. ..^ ^^ , - , ..... . . 



_./"'., — *^'* ■ ' -'■ - 



Figure 51. — The '"Elkhorn" of the Chicago and Northwestern Rail- 

 road, built by Niles in 1858. Scene is Askew Arch Culvert, near Rock- 

 ford, 111. {Photo courtesy A. W. Johnson.) 



(A report fav^orable to Niles & C-ompany and its locomotives ap- 

 peared in the Railroad Advocate of June 7, 1856, and to a degree sub- 

 stantiates the paternalistic defense of the Record just cited. It is 

 reprinted herein as Appendix 5.) 



While some western railroads encouraged local machinists to 

 manufacture locomotives, as the Little Miami did Anthony 

 Harkness, most lines felt called upon to justify such purchases. 

 This was undoubtedly done to reassure the stockholders that money 

 was not being spent carelessly on inferior machinery. The Marietta 

 and Cincinnati Railroad, for example, commented in its sixth annual 

 report (1856) : 



Five additional locomoti\es are now nearly completed at the works of 

 Messrs. Niles & Co., of Cincinnati, who have built the ten superior 

 engines purchased the present year and now in use on the road. The 

 power and speed of these engines, the economy with which they may be 

 run, and their other excellent qualities make them fully equal to the 



112 



