The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-01

| ing Inc wheels paraHel. Inc lOcOmOuV
| frame serves similar purpose. 1t is il
| the shape of two stout trusses joininl
firmly to the cylinders at one end. to tn
fire box" or just inside the drive wheels
and carrying all their journals and equal
izing springs.
Fifty fires burn all at once day ant
night to make the frames, and hundred.
of brawny men swing sledges, or worl
the more powerful steam hammers. 1t is
a blazing spectacle. a scene of fesound-
ing activity; and there is little time fol
rest, for while the hammer blows are
falling on one piece, the next is heating
hood of the frame shop enjoys one con-
tinuous earthquake year in and yeaI
out.
But we leave the scene of conf1agration
presently for gloomier, cooler spot in
which the frames are planed up AND
shaped accurately, and drilled with holes
to receive the bolts of the wheel journals.
Here We see again the advantage OF
building engines by the score. A half
dozen frames appear stacked in a pile
with the 'shaper'' going over the six
with the same ease that it would attack
one. In the drill presses, two or three
holes are bored simultaneously by spe-
cially designed machinery. The journals
that are to attach the drivers to the
frames are boited down in long rows on
the planners. and the same cut that fin
ishes one finishes them all.
But while cylinders and boilers and
frames have been growing into shape. a
hundred other smaller parts have been
created also. The wrought steel axles
from one part of the country have been
centres frcn. another which, in turn are
prepared to have their steel tires from
still another locality shrunk onlo Them.
There is whole shop, in fact, concerned
with nothing but wheels, axles and tires.
And these are all to be united by the
enormous pressures either of hydraulic
rams or of shrinkage after heating, or
wedges which stand the hammer of a
mile a minute over the rails. >
And you may walk a whole day from
shop to shop and not see half the army
of machines and machinists at work on
the valve gear. the connecting and coup
ling rods, and small pieces without end
each being done by the dczer according
To Z .yeil-vn'li guaFe o. drawing. by
mai rho d.es tina: IA. ia thing.
The assembled locomotive is finally
what we are to see, and doubtless you
have had quite enough walking about
TO make you heartily glad to view him
together in one place. His getting to-
gether when they take his cylinders. bolt
them to the front end of his boilers, and
set the two squardly up on jack screws.
The center lines of the cylinders are the
beginning of the whole engine. Next come
the frames that the smiths pcrsp'rcd
over SO freely-shifted this way and that
till they're square with a little silk cord,
then bolted firmly to cylinders arc fire
box and other intermedi1.. points, form
ing strong backbone for the whole.
Next the big crane comes and lifts the
en,ie structure off the floor. the drive
wheols, with the journals really On the
axles. are rolled into place beneath. and
the locomotive is let down again On them.
After that come the gull 3 for that
''cras shead' which you see travelling
Lack and forth at a grea. rate when
the engine is running, then the pistons
and rods which slide in and out of the
cylinder with equal industry. and the
rods that bind one wheel to
the next so that they all turn together
Also there are the countless parts of the
valve motion which controls the steam
all to be fitted piece by piece land al
though each has been made carefully to
gauge and drawing. there's a deal of
scrapping and adjusting to be done to
bring them together.
BY this time the cab has been finished
and is ready TO be put in place The
forward truck or pilot with its cow
needs only to be rolled into
place 4 score of finished attachments
steam gauges, lubricators, the air brakes.
the hand rails, are all being put on at
once. The boiler and cylinders are being
covered with Tagging ov-
ercoats to keep them hot and away from
the air. The drive wheels are being
painted. Men of a half a dozen trades
swarm over the machine at once with
scarce room for their elbows. How each
keeps his mind on his own work and
does his part is not clear to the by
stander.
AT last the locomotive is ready to be
tested. Steam is let into the boiler from
a reservoir. the engine is blocked up
high enough so that the wheels clear the
ground, and then it is run at the rate of
a mile a minute. If there has been any
error in the alignment. any inequality in
the valve motion. here is where they
ind il out. Then. when everything is
comes the big crane again
to life the whole one hundred tons bodily
i'm a rope sling and set ii down on the
track. where you see the machine any
day as you pass the works with dozens
of others scattered for three miles down
the road receiving their final finishing
touches.
So we have seen the building OF loco
motive. specifically at least. from begin
ming to end. We have found out the
great advantage of conforming to a
uniform standard. We have watched how
each man was trained always TO do the
same special thing. and how each machine
was brought up and disciplined to do even
more than two things at once and do
them well. or II not that. then to perform
its single duty on half dozen similar
parts at once The special gauges. the
special tools. the special systems of doing
things-we have taken note of them
and yet. in the end. il seems as wonder
full and unaccouutable as ever how they
can start with nothing and end with
4 great giant of a machine in from two
months lowell. once somebody was in
great hurry for Il small. narrow-gauge
locomotive. and they built it i'm eight
DAYS
Moreover. the types and standards TO
which they work are not permanent. for
s locomotive is quite as subject to evolu-
ton as anything else. The great Num-
Der seeio' just completed by the Baldwin
Locomotive Works. with its Vanderbilt