Replacement and renewal parts were manufactured at Edddystone. The main parts warehouse
was also located Edddystone, see photos below.
 Baldwin photos from: "Baldwin - Half a Century of Diesel Engine Development" The Baldwin Locomotive Works - 1945 bibliography see reference [24] During the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton era, while diesel locomotives were still being manufactured, BLH had six district parts warehouses at Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Emeryville, California. [29]. By the 1960s district warehouses has been reduced to three, see advertisement below from 1962 & 1965 In 1956 the standard line of Baldwin diesel-electric locomotives was discontinued. At that time they amounted only to a small percentage of the total business at Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton yet the BLH Eddystone Division and later the Industrial Equipment Division continued to supply replacement and renewal parts for Baldwin diesel engines and locomotives. See advertisements below from 1958 - 1965. The replacement and renewal parts operations were retained after locomotive production was discontinued as it was seen to be a profitable business [2]. Also BLH continued to manufacture diesel engines, e.g. stationary engines, up until 1964, see the Diesel Engine Development Time Line By the mid 1960's BLH had become a subsidiary of Armour and Company, see advertisement below from 1967. Baldwin-Hamilton Company A Division of Ecolaire Inc. In the early 1970's Armour and Company was acquired by Greyhound Corp. and BLH was liquidated by selling off product lines and divisions separately. The "replacement and renewal parts" business was acquired by Ecolaire Inc. and became the "Baldwin-Hamilton Company - A Division of Ecolaire Inc." , see advertisements below from 1971 & 1972. The Baldwin-Hamilton Company later became owned by the Joy Technologies Company. [6] The Baldwin-Hamilton Company closed in 1991. See bottom of this page for more details. The following magazine advertisements cover this entire period, they have been generously contributed to this website by Henry Rentschler. Mr. Rentschler has been an employee of Lima-Hamilton, BLH and finally the Baldwin-Hamilton Co., where he served as President. |
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| "... Now then, when the Baldwin-Hamilton Company was going out of business, in the summer of 1991, Escanaba & Lake Superior was the primary customer. John Larkin, personally, talked to me about available parts, issued purchase orders, and paid cash, promptly. What a way to close down our renewal parts operations! All of the parts he originally purchased were new and unused - pistons, liners, cylinder heads and everything in between. However, as we were winding down, we had a goodly supply of "used" parts that were prime candidates for rebuilding. Rather than see these "rare" hunks of steel go to waste I decided to give them to E & LS. Cylinder liners, in good shape on the exterior, could be easily honed and re-chromed, and give years of faithful service. Bed plates could be rebuilt, by welding the bores, machining, and scraping to finished dimensions. Fred Cave was still alive then and Mr. Larkin would ask him to come up for a visit, for a "working" vacation. They treated him like royalty, which he, of course, was with his intimate and detailed knowledge of the Baldwin Diesel engine (John Kirkland insisted on capitalizing the "D" in Diesel and I have always followed his meticulous advice) E & LS had a large fleet of Baldwins, operating, profitably, on a daily basis, so with Fred Cave's help they were rebuilt, and rebuilt again, with our parts, both new and available for reuse. We even gave away all of our applicable gaskets, rather than throw them into the trash. Larkin, and I talked briefly about the Shark Nose engines, but he was generally elusive. I don't know about the vandalism, but the frames and sides were badly rusted - that alone would be a major job to restore. Happy memories from exactly 19 years ago, at this same time of year. BH officially closed on September 1, 1991 and we refused to accept any orders, at all, at all, at all ! THE END." |
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