Monday, December 19, 2005

George W. Smith locomotive

From: "Warrick, Clifford" clifford_warrick@eli.net

I am trying to locate a picture of the George W. Smith locomotive. It was built by the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad (GH&SA - later became a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co.) and honored honored Smith in 1870 by christening a new locomotive George W. Smith.

George W. Smith is one of my ancestors and I am trying to locate a ... photograph of the locomotive. ... —Cliff Warrick

2 Comments:

Blogger CPRR Discussion Group said...

From: kylewyatt@aol.com

A quick look in the Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive Compemndium (the standard reference) didn't turn up a locomotive named George W. Smith on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) or any of the other SP affiliated Texas lines. On the other hand, there are a number of GH&SA locomotives for which no name was listed – so your locomotive might well have been one of them.

I will say that in the 19th century the GH&SA did not build new locomotives for itself – instead purchasing them from commercial manufacturers. The surviving records of some manufacturers are incomplete, and it appears the source of locomotive names in the Compendium comes from builders records, so this may explain why no locomotive George W. Smith is listed.

—Kyle

12/19/2005 7:13 PM  
Blogger wthird said...

I may also be related to George W Smith, if he was originally George Smyth born in Ireland. Do you have any more information? Thanks

12/28/2007 2:05 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Recent Messages