Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive WorksBaldwin Locomotive Works
History
Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin locomotives; Locomotives -- Catalogs
The success of the model was such that, in the same year, Mr. Baldwin
received an order for a locomotive from the Philadelphia, Germantown
and Norristown Railroad Company, whose short line of six miles to
Germantown was operated by horse-power. The Camden and Amboy Railroad
Company had shortly before imported a locomotive from England, which
was stored in a shed at Bordentown. It had not yet been put together;
but Mr. Baldwin, in company with his friend, Mr. Peale, visited the
spot, inspected the detached parts, and made a few memoranda of some
of its principal dimensions. Guided by these figures and his
experience with the Peale model, Mr. Baldwin commenced the task. The
difficulties to be overcome in filling the order can hardly be
appreciated at this day. There were few mechanics competent to do any
part of the work on a locomotive. Suitable tools were with difficulty
obtainable. Cylinders were bored by a chisel fixed in a block of wood
and turned by hand. Blacksmiths able to weld a bar of iron exceeding
one and one-quarter inches in thickness, were few, or not to be had.
It was necessary for Mr. Baldwin to do much of the work with his own
hands, to educate the workmen who assisted him, and to improvise tools
for the various processes.
The work was prosecuted, nevertheless, under all these difficulties,
and the locomotive was finally completed, christened the "Old
Ironsides," and tried on the road, November 23, 1832. The
circumstances of the trial are fully preserved, and are given, further
on, in the extracts from the journals of the day. Despite some
imperfections, naturally occurring in a first effort, and which were
afterward, to a great extent, remedied, the engine was, for that early
day, a marked and gratifying success. It was put at once into service,
as appears from the Company's advertisement three days after the
trial, and did duty on the Germantown road and others for over a score
of years.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--THE "OLD IRONSIDES," 1832.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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