Almost all the historical information and old advertisements I have collected about the Ashton Valve company has come from old trade journals on google books or archive.com. There are thousands of them covering all aspects of the industrial age in America.
Saw this ad for Lunkenheimer valves in your post. I've bought a number of Lunkenheimer valves in my career, never knowing the brand's history dates to 1862. The brand still exists, owned today by CVC Valves of Cincinnati, OH.
Love that Railway Age photo of the Jersey City throat tracks. Have any old copies of Jane's World Railways?
I have a very small Lunkenheimer valve that was part of a "group" purchase of valves I made. I wish I knew how old it was. Jane's world railways....I don't know that one. I'll have to go on google books or archive.org and see if I can find one to read. How did you hear of it?
Jane's was quite famous, but mostly known for yearly catalogues of all the world's warships. They also did all the world's aircraft, until they got too numerous to count. Their railway volumes are interesting too, and the advertising sections are very international.
This is what I found for Jane's world: Railways. I found one partially scanned on archive.org . https://archive.org/details/janesworldrailwa00samp/page/n1 https://books.google.com/books?newb...ld+railways&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=ashton https://www.google.com/search?q=jan...M&biw=1920&bih=969&dpr=1#imgrc=b_V61u0oVQesDM
Rick, Nice images! I like using the various journals for research for rolling stock, motive power, buildings and such for layouts. Scott
Virtually all the Ashton Valve information I've been able to discover has been in these old journals. A wealth of information, they are like stepping back into another age. They are entering another age. It was nice when they started printing the covers in color.
I love the illustration in the Locomotive Engineering journal, what a weird scene! That scene is in White's book about early freight. Scott
Glad you enjoyed them. They are all available on google books if you want to check out the complete issues