Brooks Locomotive Works

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Builder's plate from Brooks Locomotive Works, 1894

The Brooks Locomotive Works manufactured steam railroad locomotives and freight cars from 1869 through its merger into the American Locomotive Company until 1934.

History

When the New York and Erie Railroad (NY&E) relocated its shops facilities from Dunkirk, New York, to Buffalo in 1869, Dunkirk lost its largest employer. Coming to the city's rescue was Horatio G. Brooks (1828–1887), the former chief engineer of the NY&E who was at the controls of the first train into Dunkirk in 1851. In 1869, Brooks leased the Dunkirk shops facility from the NY&E and formed the Brooks Locomotive Works. The new company officially opened on November 11, 1869. The company's first steam locomotive is completed the following month as part of an order for the NY&E, the company's first customer.

Within a couple of years of its opening, Brooks was producing as many as seven new locomotives per month, compared to one per month while the facility was controlled by the NY&E. Brooks built locomotives for nearly all of the major railroads of the time, producing 37 new locomotives in its first year and 43 new locomotives in its second year of operations.

After the financial crisis of 1873, orders for new equipment dropped off, but Brooks was able to recover enough business to avoid bankruptcy. Brooks locomotives were displayed a few years later at the National Railway Appliance Exhibition in Chicago, where they were judged the Best in Show.

Builder's plate from ALCO-Brooks locomotive, 1906

The 1890s brought another period of depressed sales following another financial crisis. The company produced 226 new locomotives in 1891, but only 90 new locomotives in 1894. Brooks was not able to recover business as easily and the company was merged with several other manufacturers in 1901 to form the American Locomotive Company. ALCO produced locomotives at this facility until 1934 when the shop was renamed ALCO Thermal Products Division. Locomotives produced at the former Brooks plant after ALCO's formation came to be known as ALCO-Brooks locomotives.

Although new locomotives were no longer being produced at the former Brooks shops in Dunkirk, shop forces were kept busy for some time building spare parts for ALCO locomotives. Production had shifted from locomotives to heat exchangers, high-pressure vessels and pipes of all sizes.

After World War II, production at the Dunkirk plant never got back to its prewar levels. ALCO finally closed the facility in 1962.

Timeline

Brooks s/n 3687, Soo Line 2645 at the MidContinent Railway Museum, North Freedom, WI.
  • November 11, 1869: Horatio Brooks leases the shops facility in Dunkirk and officially opens the Brooks Locomotive Works
  • 1883: Brooks locomotives are named the Best in Show locomotives at the National Railway Appliance Exhibition in Chicago.
  • February 22, 1884: Brooks completes its 1,000th new locomotive.[1]
  • November 30, 1891: Brooks completes its 2,000th new locomotive.[1]
  • July 23, 1898: Brooks completes its 3,000th new locomotive.[1]
  • 1901: Brooks and several other locomotive manufacturers are merged into the American Locomotive Company
  • 1934: New locomotive construction at the Brooks plant ends as the plant is renamed ALCO Thermal Products Division.
  • 1962: ALCO closes the former Brooks plant in Dunkirk, laying off the remaining 750 laborers at the facility.

Preserved Brooks locomotives

Brooks Locomotive Works sold locomotives to all of the major railroads of the late 19th century. Following is a partial list (in serial number order) of Brooks-built locomotives that have been spared the scrapper's torch.[2]

Serial number Wheel arrangement
(Whyte notation)		 Build date Operational owner(s) Disposition
494 2-6-0 January 1881 Utah and Northern Railway #23, then #80;
Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company #51		 Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
522 2-6-0 April 1881 Klondike Mines Railway #1 Minto Park, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada
567 2-6-0 August 1881 Utah and Northern Railway #37, then #94,
White Pass and Yukon Route #52		 Skagway, Alaska
1535 2-6-0 May 1889 Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad #1 Thomas F. Mason Quincy Mine, Hancock, Michigan
2475 2-6-0 October 1894 Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad #3 Huckleberry Railroad, Flint, Michigan
2779 4-4-2 1897 Bisai Railway #1,
Nagoya Railroad #1		 Museum Meiji-mura, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan
2951 2-8-0 June 1898 Colorado and Southern Railway #74,
Rio Grande Southern Railroad #74		 Central Park, Boulder, Colorado
3687 4-6-0 November 1900 Wisconsin Central Railway #247,
to Soo Line Railroad #2645		 Mid-Continent Railway Museum,
North Freedom, Wisconsin
3697 2-6-0 December 1900 Illinois Central Railroad #3706 Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois
3925 4-6-0 July 1901 New Zealand Railways Department Class Ub #17 On static display at Waitara, New Zealand. Retrieved from Oamaru Locomotive Dump, 2009.
4062 2-8-0 December 1901 Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway #780 abandoned in the Maine North Woods following Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad service

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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