Baldwin made its reputation building steam locomotives for the Pennsylvania
Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe.and many of the other railroads in North America and for overseas
railroads in England, France, India, Haiti and Egypt.
In the late 1940's it was very clear that the steam locomotive days were
over and each of the big three steam locomotive builders were far behind
EMD with diesel designs and customers. Lima merged with engine builder
Hamilton in an effort to get a foot hold in
the diesel market but made little progress. In despiration Lima-Hamilton
merged with Baldwin in 1950 to become the Baldwin - Lima - Hamilton Corporation.
However, by 1956 BLH ceased production of common carrier size locomotives.
In the later days of the steam era, Baldwin was in the forefront of locomotive
construction with the many 2-8-2 Mikados it built and its ability to build
small quantities of unique designs, such as the Cab Forward 4-8-8-2's it
built for the Southern Pacific. Also it was envolved with its various railroad
customers to develop new and improved locomotive designs the last being
the 4-8-4 Northerns.
Most of the records of Baldwin were destroyed in 1954. What survived has
found its way to the De Golyer Library at the Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, TX. A few drawings are located at the Pennsylvania State Archives
in Harrisburgh, PA. The Builders Photos are located at the Railroad Museum
of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA.
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