Covington Locomotive Works

The Covington Locomotive works was an extensive plant on both sides of Philadelphia, between Third Street and the river.  It was established in 1852-53.

The plant they built was extensive, and they had orders for ten locomotives at one point, but delivery of their first locomotive was way late, and as far as it's known, they only built four locomotives, all for the Covington & Lexington Railroad (later known as the Kentucky Central, later the L&N).  The four were the Covington (May, 1854), the Cynthiana (June, 1854), the Paris (July, 1854), and the Lexington (August, 1854).  We know that the Covington made its initial run in the spring of 1854, from Covington to Boyd, Kentucky (just over the Pendleton County line in Harrison County).

The company was sold by A. L. Greer  to Cowles, Sickles & Company on May 15, 1855, who later sold it to investors led by Daniel Wolff, owner of the Newport Rolling Mills.  At least two more locomotives were built: the M. M. Benton, in June, 1857; and the Sam J. Walker, in September, 1857.  These two locomotives also were also for the Covington and Lexington.

The company got caught in extensive debt to establish the works, and economic panics, and that was the end of steam locomotive building in Northern Kentucky

All the information above is a synopsis of a more detailed article in Cincinnati Locomotive Builders, by John H. White, published in 2004.