| Industry | Railway |
|---|---|
| Founded | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (1825) |
| Founder(s) | Matthias W. Baldwin |
| Defunct | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Eddystone, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Products | Locomotives |
The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad (railway) locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the early demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off, Baldwin could not compete in the marketplace. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972.
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The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning. Matthias W. Baldwin, the founder, was a jeweller and silversmith, who, in 1825, formed a partnership with a machinist, and engaged in the manufacture of bookbinders' tools and cylinders for calico printing. Baldwin then designed and constructed for his own use a small stationary engine, the workmanship of which was so excellent and its efficiency so great that he was solicited to build others like it for various parties, and thus led to turn his attention to steam engineering. The original engine was in use and powered many departments of the works for well over 60 years. It still exists in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
In 1831, at the request of the Philadelphia Museum, he built a miniature locomotive for exhibition which was such a success that he that year received an order from a railway company for a locomotive to run on a short line to the suburbs of Philadelphia. The Camden and Amboy Railroad Company (C&A) had shortly before imported a locomotive (John Bull) from England, which was stored in Bordentown, New Jersey. It had not yet been assembled by Isaac Dripps (under the direction of C&A president Robert L. Stevens) when Baldwin visited the spot. He inspected the detached parts and made notes of the principal dimensions.[1][2] Aided by these figures, he commenced his task.
The difficulties attending the execution of this first order were such that they are not easily comprehened by present day mechanics. Modern machine tools simply did not exist; the cylinders were bored by a chisel fixed in a block of wood and turned by hand; the workmen had to be taught how to do nearly all the work; and Baldwin himself did a great deal of it with his own hands.
It was under such circumstances that his first locomotive, christened Old Ironsides, was completed and tried on the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad on November 23, 1832. It was at once put in active service, and did duty for over 20 years. It was a four-wheeled engine, weighing a little over five tons; the driving wheels were 54 inches (1.37 m) in diameter, and the cylinders 9½ inches (24 cm) in diameter by 18 inches (45.7 cm) stroke. The wheels were of heavy cast iron hubs, with wooden spokes and rims, and wrought iron tires, and the frame was made of wood placed outside the wheels.
Baldwin struggled to survive the Panic of 1837. Production fell from 40 locomotives in 1837 to just nine in 1840 and the company was heavily in debt.[3] As part of the survival strategy, Matthias Baldwin took on two partners, George Vail and George Hufty. Although the partnerships proved relatively short-lived, they helped Baldwin pull through the economic hard times.
Zerah Colburn was one of many engineers who had a close association with the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Between 1854 and the start of his weekly paper, the Railroad Advocate and 1861, when Colburn went to work more or less permanently in London, England, the journalist was in frequent touch with M. W. Baldwin, as recorded in Zerah Colburn: The Spirit of Darkness. Colburn was full of praise for the quality of Baldwin's work.
Initially, Baldwin would build many more steam locomotives at its cramped 196 acre (0.79 km2) Broad Street Philadelphia shop[4] but would begin an incremental shift in production to a 616 acre (2.5 km2) site located at Spring Street in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in 1906. Broad Street was constricted, but even so, it was a huge complex, occupying the better part of 8 square city blocks from Broad to 18th St. and Spring Garden to the Reading tracks just past Noble Street. Eddystone on the other hand was spread out over 600 acres. Its capacity was well over 3000 locomotives per year. The move from Broad Street was completed in the late 1920s.
In the 1850s, railroad building became a national obsession,[5] with many new carriers starting up, particularly in the Midwest and South. While this helped drive up demand for Baldwin products, it also increased competition as more companies entered the locomotive-production field.[5]
Still, Baldwin had trouble keeping pace with orders and in the early 1850s began paying workers piece-rate pay.[6] Taking advantage of human nature, this increased incentives and productivity. By 1857, the company turned out 66 locomotives and employed 600 men. But another economic downturn, this time the Panic of 1857, cut into business again. Output fell by 50 percent in 1858.[7]
The Civil War at first appeared disastrous for Baldwin. According to John K. Brown in The Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1915: A Study in American Industrial Practice, at the start of the conflict Baldwin had a great dependence on Southern railways as its primary market. In 1860, nearly 80 percent of Baldwin's output went to carriers in states that would soon secede from the Union.[8] As a result, Baldwin's production in 1861 fell more than 50 percent compared to the previous year.[8] However, the loss in Southern sales was counterbalanced by purchases by the U.S. Military Railroads and the Pennsylvania Railroad, which saw its traffic soar, as Baldwin produced more than 100 engines for carrier during the 1861–1865 war.[8]
By the time Matthias Baldwin died in 1866, his company was vying with Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works for the top spot among locomotive producers.[9] By 1870 Baldwin had taken the lead and a decade later, it was producing 2½ times as many engines as its nearest competitor, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Census.[10]
The American railroad industry expanded significantly between 1898 and 1907, with domestic demand for locomotives hitting its highest point in 1905.[11] Baldwin’s business boomed during this period while it modernized its Broad Street facilities. Despite this boom, Baldwin faced many challenges including the constraints of space in the Philadelphia facility, inflation, increased labor costs, the substantial increase in the size of the locomotives being manufactured, labor tensions, and the formation of an aggressive competitor (ALCO).[12] A year later the Interstate Commerce Commission stepped up its activities. This, coupled with the Hepburn act, precipitated the Panic of 1907.[13] Both of these events would have a direct negative effect on the railway industry, especially the locomotive builders.[13]
One the key blows to Baldwin and the railroad industry as a whole was the Hepburn Act,[14] which was passed in 1906. The act revitalized the Interstate Commerce Commission and authorized greater governmental authority over railroads. Thanks to the Hepburn Act, the ICC was given the power to set maximum railroad rates. It also included a provision that gave the ICC the power to replace existing rates with “just-and-reasonable” maximum rates, with the ICC to define what was just and reasonable.[14]
The limitation on railroad rates depreciated the value of railroad securities, a factor in causing the Panic of 1907.[14]
What it meant to Baldwin was that railroad carriers stopped ordering new locomotives.[14] Baldwin’s output dropped from 2,666 locomotives in 1906 to 614 in 1908.[11] The company cut its workforce from 18,499 workers in 1907 to 4,600 the following year.[15] Baldwin’s business was further imperiled when William P. Henszey, one of Baldwin’s partners died, leaving Baldwin with a US $6 million liability.[11] In response, Baldwin incorporated and released US $10 million worth of bonds.[11] Samuel Vauclain wanted to use these funds to expand Baldwin’s capacities so it would be prepared for another boom.[11] While other Baldwin officers opposed this expansion, Vauclain’s vision won out; Baldwin would continue to expand its Eddystone plant until its completion in 1928.[11] By 1928, the company moved all locomotive production there though the plant would never exceed more than one-third of its production capacity.[16]
Baldwin was an important contributor to the Allied war effort in World War I. Baldwin built 5,551 locomotives for the Allies including separate designs for Russian, French, British and United States Trench railways. Baldwin built railway gun carriages for the United States Navy and manufactured 6,565,355 artillery shells for Russia, England and the United States. From 1915 to 1918, Remington Arms subcontracted the production of nearly 2 million Pattern 1914 Enfield and M1917 Enfield rifles to the Baldwin Locomotive Works.[17]
After the end of World War I Baldwin continued to supply export orders as the European powers strove to replace large numbers of locomotives worn out by the war effort and European locomotive factories were still re-tooling from armaments production back to railroad production. In 1919 and 1920 Baldwin supplied 50 4-6-0 locomotives to the Palestine Military Railway that became the Palestine Railways H class.[18]
After World War I, Baldwin's business would decline as the diesel engine became the standard on American railways. By the 1920s the major locomotive manufacturers had strong incentives to maintain the dominance of the steam engine.[19] Nevertheless, Alco, while remaining committed to steam production, pursued R&D strategies in the 1920s and '30s that would ensure its competitiveness in the event that diesel locomotives would predominate.[20] In contrast, Baldwin opposed any development of diesel locomotive technology in the 1930s.[21] In 1930 Samuel Vauclain, Chairman of the Board, stated in a speech that advances in steam technology would ensure the dominance of the steam engine until at least 1980.[22] Baldwin’s Vice President and Director of Sales stated in December 1937 that “Some time in the future, when all this is reviewed, it will be found that our railroads are no more dieselized than they electrified.”[22] Baldwin had deep roots in the steam locomotive industry, and may have been influenced by heavy investment in its Eddystone plant.[21] Baldwin began an attempt to diversify its product line in 1929, but the Great Depression thwarted these efforts and Baldwin declared bankruptcy in 1935.[11]
When Baldwin emerged from bankruptcy in 1938 it underwent a drastic change in management.[21] The new management was dedicated to diesel power but the company was already too far behind.[21] Business declined drastically in the postwar years as EMD and Alco seized the bulk of the diesel market from Baldwin, Lima-Hamilton and Fairbanks-Morse.
In 1939 Baldwin offered its first standard line of diesel locomotives, all designed for yard service. By this time, General Motors had already marketed its first diesel road freight locomotive.[23] Two years later the United States' entry into World War II destroyed Baldwin's diesel development program when the War Production Board dictated that Alco and Baldwin produce only steamers and diesel-electric yard switching engines. Electro-Motive Division (EMD) was assigned the task of producing road freight diesels (namely, the FT series), which might plausibly have given the latter a distinct advantage over its competitors in that product line in the years that followed World War II, due to the head start in diesel R&D and production. But longtime GM leader Alfred P. Sloan presents a timeline in his memoir that belies this assumption.[24] He says that GM's diesel-engine R&D efforts of the 1920s and 1930s, and its application of model design standardization (yielding lower unit costs) and marketing lessons learned in the automotive industry, were the principal reason for EMD's competitive advantage in the late 1940s and afterward (clearly implying that the wartime production assignments were merely nails in a coffin that Baldwin and Lima had already built for themselves before the war). In his telling, the R&D needed to adapt earlier diesels (best suited to marine and stationary use) to locomotive use (smaller; higher power-to-weight ratio; more reliable given more vibration and less maintenance) was a capital-intensive project that almost no one among the railroad owners or locomotive builders was willing (latter) or able (former) to invest in during the 1920s and 1930s, save the people of Winton, Electro-Motive, and Charles F. Kettering of the GM Research Corporation.[24]
During World War II Baldwin was one of the manufacturers of the Sherman tank.
Between 1940 and 1948, domestic steam locomotive sales declined from 30 percent of the market to 2 percent.[25] By 1949, there was no demand for steam locomotives.[25] In July 1948 Westinghouse Electric, which had teamed with Baldwin to build diesel and electric carbodies, purchased 500,000 shares, or 21 percent, of Baldwin stock, which made Westinghouse Baldwin's largest shareholder. Baldwin used the money to cover various debts. Westinghouse vice president Marvin W. Smith became Baldwin's president in May 1949. In a move to diversify its operations Baldwin merged with Lima-Hamilton on December 4, 1950, to become Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. However market share continued to dwindle. In 1953 Westinghouse discontinued building electrical traction equipment, and so Baldwin was forced to purchase electrical equipment from General Electric.
In 1956 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) finally planned to retire its steam fleet and buy a large order of diesels. Baldwin bid, expecting its lifelong loyal customer to help keep Baldwin in business by buying at least some Baldwin diesels. General Motors' EMD division, however, gave the PRR an exceptional deal on new, reliable GP9s, so the PRR—which was in a financial pinch itself —sent the business to GM. This one deal proved to be the end of the line, and- after 125 years of continuous production- Baldwin closed most of its Eddystone plant. It produced no more locomotives after 1956, instead concentrating on heavy construction equipment.[23] More than 70,500 locomotives had been produced when production ceased in 1956.
In 1965 Baldwin became a wholly owned subsidiary of Armour and Company.[26] Greyhound Corporation purchased Armour and Company in 1970, and in 1972 Greyhound closed Baldwin-Lima for good.[27]
Baldwin built many 4-4-0 "American" type locomotives, surviving examples of which include the 1872 Countess of Dufferin and 1875's Virginia and Truckee Railroad No.22 "Inyo", but it was perhaps best known for the 2-8-2 "Mikado" and 2-8-0 "Consolidation" types. It was also well known for the unique cab-forward 4-8-8-2 articulateds built for the Southern Pacific Company and massive 2-10-2 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Baldwin also produced the most powerful steam engines in history, the 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" for the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad. Yellowstone could put down over 140,000 lbf (622.8 kN) of tractive force. The Yellowstones were so good that the D,M&IR refused to part with them; they hauled ore trains well into the diesel era, and the last one retired in the late 1960s. Three still survive. One of Baldwin's last new and improved locomotive designs were the 4-8-4 "Northern" locomotives. Baldwin's last domestic steam locomotives were 2-6-6-2s built for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1949. Baldwin 60000, the company's 1926 demonstration steam locomotive, is on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
On a separate note, the restored and running 2-6-2 steam locomotive at Fort Edmonton Park was built by Baldwin in 1919.
Baldwin Locomotive Works built steam engines for narrow-gauge railways as well. They also built many boilers for heating and powering buildings and industry. One of the more notable series of narrow gauge locomotives built by Baldwin was the K-36 class Mikados of the Denver and Rio Grande Western RR. Built in 1925, the fleet of ten has seen only one scrapped (485 in 1955, as a result of falling into the turntable pit in Salida, CO). Of the nine remaining, eight of the nine are operating today on the Durango and Silverton RR, or the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic RR.
New Zealand Railways was a major customer from 1879 when it imported six 2-8-0 based on the Denver and Rio Grande locomotives due to their similar rail guage, these were given the road class of T. The next was a double emergency order of six 2-6-2 classed N and six 2-8-0 classed O after a British order for similer locomotives failed to meet ontime delivery and weight limitations specified in contract. Baldwins seized on the opportunity to impress the NZR with a prompt six month delivery of all 12 locomotives. There after NZR ordered Baldwin products to complement home built locomotives, including Tank versions 2-6-2 Wb and 2-6-4 Wd classes. Another four of the hard working N class were purchased in 1901. The popular 4-6-0 class of 22 Ub locomotives consisting of 10 1898 flat valve and 10 1901 piston valve (Baldwins supplying all but two) proved themselves well at the turn of the twentieth century with the last retiring as late as 1958. A requirement for a larger firebox version of the class ended up creating a whole new locomotive with the birth of the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, the Pacific was born. They were classed as Q in NZR service and remained in use until 1957. Being a new type of locomotive, the Q class had their shortcommings but eventually performed well (Sadly, none have been preserved). In 1914 a later larger improved version, and last Baldwin product to be purchased by NZR was classed as Aa. They lasted until 1959. Like all american locomotives produced at the time, the Baldwins had 'short' lifespans built into them but the NZR were happy to re-boiler almost their whole fleet to give them a longer life of hard work. NZR were generally happy with their Baldwin fleet. A private Railway operating in New Zealand at the time exclusively purchased Baldwin products after facing the same difficulties with British builders the NZR had. The Wellington and Manawatu Railway (1881-1909) operated small fleets of 2-8-0(4), 2-6-2(6), 2-8-2(1), 4-6-0(2) and a large 2-8-4(1) tank locomotive. When the NZR took over the railway, it's fleet was absorbed into sub-classes of those operating already in the main fleet. When NZR placed tenders for Diesel locomotives in the 1950s, Baldwins applied but failed when EMD won the contract instead. Surprisingly only one NZR Baldwin product is operational, a class Wd 2-6-4 tank locomotive operating at the Ferrymead railway in Christchurch, the remains of a WMR 2-6-2 N, NZR 4-6-0 Ub, and two NZR 2-6-2 Wb tank locomotives are in the early stages of restoration.
A six-ton, 60-cm gauge 4-4-0 built for the Tacubaya Railroad in 1897 was the smallest ever built by Baldwin for commercial use.[28] The Baldwin works built a 2-4-2T tank engine - Lyn - for the 1 ft 11.5 in (597 mm) gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in England in 1898. The loco was shipped in crates and assembled at the line's Pilton Yard but was scrapped when the line closed in 1935. A replica locomotive is under construction and this will carry the name 'Lyn'. This locomotive is being built by L&B revivalists, scheduled for completion in 2012 and is currently at The Boston Lodge works of the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales UK.[29]
In the same year two 2-6-2T 'Prairie' tank engines were built for Victorian Railways (VR). They were used as a trial on the new 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge railways. Fifteen more NA class locomotives were built by VR. Unfortunately only six have survived and both of the original Baldwin engines were among those scrapped.
The Welsh Highland Railway in Wales borrowed a 4-6-0 WD pannier tank engine from Baldwin during World War I. Unfortunately this locomotive was scrapped in the 1940s due to being prone to rough riding and derailments. But the Welsh Highland Railway is planning to build a full-scale replica of this locomotive numbered 794.
Baldwin also built three engines for the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway, which were delivered in 1890. A fourth was delivered in 1892. These engines featured steeply inclined boilers and used the Abt rack system to propel them up the average 16 percent grade. Over the years the engines were scrapped or rebuilt. The last Baldwin engine was taken out of regular service in 1955. During the following years the engines were used as back-up engines and for snow removal. Three of the engines are currently on static display around Colorado. One (No. 1) is located at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. The other two on display are located in Manitou Springs, Colorado: one (No. 2) near city hall and the other (No. 5) at the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway depot. The fourth engine (No. 4) is still in limited operation for photo opportunities and special events. However, it no longer completes the journey to the top of Pike's Peak due to the fact that many of the water tanks along the line have been removed.
Number 6 (builder plate number 12288), a 36" 2-6-0 was built by Baldwin in 1891 for the Surry Sussex & Southampton Railway in Virginia. The SS&S installed Southern valve gear, a graceful outside drive gear. The 6 was eventually sold to the Argent Lumber Company in South Carolina. In 1960, the 6 was purchased by southeastern Iowa's Midwest Central Railroad as part of a package deal including the 2 (below). It was the first locomotive to operate on a regular basis at the MCRR and was their main engine until 1971 when it was taken out of service for a major overhaul. Completed in 1988, this ground up rebuild included a new boiler and conversion to oil fire. A "medium" boiler repair was started in 2009, with the work completed in September 2010, in time for the 2010 Midwest Old Thresher's Reunion.
The Midwest Central Railroad also owns Number 2, a 36" 2-6-0, which was built for the New Berlin & Winfield Railroad in 1906. The NB&W operated an 8-mile (13 km) line in Pennsylvania for an agricultural community. The 2 hauled freight and passengers on this small operation until the mid 1910's. In 1917, the locomotive was sold to the Argent Lumber Company in South Carolina where it worked along with the 6 in swamp trackage, hauling logs to the mill in Hardeeville. Upon arrival at the MCRR in 1960, it received substantial repairs and was put into service by the early 70's, replacing the 6 as the MCRR's main engine. In 1987, the 2 was taken out of service for a complete rebuild which is still in progress as of January 2011.
From the early years of the 20th century Baldwin had a relationship with the Westinghouse Electric Company to build electric locomotives for American and foreign markets. The electric locomotive was increasingly popular; electrification was expensive, but for high traffic levels or mountainous terrain it could pay for itself, and in addition some cities like New York, were banning the steam locomotive because of its pollution and the propensity for accidents in smoke-choked terminals. Baldwin built or subcontracted out the bodywork and running gear, and Westinghouse built the electrical gear.
Baldwin built the famed EP-1 (1906), EF-1 (1912) and EP-2 (1923) box cab electric locomotives for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Baldwin also delivered the EP-3 box cab electric locomotives to the Milwaukee Road for use on their line between Harlowton, Montana, and Avery, Idaho.
Baldwin built several electric locomotive types for the Pennsylvania Railroad as well including the P5A, R1 and the famed GG1. Baldwin built the first GG1 prototype electric locomotive for use on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s electrified line, which was completed in 1935 between New York and Washington, D.C.
In the waning years of steam Baldwin also undertook several attempts at alternative technologies to diesel power. In 1944 Baldwin outshopped an S2 class 6-8-6 steam turbine locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Between 1947 and 1948 Baldwin built three unique coal-fired steam turbine-electric locomotives, designed for passenger service on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). The 6,000 horsepower (4,500 kW) units, which were equipped with Westinghouse electrical systems and had a 2-C1+2-C1-B wheel arrangement, were 106 feet (32 m) long, making them the longest locomotives ever built for passenger service. The cab was mounted in the center, with a coal bunker ahead of it and a backwards-mounted boiler behind it (the tender only carried water). These locomotives were intended for a route from Washington, D.C., to Cincinnati, Ohio, but could never travel the whole route without some sort of failure. Coal dust and water frequently got into the traction motors. These problems could have been fixed given time, but it was obvious that these locomotives would always be expensive to maintain, and all three were scrapped in 1950.
In May 1954 Baldwin built a 4,500 horsepower (3,400 kW) steam turbine-electric locomotive for freight service on the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), nicknamed the "Jawn Henry" after the legend of John Henry, a steel-driver on a track crew who famously raced against a steam drill and won, only to die immediately afterwards. The unit was similar in appearance to the C&O turbines but very different mechanically; it had a C+C-C+C wheel arrangement, and an improved watertube boiler which was fitted with automatic controls. Unfortunately the boiler controls were sometimes problematic, and (as with the C&O turbines) coal dust and water got into the motors. "Jawn Henry" was retired from the N&W roster on January 4, 1958.
Baldwin switchers were well known for their haulage ability, but the company failed to make the jump to building reliable road units. Baldwin also misjudged the market, remaining fond of steam power and concentrating on products of little interest to railroads.
Baldwin diesel locomotives, though fairly successful in the marketplace, did not do so well as others. Baldwins, thanks to their robust Westinghouse electrical gear, were excellent haulers, but the diesel prime movers were less reliable than comparable EMD and ALCO products.