The "A Locomotive Called The "Bee" Was Built In Lancaster, Pennsylvania" Story

A Carte-de-visite of the "Bee"

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out a copy of a Carte-de-visite of a locomotive that someone had emailed to me to show me that it was built in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The Carte-de-visite was found on eBay, but I'm not sure if it had been sold at the time my friend forwarded it to me.  A Carte-de-visite is a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Disdéri in 1854.  Each photograph was the size of a visiting card (2.5 inches x 4 inches), and such photographic cards were commonly traded among friends and visitors in the 1860s.  The photograph shows a locomotive named "Bee" while on the opposite side of the photograph tells that the locomotive was a product of the Norris Locomotive Works, Lancaster, PA.  

The rear of the Carte-de-visite.

I must admit I was stumped as to where the Norris Locomotive Works might have been in Lancaster.  Seems that prior to the Civil War, the Lancaster Locomotive Works turned out engines from 1853 until it failed during the Panic of 1857 when railroads could not pay for the locomotives that they purchased.  At the time they were located in Philadelphia.  The shop layed idle for several years until two of the Norris brothers connected to the Norris Locomotive Works moved production to Lancaster in late 1863.  The operation was in the northeastern corner of Plum and Fulton Streets.  By June of 1865 they were producing one locomotive a week and employed 400 men.  The facility was a six-acre layout that had a machine shop, foundry, blacksmith, boiler shop and erecting shop. I located an article in Lancaster Newspaper archives from June 20, 1866 that tells about the shops.  

One engine made at the Lancaster Locomotive Works

A Lancaster man, Henry Frazer, who apprenticed at the shop between 1865 and 1868 said that many of the locomotives produced in 1865 went into service on the Western Pacific Railroad in California.  The following year John A. Durgin became Constructor and Superintendent of the works and reported that the first ten-wheeled locomotives were produced in 1867 for the Pennsylvania and the Allegheny Valley Railroads.  

The 2-10-0 "decapod" engines successfully filled the role of hauling freight.  The 2-10-0 Lancaster engines were the first of that configuration that were built in the United States.  They were designed by Alexander Mitchell who had perfected the design of the 2-8-0 engine the year before.  Mr. Mitchell tried to advance on the engines called the "Ant" and the "Bee" which had five pair of drivers connected and a pony truck in front.  The back pair of drivers were taken out in order to stop the trouble the engines had on curves.  The locomotive works in Lancaster finally closed in October 1868.  The "Bee" appears to have gone into service on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and it's novelty attracted attention as railroad engineers reflected on their early days in professional journals in the early 1900s, and engravings from those journals document its appearance over the course of its lifetime.  Interesting information, to say the least.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.