Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive WorksBaldwin Locomotive Works
History
Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin locomotives; Locomotives -- Catalogs
Meanwhile the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had given Mr. Baldwin an
order for a locomotive for the State Road, as it was then called, from
Philadelphia to Columbia, which, up to that time, had been worked by
horses. This engine, called the "Lancaster," was completed in June,
1834. It was similar to the "Miller," and weighed seventeen thousand
pounds. After it was placed in service, the records show that it
hauled at one time nineteen loaded burden cars over the highest grades
between Philadelphia and Columbia. This was characterized at the time
by the officers of the road as an "unprecedented performance." The
success of the machine on its trial trips was such that the
Legislature decided to adopt steam-power for working the road, and Mr.
Baldwin received orders for several additional locomotives. Two others
were accordingly delivered to the State in September and November
respectively of that year, and one was also built and delivered to the
Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Company during the same season. This
latter engine, which was put in service October 21, 1834, averaged
twenty-one thousand miles per year to September 15, 1840.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--BALDWIN ENGINE, 1834.]
Five locomotives were thus completed in 1834, and the new business was
fairly under way. The building in Lodge Alley, to which Mr. Baldwin
had removed from Minor Street, and where these engines were
constructed, began to be found too contracted, and another removal was
decided upon. A location on Broad and Hamilton Streets (the site, in
part, of the present works) was selected, and a three-story L-shaped
brick building, fronting on both streets, erected. This was completed
and the business removed to it during the following year (1835). The
original building still stands, forming the office, drawing-room, and
principal machine-shops of the present works.
These early locomotives, built in 1834, were the types of Mr.
Baldwin's practice for some years. Their general design is shown in
Figure 3. All, or nearly all of them, embraced several important
devices, which were the results of his study and experiments up to
that time. The devices referred to were patented September 10, 1834,
and the same patent covered the four following inventions, viz.:
1. The half-crank, and method of attaching it to the driving-wheel.
(This has already been described.)
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--BALDWIN COMPOUND WOOD AND IRON WHEELS, 1834.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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