Here are a couple more old locomotive photos that Corbin obtained from O.H. Means of Galesburg, who had acquired the originals in the early years of the 20th Century.
The first one is something of a mystery. It depicts CB&Q No. 59, reputedly at Batavia, Ill., in 1864. Very early CB&Q locomotive rosters and monthly locomotive reports from the late 1850s state that No. 59, and sister 60, were built by the Detroit Locomotive Works in 1855, one roster suggesting they were ordered by the Central Military Tract Railroad but delivered after the CB&Q was created that year. The Detroit Locomotive Works, located in its namesake city in Michigan, built only about 40 locomotives in the period 1854-58, most of them for the Michigan Central, completed from Detroit to Chicago in 1852 by James F. Joy and John W. Brooks with the financial backing of a group of primarily Boston investors led by John Murray Forbes. These same men then took control of the fledgling Chicago & Aurora to build on west from Chicago, ultimately uniting their road and two others, the Central Military Tract and the Northern Cross, in early 1855 to form the Q. At any rate, the two Detroit locomotives joined the roster in 1855, and four more Detroit graduates came on board in 1859, though they had apparently been built in 1857 (and thus probably were transferred to the Q from the Michigan Central), bearing the unlikely numbers 43-46. But that mystery is for another time. We've got enough to deal with trying to figure out what the photograph in question depicts -- because CB&Q 59 and 60 are listed as having six driving wheels in every company document that shows them, meaning they were 4-6-0s, not 4-4-0s such as the one in the photo. Company records further indicate that No. 59 was either rebuilt in 1869 or replaced by a new locomotive of the same number that year. The locomotive in the photo looks considerably more modern than an 1855 product, and the date assigned to the photo -- 1864 -- could just as easily be 1869. And since it would not have been easy or practical to convert a 14-year-old 4-6-0 into a 4-4-0, it seems mostly likely that a new No. 59 was purchased in 1869 and appears in the photo not long after its acquisition. Corbin used this photo in his 1960 Steam Locomotives of the Burlington Route, but captioned it as being built in the company shops at Aurora in 1861. Where that information came from I have absolutely no idea, because other rosters, compiled from company records, indicate that yet another No. 59 was indeed built at Aurora, but in 1879. The locomotive in the photo has characteristics that better match an 1869 locomotive than one built a decade later -- particularly the flat plate extending the smokebox, both front and sides, down to the engine frame. The Batavia locomotive's sand dome is also quite unusual, having the fluted cover most often associated with locomotives built by Rogers, but in this case the dome itself is also fluted -- not something Rogers was noted for. There is absolutely no builder's plate or other builder identification visible on the 59 -- either between the drivers, on the smokebox or on the cylinder casting, the places were builder's identification would usually be found. Except on locomotives built in the company shops.
So we really don't know what locomotive is shown in the photo here, but it is an attractive one -- a coal-burner with drivers probably 54 or 56 inches in diameter, suiting it well for the freight service in which it appears. C. B. & Q. initials appear in the panel on the cab side, and C. B. & Q. R. R. is lettered on the tender side. The horizontally slatted wooden pilot became common on the Q in the 1860s. Best guess: This locomotive was transferred to another Burlington-affiliated road sometime in the 1870s.
One more image, to show what a locomotive known to have been built in 1869 -- and by Rogers -- looked like. This view is of CB&Q No. 144, turned out by Rogers in June 1869, serial number 1625. This one is fascinating because it was part of an order for eight 4-4-0s placed with Rogers in the spring of 1869 by the Union Pacific, just as the golden spike completing the first transcontinental railroad was being driven at Promontory Summit, Utah (May 10, 1869). But before the locomotives were completed UP canceled the order and the eight, turned out in May and June, were sold to other buyers: two to the Rock Island, two to the Kansas Pacific and the final three (ordered as UP 138-140) to the CB&Q as 142-144. These were passenger engines, pure and simple, with 66-inch drivers and 16x24-inch cylinders. And their intended UP ownership explains the tall straight stack on the 144, photographed when still fairly new sitting outside the Aurora roundhouse (with the painted stall number 40 visible above the locomotive's cab). Instead of a builder's plate between the drivers there's a water pump (air pumps were still well in the future), and the builder's name instead appears cast into the cylinders. The paired arch windows of the cab were a UP standard that lasted through the remainder of the 19th Century. And the fluted sand dome cover is the most common Rogers identifier. The horizontal slatted pilot is an obvious Burlington addition. Sisters 142 and 143 had vacated the Q roster by 1883 and 1885, respectively, but the 144's number was not used by another locomotive until 1890, when Aurora turned out an H-1 Mogul of that number.
Both of these locomotives featured Russian iron boiler jacketing with polished brass bands, and the 144 also sports a polished brass steam dome wrapper and what appears to be Russian iron cylinder jacketing. Two pretty classy locomotives!
Hol
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Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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