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Two complete catalogs - the 1889 and the 1908 H.K. Porter Light Locomotives catalog. The 1889 catalog is loaded with wonderful woodcut illustrations, while the 1908 catalog features real photos of railroad locomotives.
About 450 pages loaded with illustrations, specifications, company history and more.
From the catalog: Our exclusive specialty is the manufacture of Light Locomotives, steam and compressed air, in every variety of size and design, and for any practicable gauge of track, wide or narrow. Our locomotives are used for a wide range of service. and are well adapted to severe requirements and difficult conditions for which ordinary locomotives are unsuitable or are too expensive.
"The designs illustrated and described in this catalogue comprise only our leading styles and sizes. We have many modifications of these, besides special designs for unusual requirements, and we are also prepared to make new designs for peculiar cases, or to build to customers' specifications. Our standard designs and features of construction are the result of over thirty years' experience in our exclusive specialty. Our shop force is well drilled, most of the workmen having been educated in our employ, and all of them take pride in sustaining the reputation of the shop for good work. Our location in the city of Pittsburgh, the great coal, steel and iron center of America, affords us a market where we can purchase, at the lowest price and of the very best quality, the various materials that are required for the manufacture and construction of locomotives. At different times during the past 30 years we have been compelled to enlarge our facilities, and have now just completed practically new shops in all departments, equipped with the most modern tools and processes, and of more than double the former capacity. The annual capacity of our first shops; built in 1866 and destroyed by fire in 1871, was 15 to 25 locomotives; of our early shops on the present site, 1872 to 1880, about 75 locomotives; of our enlarged shops, 1881 to 1893, about 125 locomotives; and of our present new shops, 300 locomotives."
ANIMALS VS. LIGHT LOCOMOTIVES:
". . . on an average where three animals and three drivers, or animals and drivers in different proportion but at about the same daily expense, are used, it is cheaper to operate a light locomotive. From $5 to $6 per day, or $1,500 to $1,800 per year, is a reasonable allowance for the cost of operating a light locomotive to take the place of ten to 40 animals. It is not unusual for an engine to save its cost in less than a year. When through strikes or dullness of trade an engine is idle it saves money as well as when it is busy; only a few cents' worth of white lead and tallow are needed for it, while mules, whether idle or not, must be fed."
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Sample thumbnails taken from the collection.
(Low resolution thumbnails - CD images are scanned at 300 DPI)
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