Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown 2-2-0 "Planet" Locomotives in the USA

Class Old Ironsides (Locobase 3221)

Heating surface and grate area from Sinclair (1907). See also John H White, Jr, A History of the American Locomotive: Its Development: 1830-1880 (New York: Dover Publications, 1979 - original publication in 1968), p. 8 Works number 1 in December 1832. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 11 November 2017 email noting the correct name of the railroad and estimated engine weight.)

This engine, Matthias Baldwin's first to be built from scratch, is said by John H White to have been copy of the Planet type increasingly in use in England (Locobase 651). Baldwin had assembled the Delaware, imported from Robert Stephenson & Co for the New Castle & Frenchtown, and almost immediately turned out this example. Paul T Warner's 1925 history of the Baldwin works (reproduced in Westing, 1966) perhaps has a better view of the relationship when it describes Old Ironsides as "modeled essentially" on the English practice of the day.

Its front carrying axle had wheels that at 45" diameter were almost as tall as the drivers. In most other respects, Baldwin followed British practice. Although possessing some idiosyncracies, like a single exhaust header connecting the two cylinders -- which was soon changed to individual exhaust pipes into the smokebox, the engine performed reasonably well, giving rise to hopes, according to the November 24, 1832 Chronicle, that the engine might draw 30 tons at 40 mph.

It quickly proved too small for growing traffic demands.