Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-10
IN THE REPAIR SHOPS.
VISIT TO THE PLACE WHERE SICK
ENGINES ARE CURED.


ENGINES ARE CURED.
Doctoring Locomotives Afflicted with
Asthma, Hot Boxes and Lame Backs.
Engines of All Ages and Descriptions.
Facts Concerning BoiIers-"Stripperk"
West of Fortieth street wide stretch Of
prairie is inclosed by high board fence and
within the inclosure stand thirteen main
structures beside a multitude of smaller
ones. OF the six ranged side by side along
the main track of the Galena division the
first and largest one, with wide doors open
ing to the east and surmounted by a huge
chimney whose volumes Of smoke would
drive the smoke inspector to distraction, is
the machine and construction shop-the
surgical clinic of the Northwestern road.
The other five of this cluster of shops, con-
| nected by system of parallel tracks, are ex-
| clusively devoted to the repair of passenger
| coaches. The two longitudinal buildings,
placed at right angles with the former, are
| the shops where the iron and woodwork for
car repairs is made. Two other structures
each over 600 feet in length, are warehouses,
and behind these are the yards for the stor-
| age of all sorts of odds and ends, such as rum
| ming gear-good, bad and indifferent-old,
| worn out axles, new wheels of paper, iron
and steel, freight ear boxes which have out
| lived their usetulness-in short, every i'm
| aginable appliance used in connection with
rolling stock generally.
To the uninitiated visitor who has obtained
the privilege of a stroll through the shops the
locomotive department is no doubt the most
interesting. In its workings it is at the same
time the most difficult to describe. To begin
| with, the locomotive is not of the neuter;
that wonderful piece of mechanism is of the
feminine gender. Like the vessel to the
sailor, the locomotive is "shen to every one
that has anything to do with her. The engi-
neer's sweetheart is a stanch, ponderous and
yet complicated being, like all females, given
to the most incomprehensible and perplexing
complaints, though most everything about
her is of iron-gray or cast IRON, wrought
iron and sheet iron
The machine shop is truly a world in it
self Entering from the north end, there are
to the left, stretching away to the farther
extremity of the huge building, many short
tracks or stalls" shut off from the outer
world when so desired by large doors. here,
side by side, all facing to the east, are loco
motives of all ages and descriptions in one
continuous line. Silent and grim they stand
their somber forms looming large and terri
BILE in the dim obscurity of this vast work
shop Here may be found engines afflicted
with great variety of complaints and in all
stages of convalescence Engines with hot
boxes and lame backs, with violent interna
wheezings and various ominous and sus
picious premontory symptoms of approach
ing dissolution; engines afflicted with sweats
violent fevers with levers that refuse II
work and wheels that will not go round
+ Among them, to and fro, in and out, NOV,
: the doctors" operating upon each accord
ing to the peculiar nature of her disease.
: Upon the right, also stretching to tn
| farther end, is a perfect wilderness of ma
chimes, while scattered over the floor in ant
about these machines wheels, cranks shafts
and every conceivable specimen of mechan
8 ical construction lie in all stages of compile
ton. Anything like an intelligent descrip
ton of even limited number of these part
:, and the mechanism by which they are shape
would require volumes. But it is here tha
they are brought TO their greatest state c
perfection and in the different processes bur
dreds Of machines, many of special desig
AND representing in the aggregate hundred
of thousands of dollars, are used constantly
We are not building any new locomotive
at present. said the oblging superintendent
of construction, "and have not for som
time All our work in that line is bein
done at the Schenectady works after specis
plans prepared by US. Do we have enoug
repairing to keep US busy9 Bless you, yes
| Often more than we can attend to- Nov
g. here laying his hand caressingly upon
huge monster towering above him, ''is NJ
| l46. Run into car at switch, stove
her side and took off her cab and air-pumJ
While she is in we will give her a geners
overhauliug 1t will take about thrt
weeks
With this gentlenans assistance many IL
teresting facts were learned The crow
sheet, or that part of the boiler directly owe
the fire, is subject to the greatest wear"
| explained, being where most of the steal
=, is generated Next to that come the flues
Here the reporter was invited to ascend a
improvised wooden staging, and, clamberin
from thence up the rounding sides Of sres
boiler, peered down into its cavernous oeptl
by means of an opening in the dome. "The.
iron bars said the superintendent, "whiC
sheet and bolted to it, and the whole is flu
ther strengthened by means of iron rot
running to the roof and dome 1t is he
that the greatest labor and attention is
slowed. By means of this glass gauge tt
engineer is kept informed of the height
water in the boiler. Should this water I
any careessness be permitted to get belo
the spot indicated, the most dire consequenc
might be expected were not the fire imm
! diately withdrawn. The contact of the CO
u water from the pump with the superheat,
surfaces of the crown sheet would generate
gas which nothing could withstand"
After an engine is run into the stall she
given over to the ''strippers," who take h
apart. She is then cleaned, after which al
defects in her boiler or fire box are remedie
- As her machinery or running gear "
usually ottwear her flues and similar par
N two to one, it is not always that any exts
sive repairs are necessary to the forms
Every portion, however, requires to be ovs
hauled, examined and adjusted. Aft
leaving the shops she is expected to rema
% out at least fourteen months before aga