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Baldwin Locomotive, the Budd Company, and the J.G. Brill Company were major Philadelphia employers
for much of the 20th century. These firms—and numerous others—made Philadelphia the preeminent
manufacturer of railroad locomotives, railcars and streetcars for decades. Baldwin was the earliest of
these legendary companies, having been founded in the 1830s. But another impressive steam locomotive
builder was also established in Philadelphia about the same time. This was the Norris Locomotive Works,
which was located practically next door to Baldwin Locomotive and was later overshadowed by that
company.
One of the most historic events in railroading history occurred on July 10, 1836, when the Norris Brothers
ran a test of a 4-2-0 locomotive on the Belmont Inclined Plane of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.
(The two-track incline ran from the Schuylkill River for 2,805 feet towards present-day Belmont Avenue,
rising one foot in 15 for a total of 187 feet.) Named George Washington, the 14,400 pound engine hauled
a load of 19,200 pounds—including 24 people riding on the tender and a freight car—up the grade at 15
miles per hour. This engine, the first in the world to ascend a hill by its own power, proved that a steam
locomotive could climb a grade while pulling a load. So remarkable was this accomplishment that reports
published in engineering journals emphatically doubted its occurrence. A second, more formal trial with
an even greater load proved the engine's capabilities on July 19, 1836.
Norris built the Lafayette for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the following year. Named after the
Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette, this 4-2-0 engine was the world's first locomotive to feature
a leading truck and may have been the first standardized production model locomotive. Innovations
included the positioning of cylinders ahead of the smokebox and the four-wheel swiveling pilot truck. The
Lafayette established the configuration that steam locomotives would follow until the end of the steam era.
In 1847, the Norris Works built the first ten-wheel locomotive in America: the Chesapeake. Operated by
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, this was also the world's first 4-6-0 locomotive. It weighed 22 tons
and had 14½ by 22 inch cylinders and driving wheels 46 inches in diameter. Initially a wood-burning
locomotive, the Chesapeake was converted to burn anthracite coal in 1862, and ran for about another
fifteen years. Some authorities claim that Septimus Norris came up with the design, but other sources
attribute it to master builder John Brandt of the Erie Railway.
There were nine Norris brothers altogether, with six of them having been involved in locomotive building at
some point. William Norris' enterprise was renamed Norris Brothers when brothers Richard and Octavius
joined it in 1844 during a period of financial distress and reorganization that included William's gradual
departure from the business. The firm later became Richard Norris and Son. Other locomotive factories,
operated independently (and unsuccessfully) by various Norris brothers later opened in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and Schenectady, New York.
REFERENCES:
• Brian Reed, The Norris Locomotives, LOCO Profile 11, Volume 1 (Windsor, Berkshire, England:
Profile Publications Ltd., 1971).
• John H. White, Jr., Once the Greatest of Builders: The Norris Locomotive Works, Bulletin 150
(Westford, MA: Railway & Locomotive Hist. Soc., Spring 1984).