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Development of Early Transportation Systems in the United States
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 178O, 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-oporating 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 been-another 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 first 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 pre-eminently
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, lS30), 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 161/2 miles an hour. The average rate on the other
parts of the road was 121/2 miles an hour, the greatest speed on the level
being 151/2 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 them-the 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
6,7581/2 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 Caroline Railroad;
one of them is supported on eight wheels-it 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 curiosity department of the
National Museum at the time they were made: "This engine when it arrived in
the country was substantially as it now is-with 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 head-light, 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. Milnor 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'' 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 7/10 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 L5
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, 91/2X18 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, 1884. It was on six wheels, one pair being drivers, four and a half
feet in diameter, with half-crank axle placed back of the fire-box, 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, 1842, 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, 1221/2X16 in.; weight, loaded, 26,000 pounds.
Second class.-Cylinders, 12X16 in.; weight, loaded, 23,000 pounds.
Third class.-Cylinders, 101/2X16 in.; weight, loaded, 20,000 pounds.
The financial troubles of 1836 and 1887 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 and 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 employee 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 40-twenty 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 51/2
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 $33-a 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, 1.5 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 shops-some three hundred-to 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, 131/2 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. HHHHhHHhHHHhe 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
40X100, 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 were40x200, 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 lever. 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."
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