The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-08-28
WHIMS OF LOCOMOTIVES.
An Engineer Tells of Their Many
Strange Actions
They Become Deranged and Maniacal.
suffer from Nervous Prostration, and
Are Generally Like Human Be
inSs-One That Had the Grip


maniacal, like human beings" said
| John Bowcher, the oldest express en-
/ gineer on the Big Four. Bowcher has
the superstitions common to nearly al
/ men in his business
II assure you," Bowcher continued,
THAT locomotives require regular rest,
constant attention, even nursing when
they don't feel right An engine Will
take spells when nothing you can do
will make it act properly. Then the
shop Is the only place for it, and there
my machine has got to go, or quit the
service of the road
do certain engines get bad charac-
ters-devclop some unexpected faint IN
the blood, so To speak, after being IN
use for awhile?" was asked by re-
porter who met Mr.. Bowcher at re-
union of locomotive engineers
They certainly do grow unmanage-
able sometimes Generally this is
from overworl<. Engines are like Il
thoroughbred horse in that particular
respect They will get off their feed
by which / mean that they will not
pump up right, the furnace will clog
and the efficiency of the fuel will not
be obtained They suffer from a lack
Of energy. You are liable to stall on
an upgrade. They Will act badly ON
the curves. manifesting a decided in
clination to mount the rails or TO take
sudden starts that will endanger the
couplings
''Old No g that l used to make the
best time with when she was right
had an annoying habit of starting Will
an awful jerk 1t didn't matter how
carefully | opened the throttle. how
thoroughly / understood the condition
of the steam, away we jumped every
time. 1t seemed as If the steam gath
cred itself somewhere and, after it
got ready, let itself go. The old mon
stcr has been broken up, and l am
glad of it. She was the last of the
'seven-footers-' The number of seven
foot drive-wheels now in use are very
few. / do not personally know of any.
'Six feet seems to be about right
But, recurring to the temper of the To-
comotives, they are affected by the
weather, which is readily understood,
but n dull, heavy sky or n dense at
mospherc has like effect This | can
not explain in any way whatever. Why,
Mart Smith, who was a strict church
man, couldn't do anything with one of
his engines during Lent. After Easter
day the disinclination to make time dis
appeared
s.She would hustle whenever
called upon. Sounds very absurd,
doesn't it? But it's true The grip
is the only distemper to which l can
lillen "A locomotive such as Mart's was
When a machine gets so. / tell you, she
must have trcatment-the best scicn-
titic overhaullng. She needs masseur
needs galvanism-"
when once n locomotive has lost
force of character or self-respect, does
she ever regain it?'' was asked
Generally not" said Bowcher, med
itatively. Il know recent case in
which an engine recovered from a
stroke of this paralysis and became, as
she is to-day. the best on the road.
When engine No. Il, on the Louisville,
New Albany & Chicago road, came out
of the shop brand new, a little more
than wear ago, she was successfully
put in the hands of a half dozen of the
best engineers on the road to make the
run from Lafayette to New Albany.
After a fair trial every man, with
out exception, pronounced No. al an
utterly worthless piece of machinery.
The general superintendent heard of
the engine and ordered her condemned,
but the master mechanic blurted out to
him:
''.She doesn't like the run. It's a
mighty mean run, and she knows 1t as
well as you do
You see the master mechanic
wanted the locomotive to have another
chance. Well, she got it, and | tell
you it was TO have been her last one
She'd have been sold for scrap iron or
run off the track into forest and con-
verted into the motive power for saw
mill. No. IL was sent up to Indian
apolis and put on the run to Monon- /
went TO the round house and looked
her over, for I'd heard of her and am
very curious. l was asked what /
thought was the matter. | spent an
hour over her and everything appeared
to be right took an off day and ran
down fifty miles on her.
''She made great time To-day she
is the fastest on the road and the most
reliable. She can pull vestibule
train of five cars n mile a minute.
Now she's the pet, the banner engine
of the road. n month ago she was in
a fair way to be turned out to die, but
now hOihlAif II bOO ilSii AoA iiNi
She has the best engineer and fireman
and the best attention in the shop"
''You speak of the need of rest, Mr..
Bowcher. Must it be regular? 1 mean
at regular times?'
Most assuredly," was the prompt
reply. "a locomotive must be allowed
to recover her residence. That's the
word, you have it spelled correctly
II L
that pulls out its breath in the round
house (yvhere it has been in state of
quiet and rest, backs up to a big train,
and, at the sound of the conductors
bell, rushes off on hundred-mile run,
at fifty or sixty miles an hour, is under
a heavy nervous strain. Don't smile. /
mean exactly what ] say.
Every atom in the molecular struc-
ure of the steel and iron composing it
is at the highest tension The engine
literally is out to do or diel To fail in
making the run on schedule time once
or twice arouses suspicion The
moment an engine is ranked as un-
trustworthy her dccadence has begun.
Unless she has friend at court, as No.
II had, her doom is fixed.
This brings me to another point.
Some engineers have way of punish
ing engines that are refractory. Yes,
indeed. They can abuse a locomotive
worse than the most brutal driver
can maltreat his horse. How?
Twenty ways. For instance, they
can give the engine less coal while ex-
acting the same speed, less oil on the
bearing by pulling the throttle wide
open on the slightest pretext. of
course such men are always in trouble
They burst a cylinder head by leav-
ing the water-coclks closed to spite the