explosion. The air locomotive exhausted only puffs of cool air, so their greatest success in North America was in mining, but only for a short period of time, roughly between 1895 and 1925. Smaller, lighter “air trammers” operating at much lower pressures would continue to be manufactured for decades. They also found favor with industries where contamination would spoil the product, like a textile mill, or creat a fire hazard, such as in a lumber yard or powder magazine. They al- so spurred the development of two-, three-, and four-stage air compressors, an aspect of air haulage that is frequently overlooked. Small and powerful, air locomotives for


mining use were compact and simple; most lacked cabs, bells, and other accessories. They could be pressurized in less than a minute, and the largest could run over three miles before the air was exhausted. One drawback was the need for massive com- pressors capable of producing air up to 2500 p.s.i. or greater, charging stations (some- times a dozen or more), and miles of pipe to connect everything. Thus, startup costs for an air haulage railroad were often much higher than for steam. However, the price was usually comparable to an underground electric system, and air haulage cost less than using mules. Compressed air locomotives looked very


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Color Pictorial, 1950s-1970s Featuring more than 25 Railroads, including . . . x m


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SHORTLINES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST


similar to steam locomotives; their cylin- ders, valve gear, rods, and driving wheels were nearly identical, but the similarities ended there. At the heart of the air locomo- tive was a reinforced steel tank that looked like a boiler but lacked a smokestack and firebox, fabricated of flanged steel plates nearly an inch thick and with a tensile strength of over 60,000 lbs, double- and triple-riveted together. The head of the tank was even thicker, fitted with a manhole cov- er that could be removed for internal inspec- tion. The materials used had to be very strong, because in order to store a substan- tial amount of energy the pressure of the air in the tank needed to be very high — be- tween 800 and 1200 p.s.i. —and compressed to about ¹/₆₀ of its normal volume. Larger lo- comotives might employ two or three high- pressure tanks. The cylinders on an air locomotive operat-


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ed at a much lower pressure than that of the storage reservoir. On a single expansion or “single stage” pneumatic, air from the stor- age tank was fed through a pressure reduc- tion valve into a small auxiliary reservoir at 170-250 p.s.i. The auxiliary reservoir, usual- ly a short length of pipe four to nine inches in diameter which held a small amount of air that had already been reduced in pres- sure, guaranteed that the engineer would have an ample supply of air for power. When the throttle was opened, air from the auxil- iary reservoir was piped into the cylinders, where it expanded and created motion at the drivers. Refrigeration occurred when the air expanded in the cylinders. When air is com- pressed it creates heat and moisture, but the pressurized air came from a stationary source and had already been cooled, and much of the moisture was removed. Thus, the air in a pneumatic locomotive’s storage tank was normally at atmospheric tempera- ture. When the air expanded in the cylin- ders it cooled to 140 degrees below atmos- pheric temperature, which caused frost to form on the outer surfaces. In order to keep the cylinders warm, the outer surface was ribbed in order to absorb heat from the at-


mosphere. Special low-temperature lubri- cating oil had to be used, as normal machine oil would freeze under these conditions. Some locomotives employed air reheaters in an attempt to alleviate these issues (sur- rounding the air with hot water was one popular method), however, none of the early designs worked particularly well. Baldwin was the first American company


to bring an air locomotive to the market, fab- ricating its first pneumatic in 1874 for the Compressed Air Locomotive & Street Car Co. of Louisville, Ky. This air motor was in- tended to pull streetcars and reportedly had 7″×12″ cylinders with four 30″ drivers. Little is known about it because the railway was a failure and the engine was scrapped. Baldwin’s second air locomotive was more successful, a 40¹/₂″ gauge 0-4-0CA built for the Plymouth Cordage Co., a rope manufac- turer in Plymouth, Mass. Fiber particles in the air made for a volatile environment at the plant, precluding the use of steam loco- motives, and in 1876 the company asked Baldwin to design an air powered locomo- tive to replace the teams of horses it used in the plant. The result was Cordage No. 1, the Unique, sporting a pair of 5″×10″ cylinders which powered tiny 24″ drivers. Placed into service in April 1877, Unique quickly proved its worth, and seven additional air locomo- tives were purchased for the facility, all Baldwins. With their orange-painted air tanks, they became a familiar sight on the four miles of track that ran through the com- pany’s warehouses and tunnels. Number 1 wound up at Edaville as a display piece in 1959, and today it’s owned by the Plymouth Cordage Historical Society, which has re- opened the plant as an historical attraction. The museum also exhibits nearly-identical Cordage No. 5, an 0-4-0CA built in 1923. These are the only Baldwin-built pneumat- ics in existence. Baldwin quickly became a major manufac-


turer of pneumatic locomotives. It built its first for mining use in 1883, a low-profile 0-4-0CA for the W. H. Brown Old Eagle Mine at Elkhorn Station, Penn. Pressurized to 400 p.s.i., it could haul 60 tons upgrade. Other Baldwin customers included Ashland Coal & Iron, Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron, and H.C. Frick Coke, one of the largest users of compressed air engines in the world. Baldwin built its share of oddities, such as four double-tank 0-4-0CA locomotives for Frick which were permanently coupled back to back and controlled together via a single throttle and reverser. Pressurized to 800 p.s.i., they had a combined tractive effort of 8200 lbs and could pull just about anything. Baldwin also built pneumatics with Vau- clain compound cylinders, but these never became popular. Most of the major manufacturers offered compressed air locomotives by 1900. Dickson Manufacturing of Scranton, Penn., (later part of Alco) built a 16-ton double-tank 0-6-0 CA for the Delaware & Hudson Coal Co.’s 30″ gauge Wilson Colliery in 1897. It held 170 cubic feet of air and was charged to 600 p.s.i., with a working pressure in the cylinders of 125 p.s.i. It was well received, but no addi- tional units were ordered. Vulcan, the industrial locomotive builder in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., offered single-tank pneu- matic 0-4-0CA’s and double-tank 0-6-0CA’s in several different sizes. Their customers were mostly local (the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. was one), but only a handful were sold.


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