It appears that in the latter part of January, 1852, a locomotive arrived in Fort Wayne by canal boat. This engine was used in the construction of the line eastward. It was known as the "Lima" and was built in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a 4-wheel connected engine with 4 1/2 ft. drivers, 10" x 16" cylin-
Page 2: ders and weighed about 10 tons. At this time the terminal point of the road was on the canal near what is now known as the Comparet Mill. ‘The Depot grounds extended from Barr Street to Lafayette Street and from Columbia Street to the canal. The line extended south on Lafayette Street to a point which is now Holman Street where it diverged eastward to a point about where the Wabash Crossing is now.
At that time the only shop the Company had was an old frame building which had been used as a store located on the banks of the canal immediately north of the Comparet Mill; the end of the building having been removed to enable them to use it for the purpose of housing the locomotive. ‘This building remained standing until about three years ago when it was torn down to make room for an addition to the flouring mill. No men were employed at this engine house, all the necessary work being done by Walter Challenger the engineer and Anthony Kelker, the fireman; no tools were to be had except those usually belonging to a locomotive equipment. This was the only shop connected with the road in Fort Wayne until after the consolidation of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Ry., the Ohio & Indiana Ry. and the Fort Wayne & Chicago Ry., which was entered into on the 6th day of May, 1856.
As the memories of the old employees do not agree as to when the road was completed eastward, it may be interesting to note the statement of the Fort Wayne Sentinel issued November 4, 1854, that the line was completed and the first train arrived from the east on Tuesday, October 31, 1854 at 5:00 P.M. The opening of the Railroad to traffic was celebrated by the people of Fort Wayne on Wednesday, November 15th, following. It appears from the arrangements adopted by the Committee incharge of the Celebration that the train bearing excursionists started from [ Calhoun Street – The Gathering Place on OpenStreets Fort Wayne City of Fort Wayne]
Page 3: Crestline at 7:00 A.M. and arrived in Fort Wayne in the evening. Among the excursionists it is stated that the train contained several hundred prominent railroad men and invited guests from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other points along the line and its connections. They were received with loud acclamations and a salute was fired by the Guards, the band meanwhile playing inspiring music. It was dark when the train reached Fort Wayne. The City, however, was brilliantly illuminated in honor of the occasion and presented a splendid and glowing appearance. Columbia Street, says the newspaper reporter, was one blaze of light and Calhoun Street generally was the same, and several private residences and manufacturing establishments in other parts of the City were illuminated. It was a brilliant and magnificent spectacle worthy of the occasion. A banquet was served after which addresses were made by Governor Johnson of Pennsylvania, General Robinson, President of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Ry., Solomon W. Roberts, Chief Engineer of same and Hon. R. C. Schenk of Dayton, Ohio. It is learned also from the Sentinel that the population of Fort Wayne at that time was estimated to be about 7, 000.
These facts are mentioned not because they have any particular bearing on thehistory of the shop, but rather as points of interest that do not seem to be generally understood. One of the recent histories speaking of the railroad development of the County states that the road was completed to Fort Wayne in the fall of 1855 which is certainly an error in view of the statements just quoted as taken from the files of the Fort Wayne Sentinel.
We were at the downtown post office this afternoon and reminded of this blog post by Tom Castaldi: http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pennsy-shops.html
The railroad line that would become the PFtW&C was built in three sections from Pittsburgh west. The main part in Indiana started life as the Fort Wayne & Chicago, incorporated in 1852. The Fort Wayne and Chicago (FtW&C) was to connect the Ohio & Indiana (O&I) Railroad, connecting Fort Wayne to Crestline, Ohio, to Chicago. The Ohio & Indiana, in turn, connected to the Ohio & Pennsylvania (O&P), which connected Crestline to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. (Allegheny City is now known as the north side of Pittsburgh.) By 1856, the FtW&C had managed to build to Columbia City, 19 miles west of Fort Wayne. ... The PFtW&C would also make Fort Wayne a major rail hub city. Major yards and shops were built there, earning the city the nickname of “Altoona of the West,” after the largest railroad facility in Pennsylvania of the PRR. Copied from the longer article Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Richard M. Simpson, III Uncategorized 19 June 2019 at Indiana Transportation History
History of the Pennsylvania Railroad | Vintage Promotional Film Series 1946 film published March 30, 2020 by Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society on YouTube The powerhouse Pennsylvania Railroad was one of the largest railroad networks in the United States and at one time was the largest transportation company and the biggest corporation in the world and dominated the south side of downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana with a massive shop for building and repairing freight cars, passenger cars, and steam locomotives and was the city's largest employer during the Great Depression. Though little evidence of the historic railroad remains in Fort Wayne, it's former Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway route is owned today by CSX and operated by Genesee & Wyoming. The railroad's Baker Street Station survives to this day after an extensive restoration in the early 2000s and at one time hosted 4,000 passengers a day!
The Pennsylvania Railroad: The Age of Limits, 1917–1933, represents an unparalleled look at the history, the personalities, and the technologies of this iconic American company in a period that marked the shift from building an empire to exploring the limits of their power.
