Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-07
The American Locomotive.

The inhabited earth must come to the
United States for its locomotives. Not
a year passes but what this is made
more evident. Until within the last ten
years, the English, French and Ger
man builders largely controlled the
worlds market outside of the United
States, but of late years there has been
a different tale to tell.
When the Canadian railways We're
first built, nothing would suit but the
genuine John Bull article, and to John
u the Canadians went. But it was
not long before they found out that the
same typographical peculiarities exist
ed north of the st. Lawrence river and
the great lakes as south of them, and
these peculiarities called for a
system of railroad building thai the
English built engines would not econ
omically conform to. On the uniformly
straight lines, and solidly built road
beds of the old country, the rigid
framed English locomotives would run
to a nicely. But on this side If the wa
ter, mechanisms essentially different in
detail were called for. SO after costly
and disastrous experiments, the Cana
dams found themselves obliged to send
to the city of Manchester, N. H., for
locomotives, and her there was no
trouble. The Canadian roads buy of
the Manchester locomotive works to
this day. The Pennsylvania road gave
English built engines exhaustive tests
and found that they We're inferior to
those built in this country. They were
not adapted to the requirements of the
work and We're not economical.
And not only in this country, but in
Asiatic, African, South American and
other countries has it Deer proven that
the American locomotives will do the
work and stand more wear and tear,
better than the locomotives of any for
eign make. There seems to be a knack
OF adaptation to peculiar requirements
in the American mechanic, and a prac-
tical intelligence in industrial or me-
chanical economies and utilization of
mechanical processes that the foreign
mechanic does not possess. This, for
eign railroads all over the world have
within the last few years been finding
out, and purchases from foreign sources
are steadily increasing. This with the
remarkably rapid growth of the home
market, has given American locomo-
tive builders all the work they can at
tend to. The Baldwins are, of course,
the Oldest and best known, but they are
closely followed by the Brooks people at
Dunkirk, N. Y, the Providence, r. l.,
works, the Schenectady
works, the great establishments of the
Rogers, the Dixon. the Richmond, the
Pittsburg, the Danforth, Cooke & Co. at
Paterson, N. j., the factories at Taun-
ton, Mass, and other works, to say
nothing of the increasing amount of
building being done by the larger roads
themselves. The Pennsylvania road is
now building it's own engines almost
entirely, and so is the New York Cen
trail. and the New York, New Haven &
road is following suit. And
yet, with these three great companies
practically independent of the locomo-
tive market, the manufacturers are be-
ing pushed to their utmost to supply the
demand. The Chinese government has
ordered SO engines from the works at
Philadelphia, Egypt has called for an
other consignment from the same COM
Russia has ordered a ship load of
American made machines, and more are
to Japan. Russia bought her first
consignment back in the seventies, and
South America has long been a steady
purchaser, and so has Mexico. The
of the American locomotive is
low heard all over the world, even in
Palestine, and is a most important fac
or in the Americanization of other peo-
DE, exerting an influence that is being
more and more as the years go on.