The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1883-06-22
CHARACTERISTIC ENGINES.
An Old Engineer Tells of the
Contrary Disposition of Different
Machines, and Relates Some An
nodnros

An Old Engineer Tells of the
Contrary Disposition of Different
Machines, and Relates Some An
ecdoJes.
Discernible by their enthusiastically
professional air, a lare number of work.
ing railroad men moved about the build
ing and grounds of the railway ex-
position yesterday, examining the splen-
did show of appliances with critical eyes
and passing comments on each interest
ing to hear. A Herald reporter joined a
group of engineers inspecting the nu-
merous fine locomotives and inquired of
one brawny individual which engine met
his best approval.
ut is hard to say" was the reply. "All
of these are fine specimens of workman
ship. There are different varieties here
-pullers and pushers, climbers and
flyers. Now, there's curious locomo-
tive compared with its next neigh
bor."
He pointed to the English locomo.
tive.
"That engine is built, you see, entirely
different from American machines. It
is all in one piece, perfectly solid, so to
speak. In country " hich is level, and
on road free from curves, l have no
doubt she goes like bird. But she
wouldn't do for American roads. The
grades and the curves would shake her
all to pieces"
"There," he continued, turning to the
magnificent Southern Pacific locomotive
viii III was admiringly discussed by the
crowd, "there's typical American en-
CINE. She will climb a mountain or fly
over stream and around curve of
her own length. She is built in pieces,
like all of our machines, so that one
wheel may be in the air, if necessary,
and her guard higher than her drivers,
and keep her balance all the while. She
is beauty, true enough. Still, you can't
tell anything about ali engine until you
are acquainted with her"
"How acquainted?" asked the report
er, who was unaware that engines have
personality.
''No two engines are alike-I mean as
regards their character"
Locomotives have character, then,
have they?"
"They have, indeed. They have their
peculiarities, and their ways and moods
also. On every railroad this fact is I'M
derstood, and each engine has its own
engineer, who finds the longer he drives
bis iron horse the more he has to learn
about her. Sometimes she is cratic as
woman, and for no apparent cause.
Sometimes high pressure is necessary
to make her 20, sometimes under low
head she will fly. And then again, un-
der the same conditions, she kicks and
spurts like balky horse. have taken
out nay machine on the Fort Wayne and
put her through the run one day at forty
miles an hour like lady. The next day
it often happens she'll kick and bump,
and has to be forced into going. It's ali
according to the way she feels. How
ever, an engineer learns his engines
peculiarities and knows how to control
them, and if she has any speed they get
it out of her."
'Speediness," he continued, "was.
after all, the cardinal virtue of a locomo-
tive. 1t is the common ambition of
engineers to conduct the fastest loco
motive on their road. It's against the
rules to race, but if my road runs paral-
lei with another, and an rival engineer
invites mo to get to the end of it first, I
am not going to refuse"
"Is fast running any more dangerous
than slow?"