Submitted Photo Pictured is William Burt’s New Terminus in Dunkirk, from May 15, 1851, oil on canvas.

Brooks Locomotive Works, an exhibition of photography and artifacts focusing on the Brooks Locomotive Works, is on display at the Fredonia Technology Incubator from now until March 20, 2020.

A reception will be held Thursday, from 4-7 p.m. at the Fredonia Technology Incubator located at 214 Central Ave., Dunkirk. The reception includes an illustrated lecture at 5:30 p.m. by Roy Davis and Roger Schulenberg. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited therefore, registration is required. To register for the reception/lecture go to: https://brookslocomotiveexhibit.eventbrite.com Registration link is listed on the FTI homepage and Facebook page. For more information, contact FTI at (716) 680-6009 or incubator@fredonia.edu. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Incubator parking lot is off Washington Avenue.

The exhibition is a collaboration between The Incubator and the Historical Society of Dunkirk. It not only tells the story of Dunkirk’s Brooks Locomotive Works and American Locomotive Company (ALCO) / Brooks Works, but recounts the early history of steam locomotives. The exhibition features original and reprinted photographs of the Brooks plant, its employees, and the locomotives they manufactured throughout the years; wooden mold patterns and tools from the Brooks carpentry shop; documents, letters, postcards and locomotive catalogs; a steam pressure gauge and Brooks builders plates; and other original artifacts.

From their first locomotives, the popular 4-4-0 American type, to the 1926 4-12-2 Union Pacific, the longest wheelbase of a conventional steam locomotive ever operated in the United States, Brooks built a variety of engines for railroads across the United States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Finland. Between November 1869 and March 1929 the plant built 13,245 steam locomotives, an average of 3 engines every working day. In its best year, 1901, the plant produced 382 locomotives.

By 1921, the company employed 4,500 workers in the city of Dunkirk, nearly 24% of the city’s population of 19,000. Brooks Works outlasted the six other smaller locomotive builders at ALCO, continuing to produce steam locomotives until 1929.