As we have already seen, Latta was succeeded by William Van 

 Loon, who put Harkness locomotive production on a commercially 

 successful basis. During 1847 about seven locomotives were built 

 for the Little Miami, the Madison and Indianapolis, and the Mad 

 River and Lake Erie railroads. The next year Harkness was so 

 encouraged by the prospects for expanding locomotive work that 

 he accjuired the shops of Yeatman and Shield, expanding his giant 

 Front Street plant along the entire block from Lawrence to Pike 

 Streets. 3* The construction of cars for the Madison and Indianapo- 

 lis Railroad has been reported, although perhaps erroneously. 

 Harkness and his successors were, however, heavily engaged in the 

 production of car wheels. ^^ Locomotives were also built for stock 

 during this early period, for the Commercial noted: "Mr. Harkness 

 has now on hand five locomotives." ^t^ 



An excellent picture of Harkness' foundry can be seen in figure 8, 

 which is reproduced from one of a series of daguerreotypes taken 

 by W. S. Porter in the late summer of 1848.3' The Harkness plant 

 is the large 2- and 3-story brick structure in the center foreground of 

 the view. The smokestack and cupola indicate that the 2-story 

 section of the building, on the left, was the foundry. Several rail- 

 road car wheels can be seen on the Lawrence Street side of the 

 foundry. 



Not long after the shop had been expanded, William, the only son 

 of Anthony Harkness, was taken into the firm, which assumed the 

 new corporate title of A. Harkness & Son. Since his father devoted 

 himself to other investments, William was in the next few years to 

 assume a greater part of the responsibility for the foundry's operation. 



The Columbus, Ohio, newspapers of February 25, 1850, reported 

 that the first train into that city over the newly opened Columbus 

 and Xenia Railroad was pulled by the "brand new" Washington, a 

 product of A. Harkness & Son. The Washington was described as 

 weighing 19I tons, costing S8,ooo, having a maximum speed of 53 



^■* CisCs Advertiser (Cincinnati), March 7, 1848. 



3^ Cincinnati Daily Commercial, April 16, 1848. 



36 Ibid. 



3'' These views are described in Carl \'iiz's " Ihe Cincinnati Water Front, 1848," 

 Bulletin: Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio (1948), vol. 6, pp. 28-39. [See 

 plate 6 for a view of the Niles Works.] 



22 



