The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-12
TEAMS OF FIFTY HORSES.
WONDERELL o OUTFITS THATDO NEW
 YORK'S HEAVY 7RUCKING.

The Vehicles Constructed of Stee
 Throushout md Designed to Carry
 Loads of Nearly 100 Tons-Curtou'
 Way In Which the Ponderous Horses
 Are Hitched to Them.
 There are employed in this city al
 heavy trucking teams that'for the num-
 Der or horses hooked up together leave
 leave the biggest of circus teams Tar III
 the shade The band wagon with may
 be twenty handsome horses strung out
 in pairs is great, and the driving or thls
 outfit by single man is considerable
 of a feat, but far more impressive are
 some of the trucking teams which oc-
 casionally run up to fifty horses, the passing of such team being like that of troup of cavalry; while the weight
 of the load it is hauling may Tall not
 much short of a hundred tons. rms sofl
 of turnout affords one of the most strlk-
 ing of the city's street sights. People
 line up on the sidewalk when it goes by
 as they would to watch a procession
 and there are not many processlons that
 can equal it for interest
 A thirty-horse truck team seen in the
 streets recently hauled giant spool Of
 wire cable in itself a very conspicuous
 object. The spool is made of two great
 discs of wood, joined by an axle-like
 spindle, upon which the cable is wound.
 This particular piece of cable weighed
 forty six tons. The truck that carried
 D1n4 frn11
 wheels, verything-and it weighed
 about ten tons The wheels, about
 three and half feet in diameter, have
 face a foot in width, so that they will
 not cut through the pavement. Ihe fifth wheel, upon which the forward
 axle turns, is about five feet in diameter and is practically a small turntable.
 The manner in which the team is hooked to one who sees such an outfit for the first time, Is sure to prove of in terest. At the wheel, as might be eX- pected, are pair of big horses. but these are not hooked to a pole; they stand between shafts the middle one, projecting between the two horses
 They are small timbers, six inch or so in diameter, and at the end where they are attached to the axle they are framed into solid steel plates. Like any other shafts they can be raised or lowered at the front end but framed as they are, at the other end, with those steel plates, there is no spring or give in any other direction. When they are turned to right or left the axle turns with them for sure. And not only are they thus held rigidly at the axle, but they are likewise so held at their forward ends, where stout bar is placed across them. The big wheel horses, driven by man who stands on the front end of the truck platform. are net expected to pull on the load: their work is to keep the shafts steady and true. Hitched on at the end of each outer shaft, is a pair of horses: these two pairs thus stand ing side by side, making a rank of four horses in front of the two wheelers Then from the end of each one of the two outer shafts there is carried for ward a steel cable to which additional pairs are attached. The two cables thus running ahead one from each outer shaft, are made in sections which can be readily joined together so as to make continuous towing cables of any length desired, according to the of horses to be hooked on to make up the team.
 A thirty-horse team, such as is here referred to would thus be made up, be- | sides the wheel pair of two columns of seventy pair each strung along on two cables stretching forward from the shafts The two columns can be driven out into the form of the letter V; and in some circumstances, as in working the team around 6 corner, it is handy | to be able to use them In two lines. In | the actual straight ahead haul the two | strings of horses march side by side, in | 8 solid column of ranks of four. The horses are powerful animals, sixteen ! hundredWeight or whereabouts apiece, | and they take the great load along with . ease; presenting, as they move, stir ring spectacle. For the fifteen pairs there are fifteen drivers, besides the man who stands on the truck and guides the wheel team.
 And ahead walks a man to clear the road, especially to warn passing teams In intersecting streets; while behind the great truck are a couple Of ordinary trucks loaded with the materials that will be brought into use in unloading the reel when 1t shall have been brought to it's destination. The heavier of these two trucks, weighing with it's load three or four tons, serves the purpose of a oreak on the great truck if there should oe occasion. Of couse the wheel team, Ii IS big as it is, couldn't begin to hold he truck from it's enormous load on a town grade, and so on such stretch hey carry a cable from the rear axle f 10 the end of the pole of the truck be- lind and rope that trucks wheels so i hat they won't turn. With steel shoes lnder it's wheels to save the tires from )eing ground off, the material truck $ with its load of three or four tons thus l ,ecomes a drag and it is enough to s lold the main truck on any grade that f would be encountered in the city. f The whole outfit is under the charge z f foreman, who goes sometimes I foot, but commonly in a buggy. All q movements are made under his direc- s ion, including the starting of the team. The foreman has prevlousely deter q nined the route to be followed. He f nows the city's streets we'll; what i, treets he can go on with heavy loads f ,ithout sinking through the pavement, nd all that. He knows where all the | h