Baldwin Locomotive Works

“ On the one hundred and thirty-sixth locomotive, completed October 18, 1839, for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, the old pattern of wooden frame was abandoned, and no outside frame whatever was employed,—the machinery, as well as the truck and the pedestals of the driving-axles, being attached directly to the naked boiler. The wooden frame thenceforward disappeared gradually, and an iron frame took its place. Another innovation was the adoption of eight-wheeled tenders, the first of which was built at about this period. ”

“ Mrs. Mattson, Messrs. Waddington, Haas, Taylor, Crispen, Denniston, Moore, Williams, Sloane, Kilgore, Restein, and myself. The car is pushed by engine No. 4, in charge of Engineer D. M. Jones. This little locomotive is an odd-looking thing, built expressly for this line by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, Pa. It has four cylinders and carries 200 pounds steam pressure. It is constructed with two cog wheels underneath its centre, which operate in corresponding cog rails placed in the centre of the track, and has the appearance of being a strong and safe appliance. ”

“ All the locomotives that we saw were raised from the ground on ties and protected with a wooden shed, and had been painted and oiled and cared for as they would have been in the Baldwin Locomotive Works. ”

“ My first long ride on one of these splendid locomotives was with the Burlington night mail (no passengers) , 590 pulling her and Frank Bullard at the throttle. It is said that the Baldwin Locomotive Works never turned out a faster engine than this 590. The man must be a giant whose head will top her drivers, [381] and, for all her seventy tons, there is speed in every line of her. She is a young engine, too—only four years old—and Bullard swears he will back her in the matter of getting over rails to do anything that steel and steam can do. "She's willing and gentle, sir, and easy running. ”

“ When most men would have felt that an equitable compromise with creditors was all that could be demanded in view of the general financial embarrassment, Mr. Baldwin insisted upon paying all claims in full, and succeeded in doing so only after nearly five years of unremitting industry, close economy, and absolute personal sacrifices. As a philanthropist and a sincere and earnest Christian, zealous in every good work, his memory is cherished by many to whom his contributions to locomotive improvement are comparatively unknown. ”

“ Upon making the first trip to Germantown with a passenger train with the Ironsides, one of the drivers slipped upon the axle, causing the wheels to track less than the gauge of the road and drop in between the rails. It was also discovered that the valve arrangement of the pumps was defective, and they failed to supply the boiler with water. The shifting of the driving wheel upon the axle fastened the eccentric, so that it would not operate in backward motion. These mishaps caused delay, and prevented the engine from reaching its destination, to the great disappointment of all concerned. ”

“ To enable the engines better to adapt themselves to the flexures of the road, the front and middle pairs of drivers are held in position by wrought-iron beams, having cylindrical boxes in each end for the journal-bearings, which beams vibrate on spherical pins fixed in the frame of the engine on each side, and resting on the centres of the beams. The object of this arrangement is to form a truck, somewhat flexible, which enables the drivers more readily to traverse the curves of the road. ”

“ Engineers and master mechanics were everywhere learning to admire its simplicity, and were manifesting an enthusiastic preference for engines so constructed. At length, therefore, he was forced to succumb; and the link was applied to the "Pennsylvania," one of two engines completed for the Central Railroad of Georgia, in February, 1854. The other engine of the order, the "New Hampshire," had the variable cut-off, and Mr. Baldwin, while yielding to the demand in the former engine, was undoubtedly sanguine that the working of the latter would demonstrate the inferiority of the new device. ”

“ Drawings and a model of the device were prepared, with a view of patenting it, but subsequently the intention was abandoned, Mr. Baird concluding that a fire-brick arch as a deflector to accomplish the same object was preferable. This was accordingly tried on two locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1854, and was found so valuable an appliance that its use was at once established, and it was put on a number of engines built for railroads in Cuba and elsewhere. For several years the fire-bricks were supported on side plugs ”

“ Since the use of the oil was introduced, the difficulty of turning the curves has been so far diminished, that it is no longer possible to determine whether grades of two hundred and thirty-seven and six-tenths feet per mile on curves of three hundred feet radius, or grades of two hundred and ninety-six feet per mile on straight lines, are traversed most rapidly by the engine.
"When the track is in good condition, the brakes of only two of the cars possess sufficient power to control and regulate the movement of the train,—that is to say, they will hold back the two cars and the engine. ”

“ When there are three or more cars in the train, the brakes on the cars, of course, command the train so much the more easily.
"But the safety of the train is not dependent on the brakes of the cars. There is also a valve or air-cock in the steam-chest, under the control of the engineer. This air-cock forms an independent brake, exclusively at the command of the engineer, and which can always be applied when the engine itself is in working order. ”

“ Baldwin and Mr. David Clark, Master Mechanic of the Mine Hill Railroad, took out conjointly a patent for a feed-water heater, placed at the base of a locomotive chimney, and consisting of one large vertical flue, surrounded by a number of smaller ones. The exhaust steam was discharged from the nozzles through the large central flue, creating a draft of the products of combustion through the smaller surrounding flues. The pumps forced the feed-water into the chamber around these flues, whence it passed to the boiler by a pipe from the back of the stack. ”

“ Henry R. Campbell, of Philadelphia, was the first to carry this design into execution. Mr. Campbell, as has been noted, was the Chief Engineer of the Germantown Railroad when the "Ironsides" was placed on that line, and had since given much attention to the subject of locomotive construction. February 5, 1836, Mr. Campbell secured a patent for an eight-wheeled engine with four drivers connected, (p. 18) and a four-wheeled truck in front; and subsequently contracted with James Brooks, of Philadelphia, to build for him such a machine. ”

“ J. Edgar Thomson, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, invited proposals for a number of freight locomotives of fifty-six thousand pounds weight each. They were to be adapted to burn bituminous coal, and to have six wheels connected and a truck in front, which might be either of two or four wheels. Mr. Baldwin secured the contract, and built twelve engines of the prescribed dimensions, viz., cylinders eighteen by twenty-two; drivers forty-four inches diameter, with chilled tires. ”

“ Situated close to the great iron and coal region of the country, the principal materials required for its work are readily available. It numbers among its managers and workmen men who have had the training of a lifetime in the various specialties of locomotive-manufacture, and whose experience has embraced the successive stages of American locomotive progress. Its location, in the largest manufacturing city of the country, is an advantage of no ordinary importance. ”

“ Baldwin's engines with all six or eight wheels connected, and the (p. 31) two front pairs combined by the parallel beams into a flexible truck, had been so marked that it was natural that he should oppose any other plan for freight service. The ten-wheeled engine, with six drivers connected, had, however, now become a competitor. This plan of engine was first patented by Septimus Norris, of Philadelphia, in 1846, and the original design was apparently to produce an engine which should have equal tractive power with the Baldwin six-wheels-connected machine. ”

“ It will be seen that in engines of this pattern nearly all the weight of the machine is utilized for adhesion, only enough load being thrown on the leading wheels to steady the engine on the track. The tractive power of these engines is accordingly greater in comparison with their total weight than that of either the eight-wheeled C or the ten-wheeled D patterns, and they are, therefore, especially suited to working steep grades and hauling heavy loads at low speeds. ”

“ Frames are planed and slotted to gauges, and drilled to steel bushed templets. Cylinders are bored and planed, and steam-ports, with valves and steam-chests, finished and fitted, to gauges. Tires are bored, centres turned, axles finished, and crossheads, guides, guide-bearers, pistons, connecting- and parallel-rods planed, slotted, or finished, by the same method. Every bolt about the engine is made to a gauge, and every hole drilled and reamed to a templet. ”

“ This method of making driving-wheels was followed for several years.
The improvement in locomotive tubes consisted in driving a copper ferrule or thimble on the outside of the end of the tube, and soldering it in place, instead (p. 15) of driving a ferrule into the tube, as had previously been the practice. The object of the latter method had been to make a tight joint with the tube-sheet; but, by putting the ferrule on the outside of the tube, not only was the joint made as tight as before, but the tube was strengthened, and left unobstructed throughout to the full extent of its diameter. ”

“ The regular daily service of each of the engines is to make four trips, of eight miles, over the mountain, drawing one eight-wheel baggage car, together with two eight-wheel passenger cars, in each direction.
"In conveying freight, the regular train on the mountain is three of the eight-wheel house-cars, fully loaded, or four of them when empty or partly loaded.
"These three cars, when full, weigh, with their loads, from forty to forty-three tons. Sometimes, though rarely, when the business has been unusually heavy, the loads have exceeded fifty tons. ”

“ In other words, the wheel itself formed one arm of the crank. The result sought and gained was that the cranks were strengthened, and, being at the extremities of the axle, the boiler could be made larger in diameter and placed lower. The driving axle could also be placed back of the fire-box, the connecting rods passing by the sides of the fire-box and taking hold inside of the wheels. This arrangement of the crank also involved the placing of the cylinders outside the smoke-box, as was done on the "Ironsides." ”

“ The first-class engine he fully believed, in 1838, was as heavy as would be called for, and he declared that it was as large as he intended to make. Most of the engines were built with the half-crank, but occasionally an outside-connected machine was turned out. These latter, however, failed to give as complete satisfaction as the half-crank machine. The drivers were generally four and a half feet in diameter.
A patent was issued to Mr. Baldwin, August 17, 1835, for his device of cylindrical pedestals. ”

“ The two-wheeled or "pony" truck has been built both on the Bissell plan, with double inclined slides, and with the ordinary swing-bolster, and in both cases with the radius-bar pivoting from a point about four feet back from the centre of the truck. The four-wheeled truck has been made with swing-bolster exclusively and without the radius-bar. Of the engines above referred to as the first on which the swing-bolster-truck was applied, four were for express passenger service, with drivers sixty-seven inches in diameter, and cylinders seventeen by twenty-four. ”

“ The five preceding classes, embracing road locomotives with cylinders from thirteen to seventeen inches in diameter, admit of construction with either a twenty-two or a twenty-four inches stroke, and with driving-wheels of any diameter from fifty-six to sixty-six inches. Each class can, therefore, be adapted to either passenger or freight service, by giving the shorter stroke and the larger wheel for the former use, and the longer stroke and smaller wheel for the latter. ”

“ Such and so vast a class of skilled mechanics is therefore available from which to recruit the forces of the establishment when necessary. Under their command are special tools, which have been created from time to time with reference to every detail of locomotive-manufacture; and an organized system of production, perfected by long years of experience, governs the operation of all. ”

“ The adoption of the plan of six-wheels-connected engines opened the way at once to increasing their size. The weight being almost evenly distributed on six points, heavier machines were admissible, the weight on any one pair of drivers being little, if any, greater than had been the practice with the old plan of engine having a single pair of drivers ”

“ In this engine, an independent shaft or axle (p. 19) was placed between the two axles of the truck, and connected by cranks and coupling-rods with cranks on the outside of the driving-wheels. This shaft had a central cog-wheel engaging on each side with intermediate cog-wheels, which in turn geared into cog-wheels on each truck-axle. The intermediate cog-wheels had wide teeth, so that the truck could pivot while the main shaft remained parallel with the driving-axle. ”