with the expansion, also a four-wheel
pivoting, centre-bearing truck, also four eccentrics. These were
the distinguishing features of William Norris's locomotive. In
December, 1830, Long & Norris patented chilled driving-wheel
tires, with different modes of fastening the tire to the centre,
also the introduction of a heater, for heating the feed water
before entering the boiler. January 17th, 1833, they originated
and patented the four eccentrics and four eccentric rods, for
working the valves of locomotive engines. December 30th, 1833,
they also originated and patented the double valve, using the
auxiliary valve as a cutoff, to work the steam expansively. In
1835, William Norris (who was then alone, Col. Long having withdrawn
all interest from the firm), commenced the construction of an
engine after his own ideas, based upon mechanical principles and
science, with fixed opinions, he having seen, examined, and experimented
with all known plans and proportions of locomotives in England
and this country, looking closely to the very life and main spring
of the engine, the valve motion and its appendages. This engine,
the crowning point of all his efforts, was produced, and proved
itself most successful, having performed a duty far beyond his
most sanguine expectations.
The George Washington ascended the inclined plane upon
the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which is a grade rising
one in 14-seven-tenths feet, or 359 feet per mile, taking up a
load of some 53 persons, seated in two passenger cars, repeatedly
coming to a stand on the grade, and again moving off with the
load. After reaching the summit the engine was turned round, and
came down head foremost, stopping in its descent. Here was a triumph,
and to this day no other locomotive has ever attempted such a
feat. Notice was made of it in the public journals of England,
copied from the Philadelphia papers, which was ridiculed by all,
calling it a Munchausen story, yet the English engineers could
not be convinced of the fact until William Norris, in 1839, sent
a single locomotive to England to run upon the Birmingham and
Gloucester Railway, which performed a greater duty upon the Lickey
inclined plane than he guaranteed. This caused the confirmation
of a further order for 16 additional ones, which were built by
William Norris in Philadelphia, and shipped to England in 1839
and 1840. This was a great triumph for an American engineer. It
led to extended orders, and for several years afterwards William
Norris continued to send from his workshops in Philadelphia some
170 engines to France, Germany, Prussia, Austria, Belgium, Italy,
and Saxony. The performance of the Norris engines on the Lickey
incline was so successful that the fixed power was at once abandoned,
and the working power of this part of the line was reduced, comparatively,
to so small a sum that the shares of the company advanced £5
each."
The Norris Works held a leading position for a number of years
in the magnitude of their operations, the speed of their locomotives,
and readiness to adopt important improvements.
BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
Although the first American locomotive continuously used in
actual service was probably built at the West Point Foundry for
the South Carolina or Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, Mr. Baldwin
a few years later received an order to construct one engine for
that road, which, it is said, was his second locomotive intended
for actual service, the first having been built for the Germantown
or Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown road in 1832. Of this
first Baldwin locomotive, which was called Old Ironsides, it is
stated that its weight was 5 tons; driving wheels, 54 inches in
diameter; cylinders, 9½ x 18 inches, and that wood was
used for spokes and rim of the wheels, as well as for the frame
of the engine. It closely resembled the English locomotives, but
the Baldwin works soon began to adopt important improvements,
some of which were invented by Mr. Baldwin,
and others purchased from other inventors. A sketch of the
Baldwin works contains the following reference to the period between
1830 and 1840:
"The founder of the establishment was Matthias W. Baldwin,
who learned the jewelry trade in 1817. He had a small shop, but
in 1825 went into partnership with David Mason, a machinist, in
the manufacture of bookbinders' tools and cylinders for calico
printing. In devising a steam engine which should occupy the least
space in his shop, Mr. Baldwin, about 1830, hit upon an upright
engine of so novel and ingenious a form that attention was immediately
attracted to it, and Mr. Baldwin received orders for others of
the same pattern. This original stationary engine is still in
good condition, and is carefully preserved at the works. 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 had been constructed at the West
Point Foundry, in New York city. To gratify the 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 at his establishment. With the aid only of the
imperfect published descriptions and sketches of the locomotives
which had taken part in the Rainhile competition in England, Mr.
Baldwin undertook the work, and on April 25th, 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.
In the same year, 1831, Mr. Baldwin received an order from
the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company,
whose line was operated by horse power, for a locomotive. He undertook
the work, and, guided by an inspection of the parts of an English
locomotive, and by his experience with the Peale model, finally
completed an engine which was christened 'Old Ironsides,' and
tried on the road November 23d, 1832. It was put at once into
service, and did duty on the Germantown road and others for over
twenty years. The Ironsides was a four-wheeled engine, modeled
on the English practice of that day, and weighed something over
five tons. The price of the engine was to have been $4,000, 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 defects in it. After these
had been corrected as far as possible, however, Mr. Baldwin finally
succeeded in effecting a compromise settlement, and received from
the company $3,500 for the machine. The Ironsides subsequently
attained a speed of thirty miles per hour, and so great were the
wonder and curiosity attached to it that people eagerly bought
the privilege of riding behind it.
It was some time before Mr. Baldwin secured an order for another,
but the subject had become singularly fascinating to him, and
he made the most careful examination of every improvement, and
experimented for himself. 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 18th, 1834. It was on six wheels, one pair being drivers,
four and a half feet in diameter, with half-crank axle placed
back of the firebox, and the four front wheels combined in a swiveling
truck. The driving wheels, it should be observed, were cast in
solid bell metal. These wheels soon wore out, and the experiment
was not repeated. This locomotive weighed seven tons and eight
hundredweight. About the same time other orders were received,
and five locomotives were completed in 1834. These early locomotives
were the type of Mr. Baldwin's practice for some years. The subsequent
history of the various improvements is identical with the history
of locomotive engineering in this country.
Patents were taken out or held by Mr. Baldwin for the various
improvements to his locomotives September 10th, 1834; June, 1834;
April 3d, 1835; August 17th, 1835; December 31st, 1840; August
25th, 18-12, and many at more recent dates. Fourteen engines were
constructed in 1836, forty in 1837, twenty-three in 1838, twenty-six
in 1839, and nine in 1840. During all these years the general
design continued the same, but three sizes were furnished, as
follows:
First class.Cylinders, 12½ x 16 in.; weight, loaded,
26,000 pounds.
Second class.Cylinders, 12 x 16 in.; weight, loaded, 23,000
pounds.
Third class.Cylinders, 10½ x 16 in.; weight, loaded,
20,000 pounds.
The financial troubles of 1836 and 1837 had their effect on
the demand for locomotives, as will be seen in the decrease in
the number built in 1838, '39, and '40. In May, 1837, the number
of hands employed was three hundred, but this was reduced weekly.
April 9th, 1839, Mr. Baldwin associated himself with Messrs. Vail
and Hufty, and the business was conducted under the firm name
of Baldwin, Vail & Hufty until 1841, when Mr. Hufty withdrew,
and Baldwin & Vail continued the construction of more powerful
locomotives, and Mr. Baldwin, after careful consideration of the
subject, took steps to supply a 'geared engine,' and the success
of the first locomotive constructed under his new patent of 1840
was unprecedented. Only one of these was, however, built. The
problem of utilizing more or all of the weight of the engine for
adhesion remained, in Mr. Baldwin's views, unsolved."
EARLY LOCOMOTIVES ON COLUMBIA AND PHILADELPHIA RAILROAD.
One track of the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad was formally
opened throughout its entire length, so as to be available for
the use of locomotive power, in April, 1834. The locomotive used
was the Black Hawk. The distinguished official passengers, including
the canal commissioners and a number of members of the legislature,
were conveyed from Columbia to Lancaster in fifty-five minutes,
and on the following morning at eight o'clock the journey from
Lancaster was commenced. A contemporaneous account states that
the "train arrived at the Gap at ten, passed with ease the
works there constructed, and arrived at the head of the inclined
plane near the Schuylkill at half-past four in the afternoon,
having made the trip in eight hours and a half, all stoppages
for taking in water, receiving and discharging passengers, and
incidental delays included. If it be borne in mind that the engine
is one of very limited power, that the number of passengers was
large, the weight of cars and baggage very considerable, and that
the passage was made under the disadvantages inseparable from
first attempts, all will concur in awarding to the engineer, and
those in charge of the locomotive and train of cars, great praise
for their skill in effecting so successful and gratifying an issue
of the undertaking."
Of the first locomotive Mr. Baldwin built for the commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, which was called the Lancaster, and completed
in June, 1834, and which weighed 17,000 pounds, it was reported
that it hauled at one time nineteen loaded burden cars over the
highest grades between Philadelphia and Columbia. This was characterized
by the officers of the road as an "unprecedented performance,"
and it probably was, but in estimating the magnitude of the service
performed the fact should be remembered that the burden cars of
that era were very diminutive affairs, in contrast with, their
successors.
The locomotives used on the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad
from 1839 up to a period some ten years or more later were obtained
from various manufacturers, viz., M. W. Baldwin, Richard Norris
& Sons, and Eastwick & Harrison, of Philadelphia; Dotterer
& Son, of Reading; John Brandt, of Lancaster; and Ross Winans,
of Baltimore.
All the engines in use in 1839, and for some time later, had
single drivers, none of them having more than a single pair of
wheels, exclusive of the pony truck. During the period from 1839
to 1854 the weight of new locomotives obtained gradually increased
from about seven tons to about fifteen tons. A leading point of
difference between the early Baldwin and Norris engines was the
use of a crank axle on the former, and a straight axle on the
latter. For some time opinions differed in regard to the respective
merits of these devices, and the final decision was in favor of
the straight axle, partly on account of the expense sometimes
caused by the use of the crank axle, and partly because it was
believed that straight-axled engines could be more promptly started.
Three engines purchased from Eastwick & Harrison also had
straight axles. They were considered the swiftest locomotives
on the road, and they were, therefore, employed in hauling passenger
trains. During the fifth decade four-wheeled engines were introduced.
The locomotives made by John Brandt, at Lancaster, were very satisfactory.
Two engines procured from Ross Winans were known as crabs. They
were four-wheeled, had vertical boilers, and were specially intended
for burning anthracite coal. They had the reputation of "pulling
like elephants," but it was difficult to keep the flues in
proper order, leakages being frequent, and on this account they
were sometimes disabled on the road.
As with all other early American locomotives there were no
cabs in 1839, and when their introduction was proposed a few years
later, the locomotive engineers strongly objected to their use,
for the reason that they believed the perils to which they would
be exposed in case an engine was overturned or thrown off the
track would be materially increased by confinement in a cab.
One of the greatest of the early difficulties experienced in
the repair shops at Parkesburg arose from the fact that the nuts
and bolts used on the locomotives procured from a number of different
establishments were of different sizes and patterns, every bolt
having its own corresponding nut, and the adoption of effective
remedies for this multiplicity of sizes and shapes proved very
useful.
This difficulty was heightened by the tendency to unnecessarily
increase the number of establishments from which locomotives were
purchased, by the pressure of political influence, while state
management prevailed. Other outgrowths of party management were
the actual or threatened dismissal of prominent employees for
partisan reasons, the occasional purchase of inferior bituminous
coal, and an attempt to convert a locomotive into an anthracite
coal burner which only resulted in spoiling a good engine.
THE PARKESBURG SHOPS
were located midway between Philadelphia and Columbia, and
all general repairs of locomotives were made at them for years.
The only provision at either end of the line was furnished by
blacksmiths and helpers, who were in readiness to perform such
labors as locomotive engineers considered necessary.
A pay roll of the Parkesburg shops for September, 1843, shows
that the official title of the road then was the Columbia and
Philadelphia Railroad (although at a later date it was styled
the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, and the report of its
superintendent for 1855 gives it that title). The number of employees
was 31, including one manager, Mr. Edwin Jefferies, one foreman,
thirteen machinists, three blacksmiths, one coppersmith, two file
makers, one pattern maker, three carpenters, one stationary engineer,
four assistants, and one watchman. The aggregate amount of the
pay roll of these 31 men for that month was $1,087.88.
The pay roll of locomotive engineers and firemen employed on
the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad during the month of August,
1843, shows that their number was 40twenty engineers and
twenty firemen. The standard rate of wages at that time and for
some years previous to and subsequent to that period was $2 per
day for engineers and $1.25 per day for firemen, the time paid
for being that in which actual service was performed, and all
accounts being verified by affidavits. The total payments for
that month were $990 for engineers and $674.36 for firemen. Of
the twenty engineers two were employed on a night line, two on
a fast line, and sixteen in running "burden" or freight
trains.
Of the forty men in service at that time, only five are known
to be living now (1886), and several were killed by accidents
on the road. One of these accidents, by which an engineer and
a fireman lost their lives, led to the introduction of
SAFETY CHAINS, CONNECTING THE LOCOMOTIVE AND TENDER,
on that road and others. The men were standing with one foot
on the locomotive and another on the tender, when the coupling
suddenly broke, and they fell to the ground, and were run over
by the train. Previous to that time the coupler furnished the
only connecting link between the locomotive and the tender.
Another novel incident led to
THE INTRODUCTION OF SAND BOXES.
It occurred on a section known as Grasshopper Level, a few
miles east of the city of Lancaster, and happened during a season
when grasshoppers were so numerous that, in addition to becoming
a devouring pest on the adjacent farms, they impeded, and in some
instances temporarily prevented, the progress of trains on the
railway. One of the remedies adopted was to keep men stationed
on the track to sweep the grasshoppers off, as they accumulated
in immense throngs, but the aid derived from this expedient not
being sufficient to fully meet the emergency, arrangements were
made for the first time on that road to provide sand boxes.
THE PHINEAS DAVIS LOCOMOTIVES.
An extract from an early report of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company, which is published in Hazard's Register of April, 1833,
gives a detailed account of the results of experiments, continued
during a period of 30 days, with a locomotive steam engine called
the Atlantic, which had been constructed by Messrs. Davis &
Gartner, of York, Pennsylvania, It is stated that these experiments
were made "for the purpose of ascertaining, practically and
conclusively, the applicability of steam power upon that road,
and with the further view of testing its comparative expense and
advantages with animal power." The engine is described as
weighing 5½ tons, exclusive of water, and as having two
cylinders, of 10-inches diameter each, with a stroke of 20 inches,
and working on road wheels of 3 feet diameter. Its performances
consisted of drawing five cars, weighing about 18 tons, at an
average speed of about 12 miles per hour. But on several occasions
a load of 30 tons, exclusive of the engine and tender, was drawn
13 miles within an hour. This engine was designed specially for
speed, and the report said that the builders were then making
a freight engine which was expected to draw 100 tons from 6 to
8 miles per hour. The Atlantic's performances were highly economical
as compared with the horse power then used, as her daily labor
involved only an expense of $16; while the total expense of the
animal power needed to accomplish the same results was $33a
saving of $17 per day, or upwards of $500 per month.
This locomotive, Atlantic, was the outgrowth of the successful
competition of Mr. Phineas Davis for a prize of $500 offered by
the Baltimore and Ohio, in 1830, to the constructor of a locomotive
which would draw 15 tons, gross weight, 15 miles an hour. An engine
previously constructed complied with these conditions and its
pattern was adopted, but the Atlantic was an improvement on the
first machine. It is stated that Mr. Davis was a Quaker, and that
his first locomotive was commenced in York in 1831 and taken to
Baltimore in February, 1832. He was made master of machinery of
the Baltimore and Ohio, and soon after completing the Atlantic
he designed the Arabian, exhibited at the Chicago Railway Exposition
of 1883. Shortly before it was opened a sketch of the Arabian
appeared in the Washington Republican, which included the following
extract:
"Then Mr. Davis designed the Arabian. This engine was built
at the company's shops, under the supervision of its designer.
It went into service June, 1834. It has been carefully taken care
of and repaired, and, with very little difference, is precisely
the same engine that it was forty-nine years ago. It is a geared
engine, having a vertical cylinder with walking beam. It has four
driving-wheels, each thirty-six inches in diameter, or nearly
one-half the size of the drivers used on modern passenger locomotives.
The weight of the Arabian is thirteen tons, about one-third that
of the modern locomotive. Its tractive power is 6,000 pounds.
It used to have its fans connected with the exhaust, but these
became broken, and no attempt has been made to restore them. With
this exception it is the same engine as when first made. It is
in active service at the Mount Clare yards, and works as well
now as when first put on the road. It was for many years a passenger
engine, drawing trains on both the Washington branch and the main
stem. So far as could be learned it had never met with an accident,
never jumped a rail or run off the track, with one exception.
That exception was a notable one. Before it was finished Mr. Davis
promised the workmen engaged in the shopssome three hundredto
take them and their families on the train drawn by the Arabian
as far as it went, then to go to Washington and have dinner at
Brown's (now the Metropolitan) Hotel. The Washington branch was
then opened nearly to Bladensburg. The trip was made, William
Duff being the engineer. Just west of Jessup's Cut, 13½
miles this side of Baltimore, the Arabian ran off the track. Mr.
Davis was sitting with Mr. Duff when the accident occurred. The
engine rolled on its side. Neither Duff nor anybody else on the
train was hurt, even in the least, but Mr. Davis. He was killed.
There seemed to be a special fate in the matter. Nobody could
ever tell why the Arabian ran off the track. There was no evidence
ever shown, although the fullest investigation was made, that
any cause existed to throw it off."
After the death of Mr. Davis, the construction of locomotives
was continued at Baltimore, by Ross Winans, at first in connection
with a partner, and subsequently on his own account. He adopted
a type which became popularly known as Ross Winans' grasshoppers,
and subsequently built "crab" engines.
THE ROGERS LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
Horatio Allen relates that he urged the members of the firm
which built the first locomotive at Paterson, New Jersey, to engage
in that business. It was then known as Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor,
and the first locomotive, the Sandusky, was built in 1837. This
locomotive had been built for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation
Company, but it was purchased by the Mad River and Lake Erie and
shipped to Ohio. It had been commenced in 1835, after a considerable
amount of preliminary work before that year. In connection with
these efforts the Paterson, New Jersey Press, says:
"After the success of the 'Sandusky' was assured, the
firm of Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor continued to build locomotives.
The next one was built for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation
Company, and was named the 'Arreseoh, No. 2.' This, which was
larger than the 'Sandusky,' was also a success. For this, also,
Mr. Swinburne made the plans, serving as draughtsman, pattern-maker,
superintendent of construction, and foreman of foundry, blacksmith
and machine shop. There was not another foreman beside in any
department. The shop where the first locomotives were built was
40 x 100, two stories in height. From thirty to forty men were
employed. After five or six engines had been built the works were
greatly extended, until they were 40 x 200, three stories, of
brick. Later, still further additions were made, and the demand
for engines came in from every direction, from the east, west,
north, and south."
An intelligent and experienced locomotive engineer, Mr. George
Hollingsworth, who commenced running a locomotive in 1838, when
interviewed by a representative of the American Machinist, in
1883, gave the following replies in regard to the early English
engines used on American roads, and the characteristics of the
locomotives first built at the Rogers Locomotive Works:
" Q. What style were your English engines?
A. They were of the John Bull type. All the boilers that
were built in England for the Camden and Amboy folks were built
very nearly after that pattern. They were built with a waist straight
to the back of the furnace. The engines were all inside connected,
but they were good running engines. They were bad engines to work,
though, for they were hard to reverse. They were built with a
rock-shaft right in front of the cylinders, and the drop hooks
came right through to where the shaft was, and there was nothing
to catch but the straight hook and die. So when the engines were
running you could not reverse them. The V
hook was a little better in this respect, and a figure 8 hook
was better still.
But the link was what ended the trouble in reversing. These
early engines did good work for their size. The parts were made
in England, and sent over here to be put together. Isaac Dripps
put up the principal portions of them.
Q. What kind of engines were the Rogers works building
when you knew them first?
A. They were small inside connected engines, with one
pair of drivers and a four-wheel truck. They built very few of
them. Mr. Rogers went, to England on a visit, and when he came
back they began building eight-wheelers, with two pairs of drivers
connected. The first engines of this kind had the main rod connected
to the crank-pin outside the back drivers. They were outside connected
engines. Mr. Rogers was one of the first to advocate outside connected
locomotives.
Q. Had these engines long exhaust pipes?
A. Yes; the long exhaust pipe was used for several years.
Then, I think, old Jim Parks proposed the short exhaust pipe.
He was a coal-pit engineer. When they tried the short exhaust
pipe first it did not do. The steam spread before it reached the
smoke-stack, and caused back lash. Then they put in the petticoat
pipe, and that made the short exhaust pipe work all right.
Q. Had you any steam gauges in those days?
A. No; we had nothing but the spring balance, connected
with the end of the safety-valve ]ever. They were Salter balance
springs, imported from England. Then Orton, of Elm street, New
York, who was a pupil of Salter's, began making these spring gauges,
and he got all the trade."
Transport Systems
| Antebellum RR | Contents
Page
|