Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop
Freight Cars by Builder > Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop
Introduction
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop was opened by Bishop Elias Morris with funding from a "New York company." The date of establishment is uncertain; the foundry first appears in newspapers in 1872, but in 1883 was reported to have opened in 1870, yet in the same article is insinuated to have opened in 1871. It was closely operated by Major Edmund Wilkes, superintendent of the three-foot gauge American Fork Railroad in Utah County. It was located one block south of, and was in direct competition with, the Utah Central Car Shops. The company advertised "Narrow gauge railroad work, switches, frogs and water stations; freight, hand, push and mining cars; ornamental housework, building fronts, buildings, etc."
Due to the close connection with the American Fork Railroad, and the fact that the AFRR was itself a "New York company," it is likely that the Salt Lake Foundry was established by Howland & Aspinwall interests to provide material and equipment for the construction of their railroad and the Miller Mine in American Fork Canyon. When the Denver & Rio Grande expanded into Utah it contracted with the Foundry for its castings and machine work until its own machine shop and roundhouse were completed. It is also notable for producing the cranes and other machinery used in the construction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Salt Lake City temple.
The company was financially unstable through the majority of its operation, and finally closed for good in 1893.
Facilities
The machine shop was a two-story adobe building, 60 by 40 feet. The upper floor contained the pattern room.
Behind the machine shop is a one-story adobe building containing, in order, the boiler room with a 15-horsepower engine, a tool room, the blacksmith shop with four forges, and the casting floor measuring 60 by 42 feet.
In 1882 a locomotive and boiler repair shop was built to the side, 20 by 60 feet, which had a capacity to rebuild two railroad locomotives simultaneously.
It was rail-served via a spur from the standard gauge Utah Southern Railroad which connected the American Fork Railroad in American Fork. In 1882 two additional tracks were added by the Utah Central to serve the new locomotive and boiler shop.
"Salt Lake Foundry," Salt Lake Tribune 1 January 1883.
Timeline
1871
Edmund Wilkes arrives in Utah on September 10, 1871, with his wife's cousin, Lloyd Aspinwall, to oversee the construction of the American Fork Railroad, a subsidiary of Aspinwall's Miller Mining & Smelting Company.
1872
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop is well-established; it is first mentioned in the newspapers when an employee attacks his wife.
"Suicide & Attempted Murder," Salt Lake Herald 6 December 1872.
1874
Edmund Wilkes leaves the American Fork Railroad.
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop advertises railroad work and freight car building in the Utah Gazetteer & Directory.
Phillip Pugsley, a local Mormon industrialist, buys the Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop from its New York owners. John W. Young, another western narrow gauge railroad capitalist, is one of his co-incorporators. Edmund Wilkes is no longer associated with the foundry at this point. The company begins buying iron ore from the mines near Cedar City, Utah, and operates coal mines in the Pleasant Valley to fuel the casting furnaces.
"Our Industries and Industrial Men," Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine July 1883 pp670-671.
1879
Richard B. Margetts is president and Thomas Pierpont is superintendent.
"Advertising," Salt Lake Herald 12 October 1879.
1882
The company builds a locomotive and boiler shop to the side of the main machine shop with the intention of overhauling railroad equipment.
1883
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop produces all castings used by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in Utah. It also takes a contract to overhaul the steam locomotives for the D&RG in its new locomotive and boiler shop. In January 1883 two D&RG locomotives were seen in the shop by a Salt Lake Tribune reporter, who was told that other locomotives were rebuilt through 1882.
"Salt Lake Foundry," Salt Lake Tribune 1 January 1883.
After this point, the Salt Lake Foundry drops its railroad production and focuses instead on mining equipment and domestic ironwork, advertising "engines, boilers, mill work, mining and hoisting machinery, mill work, etc." Its notable projects include lead blast furnaces for the Germania Smelter and the Leadville Works smelter, both in the Salt Lake Valley.
Wells, Iles Malvern. Lead-smelting. New York: J Wiley & Sons, 1904.
1884
The Salt Lake Foundry produces coal screens for the Denver & Rio Grande's Pleasant Valley Coal Company.
1885
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop is foreclosed by the Deseret National Bank for a debt of $12,000 and sold at bankruptcy auction. The machinery and tools were sold separately from the buildings at two different auctions but the same buyer purchased both and the foundry was re-opened.
"Under the Hammer," Salt Lake Herald 17 March 1885.
1888
The roof of the foundry catches fire.
"Local Briefs," Salt Lake Herald 29 August 1888.
The foundry office is broken into and the safe blown open with dynamite. The burglars escaped with a single dime, the entire contents of the safe at the time.
"Burglars in Salt Lake," Ogden Daily Standard 11 October 1888; "Done up for a Dime," Salt Lake Herald 11 October 1888.
1890
The Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop owes $281.87 in delinquent taxes.
"Delinquent Tax Sale," Salt Lake Herald 30 November 1890.
1891
The foundry safe is blown open with dynamite once more but is found empty.
"Police Pickings," Salt Lake Times 2 November 1891.
1893
The Salt Lake Foundry and Eagle Foundry cooperate to build an experimental suspended electric railroad track.
"The Shaffer Railroad," Salt Lake Tribune 10 May 1893.
The Schaffer railroad experiment was never completed; after a lengthy lawsuit against the Mammoth Mining Company for approximately $20,000 in unpaid mining machinery, the company closed in 1893. The physical property was leased by the Salt Lake Cooperative Iron Works and reopened in January 1894 under the new name.
"To Start Up Monday," Salt Lake Herald 28 January 1894.
1906
The site of the old Salt Lake Foundry & Machine Shop is purchased by the Salt Lake Public Service Company, who demolished the buildings and built a power plant on the property.
"Gets Site for Big Power Plant," Salt Lake Herald 10 August 1906.