Omaha daily bee., 1884-07-24

to be raised considerably to be plainl,
heard.
"a nervous man should never be in
lrusted with the care Of an engine and OF
the lives aud property under his keep.
ing" continued the driver land q man
who is liable to fly off the handle at any
moment, or is careless or neglected. OF
the machinery, could not be placed in a
situation more dangerous to the lives OF
travellers, unless he might be a profes.
sional trainwrecker or a drunken switch.
man. Half of the care and responsibility
of on engineer is in the engine itself
looking after it and closely examining
weak points at every opportunity. Strong
as it may seem, there are portions of the
mechanism of a locomotive that are as
delicate and frail and easy of disarrange.
ment as those of many finely constructed
stationary machines. In this class of en-
CINE it is necessary to compress all the
machinery into the closest possible bulk,
and tho result is not advantageous to
one who has charge of it,"
docs an engine get out of order fire.
quently 2"
MANY of them do, and others will run
a long time without repairs, A skilled
engineer knows whether there is any
thing the matter with it or not, and a
man must always be watchful of these
things if he does not want the locomo-
tive to go to smash on short notice. An
other thing, when there is a starting of
tlues, a leakage of pipes, loose backing,
or a heated journal, one has to make
haste to stop the mischief, or time will
probably be lost, and the fear of a loss
of time is a perpetual source of worriment
to the engineer"
Referring to other matters that require
the vigilance and care of the driver of the
iron horse, the speaker said; "On freight
trains a skilled hand is often required in
switching cars and similar work, and al
though the life CT a freight engineer is a
slow and easy one beside that of a man in
the cab of an express engine, still there is
a grave responsibility attached to the
former How often is tho killing of a
brakeman, who is knocked down by a
sudden and unexpected starting up of the
train or other similar accident, laid
at the door of the locomotive engineer err
often, | may say, with good cause
though such accidents are generally the
result of pure carelessness
The difference between engines, even
of the same pattern add maker, was
spoken of, and the kind of locomotive
most in favor with engineers was des-
cribed. TO be strictly first class and
sa satisfactory, an engine must DO capable
of, picking up" a train in good style
that is, getting undcr full Roadway in a
short distance. A rather slow and
smooth-going engine is, of course, prefer
able to an unsteady and jcrky one, which
can not be depended on for a great mum
Der of miles.
The promptitude of an engineer in OBJ
serving signals of different kinds is con-
sidered a valuable quality, and these,
with the many other duties of everyday
life, must be attended to without any
show of negligence, if a driver Is DESTROYS
of insuring his reputation. Train orders
must be read with great care and their
instructions carefully followed, and it is
here, more than at any other point, that
the drunken engineer Is liable to commit
an error which, though small in itself,
may lead to most disastrous results. Bad
spots on the road must be looked out for,
time. cards must be rlgidly followed,
steam must be kept up, crossings and
whistle-posts must be noticed, and above
all, the track ahead requires close atten.
ton, as the eyes must not leave it more
than a few seconds at a time.
ga competent fireman." said the
driver, sis a great blessing to an engin-
eer, and may relieve him of considerable
of that continual strain on the nervous
system which most of us are obliged to
undergo, but a lazy fellow, a careless
man., or a green hand must be placed in
the category of the ills of the life, and a
big item it is, too"
"How long do engines generally run
before being discarded as uselessl"
"Well, their average life may be placed
at about twenty-five years, counting big
accidents and all. On the plains where
alkali water is used, repairs of tubes and
other portions of the mechanism are more
frequently required than in California,
though, as an Offset to this may be placed
the dangers to the fine machinery encoun-
tered in the snow on the Sierra. AS a
general thing, repairs are needed on a n
engine once in about six months of use.
Fire-boxes and boilers last about seven
years without repair, the axelsa and cranks
six years, and the boiler tubes FIVE"