Locomotive Builder Mount Vernon Ohio

[NW Mailing List]

The mention of a Corliss steam engine prompts me to invite anyone railfanning around Roanoke, VA, to visit one of the finest remaining examples of a Corliss type steam engine in the Crystal Spring Pumping Station located off Jefferson Street near McClanahan Avenue, south of downtown Roanoke (just a block south of where the N&W/NS Winston-Salem line passes under Jefferson Street).

This steam pump was built by the Snow Steam Pump Works of Buffalo, NY in 1905, and pumped water into Roanoke's water system until 1959.  This horizontal cross-compound steam engine with Corliss-type rotary valve gear consists of  one 19" dia. high pressure cylinder and one 40" dia. low pressure cylinder, 36" stroke, driving a 13-foot, 11-ton flywheel, which in turn drives twin tandem water pumps with 13-1/2" dia. cylinders and a total of 240 rubber 4" valves.  At nominal operating speed the pump had a daily capacity of 5,000,000 gallons of mountain spring water.

Unfortunately the adjacent boiler room that supplied steam to the pump was razed, but the pump house and its pump have been preserved and restored.  The pump is driven by a hidden electric motor so that visitors can appreciate the motion of the large flywheel, Corliss valve gear and the fly-ball governor on a beautifully restored piece of historic machinery.

The Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Snow Steam Pump is recognized as one of the last, best examples of its kind by the Smithsonian Institution. 

The restored Pump House is operated by the Historical Society of Western Virginia and is open to visitors May through September, Saturdays 12-4 and Sundays 1-4 pm.  Admission is free.

Gordon Hamilton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 6:08 AM
  Subject: Re: Locomotive Builder Mount Vernon Ohio


  The name of the foundry at that time was C. & J. Cooper (brothers Charles and John).  They built the first wood burning locomotive west of the Allegheny mountains in 1853.  The panic of 1857 almost bankrupted them but they held on until the war and supplied engines to the northern army.  They gave up on locomotive engines soon after the war.  

  George Corliss had developed a greatly improved stationary power steam engine.  In 1869, Cooper was the first to build this type engine in the West by hiring Corliss' chief engineer.  One of their engines generated electricity and steam heat at National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, OH continuously for 50 years without one failure.  They also built the first self-propelled farm tractor in 1875.  They stayed with steam engines for all sorts of applications until natural gas fired engines became practical.

  This information was supplied by George Thacher, Centerburg, Oh.
  Gene A.
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: NW Mailing List 
    To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
    Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 7:21 PM
    Subject: Locomotive Builder Mount Vernon Ohio


    There was an iron foundry company in Mount Vernon, Ohio that 
    made wood fired locomotives starting around 1855.  There's a story that 
    one of the railroads that served Mount Vernon had not paid their bill for an 
    engine so the company president sent a crew to the depot to chain and 
    padlock the engine to the tracks the next time it stopped.  They bill was 
    promptly paid.  

    I was ask to see if anyone had any information or knowledge of this iron foundry in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
    Gene A.
    Gloucester, Va.



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