National Park Service Special Hisory Study

Listing of Nineteenth Century Locomotives
Repaired or Constructed in the Altoona Shops

The Altoona shops embrace five general departments, as follows: Altoona Machine shops, Altoona car shops, Juniata shops, East Altoona engine house and South Altoona foundries. They cover a yard area of 242.39 acres and embrace a floor area of 2,089,463 square feet, or 48.03 acres.

Altoona Machine Shops. - The Altoona machine shops comprise all that body of buildings extending from below Twelfth street to Sixteenth street. Here are located buildings having an aggregate frontage of more than three miles, all constructed of stone or brick, and occupied by the best machinery for locomotive building and repairing that modern ingenuity can devise. The machine shops include thirty-six departments, the total floor area being 689,961 square feet, or 15.83 acres, while the area of the shop yard is 23.8 acres. The number of men employed in all the departments is 4,153.

Master Mechanic I. B. Thomas, subject to direction from the superintendent of motive power, is in charge of the machine shops. This position was held for many years prior to 1904 by George W. Strattan, now retired. W.B. Norris is the general foreman and Fred A. Bell the chief shop clerk. The buildings in which are located the thirty-six departments, with their dimensions and area are as follows:

Altoona Car Shops. - On the west side of the railroad tracks, in the southern section of the city, is located the yard enclosing the immense round house and the construction and repair car shops. They cover an area of 65.64 acres, while the floor area of the buildings is 738,495 square feet, or 16.9 acres. There are thirty departments giving employment to 3,974 men. Here are manufactured and repaired passenger, mail, parlor and sleeping cars. Like the Altoona machine shops, it is a giant plant, one of the largest of the kind in the world, but their magnitude cannot be comprehended by this statement. It is necessary to see them running at their full capacity to realize their extent and capabilities. During the past decade great changes have taken place in this department. Wooden cars, both freight and passenger, are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and this has greatly changed the character of the work in the car shops. Instead of carpenters and wood carvers, there are now steel workers, machinists and blacksmiths employed here.

W.F. Eberle has been general foreman of the shops since November, 1904.

Among those who have served as foremen in the various departments of these shops are Andrew Kipple, freight car shop; Levi Geesey, passenger car shop; John L. Burley, cabinet shop; James Sharp, machine shop; C.C. Mason, trimming shop; Harry A. Folk, smith shop; Walter K. Beatty and George L. Freet, planing mill; Fred S. Ball and Simon H. Walker, paint shop; Daniel Houseman and William E. McKee, outside laborers; Colonel John Piper, Alexander Smith, Andrew Vauclain, George Hawkesworth and Thomas Myers. Colonel Piper was the first general foreman, and was succeeded by Mr. Levan, the position being thus filled by but three men.

The buildings in which are located the thirty departments, with their dimensions and area are as follows:

The Juniata Shops. - The Juniata locomotive shops are located a short distance from the eastern boundary of the city of Altoona and were erected in 1889 and 1890. Their total floor area is 281,273 acres, or 6.45 acres, and the number of men employed about 1,600. These men are employed solely on the production of engines, steam and electric, for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Originally built with an estimated capacity of 150 new engines per year, more than double that number can now be turned out. The first engine turned out of these shops was a class R, the date being July 27, 1891.

Beginning at the western end of the shops, the paint shop and the paint store house are the first buildings. The paint shop is 68 x 150 feet, with three tracks for the accommodation of tenders and engines. It has a floor space of 10,895 square feet. David A. Little is the foreman of this shop. The department paints all the work turned out in the shops.

The electric and hydraulic building is probably one of the most interesting buildings on the list of the shops. It is a one-story building, well lighted, and contains electric light and power machinery, hydraulic pumping machinery for furnishing power to the boiler shop, air compressors and fire service pumps. H.H. Riggin is in charge of the engines, boilers, etc., throughout the plant. The building is 45 x 105 feet in dimensions.

The boiler house, containing stationary boilers for furnishing steam throughout the plant, is a separate building, 45 x 151 feet. In the winter all the shops are heated by steam, on the Studevant system. All the boilers are fitted with self-feeding and self-cleaning machinery, thus doing away with the drudgery attending a fireman's work.

There are two blacksmith shops, known as No. 1 and No. 2. The floor space of No. 1 is 42,520 square feet, the dimensions of the building being 80 x 514 feet. No. 2 shop covers an area of 15,977 square feet and is 80 x 210 feet in dimensions. In this department William Cook is foreman, his assistant being Harry E. Gamble. The number of men employed in this department is about 500, these men being divided into six classes: smiths, helpers, foremen, heaters, hammermen and hammerboys.

A number of giant hammers are used in this department. There are two 6,000 pound hammers, one 3,000, two 1,600, four 1,100, one 600, and other smaller ones. In the forging department gas furnaces are used, but in the bolt department oil furnaces are used. There are five furnaces in the forging department and two in the bolt department.

An enormous pair of shears, worked by hydraulic power, is a special feature of this shop.

The Juniata blacksmith shop is brilliantly lighted by large windows and the ventilation is about as perfect as possible, there being a total absence of all the unpleasant smoke usually noticed in such shops. The system of lighting by means of arc lights is such that on the darkest night the shop is as bright if not brighter than in daylight.

The machine shop is a two-story building, the outer walls of which are apparently all windows. The effect of these windows is noticed very readily on entering the shop every portion of the building being well lighted. The building is 75 x 578 feet in dimensions. The car shops operations give employment to 954 men. Edward McClain is the foreman of the department. Following are the buildings comprising the department, with their respective areas and dimensions:

The Introduction of Standard Locomotive Designs, and Subsequent Motive Power Development Up to the Year 1899

These locomotives were all designed to use bituminous coal as fuel, and the different classes were designated by the first eight letters of the alphabet. This system of class designation remained in effect until 1895, when it was revised by assigning one letter to each wheel arrangement, and following this with a figure, or a figure and letter combined, to indicate the different classes having that wheel arrangement. The old locomotives were re-classified on this basis. In the following discussion the old classification will be used, but the revised classification will be given in parenthesis in order that the locomotives may be more easily identified.

The characteristic features of the first eight classes of standard locomotives were as follows:

Class A (D1) - A locomotive of the American (4-4-0) type, for express passenger service. Cylinders, 17" x 24". Driving wheels, diameter, 68".

Class B (D2) - A locomotive of the American type for mountain passenger helper service. Cylinders, 18" x 24". Driving wheels, diameter, 62". Boiler of similar design to that used on Class A, but with a firebox of somewhat larger dimensions.

Class C (D3) - A locomotive of the American type for general passenger or fast freight service. cylinders, 17" x 24". Driving wheels, diameter, 62". Boiler of the same dimensions as that used on Class B.

Class D (G1) - A locomotive of the ten-wheeled (4-6-0) type for general freight service. Cylinders, 18" x 22". Driving wheels, diameter, 56".

Class E (G2) - A locomotive of the ten-wheeled type for freight service on mountain grades. Cylinders, 18" x 22". Driving wheels, diameter, 50". Boiler of similar design to that used on Class D, but with a firebox of somewhat larger dimensions.

Class F (B1) - A six-coupled tank locomotive for switching service. Cylinders, 15" x 18". Driving wheels, diameter, 44".

Class G (D5) - A locomotive of the American type for light passenger service. Cylinders, 15" x 22". Driving wheels, diameter, 56".

Class H (B2) - A six-coupled locomotive, with separate tender, for switching service. Cylinders, 15" x 22". Driving wheels, diameter, 44".

The records indicate that Classes C (D3), D (G1), and E (G2) were built far more extensively than any of the others. Classes A (D1) and B (D2), especially, were built in limited numbers only.

To these first classes there were added in 1873, an American type passenger locomotive for burning anthracite, generally similar to Class C and designated as C anthracite (D4); and in 1875 a locomotive of the Consolidation (2-8-0) type, for heavy freight service, and designated as Class I (HI). The C anthracite locomotives were specially designed for service on the lines in New Jersey, and in 1875 a number were built with driving wheels 68 inches in diameter, and designated as Class CA anthracite (D4a) These locomotives were placed in fast passenger service on the New York Division, and handled the traffic most successfully until 1881, when they were replaced with heavier power.

Examples of Products Constructed at the Altoona Shops in the Nineteenth Century

Railroad Cars Built and Rebuilt at the Altoona Shops in 1853

During the year 1853, new cars, as follows, were built at Altoona shop, viz.:

1 four-wheeled box car.
45 eight-wheeled car.
2 eight-wheeled iron trucks.
10 four-wheeled coal cars. total four-wheeled cars, 105.

During the same period, cars were rebuilt, as follows, at Altoona shop:

5 four-wheeled box cars.
25 eight-wheeled box cars.
2 eight-wheeled stock cars.
9 eight-wheeled wood trucks.
9 eight-wheelediron trucks. Total four-wheeled cars, 95.

Railroad Locomotives and Cars Constructed at the Altoona Shops in 1880