Eddystone

Always thought it a part of Ridley Park, a little bit south of the old Boeing Vertol Plant, on the East side of 95, there used to stand, a mess of old warehouses, anchored by an office tower. This was another one of those sites, south of the Philly Airport, that you passed driving North, heading for the Walt Whitman bridge, heading for the shore in Summer. This site, 615 acres, I noticed only after all the warehouses were removed, the entire area cleaned up, the old office tower converted into living space. Late winter, maybe early spring, I’m out, half of me looking for some carpenter work, the other half, out to make a photograph or two, off the side of 95, I see this tower, it looks new, a modern design, I wondered how I missed this one going up, I found my way in, I found myself, at the long ago abandoned, Baldwin Locomotive Works. I just did some quick math, I’ve traveled by train, quite a bit in my life, adding it all up, I figure I’ve gone about 31,000 miles by rail, a little more than one trip around the world, a little less than 1/3 the miles that the Baldwin 60000 pulled freight. The Baldwin Locomotive Works has been dead, most of my life, I guess they began around 1830, Baldwin, a jeweler, a silver smith, had built a steam engine for his shop, that was of such great efficiency and craftsmanship, he was commissioned to build a railroad locomotive, for the line running out to Norristown. There was a locomotive still in crates, shipped from England, sitting in Bordentown, Baldwin was able to go through the parts, able to make notes, in effect, take himself to school on railway steam engines. That first locomotive, ran the Norristown line for twenty years. Baldwin Locomotive Works, became the largest railroad locomotive producer in the country, if not the world. During World War I, they manufactured rifles and artillery shells, during World War II, they made the Sherman Tanks. The largest steam engine Baldwin ever produced, was the 60000, a demonstration locomotive, tested throughout the country, originally coal fired, retro fitted, converted over to oil, for some tests through Donner Pass, all together logged about 100,000 miles. It was moved back to Eddystone, becoming a stationary power plant for the factory, until being donated to the Franklin Institute in 1932. I think every kid, growing up around my time, growing up around Philadelphia, has spent some time crawling around on this engine, up inside the cab, pulling levers, the locomotive moving back and fourth about 30 feet. Traveling the country by rail, you see a lot of these old steam engines, rails running through a town had tremendous impact on a towns success, these old steamers built by Baldwin are a treasured part of that history.