Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-10-09
TRICKS OF ENGINES.
Anew or THE ILLS TO WHICH To-
comoTivEs ARE SUBJECT.

- FEW or THE ILLS TO WHICH To-
comoTNss ARE SUBJECT.
Making Motion 10 HIM Aws,-.ro.,,-
sns''-The Trieh Of Gsinx Iams--rh.
Odd Peat Of Jnmpsnx--Bre.I,.v
Spring.
One d the most common trfcta tya.
zines play y that Of running away 1'hs
enfineer VIII close the valves and got ,,,,e
OF .he cap. leaving her standing o9ietIv
ena subnissively, and all OF a sudden ~
takes notion 10 run away, and the pert
thing he knows she Is shootfuo M, 49,
track ut the top Of her speed. and syhao
she gets away she generally keeps an y,,,'
ming until her steam gives out. THAI ,,,a.
not 10 until she has run fnto anoth..y,
tram, but little does she care far oo,,sa
quences; she ia on on tear and ~.
means 70 make the-most Of II Inst Nh,
engines 90 this or how ID a u1ysterv H.,
the throttle Can open itself or how Inc er-
gine can run with its throttle closed /.
beyond The ken Of engineers, but thew do
" ana sometimes play havoc, too. They
gehefaly PICK the time when they have
peen on their good behavior for few
days, and when their masters confidence
~ them y high, 10 play this particular
PRANK, ana therefore they arc generally
successful when they try IT,
Another trick they have "a tbat -
ioahi'ng without any warning or an
parent reason the water in ff,e hoiisr III, Iii
begin to foam instead OF making st.a,,,
and it will bubble up ike the Is,iIins,
water in a teakestie, and look like . ya,,,
much disturbed tub Of soapsuds No
steam can be obtained from foarnins,
water, and the only thing the engineer can
DO Is TO let IL run out and turn in fresh
supply; but that takes time and causes a
delay, and all for whimsical notion
that the engine got into her hard head
roaming, however, Is a trife comuared
with the trouble that Is caused when she
goes lame. and the work Of getting her
trim Is not nearly SO great. She goes lame
from TWO causes. She does not sinh her
toe or have any one step on her eorns, but
she either slips an eccentric or does not
cough" regularly. The eccentrics Wort,
on the axle of the main drivers. and
sometimes the outer ring will Slip off the
inner, or eccentric proper, and fall down
on the axle. As the eccentrics work the
| valves in the steam chest, the SUNNY az
steam is cut off from the cylinder when
oce of them slips, and consequently the
engine stops as short az grandfather
| clock.
| NOT AN EASY JOB.
| Then the engineer has to crawl under
the machine, take out the bolts which
hold the ring, place it back In position
and screw 1t on again. That ia easy
enough to talk about, but not SO easy to
do, for the ring and rod attached to it
weigh over 100 pounds. 1t is by no means
light task to get underneath an engine
or move an iron ring of that weight. into
position. The coughing Is not the result
OF cold, but Is the discharge Of the
steam from the cylinder after it has been
nsed. She ought to cough four times TO
each revolution of the driving wheel but
when the valves choke she will only cough
twice or three times. and to remedy that
the cap of the steam chest must be re-
moved and the valves given dose OF oil.
/ One Of the cd lest feats that an engine
| performs is that of jumping 1t is not
| the intention to tell the old stories of how
| one engine jumped over another to avoid
a collision, or of that engine in the wild
west which jumped across canon when
the bridge had fallen; but really engines
do jump little. When they are travel
| ing at very high rate of speed and they
run over a stone or any little obstruction
on the track, they will jump clear of the
track ten or twelve inches, and in almost
every case they will light squarely on the
rails when they come down That is
probably because the engine knows that
it is a dangerous thing to jump off the
track. and, as she is not a, all vicious in
playing her pranks, she leaps up, then
runs smoothly along after giving the engi-
neer and fireman good scare When an
engine is in bad humor, instead of play
ing some innocent trick of that kind she
breaks down completely and then she
makes lame trip to the shops.
BREAKING A SPRING.
The most frequent accident is the break
/ ing of one Of the springs on which the
body of the engine rests. That is liable
to occur whenever she runs over rough
joint in the track. 1t would seem impos-
sible to raise the body back to its position
if the accident should occur any distance
from the shops, but the engineers have a
very simple way Of doing it. Blocks Of
wood are placed just behind the wheels
on the side on which the spring broke.
The engine is run back and the wheels,
running on the blocks, lift that side so
high above the ground that the body is
level. A beam is placed under the body
and the blocks are then removed, the
wheel falling back to the track. That
leaves the body in its original and proper
position, and blocks of wood are substitu-
ted for the broken spring. In that condi-
ton she is run TO the shop for repairs.
The straps which hold the driving bars to
the pins in the wheels sometimes break,
too, and frequently the pins are also
/ hr,,bap lint accidents af that kind gen.
orally occur on a slippery track. When
the rails are wet, if the engine has heavy
load, the wheels will slip around at
lively rate but the engine will not move
forward an inch. Then the engineer
opens the sand box. and if be pours toe
much sand on the rails the wheels viii
take hold too suddenly and the straI
snaps, or out comes the pin. Then thu
engine is totally paralyzed on that sid,
and she has to be run into the shop Will
ne side only.