Richmond Locomotive Works

Richmond Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing firm located in Richmond, Virginia.

It began operation in 1887, and produced upward of 4,500 engines during its 40 years of operation. The Richmond Locomotive Works was the largest and most significant manufacturer of locomotives in Virginia during its years of production. Its only contemporary in Virginia was the Roanoke Shops, which produced locomotives exclusively for Norfolk & Western. In 1901 the works merged with several others to form the American Locomotive Company, which continued production at the Richmond works until 1927.

Among the locomotives Richmond produced was (Russian) for the Finnish State Railways, the locomotive that pulled Lenin's train into Petrograd on the last leg of his return from exile during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and Southern Railway 1401, which pulled President D. Franklin Roosevelt's Funeral Train.

The Richmond Locomotive Works grew out of Tredegar Iron Works to become a nationally known manufacturer of steam locomotive engines and an integral part of the industrial landscape of the city of Richmond. The engines it produced were shipped across America, as well as several countries in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.

Most Richmond Locomotive engines were sold to Southern carriers. Many were sold to Virginia lines, including Richmond City Railway, as well as the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, the Richmond and Danville Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line. Other buyers included the Louisville and Nashville Railroad; the Louisville Southern Railway; the Wilmington, Onslow and East Carolina Railroad; the Raleigh and Cape Fear Railway; the Nashville and Tellico Railroad; the Atlanta and Florida Railroad; the Georgia Pacific Railway; the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad; the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway; the Southern Railroad; the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad; the Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Railway; the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad; and the Little Rock and Hot Spring Western Railroad. Richmond locomotives were delivered as far away as the Southwestern Arkansas and Indian Territory Railroad and the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad.

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