Hinkley Locomotive Works

Last updated
Boston Locomotive Works in 1852 Boston Locomotive Works 1852.png
Boston Locomotive Works in 1852

Hinkley Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century.

Contents

History

An 1853 advertisement for Boston Locomotive Works 1853 Locomotive HarrisonAve BostonAlmanac.png
An 1853 advertisement for Boston Locomotive Works

The company that was to become known as Hinkley Locomotive Works got its start in Boston in 1831. Holmes Hinkley and his partner Daniel F. Child founded the Boston Machine Works and soon built the third stationary steam engine that was constructed in Massachusetts. The company's first locomotive was a 4-2-0 built in 1840 that followed the roughly standard designs of the 1830s. Hinkley's early locomotives closely resembled those designed by John Souther.

The company gained a reputation as a reliable and respectable locomotive builder and grew to become the largest manufacturer in New England within a decade. In 1848 the company reorganized as the Boston Locomotive Works and operated under that name until foreclosure due to the financial panic in 1859.

After reorganization under Jarvis Williams, the company became Hinkley, Williams and Company. Hinkley, who had been forced out in the foreclosure, returned to the company in another reorganization in 1864 as the Hinkley and Williams Locomotive Works. The company produced locomotives for the railroads of the American Civil War and regained some of the earlier profitability that they had enjoyed earlier in the century. Also during the Civil War, as Hinckley, Williams and Co, fifty large cannon were forged for the US Government.

In 1872 the company was renamed Hinkley Locomotive Works but fell into bankruptcy again by the end of the decade. This bankruptcy led to the 1880 reorganization as the Hinkley Locomotive Company. Orders fell off and the company was permanently closed in 1889. The only Hinkley locomotive known to be preserved is a 9-ton 0-4-0 built in 1846 as the Lion for the Machiasport Railroad of eastern Maine. It is preserved at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine. [1]

Another Hinkley engine still exists but not in its original form. In 1879, the Hinkley Locomotive Works built a 4-4-0 named "H. C. Hardon", and numbered 73, for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. This engine was converted to a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement, now numbered 643, by the Santa Fe shops in 1897 and it served the Santa Fe until its retirement c1953. This engine, not currently in operating condition, is now located in the Oklahoma Railway Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baldwin Locomotive Works</span> American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1956

Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete when demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway</span> Former railroad company in the United States

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996.

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-10-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, ten powered and coupled driving wheels, and two trailing wheels. In the United States and elsewhere the 2-10-2 is known as the Santa Fe type, after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that first used the type in 1903.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Railroad Museum</span> Railroad museum in Sacramento, California

The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the California State Parks system that interprets the role of railroads in the West. It is located in Old Sacramento State Historic Park at 111 I Street, Sacramento, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lima Locomotive Works</span> Defunct locomotive manufacturer

Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between the Erie Railroad main line, the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati-Toledo main line and the Nickel Plate Road main line and shops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2-6-0</span> Locomotive wheel arrangement

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2-8-0</span> Locomotive wheel arrangement

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works</span> 19th-century steam locomotive manufacturer in Paterson, NJ

Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, in Passaic County, New Jersey, in the United States. Between its founding in 1832 and its acquisition in 1905, the company built more than 6,000 steam locomotives for railroads around the world. Most 19th-century U.S. railroads owned at least one Rogers-built locomotive. The company's most famous product was a locomotive named The General, built in December 1855, which was one of the principals of the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Louis–San Francisco Railway</span> Former American railroad

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monson Railroad</span>

The Monson Railroad was a 2 ft narrow gauge railway, which operated between Monson Junction on the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad and Monson, Maine. The primary purpose of this railroad was to serve several slate mines and finishing houses in Monson. According to the Scientific American of 17 May 1890, it was the smallest railroad in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Locomotive Works</span>

Manchester Locomotive Works was a manufacturing company located in Manchester, New Hampshire, that built steam locomotives and fire engines in the 19th century. The first locomotive the company built was for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in March 1855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond Locomotive Works</span>

Richmond Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing firm located in Richmond, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avonside Engine Company</span> Former English locomotive manufacturer

The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of the American Railroad</span> Railroad museum in Frisco, Texas, U.S.

The Museum of the American Railroad, formerly known as the Age of Steam Railroad Museum, is a railroad museum in Frisco, Texas. The museum has more than 70 pieces of steam, diesel, passenger, and freight railroad equipment sitting on 15 acres making it one of the largest historic rail collections in the US. Guests may walk through some of the equipment on guided tours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Company</span> Rolling stock manufacturer

The Portland Company was established 10 November 1846 by John A. Poor and Norris Locomotive Works engineer Septimus Norris as a locomotive foundry to build railroad equipment for the adjacent Portland terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad connection between Portland, Maine, and Montreal. The shops opened for business in October, 1847. Its first locomotive, the Augusta, emerged from the shops in July 1848 for delivery to the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth. Over the next several decades, the Company produced in its Fore Street facilities over 600 steam locomotives as well as 160 merchant and naval vessels, railcars, construction equipment, Knox automobiles, and the like. Portland Company built the engines of the civil war side-wheel gunboats Agawam and Pontoosuc. Taking into account its other products, the Company could lay claim to being one of the leading medium-to-heavy steel manufacturers in New England. The company ceased production in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lion (locomotive)</span> Historic locomotive in Maine, United States

The Lion is a historic steam locomotive at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine, USA. Built in 1846 for use on a logging railroad, it is the oldest known American-built locomotive in New England. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Fe 769</span> Preserved Santa Fe 769 class 2-8-0 locomotive

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe No. 769 is a preserved 769 class 2-8-0 "consolidation" type steam locomotive originally built by the Richmond Locomotive Works in 1900 as one of the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad's final locomotives. It was originally numbered 266 before the SFP had completely merged into its parent company, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the locomotive was renumbered 3045, and it was eventually renumbered again to 769. The locomotive was put into use for short-distance freight trains and for yard switching before being sold again in 1950 to the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Company in Madrid, New Mexico for more yard switching and short distance coal trains. As the 1950s progressed, however, the company shut down due to bankruptcy, and No. 769 was abandoned along with the rest of the locomotive yard and the rest of Madrid. In the late 1970s the town was recovered and converted into a heritage town, and No. 769 was then put on static display just behind the shed it was stored in, which was converted to the Engine House Theatre. In early 2020, No. 769 was selected for a future project to restore it to operating condition to eventually run on reconstructed trackage between Madrid and a nearby BNSF interchange near Los Cerrillos.

References

  1. Rivard, 1987