Baldwin 60000 Locomotive Exhibit @ the Franklin Institute - Philadelphia, PA
N 39° 57.490 W 075° 10.380
18S E 485223 N 4423128
Once known as the Railroad Hall, the room containing the Baldwin 60000 & 2 other locomotives is now called The Train Factory. It features new interactive educational programming related to our nation's continuing love affair with its railroads.
Waymark Code: WM73N6
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2009
Views: 6
In addition to the train-related artifacts and interpretives scattered around the room, there are some special effects that bring the old Baldwin to life. Basically, there is a "platform" to climb and wait in queue. Next, the train is entered and the locomotive comes to life and begins to move! Children can move the dials and switches. It is very neat!
This is a major exhibit for the Franklin Institute. The Baldwin steam locomotive 60000 has been nothing short of a Philadelphia landmark ever since it was piloted into the yet-to-be-completed Franklin Institute in 1933. Handlers of the 350-ton piece wheeled the still-operable engine into the institute on makeshift tracks through what would later become the museum's northwest wall. This is one of those exhibits like the walk through heart that visitors always seem to remember.
Baldwin, at one time, was the city's largest employer with 15,500 workers, mostly skilled craftsmen. Until the mid-1920s, the Baldwin plant was located on Spring Garden Street, occupying 14 blocks from Broad to 28th Street.
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