Part 4

After building, during the years 1843, 1844, and 1845, ten four-wheels-connected engines on the plan above described, viz., six wheels in all, the leading wheels and the front drivers being combined into a truck by the flexible beams, Mr. Baldwin finally adopted the present design of four drivers and a four-wheeled truck. Some of his customers who were favorable to the latter plan had ordered such machines of other builders, and Colonel Gadsden, President of the South Carolina Railroad Company, called on him in 1845 to build for that line some passenger engines of this pattern. He accordingly bought the patent-right for this plan of engine of Mr. H. R. Campbell, and for the equalizing beams used between the drivers, of Messrs. Eastwick & Harrison, and delivered to the South Carolina Railroad Company, in December, 1845, his first eight-wheeled engine with four drivers and a four-wheeled truck. This machine had cylinders thirteen and three-quarters by eighteen, and drivers sixty inches in diameter, with the springs between them arranged as equalizers. Its weight was fifteen tons. It had the half-crank axle, the cylinders being inside the frame but outside the smoke-box. The inside-connected engine, counterweighting being as yet unknown, was admitted to be steadier in running, and hence more suitable for passenger service. With the completion of the first eight-wheeled "C" engine, Mr. Baldwin's feelings underwent a revulsion in favor of this plan, and his partiality for it became as great as had been his antipathy before. Commenting on the machine, he recorded himself as "more pleased with its appearance and action than any engine he had turned out." In addition to the three engines of this description for the South Carolina Railroad Company, a duplicate was sent to the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and a similar but lighter one to the Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, shortly afterwards. The engine for the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and perhaps the others, had the half-stroke cut-off.

From that time forward, all of his four-wheels-connected machines were built on this plan, and the six-wheeled "C" engine was abandoned, except in the case of one built for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company in 1846, and this was afterwards rebuilt into a six-wheels-connected machine. Three methods of carrying out the general design were, however, subsequently followed. At first the half-crank was used; then horizontal cylinders inclosed in the chimney-seat and working a full-crank-axle, which form of construction had been practiced at the Lowell Works; and eventually, outside cylinders with outside connections.

Meanwhile the flexible truck machine maintained its popularity for heavy freight service. All the engines thus far built on this plan had been six-wheeled, some with the rear driving-axle back of the fire-box, and others with it in front. The next step, following logically after the adoption of the eight-wheeled "C" engine, was to increase the size of the freight machine, and distribute the weight on eight wheels all connected, the two rear pairs being rigid in the frame, and the two front pairs combined into the flexible-beam truck. This was first done in 1846, when seventeen engines on this plan were constructed on one order for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. Fifteen of these were of twenty tons weight, with cylinders fifteen and a half by twenty, and wheels forty-six inches in diameter; and two of twenty-five tons weight, with cylinders seventeen and a quarter by eighteen, and drivers forty-two inches in diameter. These engines were the first ones on which Mr. Baldwin placed sand-boxes, and they were also the first built by him with roofs. On all previous engines the footboard had only been inclosed by a railing. On these engines for the Reading Railroad, four iron posts were carried up, and a wooden roof supported by them. The engine-men added curtains at the sides and front, and Mr. Baldwin on subsequent engines added sides, with sash and glass. The cab proper, however, was of New England origin, where the severity of the climate demanded it, and where it had been used previous to this period.

Forty-two engines were completed in 1846, and thirty-nine in 1847. The only novelty to be noted among them was the engine "M. G. Bright," built for operating the inclined plane on the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. The rise of this incline was one in seventeen, from the bank of the Ohio River at Madison. The engine had eight wheels, forty-two inches in diameter, connected, and worked in the usual manner by outside inclined cylinders, fifteen and one-half inches diameter by twenty inches stroke. A second pair of cylinders, seventeen inches in diameter with eighteen inches stroke of piston, was placed vertically over the boiler, midway between the furnace and smoke-arch. The connecting-rods worked by these cylinders connected with cranks on a shaft under the boiler. This shaft carried a single cog-wheel at its centre, and this cog-wheel engaged with another of about twice its diameter on a second shaft adjacent to it and in the same plane. The cog-wheel on this latter shaft worked in a rack-rail placed in the centre of the track. The shaft itself had its bearings in the lower ends of two vertical rods, one on each side of the boiler, and these rods were united over the boiler by a horizontal bar which was connected by means of a bent lever and connecting-rod to the piston worked by a small horizontal cylinder placed on top of the boiler. By means of this cylinder, the yoke carrying the shaft and cog-wheel could be depressed and held down so as to engage the cogs with the rack-rail, or raised out of the way when only the ordinary drivers were required. This device was designed by Mr. Andrew Cathcart, Master Mechanic of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. A similar machine, the "John Brough," for the same plane, was built by Mr. Baldwin in 1850. The incline was worked with a rack-rail and these engines until it was finally abandoned and a line with easy gradients substituted.

The use of iron tubes in freight engines grew in favor, and in October, 1847, Mr. Baldwin noted that he was fitting his flues with copper ends, "for riveting to the boiler."

The subject of burning coal continued to engage much attention, but the use of anthracite had not as yet been generally successful. In October, 1847, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company advertised for proposals for four engines to burn Cumberland coal, and the order was taken and filled by Mr. Baldwin with four of his eight-wheels-connected machines.

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.

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.

In February, 1852, Mr. 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. Several of these engines were constructed with a single pair of truck-wheels in front of the drivers, but back of the cylinders. It was found, however, after the engines were put in service, that the two truck-wheels carried eighteen thousand or nineteen thousand pounds, and this was objected to by the company as too great a weight to be carried on a single pair of wheels. On the rest of the engines of the order, therefore, a four-wheeled truck in front was employed.

The ten wheeled engine thereafter assumed a place in the Baldwin classification. In 1855-56, two of twenty-seven tons weight, nineteen by twenty-two cylinders, forty-eight inches drivers, were built for the Portage Railroad, and three for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1855, '56, and '57, fourteen, of the same dimensions, were built for the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad; four for the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad; and one for the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. In 1858 and '59, one was constructed for the South Carolina Railroad, of the same size, and six lighter ten-wheelers, with cylinders fifteen and a half by twenty-two, and four-feet drivers, and two with cylinders sixteen by twenty-two, and four-feet drivers, were sent out to railroads in Cuba.

It was some years--not until after 1860, however--before this pattern of engine wholly superseded in Mr. Baldwin's practice the old plan of freight engine on six or eight wheels, all connected.

On three locomotives--the "Clinton," "Athens," and "Sparta"--completed for the Central Railroad of Georgia in July, 1852, the driving-boxes were made with a slot or cavity in the line of the vertical bearing on the journal. The object was to produce a more uniform distribution of the wear over the entire surface of the bearing. This was the first instance in which this device, which has since come into general use, was employed in the Works, and the boxes were so made by direction of Mr. Charles Whiting, then Master Mechanic of the Central Railroad of Georgia. He subsequently informed Mr. Baldwin that this method of fitting up driving-boxes had been in use on the road for several years previous to his connection with the company. As this device was subsequently made the subject of a patent by Mr. David Matthew, these facts may not be without interest.

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 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.

"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 retarded on passing from a straight line to a curve, and promptly accelerated again on passing 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 flange 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.