Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives; Baldwin Locomotive Works

by Baldwin Locomotive Works

The year 1848 showed a falling off in business, and only twenty engines were turned out. In the following year, however, there was a rapid recovery, and the production of the works increased to thirty, followed by thirty-seven in 1850, and fifty in 1851. These engines, with a few exceptions, were confined to three patterns, the eight-wheeled four-coupled engine, from twelve to nineteen tons in weight, for passengers and freight, and the six- and eight-wheels-connected engine, for freight exclusively, the six-wheeled machine weighing from twelve to seventeen tons, and the eight-wheeled, from eighteen to twenty-seven tons. The drivers of these six- and eight-wheels-connected machines were made generally forty-two, with occasional variations up to forty-eight, inches in diameter.

Fig. 10.—Baldwin Fast Passenger Engine, 1848.

The exceptions referred to in the practice of these years were the fast passenger engines built by Mr. Baldwin during this period. Early in 1848, the Vermont Central Railroad was approaching completion, and Governor Paine, the President of the Company, conceived the idea that the passenger service on the road required locomotives capable of running at very high velocities. Henry R. Campbell, Esq., was a contractor in building the line, and was authorized by Governor Paine to come to Philadelphia and offer Mr. Baldwin ten thousand dollars for a locomotive which could run with a passenger train at a speed of sixty miles per hour. Mr. Baldwin at once undertook to meet these conditions. The work was begun early in 1848, and in March of that year Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat for his design. The engine was completed in 1849, and was named the "Governor Paine." It had one pair of driving-wheels six and a half feet in diameter, placed back of the fire-box. Another pair of wheels, but smaller and unconnected, was placed directly in front of the fire-box, and a four-wheeled truck carried the front of the engine. The cylinders were seventeen and a quarter inches diameter and twenty inches stroke, and were placed horizontally between the frames and the boiler, at about the middle of the waist. The connecting-rods took hold of "half-cranks" inside of the driving-wheels. The object of placing the cylinders at the middle of the boiler was to lessen or obviate the lateral motion of the engine, produced when the cylinders were attached to the smoke-arch. The bearings on the two rear axles were so contrived that, by means of a lever, a part of the weight of the engine usually carried on the wheels in front of the fire-box could be transferred to the driving-axle. The "Governor Paine" was used for several years on the Vermont Central Railroad, and then rebuilt into a four-coupled machine. During its career, it was stated by the officers of the road that it could be started from a state of rest and run a mile in forty-three seconds. Three engines on the same plan, but with cylinders fourteen by twenty, and six-feet driving-wheels, the "Mifflin," "Blair," and "Indiana," were also built for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in 1849. They weighed each about forty-seven thousand pounds, distributed as follows: eighteen thousand on drivers, fourteen thousand on the pair of wheels in front of the fire-box, and fifteen thousand on the truck. By applying the lever, the weight on the drivers could be increased to about twenty-four thousand pounds, the weight on the wheels in front of the fire-box being correspondingly reduced. A speed of four miles in three minutes is recorded for them, and upon one occasion President Taylor was taken in a special train over the road by one of these machines at a speed of sixty miles an hour. One other engine of this pattern, the "Susquehanna," was built for the Hudson River Railroad Company, in 1850. Its cylinders were fifteen inches diameter by twenty inches stroke, and drivers six feet in diameter. All these engines, however, were short-lived, and died young, of insufficient adhesion.

Eight engines with four drivers connected and half-crank-axles, were built for the New York and Erie Railroad Company in 1849, with seventeen by twenty inch cylinders; one-half of the number with six-feet and the rest with five-feet drivers. These machines were among the last on which the half-crank-axle was used. Thereafter, outside-connected engines were constructed almost exclusively.

In May, 1848, Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat for a four-cylinder locomotive, but never carried the design into execution. The first instance of the use of steel axles in the practice of the establishment occurred during the same year,—a set being placed as an experiment under an engine constructed for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In 1850, the old form of dome boiler, which had characterized the Baldwin engine since 1834, was abandoned, and the wagon-top form substituted.

The business in 1851 had reached the full capacity of the shop, and the next year marked the completion of about an equal number of engines (forty-nine). Contracts for work extended a year ahead, and, to meet the demand, the facilities in the various departments were increased, and resulted in the construction of sixty engines in 1853, and sixty-two in 1854.

At the beginning of the latter year, Mr. Matthew Baird, who had been connected with the works since 1836 as one of its foremen, entered into partnership with Mr. Baldwin, and the style of the firm was made M. W. Baldwin & Co.

The only novelty in the general plan of engines during this period was the addition of the ten-wheeled engine to the patterns of the establishment. The success of Mr. Baldwin's engines with all six or eight wheels connected, and the 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. This the Norris patent sought to accomplish by proposing an engine with six drivers connected, and so disposed as to carry substantially the whole weight, the forward drivers being in advance of the centre of gravity of the engine, and the truck only serving as a guide, the front of the engine being connected with it by a pivot-pin, but without a bearing on the centre-plate. Mr. Norris's first engine on this plan was tried in April, 1847, and was found not to pass curves so readily as was expected. As the truck carried little or no weight, it would not keep the track. The New York and Erie Railroad Company, of which John Brandt was then Master Mechanic, shortly afterwards adopted the ten-wheeled engine, modified in plan so as to carry a part of the weight on the truck. Mr. Baldwin filled an order for this company, in 1850, of four eight-wheels-connected engines, and in making the contract he agreed to substitute a truck for the front pair of wheels if desired after trial. This, however, he was not called upon to do.