FYI, Mike:
Baldwin Demonstrator Number 60000
With the year 1926 came an outstanding event in Baldwin's history, for at that time the Works was ready to build its sixty-thousandth locomotive. To symbolize this event President Samuel M. Vauclain planned and built a huge three-cylinder compound, high-pressure locomotive. It was of the 4-10-2 type and closely resembled engines with this wheel arrangement on the Southern Pacific Railroad. To safely accommodate the high boiler pressure of 350 lb. per square inch, a water-tube firebox was used. From the book The Locomotives that Baldwin Built by Fred Westing
Built as a Baldwin demonstrator in 1926, this locomotive was used by various railroads around the country to show some of Baldwin's latest ideas. It was numbered 60000 to commemorate the 60,000th locomotive to be built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It ran successfully on either coal or oil as fuel. It also attained the highest power ever developed up to the time on the Altoona test plant, namely, 4,500 horsepower. This, at the time, exceeded the plant's capacity and restricted attempts to obtain greater power with additional tests. It has several features which made it unique:
- It has a water tube firebox.
- It has three cylinders.
- It used compound steam expansion.
NOTE: If you look carefully under the smokebox front, you will see the center high-pressure cylinder and steam chest. This cylinder is angled downward to the back. The piston is connected via a crank to the second set of drivers.
The numbers 60000 appear on the cab side, and on the number boards and headlight of the engine. The tender lettering reads THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS. The tender is a Vanderbilt with a short coal space and 6-wheel trucks. Here are a few more specifications on the 60000:
- Wheel arrangement: 4-10-2
- Cylinders: High pressure (1) 27x32 inches
- Cylinders: Low pressure (2) 27x32 inches
- Boiler diameter: 84 inches
- Steam pressure: 350 psi
- Driver diameter: 63.5 inches
- Weight on drivers: 338,400 lbs
- Total engine weight: 457,500 lbs
- Total engine & tender weight: 700,900 lbs
- Tractive force: 82,500 lbs
Although there were not any serious problems with it, the railroads rejected it because they found it overly heavy and complex and were wary of most of its features. Also, the 4-8-4 was quickly becoming the ideal high-speed, heavy freight and passenger locomotive. With only 100,000 miles on it (very little for a steam locomotive), it was returned to Philadelphia in 1928 and stored until 1932 when it was donated to the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, PA.
It is on display there today in the basement on a short piece of track. A hydraulic system is used to move the locomotive back and forth about fifteen feet. The demo was once propelled by a worm gear. It was changed over to a hydraulic system in the mid 1970s. By that time, the bearings in the drivers had become egg shaped, supposedly because of all the reversing, and some BLH retirees figured out how to replace them. The distance traveled inside the museum was staggering for such a short trip: conservatively, 30 ft/trip x 2 trips/demo x 5 demos/day x 360 operating days/yr = about 20 miles/yr, or about 400 miles in reverse by 1980.
Choo-Choo Park: Recently, the City of Philadelphia renamed a city park in honor of a great industrialist and humanitarian. Matthias Baldwin Park is located on 19th Street, between Callowhill and Hamilton Sts. The ground occupied by the park was once part of the mighty Baldwin Locomotive Works (photo 1 below). In the 1830s, Baldwin transformed the farms around Broad and Spring Garden streets into an expansive steam-engine manufacturing empire. He later expanded west along a railroad line toward the Schuylkill River. By 1900, Baldwin was Philadelphia's largest employer with a workforce exceeding 8,200. In 1907, when employment reached 18,500, the firm moved from its cramped 17-acre, 39 building urban site to a more-suitable, roomier 225 acre site in nearby Eddystone, PA.
Not merely a successful industrialist, Matthias Baldwin was a kind man who treated his workers well and was known for his philanthropic efforts. He was one of the founders of the Franklin Institute, a well-known abolitionist who donated money for a school for African-American children and a proponent of giving black men the right to vote.
The 60,000th locomotive built by Baldwin, #60000 (an experimental 4-10-2 steam locomotive built in 1926, (photo 2 below) draws a large crowd of onlookers as it is moved - at a speed of four feet per minute - down Vine Street to the Franklin Institute in 1933 (photo 3 below).
photo 1
photo 2
photo 3
Originally Posted by 3rdrailMike:
Truly one of my all time favorite places on earth, I grew up in that museum and climbed all over the 6000. They drove it into the building while it was under construction. You can see where the tracks disappear under the stone wall.
