A.G. TRUMBULL: LOCOMOTIVE DESIGNER

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Sep 2004 by Huddleston, Eugene L

For a mechanical man, whose career focus had been on the workings of machinery, to be suddenly transferred to a chief bookkeeping job must have been disheartening. That he was no longer "in the loop" regarding motive power is confirmed by absence of his name on project approval forms from the AMC, either as a railroad representative or as an officer of the AMC. (From 1929 on. Trumbull signed for the AMC; beginning 1932 D. S. Ellis cosigned below Trumbull.) In tracing the interesting presence of Erie design details (and Eric class designations) in the first two jobs for the AMC-the C&O 2-10-4 of 1930 and the NKP 2-8-4 of 1934-we can sec the hand of Trumbull, not Black. The Erie had been good to Trumbull. Regardless of his new salary as CME of the AMC, it must have been hard to take up roots and move to Cleveland. If Black had allegiance, it must have been to the NKP, where he had risen from machinist apprentice to superintendent of motive power. It is only speculation, but there could have been tension between Trumbull and Black over the direction of the AMC. Trumbull's temperament is unknown, but Proberts fulsome obituary speaks of Blacks "brusque exterior and a great and tender heart."

Further supporting Trumbull as the "brains" behind the outstanding AMC designs is the similarity in appearance (and in class designation) of C&O's 2-10-4 of 1930 with the huge 2-8-4s he had designed for the Erie beginning in 1927, for that is where his loyalty was, probably until the bankruptcy of the Erie in 1938. The fact, too, that Erie clearances (originally graded foi a six-fuut gauge) permitted Trumbull to "think big" in designing steam engines is more evidence supporting Trumbull. An impressive item on Trumbull's resume that might be overlooked is his appointment in 1918 to a committee, representing 14 railroads, to help design the 12 classes of steam locomotives for allotment to the nations railroads during World War I under auspices of the United States Railroad Administration.

The prominence of the Eric in the first work of the AMC is evident not just in locomotives but in freight cars as well. Who was specifically responsible for these designs is unknown, hut from the start the AMC turned out plans and data on freight cars as well as locomotives. And Jeffrey Kocller has noted, "the Eric mechanical department had already [before founding of the AMC] developed their version of the 1923 ARA box an design, which became the prototype for the Erie-PM-C&O cars built in 1930 [under auspices of the AMC]."

The only competitor remaining to contest Alonzo Trumbull for the title of chief designer for the Advisory Mechanical Committee is Will Woodard of Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. For many locomotive historians, Lima Locomotive rises above its competitors, Baldwin of Philadelphia and American (Alco) of Schenectady, New York, by virtue of its inventing "Super Power" locomotives and in adhering to a Midwestern work ethic that prized quality over volume. To these historians, Lima must have had a big hand in the C&O, PM, and NKP designs because almost all Super Power steamers produced for these roads came from Lima. True, Lima engineers worked closely with AMC" engineers. AMC" staff could take turns riding a business car from a siding at Cleveland's Terminal Tower to a spur near Lima's office building reserved for office cars. Certainly it was a privileged way to travel. Eric Hirsimaki, in his history of Lima, gives another reason for AMC usually granting Lima its locomotive contracts: "While the builder's bid was important," Hirsimaki noted, "it wasn't necessarily the deciding factor." Sometimes a builder would be on the railroad's lines, and thus be both a potential supplier and shipper. Such was the case with Lima. The fact that Will Woodard had originated the concept of Super Power at Lima in 1925 leads some historians to assume he had a hand in the specific designs of the AMC. (Of course, Lima had its own in-house designs in which Woodard did have a hand.) However, Woodard (who died in 1942) made a condition of his employment as Lima vice-president that he work out of New York City. His assistant, J. Edgar Smith told of productive days (Railroad, August 1974)-mostly with poppet valves and not with specific contracts-at their office at 17 East 42nd Street. Woodard was a restless experimenter, having been awarded 92 patents on various mechanical features of steam and electric locomotive design. Among achievements that led to his honoring by the National Association of Manufacturers in 1940 were development of lateral motion driving boxes and "constant resistance" engine and trailing trucks.