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All about locomotive rebuilders, small locomotive works, and experimental works

Moderator: Komachi

 #164083  by MR77100
 
Is Plymouth Locomotives Works still in business?

 #164328  by Urban D Kaye
 
As I understand it, Plymouth was sold in '99 to Ohio Locomotive Crane (renamed Ohio Industries) and HQ moved to Bucyrus OH. Locomotive production has since been discontinued, but parts are available thru Williams Distribution.

 #311291  by BCLRConductor
 
Where was the original location of Plymouth Locomotive Works?
 #498443  by LJ
 
Hello, the Hoosier Valley R.R. Museum in North Judson, In. is trying to restore a Plymouth switcher to operation. It belongs to a member, who is storing it there. I think that this thing is either a 18 or 25 tonner. It has four wheels. It is chain driven. It use to have air brakes on it, sometime through the years it was rebuilt with mechanical brakes on it, but we would like to put it back to air. Originally this use to be a gas mechanical, but had been rebuilt with a four cylinder Detroit Diesel. The diesel motor had an air powered starter on it, but we went ahead and changed it to electric start. It does turn over and run. Even though one cylinder is sticks a little. I am looking for all types of information for these little critters. Anyone out there have any manuals or blueprints. This critter still needs chain, to make the chain drive work. Plus misc. air brake parts and other mechanical parts. Also looking for pictures similar to the one we are restoring. Our's I believe use to be used in a company that used to build railroad cars in East Chicago, Il. The member who owns this unit bought it at a real estate auction. Any information will greatly be appreciated. :-D

 #500136  by Komachi
 
Any of these look like what you're talking about?
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel123.html

http://ohiorr.railfan.net/plw.html


A quick blurb about the Plymouth Locomotive Works on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Locomotive_Works


The above article mentions parts, etc. being sold to Williams Distribution, so if you need tech support, they may be the people to go to.

Here's the home page...
http://www.williamsdistribution.com/distribution/

And the section for Plymouth locomotives...
http://www.williamsdistribution.com/dis ... motive.jsp


Belive it or not, here's a company that also services Plymouth locomotives (according to the site, the staff is comprised of former Plymouth employees)...
http://www.plymouthlocomotiveservice.com/


Now is there anything else we can help you with today, sir? Will that be Debit or Credit? Paper or Plastic?

 #506379  by GSC
 
Plymouth Ohio

Plymouth was originally J. D. Fate, then Fate-Root-Heath, and then renamed Plymouth (around 1920?) for the location of the factory.

 #506381  by GSC
 
If you need to see a few old ones up close, there is a pile of them at Pine Creek RR, Allaire NJ. Biggest is about 11 tons, 3-foot gauge, smallest 2-footer around 4 tons, all mechanical drives, both diesel and gas. Oldest from 1914, newest from 1980s.

Plus, 3 GEs (25 and 50-ton), a Whitcomb, a Davenport, Brookvilles, and a Burton.

Website: www.njmt.org
 #640583  by Otto Vondrak
 
We just did a complete rebuild of a Plymouth model BL locomotive...

http://rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/plymouthbl/index.htm

A lot of the work was done in house, a lot of new parts were machined from scratch.

-otto-
 #642821  by GSC
 
Nice job, Otto!

Pine Creek has a 1916(?) Burton, 4-ton 2-foot-gauge 0-4-0, 4-cylinder jack shaft/chain drive. Ever hear of a Burton? What we found is Burton built lathes and other machine shop machines, and got into small loco building for a time. Maybe for World War 1 service in France?

The Burton is a Plymouth clone, close enough for patent infringement. No one seems to know of Burton, and this is the only one anyone has ever seen. Curious if you've ever heard of them.

Our J D Fate pre-Plymouth was built in 1914, possibly saw military service in France.
 #773733  by NYCRRson
 
Bruce wrote,
bruce a. wrote:
Otto Vondrak wrote:We just did a complete rebuild of a Plymouth model BL locomotive...

http://rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/plymouthbl/index.htm

A lot of the work was done in house, a lot of new parts were machined from scratch.

-otto-
Looks lke a very good job
Thanks for the compliments, this was a very challenging but satisfying project. We had to remake the entire cab and engine exterior enclosure, and a whole bunch of mechanical parts including some gears, bushings, and weldments to replicate lost castings. Probably the most challenging was the radiator core which was fabricated by resizing another radiator core with new endsheets. I think I used up 7 pounds of solder on that job. And it doesn't even leak !

We were lucky to get some copies of the original drawings for parts of the exterior enclosure. It is mostly a wooden frame wrapped with sheet metal, similar to the way they made automobiles back in the 1920 era.

It sure sounds good when that original Buda engine comes to life...

Cheers, Kevin
 #787299  by Mr. Ed
 
For Plymouth information, contact Jay Reed, at [email protected], the author of Critters, Dinkys & Centercabs, a fantastic book. In it he says, "Burton was located in Cincinnati, OH. They built small 4 wheel gas locomotives similar to Plymouth models-reportedly around 120 units. They may have supplied the locomtives to Lakewood that were sold under the Lakewood name." If you don't have this book, get it! It is one fantastic book! I am in this book more than any other reference manual I have.

Later!
Mr. Ed
 #793404  by GSC
 
Here are two emails forwarded to me concerning the Burton Company:

I know of at least real Burton locomotive right here in NJ at the NJ Museum
of Transportation/Pine Creek RR. It was used at a place called Oshwald I
believe here in NJ and was obtained by the Museum in the early 1970s. It is
a friction drive locomotive and is very similar to a friction drive
Plymouth. Two friction drive Plymouths were also obtained at the same time
from Oshwald. Its in poor shape but is stored indoors with the old
Plymouths.


Yep !! Burton built approx 250 locos @ Cincinnati between 1/1920 & 1/1928

In 1928 they moved to Hamilton, Ohio and did business as Midwest where they
built approximately 75 more locos with the last being a side rod gas mech
built, in 1940, for the Army Corps of Engineers.

At the end of business there were a number of partially built locomotives
that were never completed and scrapped.

Have the records for those known built.
 #804710  by Allen Hazen
 
Hamilton isn't too far from Cincinnati, so the move makes sense as a "let's look for a place with a bit more growing room" move by a Cincinnati-based company. So, unless I hear otherwise, I will not assume that the move implies a change of management. The change of name, however...

Midwest Locomotive Works of Hamilton may have built MAINLY small, Plymouth-competitive, industrials, but they did build a few bigger units, including 65-ton (Whitcomb-clone, apparently) diesel centercabs for a Class 1 railroad: CB&Q. Photo in "Diesel Spotter's Guide" (and successor volume "Diesel Locomotives: the first 50 years") from Kalmbach. (There's a page devoted to Midwest on-line, at the "NE Rails" site:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel113.html
Which includes photos of the CB&Q locomotives, and three lines of history quoted from the Jay Reed book. )

Anybody here an expert on early 20th C intellectual property law? GSC mentioned that early Burtons were close enough to Plymouth designs for patent infringement, and the CB&Q units certainly LOOK like a Whitcomb design!
 #812174  by Statkowski
 
In case anyone's interested, a book, "Plymouth Locomotive Classics (Second Edition)," just came out. It is both a photographic and historic collection, from many sources, of some of the 7,500 locomotives built from 1914 to 1999.

To purchase your soft cover copy of Plymouth Locomotive Classics, call 1-419-347-1105 or e-mail [email protected]. The book is available at $22.95 + tax & shipping.

It's a fascinating little book (136 pages) and you'll see where the design for Athearn's HO-scale "Hustler" cambe from.