Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-21
ENGINES OF THE PAST
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CUM
BERSoME CAMELBACK.
"reminiscences Of an Old Locomotive
Engineer-Early Days In
Railroading.
From the New York Times.


you boys ought to have seen what were
thought to be monster engines in the days
when I first started to railroad" said old
Jim Lennox, Familiarity known as Uncle
JIM" addressing a party of engineers who
were sitting just outside of the roundhouse
of the Pennsylvania railroad in Jersey City
the other day discussing the features Of a
huge new freight engine which they had
minutes before.
Uncle Jim," in the course of his career
as an engineer, has run on all the principal
railroads in the United States, and is well
acquainted with all the different kinds of
locomotives that have been in use from the
time when railroading was in its infancy
down to the present day.
when l first began to railroad in $780,
he said, II got job on the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad as fireman on the mountain
division between Piedmont and Fetterman,
w. Va. the latter place being the western
end of the road at that time. We did not
have In those days the big 12O-ton fellows
like the one we have just been looking at.
Then the biggest thing in the way of an
engine was the old Comeback At that
time it was thought to be as big as house.
and 1t did look to be very large, too, as the
cab was built on top and along the whole
length of the boiler, with glass windows all
it as there is in the parlor Of an ordinary
city flat. The cab was reached by means
of flight Of steps built along the side of
the boiler leading up from the footboard of
the tender, where the fireman stood one
flight below, the engineer standing about
ten feet from the ground.
Noisy and shaky.
These engines were eight-wheel con-
nected-that is. with four drives on each
nP
about forty inches There was no pony
truck In front to steady them, and when
they got under full Roadway the way they
would jump about on the track was a eau
ton, and If you didt hold on to something
you would be thrown around the cab like
a chip. Their side rods would make such
clatter that you could hear a camel COM
ing Tor several miles. Big as the 'camels
looked, still they only weighed thirty-six
tons, but they could take a train over the |
hills that an engine of different pattern Of
the same weight would not be able to move |
and they were probably the best engines
for their weight ever built. The only draw |
back to the camel the fact that 1t was |
top-heavy. 1t was very apt to turn turtle |
upon rounding a curve at full speed. al
though full speed with them didn't mean
more than thirty-five miles an hour; but |
this was plenty fast enough for safety as |
none OF the engineers would care to ride on |
one of them going faster than that. 1 re-
member one case when one of these engines |
turned over when going around a sharp |
curve on one of the mountain grades and |
rolled down a steep slope for 400 feet. |
There were four men in the cab at the time, |
and OF course all of them were killed. These |
cabs were closed in on all sides, and were |
so roomy and comfortable that the front |
brakeman and the conductor, especially |
but that accident settled anybody but the |
fireman and engineer riding on the engine |
for long while
No Reverse Bar,
I'm those days the reverse bar had not |
been invented. In order to start the engine |
In the opposite direction 1t was necessary |
for the engineer to reach down from his |
place In the cab and with long iron rod, |
on the end of which was a hook, catch |
an eye In the rocker arm, and thus throw |
the valves In the direction in which 1t was |
desired to go. If the engine was running |
under pretty good Roadway 1t would toss
about SO much that one would sometimes |
have a great deal of trouble in catching
the rocker. There were no air brakes at |
that time that you could throw on and stop
your train when you pleased, and there
were not even brakes on the engine so we |
relied a great deal upon reversing and
giving her steam when we wished to stop
that is, in SHINING her. as the old engf-
neers used to say l remember one night
we were going down the road with heavy
load OF freight at pretty good rate of
speed. when all of a sudden, upon rounding
a curve, l saw the red tail lights on the
caboose of freight only a few hundred !
yards ahead on our track. whstled for |
brakes. and then tried to hook, so that L |
could reverse. But nary hookI. Try as
l would, could not get the Internal thing |
to catch. and into the freight we sailed |
BY good luck the brakemen, for once had |
put down enough brakes to slow me down |
some, or l would not be here talking to
you now.
The Throttle.
Shortly after this Ross Winan of Balti-
more invented the reverse bar. He was
also the designer of the camel which was
the pioneer heavy freight engine. The re-
verse bars first introduced were a great |
deal different from the perfected affairs of
today, that are so nicely balanced that
you can pull them back with your little
finger. These bars were about six feet
long. Their great length was in order
to give plenty of leverage. and you can bet
you needed plenty of 1t. The dome of the
engine filled all the further end of the
cab toward the stack, and was about five
feet in diameter. Up at the very top
of the dome was the throttle. when it was
wide open the handles were against the
roof Of the cab. The throttle was also
much different from the one of the present
day. 1t was square-framed affair. about
foot long on each side, with the valve
connection on the upper end, and on the
bottom end there were two handles, one
on each side, so that it could be used from
either side of the cab. The engineer had
to stand up between the throttle and the
reverse bar which were so far apart that
small man was not able to have hold Of
both at the same time, and when you
wanted to reverse you would have to put
your feet up against the dome and tug
away for all you were worth These re-
verse bars worked SO hard that some of
the men were not strong enough to handle
them. One of the strongest points of the
camel was its being able to start heavy
train; but after 1T got the cars in motion
it could not go very fast with them They
were also very quick in stopping, and
this made them especially useful as yard
engines, and some of them are still in use
in the Baltimore and Ohio yards"