late 1830s, in Virginia and Pennsylvania. For the Reading, he ordered British and American made locomotives. For more power, however, he helped design in 1839 one of the earliest 4-4-0 locomotives, the "Gowan & Marx," named after his London banker. The most powerful locomotive up to that time was built by Eastwick & Harrison of Philadelphia, and proved ideal for the coal fields tapped by the Reading. In 1840, Robinson declined an offer from the Czar of Russia to direct an ambitious railroad building program, but did serve as consultant to the Czar, the US government, and elsewhere. About this time he broadened his consulting work, providing reports on the proposed New York & Erie Railroad, the New York Harbor improvements, and other projects. In 1839, with Benjamin Latrobe, John Jervis, J Edgar Thomson, Claudius Crozet, Horatio Allen, Henry Campbell (and others), Robinson helped organize the American Society of Civil Engineers in Philadelphia. When the organization languished, Robinson helped form a new American Society of Civil Engineers in New York in 1852, and the following year the new organization bestowed one of its highest honors on Robinson by electing him an honorary member. Robinson was described as "tall and handsome ... with cold, gray eyes, an aquiline nose, and a scar on the left side of his face that ran from the corner of his mouth to his ear. Women found him fascinating." While working on the Reading, Robinson undertook other railroad projects. He built the majestic bridge across the James River between Manchester and Richmond, Virginia for the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad which was completed in 1838. This 19-span bridge was the most impressive Town lattice truss bridge ever built in wood. Because of increased business in Virginia, he left his cousin Wirt Robinson as the Reading's chief engineer. Between 1840 and 1847, Moncure Robinson succeeded his brother Conway (and an interim president) as president of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and continued his interest in the line afterward (another brother Edwin Robinson succeeded him as president 1847-1860, and his son John became the line's president 1871-1878). Moncure Robinson also continued to advocate for a line from Richmond to the Ohio River, which would compete with the Baltimore and Ohio (Latrobe chief engineer), Pennsylvania (Thomson chief engineer, later president), and the series of lines paralleling the Erie Canal later organized as the New York Central (Jervis chief engineer),