America on the Move | Spencer, an Industrial Community

Spencer, an Industrial Community

Spencer, a suburb of Salisbury, owed its existence to the Southern Railway. The town began in 1897, springing up around 141 acres of land the Southern bought to build a railroad repair-shop complex. Although the railway did not directly develop the town, more than 2,500 machinists, foundry workers, boilermakers, carpenters, and other shop workers and their families lived in Spencer. They and the merchants who supplied their needs made Spencer a thriving industrial community.

Parade in downtown Spencer, 1920s

Spencer had a strong civic identity and held the usual array of holiday celebrations.


		Steam Locomotive Shop Work Work in the Spencer Shops was hot and hard. The pay was good and workers took pride in their craft. In the 1920s, the shops employed many African Americans as laborers, while at the top of the craft hierarchy stood the master boilermakers and master machinists. Labor disputes occasionally simmered, and in 1922 Spencer workers took part in the nationwide shopmen’s strike, the most extensive strike of the 20th century.

Main erecting hall, Spencer Shops, with steam locomotives in various stages of tear-down or reassembly

Aerial view of Spencer Shops in its heyday

Foundrymen forging a steel billet under a steam hammer

Workers at Spencer Shops, about 1915


		Steam Locomotive Shop Tools Inspection and Lubrication When a locomotive came into the shop, an inspector examined the boiler, wheels, and mechanical systems. Locomotives returned to service after necessary repairs, and after they had their wheel bearings oiled and their rod bearings greased.

Inspector's torch

This torch’s light was provided by kerosene fuel and a wick.

Journal hook

Used to check oil level for axles of tenders.

Oil can

Oil can used on the Southern Railway

Alemite grease gun

Alemite pneumatic grease gun used to inject grease into rod bearings.


		Mechanical Work Skilled mechanics used a variety of hand tools to remove and replace steam piping, and to loosen or tighten thousands of nuts and bolts during the disassembly and repair of locomotive parts. The work was hard, and often required great strength.

Railroad shop hammer

Cold chisel

Alligator wrench, used at Spencer

Small S wrench, with owner’s name

Large S wrench

Monkey wrench

Crowfoot wrench

Homemade saddle-bolt spanner

3-head wrench, used at Spencer

Large spanner

Three sockets


		Boilermaking Boilermakers dealt with the hundreds of rivets that held a boiler together. They “punched out” old rivets and “drove” new ones when they disassembled and reassembled a boiler. Boilermakers also installed new flues within the boiler. All this work had to be done properly or the boiler would leak.

Pneumatic rivet gun with swages

Used to drive small rivets and seal flues

Swages for rivet gun

Used to form rivet heads and seal boiler flues

Staybolt taps

Used to thread holes for firebox staybolts

Machining

Machinists worked at large lathes, planers, milling machines, and boring mills, doing high-precision work to craft new rods, axles, bearings, pistons and cylinders, and other parts.

Machinist's divider

Machinist's caliper


		Union Dues Buttons These buttons showed that a union member had paid his dues for the date printed. They represent some of the unions that organized workers by their separate crafts in the time of steam railroads.

International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers & Helpers, November 1942

United Association of Steam Fitters and Helpers, 1945

International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen and Oilers, 1918

International Association of Machinists, 1919





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