The "The 'Bee' Locomotive" Story

It was an ordinary day. Looking up a few Civil War items on eBay when an old carte-de-viste  of a locomotive appeared on my desktop computer.  The photograph showed a locomotive named "Bee" that had been built at the Norris Locomotive Works in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  

Neat photograph that showed the engine that had 20 inch diameter cylinders with a 26 inch stroke and driving wheels that had a 48-inch diameter with the name John A. Durgin, Constructor which appeared on the back.  Before the Civil War, Lancaster Locomotive Works made engines from 1853 until the Panic of 1857 when railroads failed to pay for the locomotives they had purchased.  The shops laid idle until two of the Norris brothers connected to the Norris Locomotive Works in Philadelphia moved production to Lancaster in late 1863.  

Card for the Norris Locomotive Works

That shop was located in the northeastern part of Lancaster city along the railroad on the northeast corner of Plum and Fulton Streets.  By June of 1865 the works produced one locomotive per week and employed 400 men in Lancaster.  An article in the June, 1866 Intelligencer newspaper tells of all the shops in use to make the locomotives.  Many of these locomotives went in to service on the Western Pacific Railroad in California.  In 1866 Mr. John Durgin became Superintendent at the place and the first ten-wheeled locomotives were produced the following year for the Pennsylvania and the Allegheny Valley Railroads.  The two 2-10-0 Lancaster engines were the first of that configuration built in the United States and designed by Alexander Mitchell, who had perfected the design of the 2-8-0 engine in 1866.   The "Bee" appears to have gone into service on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and was modified in  1883 to a 2-8-2 configuration.  

The 2-8-2 configuration can be seen in this photograph.

The "Bee's" novelty attracted attention as railroad engineers reflected on their early days in professional journals in the early 1900s, and engravings from the journals document its appearance over the course of it's lifetime.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One final photograph of the "Bee" made in Lancaster, PA