Rhode Island Locomotive Works

This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation). (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Rhode Island Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company in Providence, Rhode Island. The factory produced more than 3,400 locomotives between 1867 and 1906, when the plant's locomotive production was shut down. At its peak, the locomotive works employed about 1,400 men who could produce some 250 locomotives a year.

41°49′47″N 71°25′48″W / 41.829636°N 71.429909°W / 41.829636; -71.429909

The Rhode Island Locomotive Works was established in 1865 by Earl Philip Mason, Sr. The company was later run by his three sons: Charles Felix Mason was president, Arthur Livingstone Mason was vice-president and Earl Philip Mason, Jr. was secretary and treasurer. Joseph Lythgoe was the superintendent of the locomotive works.

The company was located on Hemlock Street in Providence. From 1866 to 1899, it produced some 3,400 steam locomotives.^[1]

Earl Philip Mason, Jr. was born in Providence on August 5, 1848, and died at San Antonio, Texas, on March 17, 1901. He was the son of Earl Philip and Lucy Ann (Larcher) Mason. He received his early education at Mowry & Goff's School and at the Highland Military Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. He entered Brown University in 1868 and took a special two-year course but did not graduate. He then went to Germany to study at Heidelberg University. After joining the Rhode Island Locomotive Works in 1872, he remained with the company until 1895, eventually becoming vice-president. He married on April 18, 1872, at New York City, to Mary Elizabeth Raymond,^[2][3] (born September 10, 1849, in New York City and died on June 13, 1897, in Morristown, New Jersey). She was the daughter of Henry Jarvis Raymond, the founder of The New York Times; and Juliette Weaver.

In 1901, the Rhode Island Locomotive Works merged with seven other locomotive manufacturers to form the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), headquartered in Schenectady, New York. The Rhode Island works, which had already begun to diversify, built a line of automobiles and trucks from 1906 until 1913.

The old Rhode Island Locomotive Works plant, along with the adjoining Nicholson File and United States Rubber Company buildings, was the center of a $333 million commercial and residential redevelopment project that went bankrupt in 2010.^[4][5] In 2013, The Foundry Associates, L.P., a privately owned real estate investment firm, acquired the property for $19.05 million and completed the development.^[6] Today it is an active office park with business tenants like United Natural Foods (UNFI), Equity National Title, RI Commerce Corporation, Brewster Thornton Architects, MMID Product Development and Fuss and O'Neill.

This is a list of locomotives built by the Providence plant before the ALCO merger that have been preserved.^[7]

This is a list of locomotives built by ALCO at the facility that have been preserved.^[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhode Island Locomotive Works locomotives.