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Building A Lima Locomotive by Scott Trostel steam locomotive construction proces
Building A Lima Locomotive by Scott Trostel The steam locomotive construction process of Lima Locomotive Works during 1924.
Soft Cover
Copyright 1990
87 pages
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Boiler and Flange Shop7
Tank Shop19
Smith and Hammer Shop 23
Truck Shop31
Foundry35
Pattern Shop40
Machining43
Erection Shop62
Other Departments73
The Completed Locomotive83
Here Is A Rare Glimpse Inside Of Lima Locomotive Works In 1924 To Reveal The Essence Of Smoke Stack America. Revealed Through Text Photographs, And Maps Is The Complex Art Of Steam Railroad Locomotive Construction
Told In Crisp Clear Detail, It Explains How Many Separate Manufacturing Processes Were Required To Build A Locomotive. It Takes You Onto The Shop Floor With Vivid Photographs To Witness This Process.
Building By Building This Book Explores The Boiler Shop And Explains How Plate Was Drilled, Rolled And Riveted To Form A Boiler. The Pattern Shop And Foundry To Understand The Arts And Skills For Making The Castings For Locomotives, The Smith And Hammer Shop To Explore The Hammer Shaping Of Red Hot Billets To Form Critical Shapes For The Locomotive.Follow The Parts Through Machining And Finishing
Watch As The Parts Are Assembled To Build A Steam Railroad Locomotive. Many Maps To Aid The Reader In Locating The Various Buildings In The Complex As Well As The Major Locomotive Components.
Over 80 Photos, Maps And Illustrations
Many times so-called locomotive histories turn out to be paeans to a single class or type of locomotive. The locomotive was a tool in the cornplex infrastructure of the industry. The steam locomotive, though obsolescenced by advancing technology, is noted as a machine with a personality. While several volumes have been written on the construction of specific locomotives no one has attempted to better define the general process of locomotive construction. This volume attempts to look at that focus in 1924 at the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, and to bring some understanding using text, photographs, maps and drawings to help future generations understand what smokestack industry and locomotive construction was like in 1924.
Lima, Ohio, was home to the Lima Locomotive Works, thriving heavy industry in post World War I 1924. The Locomotive Works, or Loco as it was locally known, was a home grown industry having started business in 1869 building sawmill equipment and stationary boilers. Its production of railroad locomotives started in 1878 with small rod locomotives for the logging industry. In 1880 it built the first Shay geared locomotive in its plant at Market and Jackson Streets and was rapidly expanding. By the end of 1902 it had completed 698 Shays and 51 rod locomotives with very little actual focus on the main line railroad locomotive market, it was servicing the industrial railroad needs. The new shops required to keep pace with the demands for locomotives and a need to bring some manufacturing capabilities in house prompted the firm to built a new shop on land it owned at South Lima between the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad and the Lake Erie & Western Railway. This thrust brought new shops on the site of the old Lima Car Works, a property acquired by Lima Locomotive in 1892, and added to the capabilities of Lima Locomotive to service its market. From 1902 until the next major expansion in 1912, the South Lima facility produced about 1,908 Shays and 98 rod locomotives, yet the majority of its market remained in the industrial focus. Some switchers were being ordered by a few local railroads by 1911 such as the Akron, Canton & Youngstown, Pennsylvania Railroad Lines West and Southern Railroad. In 1913 the Erie Railroad ordered five 4-6-2's and the focus of Lima Locomotive Works was forever changed with its entry into class 1 railroad locomotive construction for mainline use.
The complexity of operations and cost controls in any heavy industry have traditionally been difficult to measure and that problem has long been compounded by hand or custom work, which in fact is what the Locomotive Works produced. For that reason this firm maintained the majority of its employees on the piece work incentive. In that way an employee got paid for just what he produced. It was a system that stood up to the test of time to the end of locomotive construction in 1949.
Another unique facet of employment at the Lima Locomotive Works was the paternalistic attitude of family. Entire families and even ethnic groups were employed there. Because locomotive construction was seasonal work subject to the cycles of the economy and the fortunes of the railroads, employment was not always steady. If orders dropped off there would be lay-offs and if suddenly a large order for locomotives was received all employees would be called back and word would be sent out that part time help was also needed. Laborers generally came from the surrounding rural area, such as farmers whose work itself was seasonal. Many of these people had relatives in the shop and employment could generally be obtained just by the word of a relative. Employees would come from fifty miles around if the demand for labor was up.
Some of the immigrants hired there were master craftsmen. Unfortunately, in the United States the immigrant has been the exploited class for over 200 years. They wanted acceptance, worked hard and maintained status quo in the community, thus were sought after labor. As the relatives of these immigrants came to the area and needed jobs, they to would normally be hired in the shop. Irish, Polish, Italian, German, Serbian, and other lands from Europe. At the Locomotive Works, it was not unusual for many members of large families to work in the same department such as the foundry or boiler shop; and jobs were frequently arranged for sons, grandsons, brothers, nephews and cousins in the same department. If one were considered an outcast he might be subjected to horse play such as smashed lunch boxes, hand tools greased or otherwise frustrated.
If the father of a family would die while in the good standing employment of the Company, his sons could be assured of jobs as soon as they were old enough to work. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, a youngster of 14 or 15 years of age would be hired as a laborer an apprentice of some trade or another task that would fill the needs of locomotive production.
To the Lima community in general, the locomotive works was a vital economic factor second only to the railroads themselves. There were five railroads in Lima; and two, the Lake Erie & Western Railway and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad both maintained extensive shops and yards in the early part of this century. If things were good on the railroad, the community vibrated; if a slump had come upon the railroad, the Locomotive Works suffered and the community felt the recession as well.
It was the people who by the sweat of their brow, the brawn of their muscle or feel for machinery, sustained the quality of life, without compromise of one's integrity and the pride of a job well done, or the satisfaction in providing for the needs of his family who built the Lima locomotives.
In 1990 the facility stands a silent ghost; the railroad shops are closed, one railroad is gone and the balance are but a skeleton of their former operations and steam locomotives are relegated to museums excepting for an isolated excursion or used as a public relations tool. It is, therefore, important to examine just how the construction of a locomotive was was carried out in 1924.
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