Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works
Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a 19th-century manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, New Jersey. The most famous product was a locomotive named The General, built in December 1855, which was one of the principals of the Great Locomotives Chase of the American Civil War. Today, several Rogers-built locomotive exist in railroad museums around the world.
About Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works in brief
Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a 19th-century manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, New Jersey. The company was founded by Thomas Rogers in an 1832 partnership with Morris Ketchum and Jasper Grosvenor. The most famous product was a locomotive named The General, built in December 1855, which was one of the principals of the Great Locomotives Chase of the American Civil War. Today, several Rogers-built locomotive exist in railroad museums around the world. The plant’s erecting shop is preserved as the Thomas Rogers Building; it is the current location of the Paterson Museum, whose mission is to preserve and display Paterson’s industrial history. The first locomotive that Rogers’ company assembled was actually built by Robert Stephenson and Company of England in 1835, but it took another two years before Rogers received its first order for a complete locomotive. In 1837, the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad ordered two locomotive from Rogers to form the beginning of the railroad’s roster. Rogers avoided the American Locomobile Company merger in 1901 through closing and reopening as Rogers Locmotive Works.
The company remained independent until 1905, when ALCO purchased it; ALCo continued building new steam locomotive at the Rogers plant until 1913, but eventually sold the property to private investors. The Sandusky, which became the first. locomotive to cross the Allegheny Mountains, and the first train to operate in Ohio, included features designed by Rogers that had not been seen in locomotive construction to date. Sandusky included features such as cast iron driving wheels, and the wheels included built-in counterweights to reduce the amount of wear on the track caused by the weight of the driving rod and wheel all coming down at once during the wheels’ rotations. Before Sandusky’s construction, driving wheels were typically built with wooden spokes, much like wagon wheels. Some accounts also state that Sandusky was the first locomobile to feature a whistle, but this has since been proven false. Rogers started working on his own locomotive sizes until he moved on to form his own company, Danforth, Cooke & Company, in 1845. After Rogers’ death in 1856, his son, Jacob S. Rogers, took the position and reorganized the company.
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