Grant Locomotive Works Steam & Sand Domes

One set of Grant Locomotive Works style steam and sand domes, suitable for engines of the 1867-1880s period.

A lesser-known but highly important member of Paterson, New Jersey’s four big locomotive builders, Grant was originally founded in 1848 as Swinburne, Smith & Co. after William Swinburne became fed up with his boss, Thomas Rogers. Becoming the New Jersey Locomotive & Machine Works in 1851, it came under control of New York banker Oliver De Forest Grant, and in 1867 was reincorporated as the Grant Locomotive Works. The company was notable for being the first American locomotive builder to use standardized parts, allowing multiple designs to be assembled from stock components, predating Baldwin’s well-known adoption of the practice by several years. This, as well as Grant’s medal-winning locomotive for the Paris International Exhibition, the America, helped bolster the company’s reputation and establish it as a serious competitor to the other Paterson builders. Despite this, it struggled to maintain financial stability, being hit hard by the Panic of 1873, several labor strikes, and in 1887, a devastating fire. An attempt to completely rebrand the company in Chicago cost more than a million dollars, and having only built 24 locomotives there by 1893, another strike and financial panic finally forced Grant into receivership.

In all, Grant built roughly 1,350 engines, for such major railroads as the Central Pacific, Union Pacific, B&O, PRR, D&RG, C&NW, and C&O, in addition to many others of varied sizes, gauges, and locales around the globe.

These parts have been designed to fit the Bachmann New-Tooling 4-4-0 American in HO scale.