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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:29 pm 
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Location: Rochelle Illinois
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These two documents from the Whitcomb suit outline the chain of events in the Federal bankruptcy.

On March 27, 1931 the petition to sell the assets of the George D. Whitcomb Company was submitted to the judge.

On April 7, 1931, Baldwin created the Whitcomb Locomotive Company - a corporation under the laws of the State of Delaware with an issue of 100,000 shares of capital stock of no par value.

On April 10, 1931 the Whitcomb Locomotive Company obtained a license to conduct business in the State of Illinois.

On April 13, 1931 The Whitcomb Locomotive Company bought the assets of the George D. Whitcomb Company for $257,000.

That is how and when the George D. Whitcomb Company became the Whitcomb Locomotive Company, a fully owned subsidiary of Baldwin.

All of the other claims on the internet are essentially wrong or only partially true.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:47 pm 

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Steve -

This has all been very interesting. Thanks for posting it. I will have to make a change in the museum sheet for our 44-ton center cab Whitcomb.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)


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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:26 am 

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Steve -
I understand you are looking for someone in relation to the Whitcomb records at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. If you are looking for someone to do actual in-depth research in those records, I am afraid I cannot help you. But if your want something more narrow and focused, I might be able to help.
Kyle


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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 2:16 pm 
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Les Beckman wrote:
Steve -

This has all been very interesting. Thanks for posting it. I will have to make a change in the museum sheet for our 44-ton center cab Whitcomb.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Thank you Les, that is all the reward that I need.

Just to know that I can provide the information that has been hiding, waiting to be found and that some people enjoy and appreciate is what motivates me.

I'll have to look on line for a photo of your engine.

Steve

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"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it"

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 2:39 pm 
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Kyle K. Wyatt wrote:
Steve -
I understand you are looking for someone in relation to the Whitcomb records at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. If you are looking for someone to do actual in-depth research in those records, I am afraid I cannot help you. But if your want something more narrow and focused, I might be able to help.
Kyle


WELCOME KYLE !!

Anything that you can find would be awesome.

My first thought is can you find any information (drawings would be the best) of the very first locomotive built by Whitcomb. This is what I know about it:

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Quote:
Rochelle Knows Him Well As Engineer, Inventor and Its Own Portrait Painter
Wm. F. Eckert Looks Back On Unusual Career
The Rochelle Leader, January 12, 1943


William Frederick Eckert was never able to make up his mind whether to stick to machine tools or paint brushes, that's why Rochelle knows him as an engineer and as an artist.

As an immigrant boy he came with his parents from Germany, they landed in Philadelphia on his tenth birthday, October 5, 1888, and the family settled in Bartlett, a small town near Elgin, Ill.

It was the year after the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago that young Eckert sought into the world metropolis to carve out a life career. What it was to be he did not know. He liked to paint but he also liked to work with tools. An economic set back hit Chicago after the world's fair but he obtained a job as apprentice in a machine shop to earn his daily keep. Evenings he used to study. Some were utilized to home study of mechanical engineering courses from the International Correspondence School, while other evenings were devoted to study of painting at the Chicago Art Institute.

Four years later Eckert found himself too preoccupied learning tool and die making in the machine shop and devoting spare time to inventions that he was obliged to give up his studies at the art school.

Shortly after the turn of the century he invented a machine for filling powder into cans for the makers of Greve's Tooth Powder, and was employed by the company for a year and a half. Through the president of the company he met William C. Whitcomb of the Whitcomb Locomotive Works.

When Eckert went to work for Whitcomb the company was specializing in knitting machines and pneumatic mining machinery. He entered the company as blueprint boy and chief engineer, in short he was the whole engineering department. About 1906, Eckert invented and built the first gasoline internal combustion powered locomotive, originally designed for use in coal mines. . . .


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I am a former machinist and have ambitions of building a scale model of this very first internal combustion locomotive - as no such model exists.

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This is me in front of one of my lathes, a 1943 Monarch CK-12 tool room lathe.
I might add, this was when I first bought the lathe and was cleaning it up. I don't like filthy machine tools :)

Please let me know if you can go to the museum and search this for me.

I'd be in debt to you.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:26 pm 
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This is the bankruptcy docket in all its glory from the Chicago branch of the National Archives. It was stored in Kansas.

These are photos of the Whitcomb factory today as it stands:

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This is of the front looking to the east.

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This is of the back looking to the west.

The building is now owned by Behr Metals

http://www.behrim.com/

and is in the process of converting the building into a metal recycling center.

Back to the history . . .

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On Saturday May 9, 1931 Carl Heim had surrendered to authorities in Knoxville Tennessee.

Special note at the bottom of this article:

Quote:
". . . indictments voted by the April jury having been declared invalid because women were on the jury."


Times have changed.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:33 pm 
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Part of what Baldwin acquired with Whitcomb along with equipment and employees were patents.

These were more recent patents.

An important employee was the engineer, William Eckert:

Quote:
Rochelle Knows Him Well As Engineer, Inventor and Its Own Portrait Painter
Wm. F. Eckert Looks Back On Unusual Career
The Rochelle Leader, January 12, 1943

William Frederick Eckert was never able to make up his mind whether to stick to machine tools or paint brushes, that's why Rochelle knows him as an engineer and as an artist.

As an immigrant boy he came with his parents from Germany, they landed in Philadelphia on his tenth birthday, October 5, 1888, and the family settled in Bartlett, a small town near Elgin, Ill.

It was the year after the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago that young Eckert sought into the world metropolis to carve out a life career. What it was to be he did not know. He liked to paint but he also liked to work with tools. An economic set back hit Chicago after the world's fair but he obtained a job as apprentice in a machine shop to earn his daily keep. Evenings he used to study. Some were utilized to home study of mechanical engineering courses from the International Correspondence School, while other evenings were devoted to study of painting at the Chicago Art Institute.

Four years later Eckert found himself too preoccupied learning tool and die making in the machine shop and devoting spare time to inventions that he was obliged to give up his studies at the art school.

Shortly after the turn of the century he invented a machine for filling powder into cans for the makers of Greve's Tooth Powder, and was employed by the company for a year and a half. Through the president of the company he met William C. Whitcomb of the Whitcomb Locomotive Works.

When Eckert went to work for Whitcomb the company was specializing in knitting machines and pneumatic mining machinery. He entered the company as blueprint boy and chief engineer, in short he was the whole engineering department. About 1906, Eckert invented and built the first gasoline internal combustion powered locomotive, originally designed for use in coal mines.

In the meantime Eckert had quite a deal to do with the improvement of the knitting machines, which at that time had its largest customer in the Vassar Knitting Company of Rochelle. Many of the machines are still in use. In 1907, Whitcomb decided to move from Chicago to Rochelle and the first factory was opened in the building now used by the Rochelle Furniture Co. Here the company grew in activity, shifting steadily from knitting machinery to stressing production of mining machinery and gasoline locomotives, and then in 1912 specializing only in the building of locomotives.

The company built its first shop on the present site in 1912, and the engineering staff was increased, first with a boy to develop blue prints and then with a draftsman.

The locomotive works received its first real spurt during the first world war. The warring nations discovered the advantages of a smokeless locomotive and orders poured in. France was the biggest customer before our own country entered the war.

The tempo of production continued steady from 1916 to the outbreak of the present war, but for a slow down during the depression of the early '30s. The annual production ran from 200 to 300 locomotives a year. With the outbreak of the present war the production was vastly increased, as the smokeless locomotive proved an essential motive power less likely to be spotted by enemy aircraft. The size of the locomotive was increased, and the company found it both practical and economical to sublet the production of the engines. In January, 1944, the company was awarded the Army-Navy “E” for having attained the record of maintaining an average daily production of one 65 ton locomotive a day.

Past and present employees of the Whitcomb company may feel sure that they could spot one of the company's locomotives anywhere in the world, but we doubt that they would be able to spot them in use during the final stages of the African campaign. The German fliers bombed the locomotives and consequently immobilized the British trains. The problem was solved by camouflaging the Whitcomb locomotives as box cars and shifting their location in the makeup of the trains.

The reason we tell so much about the locomotives is that Eckert is the chief engineer at Whitcomb. He made the original invention, has added a good half a dozen patents of locomotive inventions, besides the almost daily improvements that have been made. Among the additional patents may be mentioned the non-explosive locomotive for use in mines.

The present gasoline internal combustion powered locomotive is a long step ahead of the first one that Eckert built in Chicago in 1906. The first ones had no self-starter, as Lloyd Koritz, chemist at Cal-Pack will tell you; he used “to get a kick out of running one of them down in southern Illinois.”

Eckert made his home in Rochelle from 1907 to 1932, but for an interval of one and a half years that he was located in Milwaukee. In '32 the Baldwin company, which had taken over the interests in the Whitcomb, transferred Eckert to Philadelphia, but in 1939 he was returned here as chief engineer.

During his first stay here he found an outlet for his artistic talent in portrait photography, especially in taking pictures of children. He recalls with pleasure how some of the children, that he photographed in rompers, today are married and have children of their own. Yes, he did some painting too. Some landscapes and some portraits, but he didn't take the painting serious. It was not until he went to Philadelphia that his interest in painting was reawakened.

There he met Clyde O. Deland, an artist specializing in painting historical personalities. His paintings have been exhibited in national art shows in Washington. A warm friendship blossomed and Deland kindled Eckert's enthusiasm for painting and taught him many modern techniques of the art.

Mr. Eckert tells us that he has painted about 15 portraits the past couple of years. In 1942 he exhibited about 15 of his paintings at the Flagg Township public library, and in 1943, at a Past Masters night of the local Masons, he presented portraits he had painted of Manuel Hill and J. E. Barber. Both were 50 year Masons, and Hill had presented the site for the present Masonic temple. Eckert is himself a Past Master of Horicon lodge and a Past Worthy Patron of the Eastern Star and a member of Tebala Shrine in Rockford.

Among his portrait paintings he considers his last two, one of Mr. Stofer of the Stofer China Company in Chicago, and one of George May of the George May Electric Company in Rockford, among his best.

Eckert's portraits are noted for their trueness to life and their reflection of the personality and character of the subject. His mastery of colors combined with a blend of the exactness of the engineer with the touch of the artist have brought remarkable results.

The beautiful home at 510 No. Seventh street reflects the artistic good taste of Mr. Eckert and his wife, the former Laura J. Newton. The decorative scheme is rich and warm, blended harmoniously in details to create an effect of welcome friendliness.

In the basement he has his studio. It is impressive, not by its size, but by its arrangement of lights and technical equipment. In an adjoining room he has a complete workshop, and when he tires of painting he seeks relaxation among his tools and machinery.

The neighbors didn't appreciate it, but his son, Fred, did and when Eckert built an amateur radio sending and receiving set, Fred obtained the first amateur radio operator's license in Rochelle. He sent and received messages from all parts of the world – the neighbors got static.

The neighbors and friends, however, appreciated Eckert's adventures in boat building and enjoyed many a ride. He built one boat driven by an airplane propeller that he operated on the Rock river, and a gasoline powered launch and a sail boat operated on Lake Geneva. The sail boat was moved to Lake Michigan after his sons settled in Chicago.

Eckert has three sons, William (Bill) with the Harris Trust Company in Chicago, Orren (Bud) formerly with Montgomery Ward in Chicago and now in the navy, and Frederick (Fred) formerly sales manager with the Fee-Stemwedel Company of Chicago and now in the army.

Fred invented a very important instrument used by the navy and was about to be commissioned an officer in the navy when he was drafted into the army. Since the war broke out the father has invented a special lift of great value to the navy.

The “Who Is Who In Industry and Commerce” devotes a sizeable space to a report on Eckert's engineering and inventing activities, but does not mention his art at all. We therefore consider it a natural question to ask what he considers the most beautiful sight he has ever seen.

“The bobbing light in the caps of a couple of mine inspectors,” is his surprising answer.

He goes on to explain that during the early deliveries of locomotives to mining companies, he had to go to the mines to demonstrate and run the locomotives. At that time they had found no means of controlling the gas fumes. One day he entered a mine with a severe headache, and before the day was done he was just about overcome by the gas fumes.

He chose to stay in the coal mine rather than return to the surface, and over tired as he was he bunked himself on straw in a mule stall. He was left without a light, it was pitch dark, and he fell asleep. Shortly he awoke abruptly by something gnawing at his shoes. A big rat ran over his chest and he jumped to his feet. He spent the rest of the night standing up, continuously swinging his feet to keep the rats away. The night seemed endless. He dared not leave the place for fear of getting lost in the mine tunnels. At last a light, then another , flickering and bobbing slowly down the tunnel toward him.

“I have never seen a more beautiful sight.”


During WW II, Eckert and Whitcomb would receive a very important honor, the Army-Navy "E" Award.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:19 pm 
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As the bankruptcy proceeded the investigation into Mr. Heim's ativities yielded evidence of Rochelle Banks transfering funds for personal use:

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At least some of the money went into stock speculation and efforts to recover these assets would yield only what the values of the stocks were worth at that time.

To make things more complicated, the Rochelle Banks involved began filing for bankruptcy protection.

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The Rochelle National Bank had processed $25,162.25 dollars worth and the judge agreed that the Bank was liable for those funds.

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On March 4, 1933 the Rochelle National Bank was closed as part of the National Banking Moratorium.

A conservator was placed in control of the bank and began efforts to reorganize the bank.

As part of that reorganization, the conservator offered to pay $5,000 back to the estate of the bankrupt Whitcomb Company.

That is about 1/5 of what was lost.

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If Whitcomb refused that offer and sued for the full amount, the bank would be unable to reorganize and would be placed into receivership and probably sold off just as happened to the G. D. Whitcomb Co.

Whitcomb accepted the offer.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:37 pm 
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Rochelle News Thursday January 21, 1932

The first case against Carl Heim has started.

I need time to go to the Ogle County Court House to review this case.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 11:38 pm 
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The Rochelle News, Thursday, January 28, 1932

This surprised me, but apparently Heim had been authorized to receive a company loan.

But he was facing another trial next session.

I've been playing catch-up with things around the house so time has been limited.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:17 am 
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A productive day. I did a display at a WW II museum here in Rochelle and met a man whose Dad had worked at Whitcomb. His Dad had passed away and his Mom had kept some Whitcomb related literature. His Mom just passed away and while cleaning the house he found the literature and he gave it to me. It included newspaper articles from WW II and this Baldwin magazine from 1949.

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Quite the find.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 8:27 pm 
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Google searched this article:

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA551& ... ad&f=false


George D. Whitcomb Dies

George D. Whitcomb, president of the George D. Whitcomb Company of Rochelle, Ill., and one of the pioneers of the coal industry, died at his home at Santa Monica, Cal., on Sunday the 21st.

Mr. Whitcomb was born at Brandon, Vt., on May 13, 1834, and was therefore in his eightieth year. Early in his life the family moved to Kent, Ohio, where he started his business career by engaging with the old Pan-Handle railroad as purchasing agent. While in this employment the air brake was invented and he became much interested in its development. He co-operated in making the tests of the Westinghouse air brake and was one of the stockholders of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company when it was organized.

He left the Panhandle about 1870, going to Chicago, where he took charge as manager of the Wilmington Coal Mining and Manufacturing Company's mines at Braidwood, Ill. He was also manager of the Wilmington Coal Association which handled the output of the Braidwood, Ill., field and in this connection was associated with A. L. Sweet, M. B. Buchanon and Horatio Pratt.

He continued in charge of these mines until about 1878. While in charge of these mines the Harrison mining machine was brought to his attention. The idea being a power pick to be held and controlled largely by hand and operated by compressed air. He saw merit in the idea and took hold of the machine and developed and perfected it into what is now known as the “Puncher Machine.” This machine was the first successful undercutting machine put on the market in this country. He resigned his position with the coal company about 1878 to devote his entire time and attention to the mining machine business. To handle the mining machine business the Geo. D. Whitcomb Company was organized in 1896 with Geo. D. Whitcomb as president.

In 1884 he went to California on account of his wife's health and purchased a home at Glendora, Los Angeles county, near Los Angeles, and has spent his late years at this place, where he has had a large orange orchard, water developments. and other improvements to occupy his time and attention.

The Black Diamond
Volume 52, Number 26
June 27, 1914
p. 551

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:57 pm 
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I finally got around to editing the Wikipedia article for the George D. Whitcomb Company. Below are the parts I edited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitcomb_Locomotive_Works

Quote:
Beginnings

Early in his life George Whitcomb moved to Kent, Ohio, where he started his business career by engaging with the old Pan-Handle railroad as purchasing agent. While in this employment the air brake was invented and he became much interested in its development. He co-operated in making the tests of the Westinghouse air brake and was one of the stockholders of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company when it was organized.

In 1868, George had a son, William Card Whitcomb, who would later receive an engineering degree from USC and assist in his father's business.

George left the Pan-Handle railroad about 1870, going to Chicago, where he took charge as manager of the Wilmington Coal Mining and Manufacturing Company's mines at Braidwood, Ill. He was also manager of the Wilmington Coal Association which handled the output of the Braidwood, Ill. coal field.

He continued in charge of these mines until about 1878. While in charge of these mines the Harrison mining machine was brought to his attention. The idea being a power pick to be held and controlled largely by hand and operated by compressed air. He saw merit in the idea and took hold of the machine and developed and perfected it into what is now known as the “Puncher Machine.” This machine was the first successful undercutting machine put on the market in this country. He resigned his position with the coal company about 1878 to devote his entire time and attention to the mining machine business.
In 1892, this firm, then located at Orleans and Ohio Streets in Chicago, Illinois was incorporated under the laws of Illinois as George D. Whitcomb Company. This industrialist, inventor and family man also founded Glendora, California, in 1887. Glendora is a suburb of Los Angeles, California.

In 1884 he went to California on account of his wife's health and purchased a home at Glendora, and spent his late years at this place.

About 1900, William Card Whitcomb became Vice President of the company and soon hired William Franklin Eckert as an engineer. During this time the company was producing knitting machinery along with pneumatic mining equipment. In 1907, George resigned as an officer of the company leaving William President and majority stock owner.

Mules had long been used exclusively as the motive power in moving coal from the mines, but this method was expensive and unsatisfactory. Because of the insistent demand for a more economical method, experiments were conducted using for power—electricity, compressed air and rope drive. Gasoline engines were definitely a novelty in those early days, nevertheless William Whitcomb together with Eckert decided the principle could be successfully applied to a small mine locomotive. In April, 1906 the first successful gasoline locomotive was built and installed in a large Central Illinois coal mine.

Move to Rochelle, Il

The G. D. Whitcomb Company had its largest knitting machinery customer in the Vassar Knitting Company of Rochelle in Northern Illinois and in 1907, the company moved to Rochelle where it continued to build quantities of gasoline powered locomotives for mine operation, both coal and metal. The reputation of the Whitcomb gasoline locomotive spread at such a rapid rate that, before long, greater production facilities were needed and in 1912 the plant was again moved to enlarged facilities elsewhere in Rochelle and the company ended its knitting machinery production.

In 1914 George died and William was in complete control of the company and performed sales, accounting and engineering functions for the firm.

World War I saw the output of the Whitcomb plant almost entirely devoted to government orders. Hundreds of armor-plated locomotives were built for overseas service on trench railways in France. These small 6-ton and 9-ton, narrow gauge locomotives proved highly efficient in trench warfare and they were used extensively in hauling needed supplies up to the front lines. In appreciation of their excellent contributions to the war effort, the Whitcomb Company was awarded a "Certificate of Merit" by the War Department.

Many new innovations in the locomotive field were being introduced during this period. The first explosion-proof electric mine locomotive was designed and built by Whitcomb in 1914 and after exhaustive tests the United States Bureau of Mines issued its “Permissibility Plate.” Whitcomb was the first builder of locomotives for underground work to receive such an endorsement. The first Whitcomb electric trolley locomotive was produced in 1921, and in 1929 Whitcomb designed and built the largest gasoline-electric locomotive that had then been offered to American railroads. This development was closely followed by the diesel-electrics which revolutionized the American transportation system.

In 1926 William hired Carl Heim of Chicago to take over many of the company functions including Vice President and treasurer while Whitcomb relaxed oversight of the operation of his company.

Bought by Baldwin Locomotive Works

In 1928 Whitcomb and Heim conducted a recapitalization of the company and invited the Baldwin Locomotive Works to participate. Baldwin accepted and purchased about half of the offered stock with William Whitcomb and Carl Heim remaining in control of the majority of the company stock. In March of 1930 Baldwin placed three of its officers on the Whitcomb board of directors including then President, George Houston. This gave Baldwin three out of the seven board members. By late 1930, Whitcomb was having cash flow problems and Baldwin offered an unsecured loan for $125,000 in the form of a 90 day promissory note issued in December of 1930. The condition of the loan was that Baldwin would be given a fourth board member for the duration of the loan giving Baldwin four out of the seven board members and majority control of the board. On March 5, 1931 the bank holding the largest cash reserve of the G. D. Whitcomb Company siezed the account to apply towards another debt that the company owed the bank, leaving the G. D. Whitcomb Company unable to pay its debts. The board of directors voted to file for voluntary bankruptcy on that day with William Whitcomb voting against the action and the bankruptcy was filed in Federal Court in the Northern District of Illinois. In April, Baldwin created the corporation named the Whitcomb Locomotive Company in the state of Delaware and on April 13, 1931 the Federal Court put the assets of the George D. Whitcomb Company up for sale and it was purchased by the Whitcomb Locomotive Company. Beginning from that date, the Whitcomb Locomotive Company was a fully owned subsidiary of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Both William Whitcomb and Carl Heim were removed as officers of the company. Carl Heim was tried for embezzlement of approximately $75,000 of company funds but was acquitted.

William Whitcomb in 1934 filed suit against Baldwin in Chicago Circuit Court to recover the lost value of his company stock but the case would be dismissed.


Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:20 pm 
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Jumping ahead to WW II. Whitcomb would earn the Amy-Navy E Award on December 31, 1943. Ceremony was conducted on January 26, 1944.

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Quote:
“During the latter part of 1940 we were asked to design a locomotive which could operate successfully through desert sand storms and keep cool with the thermometer registering 125 F. in the shade. The only other known factors, besides the gauge of track was that they needed all the power we could give them but the weight had to be reduced to the absolute minimum. That is just about as contradictory as wanting the strength of a draft horse in a Shetland pony. As the boys in the engineering department were only working about 60 hours a week at that time, they decided there wasn't any particular reason why we couldn't tackle the problem. By actual count there are 10,756 different items necessary to build that Diesel electric locomotive, and the fact it is still in production offers conclusive proof that the engineers did their work well. Incidentally, in that count the Buda diesels, Westinghouse Electric Equipment, the Young Radiators and all other materials purchased in a finished state are merely figured as individual items. The balance had to be designed, detailed, weights estimated, purchased, machined, fabricated, assembled, crated and the completed product sent on its way. We received the actual contract shortly before Christmas and the first units were operating in Egypt the following May. That is less than half the normal time required on a completely new design. Certainly there isn't much I could say to further emphasizes the splendid spirit of cooperation which not only exists within the Whitcomb organization but also extends out among all of our suppliers. They have done a grand job and all of us know it.”

H. G. Heulguard
Vice President, General Manager
Whitcomb Locomotive Company
The Rochelle News, January 26, 1944


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Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 9:26 pm 

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Hi Steve,

in the photo of the exterior of the Whitcomb plant showing a diverse group of locomotives, I noticed a Canadian National Railways engine, number 7808, and I thought you might appreciate some comments on that order of locomotives.

According to the book A Photo History of the Prince Edward Island Railway by Allan Graham, that engine was part of eighteen 75-ton switchers ordered from Whitcomb Locomotive Works and subcontracted to the Canadian Locomotive Co. in Kingston, Ontario. They had 8 cylinder, 650 horespower Sterling engines.

Units 7810 and 7812 arrived in Prince Edward Island on April 30, 1948 and proved unsatisfactory. They were returned by the CNR and the entire order was cancelled. There are two photos on page 177 of the engines at the CLC plant in Kingston.

One interesting feature about these engines is that they received the same cast number plates that CNR steam locomotives carried. They also have appear to have CLC Builders plates.

CN later went on to order a batch of GE 70-ton engines, numbered in the same series as the Whitcomb engines 1950.

Cheers,

Joe

_________________
CNR 6167 in Guelph, ON or "How NOT To Restore A Steam Locomotive"


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