Generally speaking, what is the historical origin of gas or arc welding in railroad shops? From what I find as informational references, it seems that this may have been done as early as 1890.

I found what I believe to be broken portion of a locomotive-tender coupling link. I have not seen many photos of such coupling links because they are always hidden, so I am not familiar with the various styles and sizes. But I believe that the one I found is likely to be from a locomotive built in the 1800s.

The broken link appears to have had welding work done on it as a rebuilding process to repair the effects of wear while in use. The piece contains one of the two pin holes, and it appears that a semi-circular bushing has been welded into the tension side of the pin hole in order to correct ovaling of the hole from use. It also looks like this welding may have caused embrittlement that contributed to the breaking of the link.

The History of Thermal Joining site should have the answer.

http://weldinghistory.org/

-Hudson

HudsonL,

The information that you linked does show that welding was introduced in the late 1800s, and I have seen other references indicating the same. But I am wondering when it became commonly widespread practice in repair and manufacturing. I had always assumed that rivets were the preferred method of attachment for steel fabrication on locomotives well into the 1900s.

However, the one artifact I found may be an anomaly rather than an indication of common practice. Perhaps it represents an early trial of welding on one particular railroad. Interestingly, if it was a welding trial, the artifact suggests that the experiment failed. And the failure was probably much to the consternation of the engine crew as their engine and tender separated while under way.

The presence of welding on such an old artifact indicates that the artifact is not as old as it seems; or that welding was used much earlier than I would have thought. So in order to help resolve this question, I wondered if somebody could possibly confirm that shop welding was unheard of prior to say 1910.