Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works

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Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works
IndustryRail transport
Founded1852 (as Danforth, Cooke, and Company)
FoundersJohn Cooke
Charles Danforth
John Edwards
Edwin T. Prall
Defunct1901
FateMerged
Successor American Locomotive Company
Headquarters
Paterson, New Jersey
,
United States
Products Steam locomotives and rolling stock, cotton machinery [1]
1877 advertisement of Danforth Locomotive and Machine Company 1877 ad Paterson NJ Poors Manual of Railroads.png
1877 advertisement of Danforth Locomotive and Machine Company

The Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works, located in Paterson, New Jersey, manufactured steam railroad locomotives from 1852 until it was merged with seven other manufacturers to form American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1901.

Contents

History

The firm was established in 1852 by former Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works superintendent (and son-in-law of William Swinburne of Swinburne, Smith and Company) John Cooke and former Montreal resident Charles Danforth as the Danforth, Cooke, and Company, as a manufacturer of steam locomotives as well as cotton machinery. [1] The company was renamed Danforth Locomotive and Machine Company in 1865, with Danforth serving as president until 1871, four years before his death in 1875. Cooke succeeded Danforth as president in 1871, continuing in such capacity until his own death in 1882, after which Cooke's sons, John, Frederick, and Charles reorganized the firm as the Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works, and continued operating the company as such until the merger in 1901.

ALCO-Cooke builder's plate, 1910 Alco-Cooke builder's plate.jpg
ALCO-Cooke builder's plate, 1910

In 1901, Cooke and several other locomotive manufacturers merged to form the American Locomotive Company; Cooke's plant becomes the Alco-Cooke Works, and locomotive production continued at the plant until 1926. Approximately 2600 locomotives were built by Cooke from 1852 to 1901, [2] among the most notable engines produced by the firm are the C. P. Huntington, and the Western & Atlantic Railroad "Texas".

Exports

In addition to providing motive power for North American railroads, Cooke has also produced many locomotives for Central and South America as well as other parts of the world. Examples of exported locomotives include two 0-8-2 tank locomotives for the Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company, South Wales, in 1899, as well as Barry Railway's five class K 0-6-2T locomotives the same year. The firm also produced 2-6-2T locomotives for the War Department Light Railways to be used in France during World War I, preserved examples of which can be found on the Froissy Dompierre Light Railway and Ffestiniog Railway.

Preserved Cooke locomotives

The following is a list of preserved locomotives built by Cooke before the ALCO merger in 1901. They are listed here in serial number order. [3]

Serial numberWheel arrangement
(Whyte notation)		Build dateNameDisposition
unknown 4-4-0 October 1856 Western and Atlantic Railroad 49 Texas Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia
277 4-2-4T October 1863 Central Pacific Railroad #3 C. P. Huntington , Southern Pacific Railroad 1 California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, California [4]
1555 2-6-0 February 1884 Colorado and Southern Railway 9 Highline Park, Breckinridge, Colorado
18614-4-0February 1888 Dardanelle and Russelville 8 Nevada State Railroad Museum, Carson City, Nevada
2053 4-6-0 October, 1890 Union Pacific Railroad 1242Lion's Park, Cheyenne, Wyoming
20544-6-0October, 1890 Union Pacific Railroad 1243 Durham Western Heritage Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
21974-6-0April 1892 Texas and New Orleans Railroad 314Center for Transportation and Commerce, Galveston, Texas
22024-6-0April 1892Texas and New Orleans Railroad 319 Riverdale, Georgia
23414-6-0July 1896 Southern Pacific Railroad 2248 Grapevine Vintage Railroad, Grapevine, Texas
23604-6-0March 1897Southern Pacific Railroad 2252Overlooking the Union Pacific classification yard, Roseville, California [5]
24084-6-0October 1898 Missouri Pacific Railroad 2522Paris City Park, Paris, Arkansas

In addition to the above locomotives, the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad WP&YR owns and maintains a steam-powered snowplow built by Cooke in 1899. This unit is on static display in Skagway, Alaska (see Rotary snowplow for a photo).

The following is a list of preserved locomotives built at the Cooke factory after the ALCO merger.

Serial numberWheel arrangement
(Whyte notation)		Build dateNameDisposition
28686 2-8-0 September 1903 Illinois Central 790 Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, Pennsylvania
558472-6-0May 1916Waynesburg & Washington 4Greene County Historical Museum, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania
57978 2-10-2 January 1918 Southern Pacific 975 Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois
626242-8-0November 1920 Arcade and Attica 18 Arcade and Attica Railroad, Attica, New York
Southern Pacific 1892 Cooke 4-6-0 No. 314 at the Galveston Railroad Museum Galveston Railroad Museum March 2022 27 (Southern Pacific Railroad 1892 Cooke 4-6-0 No. 314).jpg
Southern Pacific 1892 Cooke 4-6-0 No. 314 at the Galveston Railroad Museum

References

  1. 1 2 Trumbull, L R. A History of Industrial Paterson : Being a Compendium of the Establishment, Growth and Present Status in Paterson, N.J., of the Silk, Cotton, Flax, Locomotive, Iron and Miscellaneous Industries : Together with Outlines of State, County and Local History, Corporate Records, Biographical Sketches, Incidents of Manufacture, Interesting Facts and Valuable Statistics. Salem, Mass., Higginson Book Co, 2016.
  2. ↑ Lucas, W. A. “Locomotive Builders of Paterson.” The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, no. 11, 1926, pp. 22–30. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43516818. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.
  3. ↑ Sunshine Software. "Steam Locomotive Information" . Retrieved October 30, 2005.
  4. ↑ Diebert, Timothy S.; Strapac, Joseph A. (1987). Southern Pacific Company Steam Locomotive Conpendium. Shade Tree Books. ISBN   0-930742-12-5.
  5. ↑ "Mighty 2252 Relocation Complete". Rocklin and Roseville Today. August 5, 2005. Retrieved August 5, 2005.


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