The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-21
LOCOMOTIVES AND ENGINEERS.
Fast and Slow Runs and Peculiarities of
Various Engines.

Fast and Slow Runs and Pecullar1t1es OF
Various Engines.
1t takes about an hour to get steam
enough on an ordinary locomotive engine
to start it, from cold water. 1t is a familiar
fact that the water in the boilers of steam
fire engines in cities is kept hot while the
engine is standing in the house by a pipe
connection with boiler underneath; when
the engine starts its own fire is lighted.
Locomotive engines that are running
regularly stand in the roundhouse in the
intervals between runs with their fires
banked.
The fires are kept cleaned, but they may
not be hauled for weeks. The practice
varies somewhat in this respect. On some
roads fires are hauled once a week; on
other roads they are kept up in engines for
three or four weeks or more continuously.
A locomotive engineer on one OF the fast
est runs out OF New York says that he has
never seen an engine that would run as
fast as he would like to ride. No appre-
hension apparently is felt by the engineer
OF fast engine.
Calmness is one of his most noticeable
traits. and if he worries at all it is because
he has got hot box, or something has
happened so that he may not be able to
make the time, and not because he is going
through the air at fifty, sixty, seventy
miles an hour. But it should be under
stood that none but man of perfect nerve
is likely to reach the footboard of a fast
engine
There is not vast difference between
running at night and at day. Signal lights
at night are palmer ana can be seen at a
much greater distance than day signals.
The engineer must of course keep con-
stantly in mind where he is, but he comes
to know the country just as pilot knows
his landmarks in the dark; and he has
this advantage of the pilot, that he can't
very well get out of the channel. Most
engineers prefer day runs, because it seems
more natural to work in the daytime, and
it is pleasanter.
Almost all locomotive engineers prefer a
fast run to a slow one. The fast trains are
the blue ribbons of the road. Aside from
the honor of running fast train there is
very substantial advantage in the hours.
If an engineer simply stepped into his cab
in the station and stepped out again on his
return almost any run might do well
enough, but he does not do that; he goes
to the roundhouse before train time and
looks over the engine, and sees that it is
in condition and properly supplied for the
run and in every way ready, and he runs
the engine to the, station.
All this takes time. On his return he
runs tne engine DdGk TO IDe TOunCDOuSe :,
this takes time, too, though not so much
as ths time spent before the rum but alto
gether these periods add materially to the
length of the engineers hours. Taking
these duties into account, the great adj
vantages of fast run are manifest-the
shorter the time spent on the road the
shorter the total time.
There is a common impression that no
two locomotive engines work just alike,
even though made from the same pat
terms. locomotive engineer of long ex-
perience says that the Impression is cor
rect. He says, by way of illustration, that
two high grade watches of the same pat
tern, and supposed to be just alike, may
not work the same way.
One may not vary half a minute in six
mouths and so be, practically, perfect
tmekee per, while the other may vary a
minute in a month. 1t is so with engines
they do not work just alike. One may
steam and run better than the other. The
slightest variation in finish or adjustment
might be sufficient to cause this
When the new engine has been run a
year or so it goes to the shop to be over
hauled. With it goes report of the en-
gineer, who has run it on the engines
characteristics and performance. If the
engine has developed any defects they can
usually be remedied at this overhauling
and it may be that the engine comes out
on the road again as smart as any of them
New York Sun.