Grant Locomotive Works was an American manufacturer of steam railway locomotives from 1867 to 1895, first in Paterson, New Jersey, and then in Chicago. The company built about 1,888 locomotives. [1]
Grant Locomotive Works was an American manufacturer of steam railway locomotives from 1867 to 1895, first in Paterson, New Jersey, and then in Chicago. The company built about 1,888 locomotives. [1]
In 1842, Samuel Smith, Abram Collier, and George Bradley started a small foundry in Paterson. In 1848, Smith sold his interest to Collier and formed a new partnership with his brother, William C. Smith, Henry Whitely, and Thomas Beggs. Beggs died soon thereafter and William Smith and Whitely sold their interests. William Swinburne, who had been superintendent at Rogers Locomotive Works bought Beggs's interest. The firm was renamed Swinburne, Smith and Company. In 1848, it took an order for ten locomotives for the New York and Erie Railroad; three years later, it received a corporate charter as New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company.
In 1863-64, Oliver De Forest Grant bought the stock and ran the business with his sons, David B. Grant and R. Suydam Grant. The father died shortly thereafter and David Grant took over as president. [2]
The namesake of the 2-8-0 Consolidation type was designed in 1866 by Alexander Mitchell, Master Mechanic of the Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Baldwin Locomotive Works was asked to build it, but was reluctant; Rogers Locomotive Works declined. Grant submitted a bid of $19,500, but ultimately the contract went to Baldwin. [3] Fifteen years later, in 1881, the Baldwin Locomotive Works was unable to fill an order of Consolidations from the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, and part of the contract went to Grant to build that railroad's C-16-60N (better known as C-16)-class locomotives. One of the two surviving Grant-built locomotives, D&RGW 223, was built to this Consolidation design. [4]
In 1867, the business was granted a New Jersey corporate charter as Grant Locomotive Works. The business muddled along, "rarely enjoying continuing financial success". [3] The company's boilermakers struck for higher wages in 1872; Grant locked them out and eventually replaced them for less money. In 1874, the Russian Empire ordered 55 Consolidations, but difficulties arose and ultimately the Russians canceled 20 of the order.
Grant retired on January 1, 1880, and was succeeded by William W. Evans, who had been chief accountant since 1866. Two years later, the company had 720 men on the payroll. In 1881, the company completed 110 engines. In 1882, the company owned 157,000 square feet (14,600 m2) of manufacturing and office space in nine buildings, of which it occupied 126,665 square feet (11,767.6 m2). [2] In 1887, the company lost half of its buildings in a fire. [1]
A group of Chicago businessmen convinced the company to move there. They spent more than a million dollars on buildings and installed largely new machinery, bringing only certain patterns from Paterson. The company built only 24 engines in Chicago before a strike and the Panic of 1893 forced it into receivership, from which it did not recover. [1]
The company built locomotives for at least 134 domestic railroads, including:
Until the early 1870s, these were largely Americans (4-4-0s), with a few six-wheel switchers (0-6-0s), Moguls (2-6-0s), and Ten Wheelers (4-6-0)s. In 1865, the firm built 22 eight-wheel switchers (0-8-0s) for the B&O. The order for the Russian government was apparently the firm's first 2-8-0s. In 1878, it built 35 Columbias (2-4-2s) for the Manhattan elevated railway. From 1878 to 1882, it built 96 Consolidations for the New York, Lake Erie & Western. Their first three-foot-gauge order came from the Utah Northern, a narrow-gauge line that ran from Ogden, Utah, to Butte, Montana. These locomotives, of the 2-4-0 type, were delivered in 1871. [5] In 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande ordered 30 narrow-gauge Consolidations of the 60N (later C-16) class. Their next narrow-gauge order was 20 engines for the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis R.R., which defaulted on payment. Grant was forced to sell them at a large loss that weakened the company's finances. [1] In 1887, shortly before the fire destroyed much of their factory the company secured a single order (works no. 1713 according to the Best list ) for a 2-6-2 "Prairie" tank locomotive for the Chinese Engineering & Mining Company's Kaiping colliery at Tangshan, N.E. China. This was allocated the mine's road No.4. The locomotive's wheel arrangement and other specifications broadly matched two similar batches of British locomotives ordered at the same time from the Dubs and the Sharp Stewart locomotive works respectively , both based in Glasgow, Scotland. [6] [7] A photograph of this engine has survived
The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, often shortened to Rio Grande, D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado, in 1870. It served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rio Grande was also a major origin of coal and mineral traffic.
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the tracks of a single railroad, or via several railroads owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route. Although Europe is crisscrossed by railways, the railroads within Europe are usually not considered transcontinental, with the possible exception of the historic Orient Express. Transcontinental railroads helped open up interior regions of continents not previously colonized to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases, they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks. Many of them continue to have an important role in freight transportation, and some such as the Trans-Siberian Railway even have passenger trains going from one end to the other.
The Southern Pacific was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The California Zephyr was a passenger train that ran between Chicago, Illinois, and Oakland, California, via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Winnemucca, Oroville and Pleasanton in the United States. It was operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) and Western Pacific (WP) railroads, all of which dubbed it "the most talked about train in America" on March 19, 1949, with the first departure the following day. The train was scheduled to pass through the most spectacular scenery on its route in the daylight. The original train ceased operation in 1970, though the D&RGW continued to operate its own passenger service, the Rio Grande Zephyr, between Salt Lake City and Denver, using the original equipment until 1983. In 1983 a second iteration of the California Zephyr, an Amtrak service, was formed. The current version of the California Zephyr operates partially over the route of the original Zephyr and partially over the route of its former rival, the City of San Francisco.
4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. In the United States and elsewhere, this wheel arrangement is commonly known as a Consolidation, after the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad’s Consolidation, the name of the first 2-8-0.
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 45.2 miles (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally-designated National Historic Landmark and was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1968.
The Colorado Railroad Museum is a non-profit railroad museum. The museum is located on 15 acres (6.1 ha) at a point where Clear Creek flows between North and South Table Mountains in Golden, Colorado.
The Ghost Town & Calico Railway is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad and amusement park attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, an amusement park located in Buena Park, California.
The Colorado Midland Railway, incorporated in 1883, was the first standard gauge railroad built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran from Colorado Springs to Leadville and through the divide at Hagerman Pass to Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction.
The Southern San Luis Valley Railroad is a fallen flag shortline railroad that was located in Southern Colorado. Best known in its final years of operation, it served a connection with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad at Blanca, Colorado. The diminutive railroad in its final form was approximately 1.53 miles (2.46 km) in length. During its life freight traffic included farm produce, fertilizer and volcanic scoria. The railroad, as it was originally built, was 31 miles (50 km) long and besides freight it operated passenger service between Blanca and Jaroso, Colorado, until 1946. The railroad formally ceased all operations December 31, 1996.
Standard gauge was favored for railway construction in the United States, although a fairly large narrow-gauge system developed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah. Isolated narrow-gauge lines were built in many areas to minimize construction costs for industrial transport or resort access, and some of these lines offered common carrier service. Outside Colorado, these isolated lines evolved into regional narrow-gauge systems in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alaska.
The Utah Division of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) is a rail line that connects Grand Junction, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah in the Western United States. It is now incorporated into the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) system as part of the Central Corridor. The modern Union Pacific has split the line into two subdivisions for operational purposes, the Green River Subdivision between Grand Junction and Helper, Utah and the Provo Subdivision from Helper to Salt Lake City. Daily passenger service is provided by Amtrak's California Zephyr; the BNSF Railway and Utah Railway have trackage rights over the line.
The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad of Colorado was a heritage railway that operated from 2006 to 2019 in and around the San Luis Valley as a subsidiary of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad. The heritage railroad ceased operating excursions following a wildfire that damaged some of their facilities, as well as the parent company SLRG entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2019.
Denver and Rio Grande Western No. 169 is a 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" type narrow gauge steam locomotive. It is one of twelve similar locomotives built for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RGW) by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1883. It was built as a passenger locomotive, with 46 in (1,200 mm) drivers, the second largest drivers used on any three-foot gauge D&RGW locomotive.
Denver and Rio Grande Western 223 is a 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive built for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad by the Grant Locomotive Works of Paterson, New Jersey in 1881–82. Number 223 was completed in December 1881, at a cost of $11,553. Rio Grande 223 is the only surviving narrow-gauge engine built by Grant Locomotive Works. D&RGW 223 and the other Class 60 engines were part of the Rio Grande's expansion into Colorado and Utah in the 1880s.
Chartered on June 6, 1903, the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was a 200-mile (321 km) U.S. railroad that operated from Brownsville, Texas, to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston, Texas. It served numerous towns and cities along its routes and operated a rail bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, in junction with the Mexican government. The Brownie connected the citizens of Brownsville to nearby Corpus Christi for the first time on land rather than using water transportation.
The Alamosa–Durango line or San Juan extension was a railroad line built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, following the border between the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains. The line was originally built as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line between Alamosa, Colorado, and Durango, Colorado. Portions of the route survive: the now standard-gauged segment from Alamosa to Antonito, Colorado, and a narrow-gauge portion from Antonito to Chama, New Mexico.
Southern Pacific No. 1744 is a preserved American class "M-6" 2-6-0 "Mogul" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Pacific Railroad in November 1901. Originally equipped with Vauclain compound cylinders, it was rebuilt with conventional cylinders in 1912. It operated for many years out of Oakland, California on the Southern Pacific's Western Division and in California's Central Valley where the locomotive and its classmates were fondly called “Valley Mallets” by their crews. The locomotive was made famous in later years by pulling some of the last steam excursions on the SP alongside other steam locomotives, including 4-8-4 4460. In 1959, No. 1744 was donated to the Sons of Utah Pioneers in Corinne, Utah where it remained on static display, until 1980. That year, it was restored by New London Railroad and Village Incorporated to operate on the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City for the rest of the decade.
Rio Grande 268 is a 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive built for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1882. It is one of three surviving locomotives in D&RG class 60.
