John,
In the days of steam, the RR's Mechanical Dept. often worked very
closely with the locomotive builders in developing the locomotive
design. While some steam locomotives designs were carried over to
another RR for various reasons, most were unique to an individual RR
and individual orders. In some cases, the Mechanical Dept. did all of
the design work and then turned it over to the builder for manufacture.
Mechanical Depts. were much larger then. So very likely, the contract
between the two companies for an order of locomotives, probably
included a provision that the RR received or retained the rights to the
design. Remember that there was tremendous competition between specific
RRs and locomotive design was part of the competitive "edge". Think a
Pennsy K4s pacific against a New York central J1e hudson. In most
cases, the various appliance manufactures for items like injectors,
feed water heaters, air brakes, headlights, etc. called on and sold
directly to the RRs who would then specify the component's application
on the new locomotive during manufacture. That practice continues to
this day on diesel locomotives, but the basic locomotive designs are
owned by the manufacturer.
The recently delivered Metra locomotives from MPI in Boise, ID are
interesting in that the engine and some other components are EMD
designs for which EMD had no connection. The engine is basically a 645F
model, supposedly modified by MPI, with a crankcase manufactured in
Poland at a plant owned by GE and all the internal parts were reverse
engineered and manufactured by GE at their plant here in the U.S. The
components were assembled and tested by MPI. For the most part, there
are no patents on the design and where there were, they have expired.
Bill Barber
On Tuesday, February 3, 2004, at 10:11 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 09:29:19 -0500
> From: "Shankland\(Train\)" <shankland@bellsouth.net>
> Subject: Burlington Shops
>
>
>> The first eight O-5's, #5600-5607, were built by Baldwin Locomotive
>> Works for the CB&Q in 1930, the same time the Q's S-4 Hudsons were
>> also built by Baldwin. There is a strong resemblance between the these
>
>> two locomotives. Starting in 1936 the Burlington went back to
>> Baldwin's proven design and built copies in their own West Burlington
>> shops,
>
>
> I have always been curious about the relationship with Baldwin that
> permitted the Burlington to "copy" a Baldwin design. Weren't there
> patent infringements etc.?
>
> John
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