The record-union., 1896-05-10

something solid upon which to rear their
structures, and the solidest, safest and
most satisfactory materials as yet dis
covered upon which to build cars are
iron and wood.
Trucks. Trucks that groan and creak
and heave, but stand the strain and
bear up bravely under the load placed
upon them. You cannot build house
without a foundation, and car can
not be constructed without trucks.
While the word truck" may have an
unattractive as well as pleblan sound,
one must needs be able to make truck
before he can build car. You may be
q high-grade molder and know all
about sawmills; you may understand
the use of all the machinery IN the
car-machine shops, or be an expert
platter or polisher, or you may De
skilled pattern maker, and still II you
cannot make a truck your car would be
a weary time getting ready TO take you
'back to the States"
So there is a truck department In
the Southern Pacific shops in this city,
and it is situated on the main floor Of
the car machine shop.
Before you find the foreman you will
notice that no surplus energy is going
W waste, every HAL DelIlS oPei
his own affairs. Those truck-makers
are few in number, but they are very
busy, and they build trucks in their
entirety, from the axles up.
1t was away back in November. 1868,
when the first car trucks, in sections,
were laid down in Sacramento. There
were trucks for two passenger and
seven fiat cars in the consignment, and
do n ma around
Cape Horn in safety. 1t was then that
the truck builders first came before
the notice of the Sacramento public,
and they have staid there ever slice.
1t was in January, 1864, before the
first of the two passenger cars was
ready for the road, and it was deter
mined to have a grand excursion with
1t for the train" The trip was neces-
sarily a limited one, the road having
been completed only to Roseville juno
tion, a distance of eighteen miles. But
the length of the journey did not bother
the excursionists, the principal feature
being that they were travelling over the
first railroad ever made in the State,
and in the first car ever set up on the
Pacific Coast.
There were men aboard that first pas
senger car who have since become fa-
nous in national as we'll as railroad
matters. Governor Stanford was there,
as were also Charles Crocker, Mark
Hopkins Edward Miller, E. b. Crocker;
Benjamin Welch, Warren Waldron,
Nate Webb and quite a number of
others interested in the success Of the
undertaking, whose names have since
become widely known in railroad cir
cles. J. r. Watson was conductor of
the train, and he, together with many
another California railroad pioneer who
made the trip with him, has passed
away, leaving his place to be filed by
younger, if not ADLER men.
But if you return to the truck de-
partment, you will find that the wheels
and axles from the car machine shop,
the forgings from the blacksmith shop,
the castings from the foundry and the
woodwork from the sawmills, designed
to enter into the construction of trucks,
have preceded you, and are ready to be
set up by the clever truck builder.
The first thing to be done is to over
haul the timbers used, dressing out the
mortices and fitting lemons. When this
has been done, your wheel piece" is
set in position. The wheel piece is a
seven-inch iron plates. Attached to the
wheel piece, on six-wheel trucks, are
two wooden and two iron transoms, or
crossbeams, connecting the side-frames
or wheel pieces, with each other, and it
is the function of those same transoms
to carry the entire weight of the car
proper, exclusive of all the truck por-
tions except the car bolster.
l.. Ill ~; ;ata ~ 80.
measures eight by twelve and three
fourths inches, and is strengthened by
two truss rods from three fourths to
one inch in diameter, which enter the
end Of the bolster and coming out OF
the bottom near the center, re-enter it
and come out again directly opposite
the point Of their first entry, thus form
ing truss from which the rod receives
its name. and which is capable of bear
ing any strain brought to bear upon it.
The truck bolster Vests upon the
springs and allows of the easy, swing
ing motion given to the car by the
springs, which, under Pullman car,
number eight. The springs themselves
rest upon steel spring planks two
inches thick, to which is connected
pivot fastenings reaching from one
transom to another. Thus the car rests
upon the bolster, the bolster upon the
springs, the springs upon the spring
planks, the spring planks upon the
transoms, the transoms upon the wheel
pieces or side frames, and finally the
side frames support the pedestals, which
are heavy castings designed to hold the
wheels of the car in their proper rela-
tive positions.
The journal is merely an extension Of
the axle through the wheel upon the
exterior side, but its Importance is
shown at a glance when it is under
stood that on top Of 1t are placed the
two parts Of the bearings or brass box
irgs, which are filled with a soft COM
position called 'anti-friction'' metal.
and that under this bearing the journal
revolyes without a murmur while Ii
carries the entire car together with its
load. While other portions of The truck
have their burdens 10 carry, the jour
nal has no choice.
The journal must be true to a hair,
and as smooth as glass; otherwise in re-
yolving the friction would generate
heat which would cause what is usu-
ally termed hot box In case OF
great heat there is a possibility of a
journal breaking off, which would prob
ably result seriously. The breaking of
G journal is, however,, rare occur
renee; for in these advanced days, rail-
roading has become an exact science,
and inspection stations are situated so
close together that any inclination of a
box to 'heat" would almost certainly be
detected before any serious accident