The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-17
ENGINES OF THE PAST.
Cumbersome Locomotives of Half n
Century Ago.

New York Sun.
You boys ought to have seen what were
thought to be monster engines in the days
when 1 first started to railroad said old
Jim Lennox Familiarity known as "Uncle
Jim" addressing 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 huge new freight engine which they
had been inspecting in the roundhouse
few minutes before.
"Uncle Jim," in the course of his career
as an engineer, has run on all the princi-
pal railroads in the United States and is
we'll acquainted with the different kinds of
locomotives that have been in use from the
time when railroading was in it's infancy
down to the present day.
when l first began to railroad in $780,
he said, Il got a job on the Baltimore
* Ohio Railroad as fireman on the noun
tain division between Piedmont and Fet-
terman, w. Va, the latter place being the
western end of the road at that time. We
did not have in those days the big 120-ton
fellows like the one we have just been
looking at. Then the biggest thing in the
way of an engine was the old .camelback.
AT that time ii was thought to be as big as
house, and it did look TO be very large,
too, the cab was built on top and along
the whole length of the boiler, with glass
windows all around, and there was as
much room in il as there is in the parlor
of the ordinary city fiat. The cab was
reached by means of a flight of steps built
along the side of the boiler leading up
from the footboard to the tender, where
the fireman stood, one flight below, the
engineer standing about ten feet from the
ground.
These engines were eight-wheel con-
nected-that is, with four drivers on each
side, the diameter of each wheel being
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 eau
ton, and If you didn't hold on TO some
thing you would be thrown around the
cab like a chip. Their siderods would
make such a clatteT that you could hear
a camel coming for several miles. Big
as the 'camels looked, still they weighed
only thirty-six tons, but they could take a
train over the hills that an engine of differ
ent 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 drawback to the camel was the
fact that it was topheavy. 1t was very
apt to turn turtle upon rounding a curve
at full speed, although 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. l remember one case
when one of these engines turned over
when going around sharp curve one
of the mountain grades and rolled down
steep slope for 400 feet.
I'm those days the reverse bar had not
been invented. In order to start the engine
in the opposite direction it was necessary
for the engineer to reach down from his
place in the cab and with a 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 ii was de-
sired to go. If the engine was running I'M
der pretty good Roadway Ii would toss
about so much that one would sometimes
have 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 Civ
ing her steam when we wished to stop
that Is, in skinning her. as the old engi-
neers used TO say. 1 remember one night
we were going down the road with a heavy
load Of freight at pretty good rate of
speed, when, all of a sudden, upon round
ing a curve, / saw the red tail lights on
the caboose Of freight only a few hun
dred yards ahead on our track. l whistled
for brakes and then tried to hook, so that
L could reverse But nary a hook! Try as
l would, could not get the Internal thing
to catch, and into the freight we sailed
By good luck the brakeman for once, had
put down enough brakes to slow me down
some. or L would not be here talking to
you now.
Shortly after this Ross Winens. of Balti-
also the designer of the camel which was
the pioneer heavy freight engine. The re-
deal different from the perfected affairs of
to-day, 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
farther end of the cab toward the stack
and was about five feet In diameter. Tn
at the very top of the dome was the
throttle; when 1t was wide open the han
dies were against the roof Of the cab The
throttle also much different from the
one OF the present day 1t was square
framed affair, about a foot long on each
side, with the valve connection on the up-
per end, and on the bottom end there
were two handles. one on each side so
that IL could be used from either side of
the cab. The engineer had to stand UP be-
tween the throttle and the reverse bar.
| which We're so far apart that a small man
| was not able 10 have hold of both at the
| same time, and when you wanted TO re-
verse you would have to put your feet up
| against the dome and tug away for all you
were worth. These reverse 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 be-
| ing bile to start heavy train; but after il
| got the cars in motion II could not go very
| fast with them. They were also very quick
] in stopping. and this made them especially
useful yard engines, and some of them
are still in use in the Baltimore & Ohio
| yards"