Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/198

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES T h e M odern Cor IVorks When the business of the Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company at Bcrivick was taken over by the American C ar and Foundfy Company in 1899* the Berwick plant was the lufgest car building concern in the eastern part of the United States, and was ser'iiig the principal railroads o f N ew England and the tier of States along the Atlantic seaboard. There w*crc then employed from two thousand to two thousand hvc hundred workmen in the upper and lower works. T he upper works included the car shops proper* equipped for preparation o f lumber and the building o f freight cars o f wood construction* o f every variety then current upon modem railroads* on extensive lumber yard* a foundry fo r the manufacture o f grey iron castings and a foun­ dry fo r the production o f water and gas pipes for city and town service. A s an adjunct to these an iron machine shop* fully equipped with lathes* planers, drill presses and kindred machinery, occupied the brick building on the northeast com er o f Third and M arket streets, now (in 1Q14) used as a storehouse fo r car materials. T he low er works in 1899 were made up of the rolling mill* fotg:e shop and wheel foun­ dry* producing materials used in wood car building and supplying outside trade. In 1 9 0 2 0 3 the " B ig Boom” came to B er­ wick. I'h e railroads of the country began to call fo r a freight car o f all-steel construc­ tion fo r the transportation of coal. T he Am er­ ican C a r and Foundry Company gave a quick response to that call and erected shops at St. Louis, Detroit and Berwick* fitting them out with the most up-to-date machinciy and fa ­ cilities fo r this new line o f car building. T his meant a tremendous addition to the already large B erw ick plant. About three millions of d o llars were spent in the purchase o f addi­ tional land, erection o f buildings and installa­ tion o f machinciy. A central powerhouse, cquippcri to furnish hydraulic* pneumatic and clcctnc power, w as erected fo r the new steel plant. Preparation, construction and erection buildings o f steel* brick and glass, o f most modem plans, were erected. Tncsc were 730 feet in length, with three aisles o f roo feet width, o r 300 feet. In these were set up h y­ draulic presses exerting a power o f one thou­ sand tons pressure per square inch* great shears capable o f cutting steel plates one inch in thickness by ten feet in length* power punches planned to punch scvcnty-two holes at one stroke* together with innumerable other and smaller presses, shears* punches* drills*

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riveters and what not going to make up an up-to-date factory. O ver these aisles travel by electric power seven cranes o f ten tons' ca­ pacity lift. A t Ihe north end of the plant is situated the storage yard fo r steel plates and shapes arriving from manufacturing mills. litis yard* 200 by 300 feet, has two overhead traveltng electric cranes* nincty-foot span and tenton lift. Thousands o f tons o f plates and shn[>cs arc lifted from incoming trains o f cars* piled in Ihe yards* and Later transferred to the shops adjacent, where the processes o f shear­ ing, punching, pressing* riveting and erection are carried on until from the other end of the vast shop rolls a finished all-steel car with a capacity for carrying a load o f too,000 to 150,000 pounds. Supplementing the shops just mentioned, other shops were erected at the "low er works” — shops o f steel and brick, 400 by 80 feet, heated by steam, in which cars are painted and lettered; a shop 350 by too feet in which wheels and axles are machined and mounted and the completed trucks built to receive the car bodies; storehouses* offices fo r superin­ tendents and engineers, and many other build­ ings made necessary by the great operations. v a st as the p re^ ratio n was. the demand for steel freight cars soon outstripped the caKicity* $0 that 200 feet were added to the cngth of the steel freight car shops* bringing their length to 930 feet. With this increase more machinery w as added to ]K>wcrhousc and shop equipment. T he erection of the "steel plant'’ dcmanelawarc, I.ackawanna & Western aione, especially as that road had to be reached over a switch two miles long down a s l ^ grade. T h e demand w as met by the building of the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg & Berwick railroad* which runs between departments of the plant of the American C a r and Foundry Company* reducing the private switching of cars to a minimum. T he railroads, having seen how good is a steel freight car, must have also an all steel passenger car. Again the Berwick plant of (he American C ar and Foundry Coni]>atiy answered the cry o f its customers. T h e sulA ways o f New Y o rk contain the earliest product along this line, delivered in 1904* while in 1905 the first ail steel passenger car ever pro­ duced for standard railroad service was turned out of these shops. M any orders from the leading Eastern railroads were booked and passenger car shops o f Berwick plant stand­ ards, steel* brick, glass* cement floored and