Figure 24. — Illustration of 

 the type of locomotives built 

 for the Philadelphia and Co- 

 lumbia Railroad by Sellers in 

 1836. (From the Philadelphia 

 city directory of 1839.) 



COLEMAN. SKIJ.EIIS k SONS, I 



** Vj 



ngineors, 31aohii)isls, &. lioiifonmU'rs, 



*^ ~ '1 



)>;;■' »^ 



^ Office No. 8 Nurtli Sixtli street, almve Market, & 



*i l'llil.Mii:l.I'IIIA. f, 



;|> Locomotive and otlicv Steam | 



I Kn-iiies. | 



*^ (^ 



^ Rollin- Mills, and uU kiii.K of Mill (iearin-; also « 



1> iJaiJttr JHill jaatrjinn-o. [^ 



1» MANlTArTl liF.n I.N TIIF. IlllST .M.\NM:R. 'ii 



M^ Foundry work in "ciicral. ^ 



brother, Charles, assumed the management of the family business at 

 Cardington, a few miles west of Philadelphia. Late in the summer of 

 that year the Board of Canal Commissioners asked the Sellers 

 company to build locomotives for the Philadelphia and Columbia 

 Railroad and for the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Both lines were 

 part of the huge public works which was to connect Philadelphia 

 to western Pennsylvania by a system of canals and railroads. Loco- 

 motives were in great demand at this time; however, few shops in 

 this country were equipped to build them. Since the Sellers 

 brothers were now building heavy machinery for iron furnaces 

 and rolling mills, they had machine tools of a size sufficient to handle 

 locomotive work. Two 4-2-0's, named the America and the Sampson, 

 were completed in 1835 ^^^ 1 836.^9 The depression of 1837 closed 



^9 For detailed descriptions of these machines see the American Machinist (October 

 31, 1885, and November 7, 1885), vol. 7. pp. 4 and i. 



49 



