Railway locomotive

“ The genius loci must look with wonder on the gigantic offspring of the little railway, which has swallowed up its own sire. Lean mules no longer crawl leisurely along the little rails with trucks of stone through Croydon, once perchance during the day, but the whistle and the rush of the locomotive are now heard all day long. ”

“ He has produced a most ingenious electrical device which is attached to railway locomotives. It is quite automatic, and acts independently of either the locomotive engineer or the stoker. Its object is to prevent collisions and the disastrous telescoping of trains, which is unfortunately so frequent on the railways of America, and, indeed, in this country as well. Suppose two trains are approaching one another along a single line of railway, each concealed from the other by a curvature of the track, and intervening forest or hill. ”

“ The locomotive engine had for some years been employed in the haulage of coals; but it was not until the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, that the importance of the invention came to be acknowledged. The locomotive railway has since been everywhere adopted throughout Europe. In America, Canada, and the Colonies, it has opened up the boundless resources of the soil, bringing the country nearer to the towns, and the towns to the country. It has enhanced the celerity of time, and imparted a new series of conditions to every rank of life. ”

“ Before closing these remarks on modern Great Western Railway locomotives, some description of No. 36 is necessary. Here again we have an adaptation of American practice—a six-wheels-coupled engine, with a leading bogie, and an extension, smoke-box. The cylinders are inside, 20in. diameter by 24in. stroke, with the steam chests below them. ”

“ Locomotives that attain their “jubilee” of active service are indeed very few and far between, and it redounds much to the honour of the late firm of Bury, Curtis and Kennedy, of the Clarence Foundry, Liverpool, that locomotives constructed by them in the year 1846 are still engaged in hauling trains on an English railway. ”

“ Close to the entrance of the Locomotive Department stands, as its primum mobile, the tall chimney of a steam-pump, which, besides supplying the engine that propels the machinery of the workshops, gives an abundance of water to the locomotives at the station, as also to the new railway town of Crewe, containing at present about 8000 inhabitants. ”

“ And if such be the irresistible power of the locomotive engine when feebly walking in its new-born p. 95state, unattended or unassisted even by its tender, is it not appalling to reflect what must be its momentum when, in the full vigour of its life, it is flying down a steep gradient at the rate of 50 miles an hour, backed up by, say, 30 passenger carriages, each weighing on an average 51⁄2 tons? If ordinary houses could suddenly be placed in its path, it would, passengers and all, run through them as a musket-ball goes through a keg of butter ”

“ In referring thus to the railway works, he must refer also to the improvement of the locomotive engine. This was as remarkable as the other works were gigantic. They were, in fact, necessary to each other. The locomotive engine, independent of the railway, would be useless. They had gone on together, and they now realized all the expectations that were entertained of them. It would be unseemly, as it would be unjust, if he were to conceal the circumstances under which these works had been constructed. No engineer could succeed without having men about him as highly-gifted as himself. ”

“ The "railway" had the start of the locomotive by a couple of centuries, and derives its parentage from the clumsy wooden way-leaves or tram-roads which were laid down to lessen the labour of dragging the coal-waggons to and from the place of shipment in the Newcastle colleries. ”

“ This type of low locomotive is the one that has come into general use throughout the world. Such locomotives range in size from two to twenty tons, with wheel gauges from a foot and a half wide to the standard railway gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches. Locomotives weighing more than twenty tons are not in general use on account of the small size of the mine entrances. ”

“ The locomotive, when in traffic, is under the charge of one of the running sheds or districts, into which the railway is divided for locomotive running purposes. The usual practice is for ordinary running defects and minor repairs to be attended to in the small workshops attached to the sheds. ”

“ Even overseas where, broadly speaking, the type of individual railroad employee is not supposed to be as high as in this country, the enginemen are to-day used to all these modern devices, the hall-marks of the really modern steam locomotive. A keen-minded American who has known and loved locomotives all his life went over to France not many months ago and rode in the cab of one of those high-speed engines that haul the heavy expresses of the Northern railway from Paris to Calais, 180 miles in three hours and thirty-five minutes—a remarkable daily performance,—and he had his eyes opened. ”

“ A long lead adds materially to the cost and time of forming an embankment, as it not only necessitates a considerable length of service, or temporary permanent way, but also occupies much time in the haulage of the earth waggons. For distances of half a mile and upwards, a small locomotive is more suitable than horses for conveying the waggons. ”

“ Such was the growth of the railway, which, it will be observed, originated in necessity, and was modified according to experience; progress in this, as in all departments of mechanics, having been effected by the exertions of many men, one generation entering upon the labours of that which preceded it, and carrying them onward to further stages of improvement. We shall afterwards find that the invention of the locomotive was made by like successive steps. It was not the invention of one man, but of a succession of men, each working at the proper hour, and according to the needs of that hour ”

“ All these cores are made of “loam,” composed of clay and sharp clean sand mixed together with cow-hair, which helps to bind the core, but more particularly makes it porous, so that the gases formed when pouring can escape.
Fig. 9 shows a view of the large iron foundry at the Great Western Railway locomotive works at Swindon. The moulds on the floor in the foreground on the left-hand side show single outside cylinders in various stages of the work. Two of these finished cylinders are being lifted by cranes. ”

“ Cloud, both being found highly convenient for the public, and profitable to the proprietors. The system of working railways by fixed engines was also regularly employed on some lines in the infancy of the railway system, though it has since fallen into disuse, in consequence of the increased power given to the modern locomotive, which enables it to surmount gradients formerly considered impracticable. ”

“ There are more than 20,000 skilled workmen and their apprentices employed in the engine repairing and constructing factories belonging to the railway companies of the United Kingdom.
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CHAPTER VIII. A JOURNEY ON THE LOCOMOTIVE.
Reader! have you ever travelled on a locomotive? We believe not; at least there have been very few of you of the male sex, none of you of the gentler—for there is a law on railways like that of masonry, railway engines are “tiled” against crinoline. ”

“ A train of carriages was attached to a locomotive engine of the most improved construction, and built by Mr. George Stephenson, in the following order:— (1) Locomotive engine, with the engineer and assistants; (2) tender with coals and water; next six wagons loaded with coals and flour; then an elegant covered coach, with the committee and other proprietors of the railway; then 21 wagons fitted up on the occasion for passengers; and, last of all, six wagons loaded with coals, making altogether a train of 38 carriages, exclusive of the engine and tender. ”

“ Engine the 107 was not rebuilt for a long time and was never again employed in passenger service. The foreman in one of the repair shops wrote to Philadelphia and learned that the 109 was completed on Thursday and the 107 on Friday. As I said a while ago, railroad employees are not superstitious,—they will all tell you so,—much less railway officers; but it is a fact to-day that a new locomotive or a locomotive that has been rebuilt is never taken out on the Denver and Rio Grande on Friday. ”

“ The following were the principal arguments which influenced his mind to work out the use of the locomotive in a directly opposite course to that pursued by a number of ingenious inventors, who, between 1820 and 1836, were engaged in attempting to apply steam-power to turnpike roads. Having ascertained that resistance might be taken as represented by 10 lbs. to a ton weight on a level railway, it became obvious to him that so small a rise as 1 in 100 would diminish the useful effort of a locomotive by upward of fifty per cent. ”

“ Weight, in working order: engine, 46 tons; tender, 371⁄2 tons.
Mr. H. Pollitt’s design of locomotive for working the express traffic over the London extension of the Great Central Railway has four-coupled wheels 7ft. diameter; cylinders, 181⁄2in. by 26in., with piston valves; a Belpaire fire-box, and steam-pressure 170lbs. per sq. in. The tender holds 4,000 gallons of water and 5 tons of coal.
Fig. 141.—SIX-WHEELS-COUPLED BOGIE ENGINE, WITH OUTSIDE CYLINDERS, HIGHLAND RAILWAY
Before closing this account of locomotive evolution, some few details of modern Irish locomotives will be of interest. ”

“ Now here you can see that locomotive wheel, or one like it, with its tyre in place, waiting for the time when it can be fitted in place in the locomotive being built on the right. When the time comes for this loco to have its wheels put on, it will be swung in the air, the wheels will be arranged in place underneath it, and it will slowly be lowered on to them. Just as important as the work of building locomotives is that of keeping them in repair. Routine examinations of locomotives and coaches keep up the railway’s safety standards. ”

“ A few comparative figures bearing out the above facts of the possible methods of increasing railway business are not without interest. A typical western freight locomotive, weighing with its tender 165 tons, can develop continuously a draw-bar pull of 25,600 pounds, up to a speed of 15 miles per hour. An electric locomotive, weighing 100 tons, can develop this value of pull, up to a speed of 37 miles per hour. ”

“ We conclude this chapter by repeating the painful admission that railway accidents are inevitable. It must, however, be added, as an act of justice to railway officials, that their efforts are never-ceasing to prevent them. But, after all, how feeble and powerless is poor humanity!
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CHAPTER VII. HORSES AND ENGINES—CREWE.
The locomotive is like the horse. The latter, with long thin legs and slight frame—at least made so by training—is the race horse. His pace for a length of not more than a mile and a half is at the rate of 25 to 31 miles an hour. ”

“ Mr. Banks, locomotive foreman, well known [Pg 74] at Derby on the Midland Railway; Mr. Buddicomb, first locomotive superintendent of the Grand Junction Railway, and of the locomotive works at Rouen, France; Josiah Kirtley, first locomotive superintendent of the Midland Counties; George Harrison, first locomotive superintendent Scottish Central, and manager at Brassey’s, Birkenhead; Mr. Potts, afterwards of the firm of Jones and Potts, Newton-in-the-Willows, locomotive builders, where the first solid locomotive wheel was made by the wheelsmith Frost. ”

“ There are three railway tracks; the central one is cogged; the "lantern wheel" of the engine grips its way along these cogs, and pulls the train up the hill or retards its motion on the down trip. About the same speed,—three miles an hour,—is maintained both ways. Whether going up or down, the locomotive is always at the lower end of the train. It pushes, in the one case, braces back in the other. The passenger rides backward, going up, and faces forward going down. ”

“ The permanent way should be made a thoroughly sound job, as it will then cost but little for repairs. Particulars of what is recommended will be found in Sections III. and IV. I am no advocate of portable railways, which may be well enough for hand trains, or even for horse traction, but a locomotive requires a solid and clean road if it is to work to advantage.
It is often possible to carry a narrow gauge railway by the roadside or, as at Eaton, over pasture lands without the necessity of fencing the line in. ”

“ In the early days of railway construction vehicles were used which combined a steam locomotive with an ordinary passenger carriage. After being abandoned for many years, the "steam carriage" was revived, in 1902, by the London and South Western and Great Western railways for local service and the handling of passenger traffic on branch lines. Since that year rail motor-cars have multiplied; some being run by steam, others by petrol engines, and others, again, by electricity generated by petrol engines. ”

“ Howe, Williams, or Stephenson?—America claims the credit for the improvement.—Beyer’s single-plate frame engines.—Early Crewe engines.—Robertson fits a steam brake to a locomotive.—Engines for working the Cowlairs incline.—Bodmer’s reciprocating or “compensating” engines.—Tried on the Sheffield and Manchester, South Eastern, and London and Brighton Railways.—They prove failures.—McConnell’s “Great Britain.”—Dewrance’s coal-burning “Condor.”
Edward Bury, the celebrated locomotive engineer, of Liverpool, contracted to supply the London and Birmingham Railway with locomotives. ”