This 0-4-0T (Tank) locomotive was built by the Davenport Locomotive Works in Davenport, IA, in 1930 for the Hawkeye Portland Cement Co., in Des Moines, IA. In 1941, it was sold to the Marquette Cement Manufacturing Co., to work at the company’s plant in Cape Girardeau, MO, hauling clay quarried at pits about two miles south of the plant.
The engine weighs 50,000 lbs, has 31” drivers and 12” x 16” cylinders. Operating at a boiler pressure of 160 psi, it delivered 10,100 lbs tractive effort.
The engine, which has no number, was donated to the City of Cape Girardeau in 1955. It is on display in Capaha Park.
The Davenport Locomotive Works in Davenport, IA, started as the W. W. Whitehead Company in 1901 and was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works in 1904.
The company built small steam locomotives from its earliest years, as well as the first gasoline-fueled internal combustion engined locomotive in 1924 and the first diesel locomotive in 1927. In 1933 the company was restructured and renamed the Davenport-Besler Corporation. The Canadian Locomotive Company acquired Davenport-Besler in 1955 and closed it the following year.
