Photographs. Book No. 1. [Remarkable photo album showing the testing, test results, steam engine parts, and parts results for Poppet Valves, Air Motor Controls, and Gear systems for K-4 Locomotives. These were conducted in the laboratory test plant for the Franklin Railway Supply Co., a Lima Locomotives subsidiary through the end of the 1930s as the Lima company attempted to improve steam distribution and performance over conventional piston valves.] by [RAILROAD STEAM ENGINE EQUIPMENT -- PHOTO CATALOGUE]. [SCOTT, James W. (Photographer).] - 1939].

[Baltimore, MD: Franklin Railway Supply Co., Inc., Lima Locomotive Works, Photographs by The Hughes Co., 1939]. Oblong 4to. 11 x 8.25 in. [5 leaves (unnumbered).], typescript. With 72 photographs, 12 silver prints, 60 silver gelatin, backed in gray linen, all w/ dates & specifications in lower right corner w/in negative, photographer’s imprint in lower right corner, some w/ photographer’s stamp on verso. Limp simulated black calf Emerson binder, punch sewn at gutter margins, w/ gray silk braids punched through, and wound around brackets at rear (minor curling to fore-edges of photos, edgewear to covers, some toning to typed text leaves), still a VG- exemplar. This uncommon industrial photo album demonstrates the extended testing and technological development by the Franklin Railway Supply Co., a Lima Locomotives Subsidiary at their Baltimore, MD testing laboratory through the end of the 1930s to develop the Poppet Valve improving the starting and low-speed traction of steam locomotives. Their efforts were focused on improving and retrofitting the storied streamlined K-4 locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio. These detailed photographs show not only the Poppet Valve Models, Poppet Valve Test Equipment, Reverse Gear, Type E Boosters, and Gear Box Castings, but also the results at different mileage markers. In addition, there are images for the Booster Idler Gear Pin for advertising, air motor control for the Poppet Valve Model, Motor Driven Precision Gear, the specific gear boxes developed for the K-4 engines, Cam Box, and more. The valves and gear systems had been developed by Lloyd Jones at the Altoona Works, and by 1939 were being fitted into the K-4 locomotives as seen at the New York World’s Fair. Although they performed very well, they were difficult to maintain, and eventually diesel engines muscled out the Lima steam locomotives following World War I. The Hughes Company was a commercial photography studio founded by James F. Hughes (1858-1903) by 1877 in Baltimore, MD, and after his death in August, 1903, the business was purchased by James Scott (1878-1953) who continued to operate the business for decades, and was located at 213 West Monument St. from 1930-1963. It appears that Scott mostly shot with glass plate negatives until World War II. See: E.L. Diamond, The Development of Locomotive Power at Speed, pp. 404-431; Patents for Franklin Poppet Valves. Drive System for Franklin Type “A” Poppet Valves, Reverse Gear for Franklin Type “B” Poppet Valves; Middleton, Smerk & Diehl, Lima Locomotive Works, Franklin Railway Supply, Encyclopedia of North American Railroads, pp. 117-118, 295-304, 588-590; Hughes Studio Photograph Collection, Maryland Historical Society (2018).