The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-01
MAKING Of
An ENGINE
How Great Steel Locomotive
Is Built in s DAYS.
FIVE MADE AT ONE TIME
Modern Triumph of Carriers
in Commercial World

Die DOaSt or Sir -AnlnOlly OlOuCcSeci, "Ns
that was in England, and some few years
ago when Kipling first created him. To-
day in America our dry-land commerce
enables one firm alone TO say; Twelve
thousand men on payroll and fifteen hun
dred locomotives year.
Each working day, in other words, hve
complete locomotives finished in every
Detail, are set down upon the rails by
the giant cranes at that one shop, and
speed away north, south, and west TO
bring the logs down out OF the Canadian
forests the ores out of Mexico, TO san
r. mile a minute over the rolling prairies
and climb the mountains of the west, or
to be loaded bodily into ships for foreign
countries.
At the thought of so large an output.
two questions come Immediately to ones
mind How is it possible for a factory
to turn out locomotives at the rate Of
five a day, and once they are built, what
becomes of them?
AS to disposing of them. there seems to
be no difficulty On the contrary, they
can't be built fast enough. At the works
] visited, the orders for new locomotives
were a year ahead of the shops, not
withstanding they had purposely reduced
their foreign trade about 40 per cent in
1900 to about 20 in 1901, and still less for
the present year; and on many roads
engines were being used beyond the per-
fod of their economical life because new,
or even secondhand ones in good repair
could neither be begged nor borrowed.
1t is not that locomotives wear out at
such rapid rate They will run, with
proper repairs, for fifteen to twenty
years; but the railroads arc growing.
Zach year there are -$r.y n miIicn more
Of us who ride. and proportionately more
freight to carry and more places to carry
It to
AS to the other consideration-how so
many locomotives are built-that is a
more complicated affair The secret of it
ali is that reducing things TO certain stan
cards or types, and building great num-
bers of engines, all exactly alike. to these
standards.
A locomotive begins. like many a less
worthy machine, in the foundry. There
arc the tall dark. chimney-like cupolas
in the distance with the molten iron run
ming out of them; there are the gre ~
pots swinging to and fro or the era 1ts.
pouring their livid contents into the iron
boxes wherein the sand is deftly moulded
70 give the metal its required shape when
II has cooled; and here are the disorde. ed
heaps OF black sand from which you see
the parts OF future locomotives pein.s
dug up like treasures from an ancient
city. They are the cylinders. for the
most part. as will appear when the sand
is dug out Of them.
The modern locomotive of the more
powerful type is apt to have two cylin
ders on each side: and these. with their
accompanying valve chamber. are cast
all in one piece together with the support
for the front end of the boiler. If YOU
will follow the making of one of these
castings, you will see that the TASKS
that is. the boxes in which it is cast
are made especially for that one purpose;
that the ladies carry just the right
amount of metal to pour into it, and later
you may watch it being poured out in
q special machine which bores out the
circular cavities for both pistons and IN
valve all at once at Il tremendous say
ing OF time.
So much for the cylinders-for the iror
horse is being attacked jim more directions
lnan one. He is. in fact. being begun
all over the neighborhood. for a large
locomotive plant is a neighborhood in it,.
self in the very noisiest. busiest part
Of it all they are WORKING or the boiler
If you have any questions to ask your
guide ask them before YOU enter the
boiler shop, for the increasingq roar that
greets you as you approach it precludes
the possibility of conV ersation. Along the
floor Of long straight building traversed
by an overland crane. You see the boilers
big and little. whole and in pieces. each
contributing its general share to the
racket. each holding the attention of a
crew OF grimy men who crawl in and
out Of ii, lombard If with hot rivets.
and belabor il with hammers.
You Will see, first OF AL how the steel
plates. from which the boilers are made
are marked out all alike by sheet-iron
patterns. how each hole is located bv
guage. how they are punched out bv
hydraulic punches. several holes at once,
by the special multiple drills that bore
down through half-a-dozen plates at .
time piled one on the other II takes
hardly any longer 10 build half a dozen
boilers than il would To build one WHOM
they are all alike. and the machinery is
made especially TO do it. Further on We
come 10 where the fat sheets go through
set OF rollers and come out cu,iei m
into cylindrical form Just cuffs and
collars emerge from an ironing machiue
In another place we come TO A giant
1emon scueezer in operation II is gsed
TO turn over the Ranges" or edges of
TIE circular end-plates so that the cvT,-
drical shell can be riveted to them. BE-
side IL stands a large furnace. Whom
the plate IS red hot it is drawn from
the furnace and placed in the naurt-r
machine Once in place the lever is -ug-
Cd. the water flows into the rams and the
two parts or the mschlne-one provided
with a circular cavity. the other witt =
circular projection fitting into ii cor,s
together with an Irresistible force OF ov,,
three hundred tons. and between the two
the plate bends TO its proper shap, rs
If it were made OF dough or hot InolasSes
etndy
And now we may see all these parts
assembled hoisted upon a chain as though
they weighed nothing al ali am le; down
between wha' looks Tx Z air Z cno--
NOUS J. hster jaws risip.y twelve ~ fr-
teen feet up from ;hc floor ;sot bite saw
aeely AZ. olinging 4 rivet n each bite. a.
fast as they can he heated and Put in
place
While all this noise is going on In the
boiler shop. the blacksmiths are having
their fun out. of the locomotive. Their
part is the frame-a part you are not US
ually aware of as the engine passes YOU
but one which is noe the less essential
Every wagon has a certain amount O:
gear under it joining the axles and keep