I have a Trains trivia calander (content from the B+O Railroad Museum). It states that Baldwin built 17, 350 locomotives in the year 1900. That’s about 50 per day. Does this seem like a possible misprint? thanks
It sounds like a misprint to me. When Baldwin built the Eddystone plant, they sized it for 10 locomotives per day, which was higher than what they could put out of the downtown Philly plant.
The book The Locomotives That Baldwin Built by Fred Westing (Bonanza Books, 1966) contains a complete facsimile of the original History of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1923. Page 106 contains the production of locomotives by year.
1899 - 901; 1900 - 1217; 1901 - 1375
Highest production for that 1832-1923 span was 2666 locomotives in 1906.
Bill
Thank you for the answers. If it would have said that Baldwin produced 17,350 locomotives BY the year 1900, that would be more believable.
Thanks again
Good catch ! It almost seems as if the compiler was dyslexic and got all those numbers mixed up:
Westing book (per Beach Bill): 1901 - 1375 locos
B&O Museum Calendar: 1900 - 17, 350 locos
I agree with your supposition of 17,350 cumulative locos by 1900. Wonder if Beach Bill could quickly add up those production figures on page 106 from 1831 - 1900, and tell us if that seems even approximately right ? Thanks !
- Paul North.
rluke hit it right!
That same text lists “the years for the completion of locomotives numbered in the even thousands”
Locomotive #17,000 was produced in 1899
Locomotive #18,000 was produced in 1900
Locomotive #19,000 was produced in 1901, while #20,000 and #21,000 came out in 1902.
Bill
17,350 divided by 70 years yields just under 250 locos per year. Considering that early production was undoubtedly lower, that might balance out with the higher numbers in the later years.
Total production, adding up the yearly figures, up to and including 1900 was a total of 18,472 locomotives. Subtracting the 1900 production of 1217 gives us 17,255 locomotives. So no telling where the figures on the calendar came from.
33 1
34 5
35 14
36 40
37 40
38 23
39 26
40 9
41 … ?
42 14
43 12
44 22
45 27
46 42
47 39
48 20
49 30
50 37
51 50
52 49
53 60
54 62
55 47
56 59
57 66
58 33
59 70
60 83
61 40
62 75
63 96
64 130
65 115
66 131
67 127
68 124
69 235
70 280
71 331
72 422
73 437
74 205
75 130
76 232
77 185
78 292
79 298
80 515
81 554
82 563
83 557
84 429
85 242
86 550
87 653
88 737
89 827
90 946
91 899
92 731
93 772
94 313
95 401
96 547
97 501
98 755
99 901
00 1217
