Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-21
Monday. June 2I, 1886.
THE RAILROAD SHOPS.

ShOps-The Best Workmen-Engfne es Repairing And Cars Being Rebuilt A New Engine No. 132-NeW Palace l Car.
 Five hundred workmen, among whom are some of the best mechanics in this or any city, are daily employed in the Consolidated
 railroad shops. Very few people have any def mite idea of the extensive works in which the | New York, New Haven 6 Hartford raj lroad build their locomotives, cars and the neces-
 sary paraphernalia. A new locomotive, in | volving an outlay of say $25, 900, is turned | out each month. Cars of all kinds, from the | handsome drawing room to the common ! freight car, are here built and repaired. The | Consolidated shops comprise group of buildings, some eighteen in number. The principal buildings are the round house | which houses forty engines, the engine house, car house, storage house and repair | shop. Probably dozen acres of ground are
 covered by the different buildings, side 1 tracks and storage ground. At this season | of the year the different shops are rushed | with business. Car after car and engine after engine is being overhauled, repaired, repaint- | ed and finished up for the coming season. The engine building and repairing shop, an oblong building 200 feet in length, was a l busy hive when COURIER reporter visited it | SatQrOaY aIC0rQOOu. OQ0 moH l were hammering and pounding away, appar | ently to see who could make the most noise, l but upon closer investigation it was found l that the hammering was turning out the i necessary material for the building of the ! iron horses
 Foreman G. W. Gates superintends the | building of new engines and the repairing of | the ones now in use. Foreman Gates for three years has superintended this depart
 ment of the road. He has seen service under four superintendents, Mess1s. Simons, Rounds, Kittendorf and Henney ''Thirty years ago the number of engines in use by the then New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad was twenty-two," said Foreman Gates EI have seen engine after engine leave these shops until now the nun Der controlled by the Consolidated road is one hundred and thirty-one. The mechanics employed in this building as well as in the other shops are all of the best. Some have come here when mere boys and they have grown up in the roads service. Some have | been here ten, some twenty, some thirty years.
 t'There are employed here all nationalities, ," said MT. Gates, ''but the American born mechanic surpasses all others. We have here men from Germany, England and other countries who are there rated as A 1, but they cannot compete with an American work man. He is a better man in 8 number of ways, owing to our free institutions, free
 
 an ingenious head. He is quicker in think ing out difficult problems and learns quicker and easier than the foreigner and turns out better work, which of course is the main
 point on which I base my judgment. Of
 course give other men equal opportunities
 all along and they will pan out all right"
 Since the new superintendent of motive
 power, Master Mechanic Henney, has taken
 charge of the road shops, number of new
 engines have been built. They are of the
 standard patent and known as the Henney
 make. The numbers are 21, 35, 129, 131
 and 132 which is now in the works. The
 engine will be finished in few weeks.
 Engine No. 2 is in the shop for general
 repairs; new trucks and wheels a1e to be put
 under her. Engine Mo- 1 is one of the old
 est engines on the road. Engine No. IS is
 also receiving general repairs. No. 47,
 which broke her axle last week, is having
 new one put in. The new engine when put
 tween Meriden and New Haven at first and the distance will greatly increase as she gets "broke in." The distance is in
 creased gradually in order to prevent her
 from heating, which will occur if 8 new
 engine is put on long distance run at first
 The pay roll of the engine building amounts
 to about $450 per day.
 James Denver is foreman of the shop
 which turns out the handsome cars of the
 Consolidated railroad. The genial superin
 tendent was busily engaged in his office
 when COURIER reporter called. "Do you
 see that pretty young lady just leaving?'
 said he. 'Well look at that book on my desk
 Can you interpret" "A book
 agent :" asserted the reporter.
 "Yes, book agent, and pretty one, too. I
 buy more books from those lady agents than you can have any idea of. They all come right in here and go all ever the shops in spite of the signs posted up forbidding them, and buy to get rid of them. Our hands are rushed with work at present. Over fifty cars are undergoing repairs. Some are being built over and some merely refurnished or touched up. Two new baggage cars are be ing built and one sleeping and one drawing room car. They are to be furnished stump tuously, the sleeping and drawing-roo cars, and are to be built of the best of material"
 The passenger cars being repaired are numbered as follows 189, 213, 233, 19O, 234 101 the sleepers Boston and Provi- dence, 1O6, 257, 255, 131, 53 1855, 54 and 21.
 Superintendent Denver is artist of no mean pretensions shown by the interior decorations of some of the handsome palace cars he turns out of his shops. His taste and talent have brought about many changes in the decoration of cars in an artistic man. ner. The sleeping car in which the Admiral fornia is out on side track and is being fit ted out for the trip. Blankets and necessary accoutrements for the trip are being pre- pared. The drawing room car Countess is being refitted throughout. Four new passen ger coaches will go on the road to-day. They are handsomely fitted up and are models of passenger coaches. They were erected under the supervision of Superintendent Denver.