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Ryan McDonald
The locomotive was built by Ryan
and McDonald of Waterloo, NY. John B. McDonald is the fellow that built the Belt
Line Tunnels at Baltimore and then went on to build the NY subway. Ryan and
McDonald specialized in heavy machinery as well as traction engines and, yes,
even these little locos. I conferred with Larry Hargis, a Porter kind guy and
way more knowledgable than I, and he told me that after the little Porters
became common, many heavy machinery manufactories tried there hand at copying
(literally) Porter's success. Some to the point of simply disassembling the
porter and using the parts for patterns! This particular engine uses the boiler
from one of Ryan and McDonald's traction engines, where it was not uncommon to
see the maker's mark on the smokebox door.
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Photo courtesy of Chris Walas.
Click photo for a larger image. |
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