Lima Locomotive Works

"God Bless, and Save America"

LIMA LOCOMOTIVE WORKS

Lima, Ohio

The Plants, Shay Locomotives, Rod Locomotives, Super-Power, Diesel-Electric Locomotives

This site is under construction

MOVING LIMA STONE SHAY NUMBER 10 - CLICK HERE

The first site for the forerunner of the Lima Locomotive Works was the small shop of the Lima Machine Company on the east side of downtown Lima. They entered into small logging locomotive construction in late 1878, and while the firm is noted for its Shay locomotive construction, at the same time they built a number of small rod locomotives for lumbering operations. Railroad Gazette noted on December 2, 1881: "The Lima Machine Company at Lima, Ohio, proposes entering upon the manufacture of narrow gauge and other light locomotives. The company will also make car wheels." The venture was fully successful and when the Panic of 1893 struck, The Lima Machine Company had come into control of the LaFayette Car Works facility at South Lima and entered upon the construction of freight cars in addition to its line of locomotives at its Market Street plant.

FREIGHT CAR CONSTRUCTION -- EARLY: The fling with freight car construction is noted in August 1884, with the Lima Car Works closed because of financial problems and possible reorganization. This plant was located on the site where Lima Locomotive Works would eventually relocate all locomotive construction.

On January 21, 1887 the railroad trade press was reporting "The shops at Lima, Ohio heretofore owned by the Ohio Car and Mfg. Co. have come under the control of the Lafayette Car Works of Lafayette, Indiana. Machinery and buildings are now being put into order and new machinery being added to produce 15 box cars per day. The business of the Lima Shops will be conducted and directed from Lafayette where all correspondence should be sent." Beginning in March 1893, Lima Locomotive & Machine was building freight cars for a number of midwestern railroads. Production continued at least through 1898 at South Lima. In addition some locomotive manufacturing was being shifted from the Market Street Plant to the car plant at South Lima. By the turn-of-the-century all car construction had ended with the focus being on locomotive production.

The photo below is thought to be the earliest photo of a Lima built rod locomotive.

This is the earliest known photo of a Lima Machine Works rod locomotive, an 0-6-0, likely the "Fair Play", c/n 3, built in August 1879.

-- Allen County Historical Society collection

The map below dates to 1887. Lima Machine built its patented SHAY and small industrial switchers in a rather compact facility. The site today is a vacant lot on the east side of downtown Lima, Ohio.

Boot boiler SHAY c/n 782 RUTH CASPARIS sitting on flat car for shipment to the Casparis Stone Company -- Allen County Historical Society collection

SHAY c/n3345 was a 60-Ton three truck narrow gauge Shay, built for The New Mexico Lumber Company. It was the last narrow gauge Shay constructed by

Lima Locomotive Works. It was built in 1929 and exists today at a museum in northwestern Indiana. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Lima Locomotive Works plant switchers were Shays. Here is No. 3 c/n 3151 a 60 ton Shay built in October, 1920, going about switching

around the complex. It was scrapped when LLW quit building steam locomotives. There was another identical Shay built at the same time

to switch the plant, No. 4 c/n 3150. -- Author's collection

THE LAST SHAY built by Lima Locomotive Works was Western Maryland Shay No. 6, a 3-truck, 150 ton brute c/n 3354, built May 14, 1945. It was a "special favor" locomotive. Shay production had ended in 1937 and the Shay Construction Building had been converted to war time production when the order came. WM No. 6 was assembled on the production floor of the main erection shop, the only one to roll out the door of that building, all others were assembled in the Shay Building. Some staff have to be shifted from other jobs to help machine and assemble components for the last Shay, a few retirees were brought back to do specialized work one last time. It was in service just six years when retired. It was saved and is operational at Cass, West Virginia as of this writing. -- Photo courtesy of George Kadelak

By 1895 the firm needed more room. They purchased the assets of the LaFayette Car Works at South Lima and moved a portion of the locomotive production there. In 1903 the firm moved entirely to the South Lima occupying the facilities of the Lafayette Car Works. With its entry into Class 1 railroad locomotive construction in 1911, the facilities changed in a rather dramatic fashion. Below is a map circa 1923 that shows how the little firm had grown to become a major player in steam locomotive construction.

Looking south across S. Main Street is the office building for Lima Locomotive Works. The factory buildings were behind the office. On the immediate left was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. To the right and just out of the picture was the main for the Nickel Plate Road. The track in the right of the photo was a connector with he Erie Railroad. Depending on whose railroad timetable one was looking at, this was either Erie Junction or South Lima. -- Author's collection

The Erecting Shop floor at the Lima Locomotive Works. This is just half of the floor bays, on the right of the steel columns is a duplicate of the erecting tracks. Visible in this photo are boilers awaiting lifting onto frames, frames being assembled and superheater units awaiting installation in boilers. Completed locomotives were lifted from their assembly bays and taken to the far end of the great hall where they were set down on a thru track and mated to their waiting tender. The completed locomotive was hauled down the track for live firing tests and operated on test tracks around the plant.-- Allen County Historical Society collection

THE SUPER-POWER ERA

William E. Woodard (1873-1942) is attributed with being the man who engineered the "Super-Power" locomotive design for Lima Locomotive Works. Woodard, born in Utica, New York, was a consulting engineer most of his life, residing in New York and having received his engineering training at Cornell University (Class of 1896). He lived in Lima, Ohio working as Vice President of Engineering at Lima Locomotive Works during the critical years leading up to the design and construction of the A-1, the first prototype Super-Power locomotive. Prior to joining LLW, he worked variously at Baldwin Locomotive Works, and Cramp's Shipyard in Philadelphia. Then moved on to the Dickson Manufacturing at Scranton, a small builder of locomotives and the Schenectady Locomotive Company at Schenectady, New York. He was a part of the design team for the United States Railroad Administration during WW I, but most of his radical designs, which were the essence of Super-Power were rejected. Even after leaving Lima Locomotive Works, Woodard continued to do design engineering for the firm while working heavily for other Coffin-owned firms including Franklin Railway Supply on many project including the Franklin poppet valve gear. At the time of his death in 1942 he was working on a design for a poppet valve equipped 2-6-6-6 with a 25% increase in horse-power and a radical change in boiler designs with a much higher operating pressure.

Joel S. Coffin (1861-1935) is the man who put the team together, starting in 1916 when he and partner Samuel G. Allen purchased the assets of the nearly broke Lima Locomotive Works. LLW was largely an industrial locomotive builder who had only stepped into Class One locomotive construction during 1911. They were not encumbered with the many unique characteristics of locomotive builders like Baldwin and American Locomotive. Their legacy was greatly successful and in many ways contributed to the downfall of the giant Baldwin Locomotive Works, but also made ALCO a sharper competitor. The prototype Super-Power locomotive was Number A-1, of the new 2-8-4 wheel arrangement. In theory, it was the first locomotive that could produce more steam per pound of coal than what the locomotive engine could use to pull the train. It was a highly successful design and quickly embraced by the railroads.

Original photograph which once hung in the office of the Lima Locomotive Works showing the A-1 with the paint of the Boston & Albany Railroad on its tender.

Executives and staff from both Lima Locomotive and the Boston & Albany are gathered for the official portrait. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Lima Locomotive Works entered the Class One market in 1911, but it came into its own through the design genius of William Woodard, who , through a series of dramatic improvements engineered a new generation of locomotives that generated more steam per pound of coal burned than the designs prior to 1925. It was subbed SUPER-POWER. Key in his design was the addition of a four wheel truck under the firebox, a signature of a majority of all of the next generation of locomotives.

This is Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4 #4416 c/n 7721 from a color lithograph of this locomotive produced by Lima Locomotive Works -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad 2-8-2 #808 c/n 8469 May 1944 is posed for its builder's photo at Lima Locomotive Works. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 2-6-6-6 #1603 poses for a "record" photo prior to its delivery in 1941. This was not intended to be a builder's photo. . -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 2-6-6-6 #1633 poses for a builder's photo prior to its delivery in 1944. The Allegheny was the largest steam locomotive built at Lima.

A total of 68 were built for two railroads, two survive. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

THE LAST LOCOMOTIVE - Nickel Plate Road 779

The last steam locomotive to depart from the erecting halls of Lima Locomotive Works was Nickel Plate Road #779, a 2-8-4 built in May 1949. It was

donated to the City of Lima, Ohio where it resides today at the John H. Keller Memorial Railroad Exhibit at Lincoln Park See the story of how this came to the last

steam locomotive from Lima Locomotive Works, below.-- S. Trostel photo

The facilities of the Lima Locomotive Works circa 1948 are outlined in the plant property photo. Today it is a "Brown Field" and void of

all but three small buildings. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

How the Nickel Plate Road 779 came to be the last locomotive from the Lima Locomotive Works.

As told to Scott Trostel by former LLW employee Bob Keller July 1993, at LLW during a plant tour conducted by Bob Keller.

When it was determined all steam locomotive production would end at the Lima Locomotive Works, there were two orders on the books, one for ten 2-8-4's for the Nickel Plate Road, Numbers 770-779 (CO 1209) and a second group of 22 2-8-4's for the Louisville & Nashville Railway, Numbers 1970-1991 (CO 1208). The L & N order was placed during May, 1948. The Nickel Plate order was approved by their Board on June 17th and the order was placed with Lima on July 16, 1948.

Builders records show the delivery sequence was as follows:

L&N 1970 January 14, 1949

L&N 1971 January 18, 1949

L&N 1972 January 21, 1949

L&N 1973 January 27, 1949

L&N 1974 February 4, 1949

L&N 1975 February 10, 1949

L&N 1976 February 17, 1949

L&N 1977 February 23, 1949

L&N 1978 February 25, 1949

NKP 770 March 14, 1949

NKP 771 March 18, 1949

L&N 1979 March 18, 1949

NKP 772 March 24, 1949

NKP 773 March 25, 1949

L&N 1980 March 28, 1949

L&N 1981 March 29, 1949

L&N 1982 March 31, 1949

L&N 1983 April 4, 1949

L&N 1984 April 8, 1949

L&N 1985 April 13, 1949

L&N 1986 April 15, 1949

L&N 1987 April 19, 1949

L&N 1988 April 21, 1949

NKP 774 April 26, 1949

L&N 1989 April 28, 1949

NKP 775 May 4, 1949

L&N 1990 May 5, 1949

NKP 777 May 9, 1949

NKP 776 May 10, 1949

L&N 1991 May 11, 1949

NKP 778 May 11, 1949

NKP 779 May 13, 1949 Friday

There had been some discussion among the two railroads and LLW managers as to who would get the last steam locomotive, and it was agreed that it would be the Louisville & Nashville.

Production commenced and as the pages turned from December, 1948 to January, 1949, the first four of the final 32 Berkshire locomotives came together on the erecting shop floor. The first four, L & N 1970-1973 were rolled out in January, 1949.

Someone goofed in the machine shop!

The NKP 779 and L & N 1991 were sitting side by side in the erecting shop undergoing final assembly. As the various locomotive components were completed, department crews were either laid-off or reassigned to the crane production. Many of the men involved in the early phases of production, such as the hammer smiths had finished their work weeks earlier and the crews were laid-off. Rod machining had been completed on the blanks and many of those men were also gone. By early May the last of the two orders were sitting on the assembly tracks in an increasingly empty erecting shop. The finished drive rods were delivered to the assembly gang and applied to the locomotives, but one main rod came up missing for the NKP 779. A look around the buildings at first revealed nothing. Some decisions had to be made. The L & N 1991 had all of its rods, thus the focus was turned to completing final assembly and it would be readied for shipment while the mystery of the lost rod was explored. All the while the NKP 779 was sitting by, awaiting the errant rod. A second look for the rod found it in the scrap bid, hidden from sight, and with obvious defects caused during machining. This produced a real dilemma for the assembly gang.

While the 779 drive rod situation was being addressed, the L & N 1991 was completed. Records indicate it was finished on May 4, with the usual live tests and final paperwork, such as the creation of the Form 4 and the acceptance being completed by the shipping date of May 11, 1949. The locomotive left the south gate of the plant, rolling onto the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for the trip to Cincinnati where it would be delivered to the L & N. The NKP 779 sat alone in the empty erecting shop awaiting a single drive rod.

A single bloom of alloy steel was pulled from the raw stock inventory, and a hammer crew recalled from lay-off just to hammer out the blank shape. The big hammer and a soaking furnace was readied. In a few days the long familiar thump of the hammer shop was heard one last time in South Lima. The hammer smiths demonstrated the fine art of sculpting red hot steel one last time as the hot bloom was blanked out, one thump at a time. The completed rod blank was taken to the heat-treat furnace by itself to be normalized. Machinists were called over to the rod shop to transform the blank into a finished rod. At last the completed rod was delivered to the erecting shop.

On the morning of Friday, May 13, 1949 at 9:40 AM Nickel Plate Road Number 779 steamed through the gates of the Lima Locomotive Works at South Lima and was turned over to the NKP roundhouse foreman. It was readied for its first revenue run, departing South Lima at noon with 2nd 90 to Bellevue, Ohio. The golden age of steam Super Power builder, Lima Locomotive Works had ended without any fanfare. Later that day the new Lima diesel electric was presented for public viewing, not a mention was ever made that just hours earlier the last steam locomotive had steamed off the property.

A COUPLE OF STORIES

In the 1940s the Locomotive Works was a very paternalistic employer. Since its own work was greatly cyclic there were times many temporary employees would be required and times when no many were needed. LLW employed many families, fathers, sons, uncles, cousins were all part of the regular work force. It was a fiercely protective and proud work force. If an outsider was hired and he was difficult, it tended to cause him to be isolated and transferred to another department or building. If he was reluctant to go, a lunch box might be found smashed, or tool handles might be greased. Once a foreman was giving a crane operator in the erecting hall some grief. Foreman were permitted to park their cars close to their work building. He had pulled his car into the building. After he had left the work area, the crane operator lifted the car into the air a couple of stories and hauled it to the opposite end of the building, parking the crane in an unlit area. Then he went off do work in another building. When the foreman showed back up his car was out of sight. Everyone had a good laugh, finally pointing the car out, hanging in the air. He got the message.

Many farmers in the Lima region could count on winter-time employment at LLW. They worked from the end of harvest until time for Spring planting.

Several employees reported that the LLW was very much like a giant shopping center for employees. Many of the employees had a side line business they ran from their homes and it was possible to get anything from a new pair of shoes, to a suit of clothes, to a refrigerator and even a new car via the employee network and the brotherhood at the Locomotive Works all stuck together.

The plant had an employee orchestra who played at many civic functions. When men went off to WW II and women came into the plant, they continued the traditions of the orchestra and played in one of the lunch rooms in the complex weekly.

There was a intraplant baseball league, each department usually had a team and after work they played a game. Baseball was taken quite serious in the region. The department that wanted to win usually tried to recruit a good player from another department. While there was no pay involved, some choice jobs were held open and perhaps a free lunch of fried chicken or a tank of gas for the car were incentives used by the other team members in order get get the person to put in for a transfer. Such requests were walked through the personnel department.

LIMA-HAMILTON and BALDWIN-LIMA-HAMILTON

Lima-Hamilton Corporation was formed October 1, 1947 via a merger with General Machinery Corporation of Hamilton, Ohio. All 174 diesel-electric locomotives were built under this flag even though the last one was not delivered until September 11, 1951.

Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton (B-L-H) Corporation was formed with Baldwin Locomotive's acquisition of the assets of Lima-Hamilton Corporation on November 30, 1950. On December 29, 1950, Lima-Hamilton Corporation was dissolved.

Armco Steel Corporation diesel-electric c/n 9308 1,000 hp built 6/1949. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Baltimore & Ohio diesel-electric c/n 9381 1,000 hp built 1/1950. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Cincinnati Union Terminal diesel-electric c/n 9541 750 hp built 6/1951. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Lima-Hamilton Demonstrator diesel-electric c/n 9307 1,000 hp built 6/1949. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

New York, New Haven & Hartford diesel-electric c/n 9460 1,200 hp built 11/1950. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Pennsylvania Railroad diesel-electric transfer locomotive # 5683 c/n 9538 2,500 hp built 9/1951. This is the last locomotive to leave the

former Lima Locomotive Works. Note the sign over the shop door states "Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton", but the builders plate on the cab is

the traditional Lima Diamond, this was ten months after B-L-H had come into existence. This engine left the plant on September 11, 1951, was

towed north on the B & O to the PRR connection and handed over to that railroad. -- Allen County Historical Society collection

Lima Locomotive Works produced 7,752 locomotives; 4,787 conventional, direct connected steam locomotives; 2,761 Shay, geared locomotives; 174 diesel-electric locomotives; and 30 electric locomotive shells. They also produced locomotive tenders for other builders and several rotary snow plows.

A must have! The highly acclaimed book below.

Building A Lima Locomotive

The Steam Locomotive Construction Process

of Lima Locomotive Works during 1924

Author: Scott D. Trostel. Has penned an extraordinary window into what smokestack America was all about. The author takes you on a tour of a heavy manufacturing plant of Lima Locomotive Works to see how steam railroad locomotives were built in the year of 1924. He uses maps, large photos and illustrations to help one to understand the lost art of commercial railroad locomotive manufacturing at Lima Locomotive Works.

• 88 pages, • 18 maps, • 53 photographs • Soft cover 978-0-925436-05-4 $22.95 Add To Cart

For a variety of REPRODUCTION BUILDERS PLATES from the Lima Locomotive Works CLICK HERE

ABOUT US I SITE MAP I CONTACT US I MEDIA ROOM I PRIVACY POLICY | ALLEN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY LINK | SHAY LOCOMOTIVES LINK