The Davenport Locomotive Works, of

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...

, USA was formed as the W W Whitehead Company in 1901. In 1902 the company commenced building light

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s. The Company was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works in 1904. In late 1930 Davenport was licensed to assemble and market R G LeTourneau Inc products under the Davenport-LeTourneau brand. The agreement is believed to have ended in 1935 when LeTourneau’s moved to Peoria, Illinois. Davenport also sold Davenport-Winchell three-wheel roller conversions of industrial wheel tractors, Davenport-Frink snow plows which were built in license from Frink Sno-Plows Inc and Reynolds patented Mov-Mor rotary scrapers. In 1933 the company was again restructured and renamed the Davenport-Besler Corporation which continued in business until 1956.

William George Besler William George Besler (March 30, 1865 - May 20, 1942) was president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Biography He was born in Galesburg, Illinois, to John Daniel Besler and Anna Chapin. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...

was a Director at the time of the restructuring. The company acquired the locomotive business of

H. K. Porter, Inc H.K. Porter, Inc. (Porter) manufactured light-duty railroad locomotives in the US, starting in 1866. The company became the largest producer of industrial locomotives, and built almost eight thousand of them. The last locomotive was built in 1 ...

in 1950 and from then on produced Porter designs as well as its own. The company built small steam locomotives early on; the first

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

-fueled

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal co ...

d locomotive was built in 1924 and the first

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

in 1927, a diesel-electric for the Northern Illinois Coal Company of

Boonville, Indiana Boonville is a city in Boon Township, Warrick County, Indiana, United States. The population was 6,246 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Warrick County. History Boonville was founded in 1818 and named for Jesse Boon, father ...

. An extensive range of diesel locomotives in all industrial sizes followed, utilizing either mechanical

torque converter A torque converter is a type of fluid coupling that transfers rotating power from a prime mover, like an internal combustion engine, to a rotating driven load. In a vehicle with an automatic transmission, the torque converter connects the p ...

or electric transmission, the former for the smaller locomotives. Most were used by a variety of industrial users, but some railroads also bought Davenport locomotives, particularly of the size, that being the largest locomotive then allowed by union rules to be operated by one man. Railroad buyers included the Rock Island,

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced ...

, Santa Fe, the Frisco, and the

Missouri Pacific The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

. In 1963, that rule was relaxed and railroads ceased buying industrial-sized locomotives for light switching. Davenport built a number of locomotives for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

including

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

trench railways Trench railways represented military adaptation of early 20th-century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the f ...

, the

USATC S100 Class The United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) S100 Class is a 0-6-0 steam locomotive that was designed for switching (shunting) duties in Europe and North Africa during World War II. After the war, they were used on railways in Austria, ...

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrang ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and eighteen larger

switcher A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

s during the 1950s, two of which were adjustable in

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

—one could operate on

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union ( C ...

s up to , and one on narrow gauges—the latter operating for a period on the

Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge l ...

(). Three Davenport 500 HP locomotives (built 1952) of the

State Railway of Thailand The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) ( th, การรถไฟแห่งประเทศไทย, abbrev. รฟท., ) is the state-owned rail operator under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport in Thailand. History The SRT wa ...

are still in service as of April 2018. Various Davenport locomotives are preserved in the US as well as other parts of the world. The

Canadian Locomotive Company The Canadian Locomotive Company, commonly referred to as CLC, was a Canadian manufacturer of railway locomotives located in Kingston, Ontario. Its works were located on the south side of Ontario Street between William and Gore streets on Kingston' ...

acquired Davenport-Besler in 1955, closing it the following year.

Preservation

* Davenport #1597 Kiama a 0-4-0 T Locomotive of 1917 at the

Illawarra Light Railway Museum The Illawarra Light Railway Museum operates a mainline narrow gauge light railway, a miniature gauge railway, and a museum located near Albion Park Rail near Wollongong, south of Sydney History The Illawarra Light Railway Museum Society Lt ...

* Davenport-Besler #2245 - a 30 ton gauge 0-4-0 Diesel switcher of 1937 at the

Colorado Railroad Museum The Colorado Railroad Museum is a non-profit railroad museum. The museum is located on at a point where Clear Creek flows between North and South Table Mountains in Golden, Colorado. The museum was established in 1959 to preserve a record of ...

* Davenport #2240 30 ton 0-6-0 Switcher, 1936, used on the US Construction RailroadUS Construction Railroad
/ref> during the construction of the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on S ...

and kept at the

Nevada State Railroad Museum The Nevada State Railroad Museum, located in Carson City, Nevada, preserves the railroad heritage of Nevada, including locomotives and cars of the famous Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Much of the museum equipment was obtained from various Ho ...

Boulder City, Nevada Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately southeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Boulder City was 14,885. The city took its name from Boulder Canyon ( ...

* Davenport Locomotive Narrow Gauge (painted Wayne County Roads No 7) is on display at the John D. Dingell Transit Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

References

External links

Preserved Davenport locomotives
{{NA Loco builders Defunct locomotive manufacturers of the United States Davenport, Iowa Industrial buildings and structures in Iowa