The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-08-06
RUNNING FAST TRAINS.
A Talk With Engineer Who is Famous
for the Speed He Makes.

the stops and slowdowns where an en-
CINE loses time. You take, for in
stance, train that has to be brought
to dead standstill; it will require
as high as ten minutes before it can
be got well under way again, and when
you are going at sixty miles an hour
ten minutes counts great deal.
1T seems singular, but to person
who is associated With engines all
the time they almost seem olive.
This is on account Of the sensitive
machinery about them. You cant
any more say what kind of time an
engine is going to make when you
start out with it than you can tell
how race horse is going to run.
Some days when you take the machine
out it will worry along, and you cant
get it to run during the whole trip,
and then at other times it will start
off perfectly smooth and you will have
no trouble whatever. The weather
has much to do with the way an Ell.
gine works. When the atmosphere is
damp and cold and the oil is thick the.
machinery works much harder than in
dry, warm weather when the oil re-
mains thin. Then there is the differ
ence in coal; some engines will burn
one kind better than another. And
the way the wind blows also has much
to do with the speed that is madeo
1.-The thing that helps out the most
IN making fast runs, aud that which
makes them possible, is the Westing-
house automatic brake. With this
appliance the engineer Has absolute
control Of the train; and when he sees
danger ahead he can stop at will.
Many people think that it is putting
too much work on the engineer to
have him watch the brake, but it is
not. He by all that is right should
have full charge of the train, because
he rides in front, where everything
that transpires on the track is in full
view. 1t used to be that we would
have to sight danger a long way a
head 80 as to give the brakeman O
chance to get the brakes set. In
those days when you whistled for
brakes, the men in the train could
never tell what you wanted to stop for
aud, consequently, they would not
get them set as quickly as the engineer
would have liked. AS it is now, when
he sees anything that looks dangerous
he can have the train nearly stopped
before the obstacle comes into full
view.
''lt is generally thought the speed
the engines are required to maintain, :"
MIR. Nagle went on to say, "greatly
Injuries them, but I don't find that
this is true, because it seems that they
are built for it. In fact, the engines
are mucn larger than they were some
years ago. When I first began to run
we carried abou. l30 pounds Of steam,
while now we uee from 215 to 23O
boiler pressure. It can be easily seen
that if it requires this much more
steam to get the engines over the rails
now We must be making much faster
time and pulling heavier loads. The
engines now, while larger, are not 80
hard to handle as the old style affairs,
because all of the improvements have
been to make them run easier. 1t used
to be the pumps on the machine would
not work except when the engine was
in motion, but now these pumps will
work at any time and full amount Of
steam can be had when the engine
leaves the roundhouse. The lubricat.
ing Of valves is another thing that is q
great help. AS it used to be man
would have to go round and pour oil
on, while now the oil will run right on
to the valve full Of steam. "-Indiana-
polis Journal