Cagney Brothers
Cagney built small Eight-Wheelers from the late Nineteenth Century until
the late 1920s. It is very likely that these trains were the first purpose-built,
mass-produced park trains. They were certainly the inspiration for Ken William's
early Crown trains. Today, Cagneys are a bit on the rare side, but a few can
still be found scattered all over the place -- there's even one on static
display in Cuba!
The Cagney brothers (there were four, Timothy G., David H., Charles
L., and Thomas G.) didn't actually build the locomotives themselves. The
actual construction was handled by McGarigle Machine Company. A few Cagney
locmotives of identical design to the McGarigle engines were also built by
Herschell Spillman, but McGarigle was by far the bigger manufacturer.
McGarigle was actually the founder of the modern park train. The
same basic 4-4-0 (a miniature of the New York Central's #999) that was later
marketed by the Cagney brothers was first produced by McGarigle in 1885.
Tim Cagney bought one in that year. Within two years he was married to Winnie
McGarigle.
Cagney produced about 1300 locomotives of six classes, according
to a leaflet the company put out in the 1930s. The Class A probably consisted
of a single live-steam 4-4-0 running on 9 1/2" gauge track. This is actually
a McGarigle engine built in 1885. The Class B was apparently a lone 12 5/8"
gauge eight-wheel steamer built for the Omaha fair in 1898. Class C was the
standard 12 5/8" gauge 4-4-0, of which several hundred were built prior to
1910. The Class D had the largest production and was the 15" gauge American
type. There were apparently two versions of this engine. The "light" version
was slightly shorter than the "heavy" version and had a straight boiler instead
of a wagon-top. In a March/April 1994 article in Live Steam, Don Michletti
suggested that the "light" version was built using leftover parts from the
12 5/8" gauge locos. There were also a half-dozen or so Class E 22" gauge
eight-wheelers built.
In 1923, Cagney built an expiramental steam-outline gas-powered 4-6-2.
Production of this design, powered by a Ford Model A engine, began in 1929.
About 50 units were produced. By the following year, the last Class D had
been delivered. The shop supported the war effort during WWII, and considered
returning to park trains when the war ended. However, others were already
competing with them in the park train market, and the shop closed in 1948.
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