Lovell, Joseph D.

Joseph D. Lovell was a Schedule Foreman at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's Juniata Shops at Altoona during the 1920s, 30s and 40s, by which point those shops were the company's sole facilities for constructing locomotives. Production at the Juniata Shops began in 1891 and ceased in 1946. Lovell had an interest in the history of steam locomotives and had access to the company's original locomotive records, which have long since become lost or scattered. He drew on these records to produce an all-time roster of Pennsylvania System locomotives to 1946, including the output not only of the Juniata Shops, but also the earlier Altoona Machine Shops (1866-1904) but also locomotives purchased from outside builders, principally the Baldwin Locomotive Works. His lists included rosters for both the Pennsylvania Railroad proper and its predecessor lines.

Lovell's all-time roster was written in pencil in engineer's block lettering and bound in ten report binders. The master copy was at various times in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's general office library and the library of the Association of American Railroads in Washington but has since disappeared. Duplicates of binders no. 1 & 2 survived in private hands to become part of this collection. So did seven volumes containing Lovell's preliminary notes.