Figure 60. — Detail of roadbed of Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. 

 A few miles of railway consisted of strap iron rails secured to a continuous line 

 of granite blocks (a). From David Stevenson, Sketch of the Civil Engineering of 

 North America (London, 1838). 



gradual grades, worked by the ordinary locomotive. 

 Major Wilson was filling the wants of the time 

 constructing as he said a "railway turnpike." [56] 



The rapidly increasing traflic on the Pennsylvania 

 road, even before the completion of the Portage and 

 and opening of the through line to the West, was 

 sufficient to demonstrate the error that had been 

 committed in constructing the Peters Island incline 

 plane. The inclines on the Portage might be sufficient 

 for through trade for many years, but the local trade 

 between Philadelphia and Hollidaysburg, eastern end 

 of the Mountain division, had increased to such an 

 extent that it was evident the incline plane, at the 

 Philadelphia end of the road, would soon be taxed 

 beyond its capacity. Locomotives had not been in 

 use on the road over one year before the delay to 

 passenger trains became very annoying, and such 

 pressure was brought on the Canal Commissioners 

 that they ordered surveys to be made, with the object 

 of substituting for the incline plane gradual grades 

 that could be run with locomotives. 



The citizens were not idle; a branch road to avoid 

 the plane was chartered, called the West Philadelphia 

 Branch, a company organized, surveys made, and 

 some little work done; financial trouble caused its 

 suspension. 184 Henry R. Campbell, then chief 

 engineer of the Philadelphia, Germantown, and 

 Norristown R. R., was mainly instrumental in forming 

 a company to build a branch to cross the Schuylkill 



184 The route of the West Philadelphia Railroad Company 

 was located by Henry R. Campbell in 1835. More than to 

 years later, when the legislature agreed to rerouting of the 

 Philadelphia and Columbia to avoid the Schyulkill inclined 

 plane, the unfinished West Philadelphia Railroad was taken 

 over by the state. See W ATKINS (cited in note 177 above), vol. 

 '. PP- i43- [ 47- 



river, at or near Morristown [sic], and come into the 

 heart of the city by the Germantown road. 185 Much 

 of this branch was graded, materials, including the 

 iron, purchased, and on the ground, when the same 

 financial troubles that caused the suspension of the 

 West Philadelphia stopped this work; it was never 

 resumed. The iron was sold by the sheriff. 



Mr. Baldwin's first locomotive, built for the State, 

 was put on the road in the spring of 1834. It was the 

 third engine of his build, a six-wheel engine, one pair 

 of drivers back of the fire-box, and a four-wheel 

 swivel truck. If my memory is not entirely at fault, 

 there were two English engines received about the 

 same time, and Wm. Norris put on his first effective 

 engine. 186 This was also a six-wheeler, but differing 

 from Baldwin's, in having the drivers in front of the 

 fire-box, and of course a much greater weight on 

 them. I think it was about the third engine of 



i«5 Henry R. Campbell was chief engineer of the Philadelphia, 

 Germantown, and Norristown Railroad from 1832, locating 

 engineer for the West Philadelphia Railroad Company (see 

 preceding note), and consultant for the Philadelphia and 

 Columbia Railroad in 1837. See, respectively, W. Hassell 

 Wilson (cited in note 177 above), p. 30; American Railroad 

 Journal, (December 26, 1835), vol. 4, p. 430; and H. R. Camp- 

 bell, Report of Surveys Made to Avoid the Inclined Plane and for the 

 Improvement of the Eastern Division of the Columbia and Philadelphia 

 Rail Road (Philadelphia, January 1837). I have not been able 

 to confirm this enterprise of the Philadelphia. Germantown. 

 and Norristown Railroad, nor have I located this Morristown. 

 if indeed it is not merely a typographical error. 



186 -p| lc fj rst Baldwin locomotive commenced running on June 

 28, 1834. The second was delivered in September. Tine. 

 English engines, built by Robert Stephenson, arrived in 1835. 

 Two were in operation by June 20, 1835. A Norris locomotive 

 was on the road before Octobei 30, as was a locomotive built 

 by George Escol Sellers and Charles Sellers. See Watkins 

 (cited in note 177 above), vol. 1, pp. 124-129. 



151 



