The suburban citizen., 1901-08-10
BUILDING ALOCOMOTIVE
PROCESS BY WHICH FOUR ENGINES
ARE TURNED OUT EVERY DAY.


Building a locomotive in a day at
one establishment, from the raw ma
terial to the completed engine, ready
to couple up to a train of cars, is a
feat that few people, if they stop to
think about it, will regard as being
within the possibilities. Nevertheless
It is fact. AT the Baldwin Locomo-
tive Works 1900 finished locomotives
are turned out every year. Incredi-
BILE as this may appear, the power
of four locomotives is actually added
every day in the year by this one
company to the sum total Of the eff
cient motive force Of the commercial
world. 1t is difficult to realize how
there could possibly be any demand
for such an addition, for locomotives
last long time.
The system in use which was adopt
ed in 1S42 for keeping track Of every
thing, even down to n bolt, is very
complete 1t consists in the combina-
tion OF certain figures with one of the
letters a, E, c, d, Il or f. These
numbers and letters are placed on all
the drawings and follow all the va
rlous parts through the shops, so that
1t is always known from start to
finish to what locomotive every part
that is being made belongs. AS soon
as every detail is completed it is
sent to the storeroom, and when all
the parts for a locomotive have been
assembled there they are sent to the
erecting shop, where they are put to-
gether and the locomotives completed.
In going into the works the first
shop visited was that devoted to pre-
pairing the sheet iron sheathing for the
boilers, and though this is one of the
last things used in erecting a locomO-
tive, partakng as it does more of the
ornamental than the useful, 1t is diff
cult in works Of the magnitude of the
baldwin establishment, where every
thing goes on together, to say where
the actual work of making a locomO-
tive begins In order, however to get
as near to what may be regarded as
the beginning as the conditions will
admit of, it may be well to depart
from the order in which the shops
We're visited, and take up the foundry
next This is a very large room,
whole square in length, and here they
begin with the raw material. A GU
pola is situated in yard just outside
the shop, into which the pig iron is
put with coal and the other ingre.
dlents, and the resultant molten iron
is run Off through an oriiice, called an
eye, which opens into the shop, into
large bucket-like ladies'. These are at
tached to travelling cranes that con-
vey them to any part Of the shop,
where the iron is poured into moulds
that have been prepared for it and
the castings are made. The principal
castings made here, although there
are innumerable small ones made also,
are cylinders and cast iron driving
wheels, the steel driving wheels being
purchased outside. In casting the
wheels the molten metal is poured in
at the centre where the hub is, and
over this a man stands, constantly
stirring the metal with a rod, this
being done because the metal in run
ming into the spokes has a tendency
t. draw away from and weaken the
hub; by constantly agitatirg it at this
point this undesirable result is avoided
The wheels, after being carefully
cleaned, are taken TO the wheelshOp
where they are first prepared for fore
ing them on the aXles. This is done
by placing them on rotating tables,
where the hubs are faced and bored
out with great accuracy and a keyway
slotted in. The aXles. which are being
turned and hnishd at the same time,
have q diameter exceeding that of the
hub by three-thousandths of an inch
to inch of axle diameter. When both
are ready the axle, after being coated
with lubricant, which is also used
in the hub, is hung between the up
rights of the hydraulic press, and first
one wheel and then the other forced
on. The wheels are then placed in
turning lathe and turned up to re-
CelNe lhe llIeS, WHICH are maze OF
steel, having great tensile strength.
These are shrunk on-that is, they are
heated just enough to produce sufi-
cient expansion to allow them to go
on the wheel easily, and when on they
are subjected to a stream of cold
water, which shrinks and binds them
upon the wheel. The crank pins are
then inserted and the wheels are ready
for use.
Now comes the boiler shop. Here
conversation is positively prohibited
not by any regulation of the company,
but for the reason that it would he
useless to attempt it, as what you said
could not be heard. In making boil
ers steel plate is used. 1t is received
at the works in various sizes and
some plates being over
twenty feet long; this length is neces-
sary to form the ring for the large
boilers. They are first made ready |
for drilling and punching. This is
done by placing them on n table and |
on them in accordance with |
the detail plan the places where holes !