Preview
Creation Date
1905
Description
In this image, the Baldwin Locomotive Works company’s erecting yards can be seen, where several locomotives are actively being constructed. Founded in 1825 by the jeweler Matthias W. Baldwin, the company would rise to become the largest steam locomotive producer in the world for decades. The company was started after Baldwin created a small stationary steam engine for his own personal use and was later asked by others to build similar engines. Baldwin would build a miniature locomotive in 1831, putting him firmly on the path for locomotive manufacturing. The company suffered many ups and downs, facing several economic downturns cutting production and profits as well as a few periods of economic booms, with one example including a downturn from losing Southern business at the start of the Civil War only to gain vastly increased demand from the North shortly after the secession. However, business began declining after WW1 as the Great Depression took its toll on the American economy and diesel locomotives rose to prominence. The company’s failure to create a successful diesel-electric locomotive forced it to declare bankruptcy in 1935, only later reemerging in 1938 with a drastically changed management structure. The Baldwin Locomotive Works company later merged with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, bringing an end to the original company in general as they were later resold and relegated to a replacement and renewal parts distributor until they were completely dissolved in 1991.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
Locomotive, Steam Engine, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
