Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives Part 3

In 1853, Mr. Charles Ellet, Chief Engineer of the Virginia Central Railroad, laid a temporary track across the Blue Ridge, at Rock Fish Gap, for use during the construction of a tunnel through the mountain.

This track was twelve thousand five hundred feet in length on the eastern slope, ascending in that distance six hundred and ten feet, or at the average rate of one in twenty and a half feet. The maximum grade was calculated for two hundred and ninety-six feet per mile, and prevailed for half a mile. It was found, however, in fact, that the grade in places exceeded three hundred feet per mile. The shortest radius of curvature was two hundred and thirty-eight feet. On the western slope, which was ten thousand six hundred and fifty feet in length, the maximum grade was two hundred and eighty feet per mile, and the ruling radius of curvature three hundred feet. This track was worked by two of the Baldwin six-wheels-connected flexible-beam truck locomotives constructed in 1853-54. From a description of this track, and the mode of working it, published by Mr. Ellet in 1856, the following is extracted:

"The locomotives mainly relied on for this severe duty were designed and constructed by the firm of M. W. Baldwin & Company, of Philadelphia. The slight modifications introduced at the instance of the writer to adapt them better to the particular service to be performed in crossing the Blue Ridge, did not touch the working proportions or principle of the engines, the merits of which are due to the patentee, M. W. Baldwin, Esq.

"These engines are mounted on six wheels, all of which are drivers, and coupled, and forty-two inches diameter. The wheels are set very close, so that the distance between the extreme points of contact of the wheels and the rail, of the front and rear drivers, is nine feet four inches. This closeness of the wheels, of course, greatly reduces the difficulty of turning the short curves of the road. The diameter of the cylinders is sixteen and a half inches, and the length of the stroke twenty inches. To increase the adhesion, and at the same time avoid the resistance of a tender, the engine carries its tank upon the boiler, and the footboard is lengthened out and provided with suspended side-boxes, where a supply of fuel may be stored. By this means the weight of wood and water, instead of abstracting from the effective power of the engine, contributes to its adhesion and consequent ability to climb the mountain. The total weight of these engines is fifty-five thousand pounds, or twenty-seven and a half tons, when the boiler and tank are supplied with water, and fuel enough for a trip of eight miles is on board. The capacity of the tank is sufficient to hold one hundred cubic feet of water, and it has storage-room on top for one hundred cubic feet of wood, in addition to what may be carried in the side-boxes and on the footboard.

"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.

"The writer has never permitted the power of the engines on this mountain road to be fully tested. The object has been to work the line regularly, economically, and, above all, _safely_; and these conditions are incompatible with experimental loads subjecting the machinery to severe strains. 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 pa.s.senger 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.

"With such trains the engines are stopped on the track, ascending or descending, and are started again, on the steepest grades, at the discretion of the engineer.

"Water, for the supply of the engines, has been found difficult to obtain on the mountain; and, since the road was constructed, a tank has been established on the eastern slope, where the ascending engines stop daily on a grade of two hundred and eighty feet per mile, and are there held by the brakes while the tank is being filled, and started again at the signal and without any difficulty.

"The ordinary speed of the engines, when loaded, is seven and a half miles an hour on the ascending grades, and from five and a half to six miles an hour on the descent.

"When the road was first opened, it speedily appeared that the difference of forty-three feet on the western side, and fifty-eight feet on the eastern side, between the grades on curves of three hundred feet radii and those on straight lines, was not sufficient to compensate for the increased traction due to such curvature. The velocity, with a constant supply of steam, was promptly r.e.t.a.r.ded on pa.s.sing from a straight line to a curve, and promptly accelerated again on pa.s.sing from the curve to the straight line. But, after a little experience in the working of the road, it was found advisable to supply a small amount of grease to the f.l.a.n.g.e of the engine by means of a sponge, saturated with oil, which, when needed, is kept in contact with the wheel by a spring. 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-c.o.c.k in the steam-chest, under the control of the engineer. This air-c.o.c.k 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. The action of this power may be made ever so gradual, either slightly relieving the duty of the brakes on the cars, or bringing into play the entire power of the engine. The train is thus held in complete command."

The Mountain Top Track, it may be added, was worked successfully for several years, by the engines described in the above extract, until it was abandoned on the completion of the tunnel. The exceptionally steep grades and short curves which characterized the line, afforded a complete and satisfactory test of the adaptation of these machines to such peculiar service.

But the period now under consideration was marked by another, and a most important, step in the progress of American locomotive practice.

We refer to the introduction of the link-motion. Although this device was first employed by William T. James, of New York, in 1832, and eleven years later by the Stephensons, in England, and was by them applied thenceforward on their engines, it was not until 1849 that it was adopted in this country. In that year Mr. Thomas Rogers, of the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Company, introduced it in his practice.

Other builders, however, strenuously resisted the innovation, and none more so than Mr. Baldwin. The theoretical objections which confessedly apply to the device, but which practically have been proved to be unimportant, were urged from the first by Mr. Baldwin as arguments against its use. The strong claim of the advocates of the link-motion, that it gave a means of cutting off steam at any point of the stroke, could not be gainsaid, and this was admitted to be a consideration of the first importance. This very circ.u.mstance undoubtedly turned Mr.

Baldwin's attention to the subject of methods for cutting off steam, and one of the first results was his "Variable Cut-off," patented April 27, 1852. This device consisted of two valves, the upper sliding upon the lower, and worked by an eccentric and rock-shaft in the usual manner. The lower valve fitted steam-tight to the sides of the steam-chest and the under surface of the upper valve. When the piston reached each end of its stroke, the full pressure of steam from the boiler was admitted around the upper valve, and transferred the lower valve instantaneously from one end of the steam-chest to the other.

The openings through the two valves were so arranged that steam was admitted to the cylinder only for a part of the stroke. The effect was, therefore, to cut off steam at a given point, and to open the induction and exhaust ports substantially at the same instant and to their full extent. The exhaust port, in addition, remained fully open while the induction port was gradually closing, and after it had entirely closed. Although this device was never put in use, it may be noted in pa.s.sing that it contained substantially the principle of the steam-pump, as since patented and constructed.

Early in 1853, Mr. Baldwin abandoned the half-stroke cut-off, previously described, and which he had been using since 1845, and adopted the variable cut-off, which was already employed by other builders. One of his letters, written in January, 1853, states his position, as follows:

"I shall put on an improvement in the shape of a variable cut-off, which can be operated by the engineer while the machine is running, and which will cut off anywhere from six to twelve inches, according to the load and amount of steam wanted, and this without the link-motion, which I could never be entirely satisfied with. I still have the independent cut-off, and the additional machinery to make it variable will be simple and not liable to be deranged."

This form of cut-off was a separate valve, sliding on a part.i.tion plate between it and the main steam-valve, and worked by an independent eccentric and rock-shaft. The upper arm of the rock-shaft was curved so as to form a radius-arm, on which a sliding-block, forming the termination of the upper valve-rod, could be adjusted and held at varying distances from the axis, thus producing a variable travel of the upper valve. This device did not give an absolutely perfect cut-off, as it was not operative in backward gear, but when running forward it would cut-off with great accuracy at any point of the stroke, was quick in its movement, and economical in the consumption of fuel.

After a short experience with this arrangement of the cut-off, the part.i.tion plate was omitted, and the upper valve was made to slide directly on the lower. This was eventually found objectionable, however, as the lower valve would soon cut a hollow in the valve-face.

Several unsuccessful attempts were made to remedy this defect, by making the lower valve of bra.s.s, with long bearings, and making the valve-face of the cylinder of hardened steel; finally, however, the plan of one valve on the other was abandoned, and recourse was again had to an interposed part.i.tion plate, as in the original half-stroke cut-off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 11.--VARIABLE CUT-OFF ADJUSTMENT.]

Mr. Baldwin did not adopt this form of cut-off without some modification of his own, and the modification in this instance consisted of a peculiar device, patented September 13, 1853, for raising and lowering the block on the radius-arm. A quadrant was placed so that its circ.u.mference bore nearly against a curved arm projecting down from the sliding-block, and which curved in the reverse direction from the quadrant. Two steel straps side by side were interposed between the quadrant and this curved arm. One of the straps was connected to the lower end of the quadrant and the upper end of the curved arm; the other, to the upper end of the quadrant and the lower end of the curved arm. The effect was the same as if the quadrant and arm geared into each other in any position by teeth, and theoretically the block was kept steady in whatever position placed on the radius-arm of the rock-shaft. This was the object sought to be accomplished, and was stated in the specification of the patent as follows:

"The principle of varying the cut-off by means of a vibrating arm and sliding pivot-block has long been known, but the contrivances for changing the position of the block upon the arm have been very defective. The radius of motion of the link by which the sliding-block is changed on the arm, and the radius of motion of that part of the vibrating arm on which the block is placed, have, in this kind of valve gear, as heretofore constructed, been different, which produced a continual rubbing of the sliding-block upon the arm while the arm is vibrating; and as the block for the greater part of the time occupies one position on the arm, and only has to be moved toward either extremity occasionally, that part of the arm on which the block is most used soon becomes so worn that the block is loose, and jars."

This method of varying the cut-off was first applied on the engine "Belle," delivered to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, December 6, 1854, and thereafter was for some time employed by Mr. Baldwin. It was found, however, in practice, that the steel straps would stretch sufficiently to allow them to buckle and break, and hence they were soon abandoned, and chains subst.i.tuted between the quadrant and curved arm of the sliding-block. These chains in turn proved little better, as they lengthened, allowing lost motion, or broke altogether, so that eventually the quadrant was wholly abandoned, and recourse was finally had to the lever and link for raising and lowering the sliding-block.

As thus arranged, the cut-off was substantially what was known as the "Cuyahoga cut-off," as introduced by Mr. Ethan Rogers, of the Cuyahoga Works, Cleveland, Ohio, except that Mr. Baldwin used a part.i.tion plate between the upper and the lower valve.

But while Mr. Baldwin, in common with many other builders, was thus resolutely opposing the link-motion, it was nevertheless rapidly gaining favor with railroad managers. 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 succ.u.mb; 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. In this, however, he was disappointed, for in the following year the same company ordered three more engines, on which they specified the link-motion. In 1856, seventeen engines for nine different companies had this form of valve gear, and its use was thus incorporated in his practice. It was not, however, until 1857 that he was induced to adopt it exclusively. This step was forced upon him, at that time, by the report of Mr. Parry, then Superintendent of the Works (now a member of the present firm), who, on returning from an extended tour in the South, brought back the intelligence that the link-motion was everywhere preferred, and that the Baldwin engines were losing ground rapidly, in consequence of their lack of this feature. Mr. Baldwin's characteristic reply was, "Then they shall have link-motion hereafter." And thenceforth the independent cut-off gradually disappeared, and the link reigned in its stead.

February 14, 1854, Mr. 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 pa.s.sed to the boiler by a pipe from the back of the stack. This heater was applied on several engines for the Mine Hill Railroad, and on a few for other roads; but its use was exceptional, and lasted only for a year or two.

In December of the same year, Mr. Baldwin filed a caveat for a variable exhaust, operated automatically, by the pressure of steam, so as to close when the pressure was lowest in the boiler, and open with the increase of pressure. The device was never put in service.

The use of coal, both bituminous and anthracite, as a fuel for locomotives, had by this time become a practical success. The economical combustion of bituminous coal, however, engaged considerable attention. It was felt that much remained to be accomplished in consuming the smoke and deriving the maximum of useful effect from the fuel. Mr. Baird, who was now a.s.sociated with Mr.

Baldwin in the management of the business, made this matter a subject of careful study and investigation. An experiment was conducted under his direction, by placing a sheet-iron deflector in the fire-box of an engine on the Germantown and Norristown Railroad. The success of the trial was such as to show conclusively that a more complete combustion resulted. As, however, a deflector formed by a single plate of iron would soon be destroyed by the action of the fire, Mr. Baird proposed to use a water-leg projecting upward and backward from the front of the fire-box under the flues. 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; but in 1858, in the "Media,"

built for the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad Company, water-pipes extending from the crown obliquely downward and curving to the sides of the fire-box at the bottom, were successfully used for the purpose.

The adoption of the link-motion may be regarded as the dividing line between the present and the early and transitional stage of locomotive practice. Changes since that event have been princ.i.p.ally in matters of detail, but it is the gradual perfection of these details which has made the locomotive the symmetrical, efficient, and wonderfully complete piece of mechanism it is to-day. In perfecting these minutiae, the Baldwin Locomotive Works has borne its part, and it only remains to state briefly its contributions in this direction.

The production of the establishment during the six years from 1855 to 1860, inclusive, was as follows: forty-seven engines in 1855; fifty-nine in 1856; sixty-six in 1857; thirty-three in 1858; seventy in 1859; and eighty-three in 1860. The greater number of these were of the ordinary type, four drivers coupled, and a four-wheeled truck, and varying in weight from fifteen ton engines, with cylinders twelve by twenty-two, to twenty-seven ton engines, with cylinders sixteen by twenty-four. A few ten-wheeled engines were built, as has been previously noted, and the remainder were the Baldwin flexible-truck six- and eight-wheels-connected engines. The demand for these, however, was now rapidly falling off, the ten-wheeled and heavy "C" engines taking their place, and by 1859 they ceased to be built, save in exceptional cases, as for some foreign roads, from which orders for this pattern were still occasionally received.

A few novelties characterizing the engines of this period may be mentioned. Several engines built in 1855 had cross-flues placed in the fire-box, under the crown, in order to increase the heating surface. This feature, however, was found impracticable, and was soon abandoned. The intense heat to which the flues were exposed converted the water contained in them into highly superheated steam, which would force its way out through the water around the fire-box with violent ebullitions. Four engines were built for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in 1856-57, with straight boilers and two domes. The "Delano"

grate, by means of which the coal was forced into the fire-box from below, was applied on four ten-wheeled engines for the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, in 1857. In 1859, several engines were built with the form of boiler introduced on the c.u.mberland Valley Railroad in 1851 by Mr. A. F. Smith, and which consisted of a combustion-chamber in the waist of the boiler, next the fire-box. This form of boiler was for some years thereafter largely used in engines for soft coal. It was at first constructed with the "water-leg," which was a vertical water-s.p.a.ce, connecting the top and bottom sheets of the combustion-chamber, but eventually this feature was omitted, and an un.o.bstructed combustion-chamber employed. Several engines were built for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company in 1859, and thereafter, with the "Dimpfel" boiler, in which the tubes contain water, and, starting downward from the crown-sheet, are curved to the horizontal, and terminate in a narrow water-s.p.a.ce next the smoke-box. The whole waist of the boiler, therefore, forms a combustion-chamber, and the heat and gases, after pa.s.sing for their whole length along and around the tubes, emerge into the lower part of the smoke-box.

In 1860, an engine was built for the Mine Hill Railroad, with boiler of a peculiar form. The top sheets sloped upward from both ends toward the centre, thus making a raised part or hump in the centre. The engine was designed to work on heavy grades, and the object sought by Mr. Wilder, the Superintendent of the Mine Hill Railroad, was to have the water always at the same height in the s.p.a.ce from which steam was drawn, whether going up or down grade.

All these experiments are indicative of the interest then prevailing upon the subject of coal-burning. The result of experience and study had meantime satisfied Mr. Baldwin that to burn soft coal successfully required no peculiar devices; that the ordinary form of boiler, with plain fire-box, was right, with perhaps the addition of a fire-brick deflector; and that the secret of the economical and successful use of coal was in the mode of firing, rather than in a different form of furnace.

The year 1861 witnessed a marked falling off in the production. The breaking out of the war at first unsettled business, and by many it was thought that railroad traffic would be so largely reduced that the demand for locomotives must cease altogether. A large number of hands were discharged from the works, and only forty locomotives were turned out during the year. It was even seriously contemplated to turn the resources of the establishment to the manufacture of shot and sh.e.l.l, and other munitions of war, the belief being entertained that the building of locomotives would have to be altogether suspended. So far, however, was this from being the case, that, after the first excitement had subsided, it was found that the demand for transportation by the general government, and by the branches of trade and production created by the war, was likely to tax the carrying capacity of the princ.i.p.al Northern railroads to the fullest extent.

The government itself became a large purchaser of locomotives, and it is noticeable, as indicating the increase of travel and freight transportation, that heavier machines than had ever before been built became the rule. Seventy-five engines were sent from the works in 1862; ninety-six in 1863; one hundred and thirty in 1864; and one hundred and fifteen in 1865. During two years of this period, from May, 1862, to June, 1864, thirty-three engines were built for the United States Military Railroads. The demand from the various coal-carrying roads in Pennsylvania and vicinity was particularly active, and large numbers of ten-wheeled engines, and of the heaviest eight-wheeled four-coupled engines, were built. Of the latter cla.s.s, the majority were with fifteen and sixteen inch cylinders, and of the former, seventeen and eighteen inch cylinders.

The introduction of several important features in construction marks this period. Early in 1861, four eighteen inch cylinder freight locomotives, with six coupled wheels, fifty-two inches in diameter, and a Bissell pony-truck with radius-bar in front, were sent to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company. This was the first instance of the use of the Bissell truck in the Baldwin Works. These engines, however, were not of the regular "Mogul" type, as they were only modifications of the ten-wheeler, the drivers retaining the same position, well back, and a pair of pony-wheels on the Bissell plan taking the place of the ordinary four-wheeled truck. Other engines of the same pattern, but with eighteen and one-half inch cylinders, were built in 1862-63, for the same company, and for the Don Pedro II.

Railway of Brazil.

The introduction of steel in locomotive-construction was a distinguishing feature of the period. Steel tires were first used in the works in 1863, on some engines for the Don Pedro II. Railway of South America. Their general adoption on American railroads followed slowly. No tires of this material were then made in this country, and it was objected to their use that, as it took from sixty to ninety days to import them, an engine, in case of a breakage of one of its tires, might be laid up useless for several months. To obviate this objection, M. W. Baldwin & Co. imported five hundred steel tires, most of which were kept in stock, from which to fill orders.

Steel fire-boxes were first built for some engines for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1861. English steel, of a high temper, was used, and at the first attempt the fire-boxes cracked in fitting them in the boilers, and it became necessary to take them out and subst.i.tute copper. American h.o.m.ogeneous cast-steel was then tried on engines 231 and 232, completed for the Pennsylvania Railroad in January, 1862, and it was found to work successfully. The fire-boxes of nearly all engines thereafter built for that road were of this material, and in 1866 its use for the purpose became general. It may be added that while all steel sheets for fire-boxes or boilers are required to be thoroughly annealed before delivery, those which are f.l.a.n.g.ed or worked in the process of boiler-construction are a second time annealed before riveting.

Another feature of construction, gradually adopted, was the placing of the cylinders horizontally. This was first done in the case of an outside-connected engine, the "Ocmulgee," which was sent to the Southwestern Railroad Company of Georgia in January, 1858. This engine had a square smoke-box, and the cylinders were bolted horizontally to its sides. The plan of casting the cylinder and half-saddle in one piece and fitting it to the round smoke-box was introduced by Mr.

Baldwin, and grew naturally out of his original method of construction. Mr. Baldwin was the first American builder to use an outside cylinder, and he made it for his early engines with a circular f.l.a.n.g.e cast to it, by which it could be bolted to the boiler. The cylinders were gradually brought lower, and at a less angle, and the f.l.a.n.g.es prolonged and enlarged. In 1852, three six-wheels-connected engines, for the Mine Hill Railroad Company, were built with the cylinder f.l.a.n.g.es brought around under the smoke-box until they nearly met, the s.p.a.ce between them being filled with a spark-box. This was practically equivalent to making the cylinder and half-saddle in one casting. Subsequently, on other engines on which the spark-box was not used, the half-saddles were cast so as almost to meet under the smoke-box, and, after the cylinders were adjusted in position, wedges were fitted in the interstices and the saddles bolted together. It was finally discovered that the faces of the two half-saddles might be planed and finished so that they could be bolted together and bring the cylinders accurately in position, thus avoiding the troublesome and tedious job of adjusting them by chipping and fitting to the boiler and frames. With this method of construction, the cylinders were placed at a less and less angle, until at length the truck-wheels were spread sufficiently, on all new or modified cla.s.ses of locomotives in the Baldwin list, to admit of the cylinders being hung horizontally, as is the present almost universal American practice. By the year 1865, horizontal cylinders were made in all cases where the patterns would allow it. The advantages of this arrangement are manifestly in the interest of simplicity and economy, as the cylinders are thus rights or lefts, indiscriminately, and a single pattern answers for either side.

A distinguishing feature in the method of construction which characterizes these Works, is the extensive use of a system of standard gauges and templets, to which all work admitting of this process is required to be made. The importance of this arrangement, in securing absolute uniformity of essential parts in all engines of the same cla.s.s, is manifest, and with the increased production since 1861 it became a necessity as well as a decided advantage. It has already been noted that as early as 1839 Mr. Baldwin felt the importance of making all like parts of similar engines absolutely uniform and interchangeable. It was not attempted to accomplish this object, however, by means of a complete system of standard gauges, until many years later. In 1861 a beginning was made of organizing all the departments of manufacture upon this basis, and from it has since grown an elaborate and perfected system, embracing all the essential details of construction. An independent department of the Works, having a separate foreman and an adequate force of skilled workmen, with special tools adapted to the purpose, is organized as the Department of Standard Gauges. A system of standard gauges and templets for every description of work to be done, is made and kept by this department. The original templets are kept as "standards," and are never used on the work itself, but from them exact duplicates are made, which are issued to the foremen of the various departments, and to which all work is required to conform. The working gauges are compared with the standards at regular intervals, and absolute uniformity is thus maintained. The system is carried into every possible important detail. 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. The result of the system is an absolute uniformity and interchangeableness of parts in engines of the same cla.s.s, insuring to the purchaser the minimum cost of repairs, and rendering possible, by the application of this method, the large production which these Works have accomplished.

Thus had been developed and perfected the various essential details of existing locomotive practice, when Mr. Baldwin died, September 7, 1866.

He had been permitted, in a life of unusual activity and energy, to witness the rise and wonderful increase of a material interest which had become the distinguishing feature of the century. He had done much, by his own mechanical skill and inventive genius, to contribute to the development of that interest. His name was as "familiar as household words" wherever on the American continent the locomotive had penetrated.

An ordinary ambition might well have been satisfied with this achievement. But Mr. Baldwin's claim to the remembrance of his fellow-men rests not alone on the results of his mechanical labors. A merely technical history, such as this, is not the place to do justice to his memory as a man, as a Christian, and as a philanthropist; yet the record would be manifestly imperfect, and would fail properly to reflect the sentiments of his business a.s.sociates who so long knew him in all relations of life, were no reference made to his many virtues and n.o.ble traits of character. Mr. Baldwin was a man of sterling integrity and singular conscientiousness. To do right, absolutely and unreservedly, in all his relations with men, was an instinctive rule of his nature. His heroic struggle to meet every dollar of his liabilities, princ.i.p.al and interest, after his failure, consequent upon the general financial crash in 1837, const.i.tutes a chapter of personal self-denial and determined effort which is seldom paralleled in the annals of commercial experience. When most men would have felt that an equitable compromise with creditors was all that could be demanded in view of the general financial embarra.s.sment, 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. From the earliest years of his business life the practice of systematic benevolence was made a duty and a pleasure. His liberality constantly increased with his means. Indeed, he would unhesitatingly give his notes, in large sums, for charitable purposes, when money was absolutely wanted to carry on his business. Apart from the thousands which he expended in private charities, and of which, of course, little can be known, Philadelphia contains many monuments of his munificence. Early taking a deep interest in all Christian effort, his contributions to missionary enterprise and church extension were on the grandest scale, and grew with increasing wealth. Numerous church edifices in this city, of the denomination to which he belonged, owe their existence largely to his liberality, and two at least were projected and built by him entirely at his own cost. In his mental character, Mr. Baldwin was a man of remarkable firmness of purpose. This trait was strongly shown during his mechanical career, in the persistency with which he would work at a new improvement or resist an innovation. If he was led sometimes to a.s.sume an att.i.tude of antagonism to features of locomotive-construction which after-experience showed to be valuable,--and a desire for historical accuracy has required the mention, in previous pages, of several instances of this kind,--it is at least certain that his opposition was based upon a conscientious belief in the mechanical impolicy of the proposed changes.

After the death of Mr. Baldwin, the business was reorganized, in 1867, under the t.i.tle of "The Baldwin Locomotive Works," M. Baird & Co., Proprietors. Messrs. George Burnham and Charles T. Parry, who had been connected with the establishment from an early period, the former in charge of the finances, and the latter as General Superintendent, were a.s.sociated with Mr. Baird in the copartnership. Three years later, Messrs. Edward H. Williams, William P. Henszey, and Edward Longstreth became members of the firm. Mr. Williams had been connected with railway management on various lines since 1850. Mr. Henszey had been Mechanical Engineer, and Mr. Longstreth the General Superintendent of the Works for several years previously.

The production of the Baldwin Locomotive Works from 1866 to 1871, both years inclusive, has been as follows:

1866, one hundred and eighteen locomotives.