In the 1840's, the United States looked to British imports for its high-tech transportation needs. From a handful of imported locomotives, American firms quickly adopted the designs to the uniquely different requirements of the roads in the states. Mass production of rail was another problem. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was built from Baltimore to Cumberland, Maryland, using imported rail, because the material could not be obtained locally. A little-known operation in the backwoods of Allegany County, Maryland, was to change that, and break the monopoly the British had on rail production. The integrated manufacturing center at Mount Savage, with its associated transportation infrastructure, represented the very cutting edge of the Industrial Revolution in America, and rivaled the best in the world.

Mt. Savage is located in Allegany County, Maryland, some ten miles from Cumberland. Stand in downtown Mt. Savage today, and it is hard to appreciate that 150 years ago, this was the functional equivalent of Silicon Valley. The key recognizable feature today in Mt. Savage is the brickyard, the third component of a once-thriving, vertically integrated manufacturing center. Mt. Savage, for all its remoteness, was the site of collocated deposits of coal, iron ore, and fireclay. With the proper clay, bricks can be built to line the furnaces. Coal can be coked into an excellent fuel, mostly pure carbon with few impurities to interfere with the iron production. Limestone was also readily available in the vicinity, to provide a flux to remove impurities from the molten iron. The juxtaposition of all of these elements ensured an early success for the entrepreneurs who could bring the pieces together with adequate financing, and a ready work force.

Of primary importance to any manufacturing of the time was a ready source of raw materials. This, as we shall see, was not a problem at Mt. Savage. The second issue of importance is an adequate transportation infrastructure. The late recognition of this problem forced the demise of the earlier Georges Creek Coal & Iron Company. Learning from this, the Mt. Savage company built their rail line to connect with the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad. In the twenty years before the civil war, the railroads provided the necessary impetus for the development of heavy industrial manufacturing in America, both as a ready customer, and as a transportation resource for raw materials and finished goods.

As in other locations, the earliest shortline railroads in Allegany County were constructed by the coal and iron mining companies. They were necessary to build, because the companies required a way to move products to market from the extraction or production site. Transportation involved the B&O railhead or the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) canal terminus at Cumberland. The earliest railroads were the Mt. Savage Rail Road, built by the Mt. Savage Coal & Iron Co. in 1845, the Eckhart, built in 1846 by the Maryland Mining Company, and the Georges Creek, built in 1853 by the Georges Creek Coal & Iron Co. These would all be eventually absorbed into the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad, and from there into the Western Maryland Railway, Chessie, then CSXT.

The blast furnace process of producing iron requires a ready source of iron ore, limestone, a fuel, and a blast. The preferred fuel is coke, nearly pure carbon, made from coal. The preferred blast is heated air. The limestone serves as a flux, to collect the impurities from the ore. A decent iron ore was mined locally, and limestone came from nearby quarries at Corrigansville (Kreigbaum). Coal was burned into coke onsite in long pits. This coking removed the sulfur and phosphorous, which interfered with the iron extraction process. The process of extraction of iron from ore is less of a melting than a reduction process. The carbon from the coke binds with the oxygen from the iron oxides in the ore, and goes off as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The iron ore was also roasted before being introduced into the furnace to remove contaminants.

The Georges Creek Coal & Iron Company was formed in 1835, and chartered in the State of Maryland on March 29, 1836. Between 1837 and 1839, the company built an iron furnace at Lonaconing, Maryland, between Frostburg and Westernport. The furnace, fueled by coke, went into blast in 1839. There was plenty of iron ore, limestone, water, and coal locally, but the major problem the company faced was transporting finished products to market. Production reached 75 tons per week, and local iron needs were quickly satisfied. Some products were shipped out by wagon, including such items as dowels for the C&O Canal walls. The adjacent casting house made farming implements, mine car wheels and track, and household utensils. With production going well, iron piled up in Lonaconing. In 1842, sales of pig iron to foundries in Cumberland were begun, with delivery by wagon. An adjacent sawmill and lumberyard, also owned by the company, recorded sales to the Mt. Savage Iron Works, then involved in the building of their own furnaces. In the fall of 1842, pig iron was offered to the B&O railroad at a price of $29. per ton. Delivery was still a problem. After experimenting with a horse powered tram road connecting with the Eckhart Railroad, the company realized that their own rail line, built down the Georges Creek Valley for 9.2 miles toward the Potomac River at Westernport, would be the answer to the transportation issue. Westernport and Piedmont, sister cities across the Potomac River, became a logical target for connection of the Georges Creek region with other railroads or the canal. One of the two proposed paths for the canal westward from Cumberland to the Ohio River would have passed through Westernport. Unfortunately, the Canal Company ran out of money, and stopped at Cumberland. Before then, the Georges Creek Coal & Iron Company had connected the iron furnace and mines at Lonaconing via rail line to Westernport, Md. and Piedmont, Va. (now, WV). The B&O reached Piedmont in July 1851. The Georges Creek Coal & Iron company built their line from Piedmont to Lonaconing in 1852. That line was acquired in 1863 by the C&P Railroad. The line never hauled iron, as it was completed too late to save the furnaces. However, this line is operating today as CSX's Georges Creek Subdivision, with on-demand coal service.

Three furnaces were built at Mt. Savage, but only two went into service. These two resembled the one at Lonaconing. They were fifty feet high, fifteen feet wide at the bosh, and built against the side of a hill. This provided for easy access to the top of the furnace for charging. The third furnace was not built against a hill, and would have had to be loaded by derrick. The furnaces were lined with firebrick, produced locally. The Lonaconing facility produced its last batch of pig iron in 1855. Early experiments with a coke-fueled furnace at Mt. Savage in 1842 had produced acceptable iron at a cost of $16. per ton, when English iron was available for $15.84. A tariff bill, passed by Congress in 1846, removed protective duties on imported iron products. This benefited the English and Welsh manufacturers, at the expense of the fledgling American shops. This action was a direct cause of the failure of the Maryland & New York Iron & Coal Company, then owner of the facility at Mt. Savage.

In the later 1840's, the blast furnaces of Mount Savage blazed around the clock, consuming large amounts of coked coal, iron ore, scrap iron, and limestone. According to the few surviving records, in June of 1856, 356.5 tons of iron were produced. This required 747 tons of iron (a 39% yield), 1.77 tons of coke per ton of iron produced, and 1.19 tons of limestone per ton. For this process, 536 tons of coal went to the blowing engines, source of the hot blast. All of the raw material was dug by hand. The cost of production totaled $23.39 per ton, including anticipated repairs to the furnace, and wages.

From 1840-1870, Maryland was seventh in the nation in iron production, rising to fifth. The production of iron in Maryland declined sharply after that. The Maryland ore was never that good, and the discovery of rich veins in the West put the eastern states out of the iron business. Ruins of two of the furnaces are still visible in the town of Mt. Savage, and the Lonaconing furnace has been preserved as a historic landmark. The Mt. Savage blast furnaces had their own railroad branch, 1.3 miles long from the Mt. Savage Rail Road.

The furnace complexes at Lonaconing and Mt. Savage may have been too technologically advanced for their time, according to Harvey (ref. 10). The Lonaconing facility had suffered from a lack of transportation. This error was not repeated at Mt. Savage. However, the politics of international trade skewed the equations in favor of purchased rather than home-produced iron. Cast iron, extracted from ore, is at best an intermediate product. Cast iron is only suitable for a limited number of products. The next step in production involves a rolling mill.

Blast furnaces produce pig iron, which can be remelted and cast or worked (wrought) into structural shapes. Simple shapes, such as car wheels or strap rail could be directly cast. A forge and rolling mill had been planned for the facility at Lonaconing, but these were never built. Two primary shapes of interest at the time were rail, and boiler plate.

The first rail produced was of a "U" channel design weighing 40 pounds to the yard. This was made in a rolling mill by reheating roughly cast bar stock, and using steam power to force it through rollers and mandrels. In 1842, the American Railroad Journal had said in an editorial that there was no firm in the United States capable of manufacturing heavy-edged rail. Many facilities had tried and failed to produce an acceptable product. The market was apparent. The first successful output of the Mt. Savage mill was in 1844, and marked the end of the U. S. dependence on imported products. The rail was used for the home road, and sold to the B&O, which was up to then using the imported British rail. One thousand tons of rail, at $59 per ton, went to a railroad at Fall River, Massachusetts. The Borden family was building an industrial enclave there, and would figure in the Allegany County coal mining industry later as well.

The Mt. Savage mill was built in 1843 by the Maryland & New York Iron & Coal Company. The rolling mill site had 3 trains of rollers, 17 puddling furnaces, 6 reheating furnaces, and 3 special facilities for sheet iron production. The furnaces were of the Siemens type, using coal gas as a fuel. The gas was produced onsite, and stored in the big egg. In the 1850’s, the facilities employed 900. Jobs at Mt. Savage attracted both skilled and unskilled immigrants from Ireland, England, and Wales. Besides rail, cannon balls were produced in quantity. In foundries and machine shops, wages were relatively stable from the early 1880’s to the 1910’s. A machinist or boilermaker would make about $2.50 per day. He worked a ten hour day, 6 days a week, 300 days per year. There was no vacation, no sick leave, no holidays except for Christmas day. The puddler’s job was a particularly hot and dangerous one. He stirred the molten iron with a long rod, to bring the slag and impurities to the surface, where they could be skimmed off. Still, it was probably a better job than in the nearby mines. It was industrial feudalism, and company workers lived in company housing, and bought at the company store, using company script. The company provided the church, the schools, and the doctor. By 1900, it became the law in Allegany County that wages were to be paid in legal tender only, not company script.

Industrial safety was a concept that developed slowed, and the iron shops of the second half of the 19th. century were dangerous places to work. As part of the social contract, men injured at work usually had guaranteed lifetime employment, if they survived. This practice continued with the railroads through the early parts of the twentieth century. Railroad crossing guards at the time were mostly one-armed or one-legged men, the victims of accidents with link-and-pin couplers or manual brakes.

The Mount Savage Rail Road operation was acquired by the Cumberland & Pennsylvania (C&P) Railroad in January 1854. This acquisition included the motive power, rolling stock, 14.9 miles of track from Borden to Cumberland, and the Canal Wharf. The C&P acquired all of the surviving shortlines, and connected these together into a network of coal branches, anchored at each end to the B&O. The operating heart of the C&P became Mt. Savage. Here, locomotives were repaired, rebuilt, and manufactured.

Wrought iron was the preferred material for boiler plate. The availability of boiler plate from the local facility meant that locomotives could be built. The ability to produce large enough sheets was the limiting factor in production. Larger sheets meant that fewer riveted seams were required, and thus the structure would be stronger. Again, the economies shifted, driven by tariff repeals by Congress, and it became more economical to purchase iron product, rather than make it on site. The Mt. Savage rolling mill closed in 1868, and was dismantled by 1875. No trace of these facilities remain. Boiler plate and other iron parts came in from the mills at Pittsburg, Pa, which were in turn supplied with Allegany County coal and firebrick as back shipments.

The C&P locomotive shops were established in Mt. Savage in 1866, under the direction of James Millholland. He was then 54 years old, and came from the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. He had moved his family from Pennsylvania to Mt. Savage. Millholland was a master mechanic, and an "advocate of plain engines and simplicity." He had extensive experience in keeping Winan’s camel engines running, from his earlier work in Pennsylvania, and with the Baltimore & Susquehanna. Millholland had many important locomotive innovations credited to his name.

The earliest C&P locomotives were inherited from other lines through acquisition. More importantly, C&P built their own engines at their shops in Mt. Savage. The period beginning in 1883 was an exciting one for heavy manufacturing in Mt. Savage. A locomotive catalog was issued for the Works by their agent, Thomas B. Inness & Co. of Broadway, New York. The catalog listed five types of engines for sale, and their specifications. Evidence was that the catalog was successful, and numerous sales to other roads resulted. This helped finance production for the home roads, spurred development, and helped employment.. Mt. Savage engines wound up all across the United States, with some going to Cuba, Central and South America, and to Europe in World War I.

The catalog listed five basic engine types. Customization of the design could be had by the customer, for a price. The specifications of the various types are given. The first four types are 3-foot narrow gauge, and the fifth is standard gauge. The diameter and stroke of the cylinders, in inches is given, as is the driver wheel diameter. The engine weight in pounds is also listed. The sales figures list the traceable sales. The catalog types are:

1. 0-6-0 36" 9x14 30" 22000

2. 4-4-0 36" 12x18 44" 38000

3. 2-6-0 36" 14x18 40" 49000

4. 2-8-0 36" 15x18 36" 56000

5. 2-8-0 4’ 8 1/2" 20x24 50" 95500

Initially in the Mt. Savage Shops, the Winans Camels and other early C&P locomotives were extensively rebuilt. Much hands-on experience was gained during the period from 1866-1888. The first recorded engine ‘build’ was a 0-10-0 unit in 1868. Engine production was very active between 1885 and 1917. Engines were produced for other roads as well. The production figures for 1882 list 19 passenger and freight engines produced, with 16 more in 1883. Typical of the rebuilds is the engine Highlander, rebuilt from a Winans Camel inherited from the Mt. Savage Rail Road. In spite of the relocation of the engineer from on top of the boiler to the more traditional rear position, the engine's origins are clearly seen in the location of the fireman.

Mr. James Millholland, the C&P Master Mechanic, was intimately familiar with keeping these Camel engines running, and making improvements to them. Most of the C&P Camels were later rebuilt at Mt. Savage, some twice. A total of 15 Camel rebuilds are recorded at the C&P shops, starting in 1866. Later, locomotive production at the Mt. Savage Shops would supply 30 units to the C&P, and numerous other units to other roads across the United States. The C&P had a valuable asset in the car and locomotive shops in Mt. Savage. With the facilities and experience for locomotive and rolling stock rebuilding and repair, the C&P was to a great degree self-sufficient. This allowed the recovery and reuse of assets that might otherwise have to be abandoned. The C&P shops also provided repair services to its rivals, such as when the Georges Creek & Cumberland Railroad dumped 2 engines and 51 coal cars off of a trestle in January of 1883.

The original locomotive shop was constructed of stone, and was 90 feet x 250 feet in size, with a 33 foot high roof. The adjoining car shop, also built in 1866, was also of stone, but was later extended with a wooden structure. These buildings still stand in Mt. Savage. The shops were equipped with metal working machinery from Bement & Dougherty, probably a predecessor of Wm. B. Bement & Son of Philadelphia. Millholland bought good tools, which were still in use 40 years later, as evidenced by the 1917 ICC evaluation. All of the rotating power machinery was driven by leather belts from overhead master shafts. These, in turn, were powered by a stationery steam engine in the adjacent power house. A similar facility can be seen preserved today at the East Broad Top Railroad, in Pennsylvania. What was different about the Mt. Savage Shops was their production of locomotives from the rail up, as opposed to just repair and rebuilding.

Locomotive manufacturing during this period was hard, heavy, dangerous work. It proceeded according to numerous ‘rules of thumb’ developed by the master mechanic over the years. Innovations were introduced slowly. There were continuous efforts to reduce costs, and increase performance. Weight reduction was not desirable, as weight-on-drivers contributed directly to tractive effort. Locomotive frames were usually riveted, built-up construction, of wrought iron. According to White (ref. 30), experience at the Norris works showed that a team of 14 men could build a locomotive in 15 days. This was assuming the parts were on hand. A locomotive is a carefully integrated collection of a large number of specialty parts. The typical boiler was constructed of 5/16" wrought iron, starting as plate, and rolled to shape. The lap joints were single riveted. There is a long way between watertight and steam tight. Later, double riveting, and reinforced butt jointed were used. Boiler tubes were typically iron tube of 2" diameter. They were lap welded, and reportedly hard to flange. Although there was standardization, frame bolts were body fit, and made to order by a machinist. Thus, they were not interchangeable. Valves, air tanks, and other accessories were generally interchangeable.

The locomotive cylinders were usually cast, and bored to size. This represented the most complex and expensive casting and machining operation of the whole locomotive assembly. In 1856, it was common for the boring operation to consume 2 days. The pistons were cast structures, with brass piston rings. Millholland was an early advocate of feedwater heaters, using them as early as 1855. His designs have them on the right side, under the engine running board. They are about 10 feet long, and 8" in diameter. These are a visible clue to engines produced in Mt. Savage. Also, Mt. Savage products never included a trailing truck.

Construction of locomotives ceased at Mt. Savage around the time of the First World War. Heavy repair and rebuilding of locomotives continued until the time of the Second World War. The machine shops were used into the 1950’s. New technologies were introduced, such as electrical lighting and motors and electrical welding.

The Mt. Savage shops, constructed with 30 inch thick stone walls, had a floor space of about 22,000 square feet. Dirt floors were preferred for the forge, blacksmith shop, and for welding. Concrete pads were poured for the machine tools at a later date. Motive power was overhead lineshafts, and shop air. When a lot of machines came on line at the same time, or there was an excessive use of shop air, the powershop foreman would come running. The powershop also generated electricity, and heated the building. Until World War II spurred the development of small, lightweight handheld power tools, most industrial shops used airtools. The Mt. Savage shops did not have a large overhead crane capable of lifting and transferring a locomotive, so these operations were done manually. Before a locomotive was lifted, it was important to remember to first remove the whistle. It would be knocked off by a roof beam if it were not removed. To unwheel a locomotive, it would be jacked and blocked. Jacking was done with hydraulic (water) units. To move a locomotive in the shop, a series of pulleys, chains, and fixed floor anchors would be used with a transfer table arrangement. The shop engine served as the motive power. A rewheeling would be done by a 3-4 man team in one 8 hour shift.

If the operating crew were tight with the valve oil, sometimes the rear rods off the eccentrics would bend. The engines would then limp in, and generate even more overtime for the shops.

The C&P had two business cars, the first being constructed in the home shops in 1899. Number 15 was 37 feet in length, with a wooden body and underframe, and composite, 4 wheel trucks. The other car, number 101 was purchased from the Pullman Company. The C&P built passenger cars for other roads as well, and deliveries to the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg are documented.

Mt. Savage is remembered, if at all, as the site of the manufacturing of the first iron rail in America. This was acknowledged with a plaque presented by the Western Maryland Chapter, NRHS, Inc. in 1994. But, more than just the rails, Mt. Savage started with coal, iron ore, and fireclay dug from the earth, built a railroad, and shipped locomotives and rolling stock across the country. They operated their line with motive power and rolling stock they themselves built and maintained. Not many lines can make that claim. Now a sleepy backwater, not even on the map, Mt. Savage rests after its significant contribution to the development of the American railroad system. Today, there are no known surviving examples of the output of the Mt. Savage Shops.