Omaha daily bee., 1912-07-21

90 o kNNNlEAGA.
as used at the start. This last cable Is
but it does the work"
Repairing Lfdgerwood Cars.
We were walking through the car re-
pairing shop when the above conversation
occurred and Mr.. Robinson stopped me
to show me one Of the new Lidgerwood
cars. Those now used are a creation OF
Panama. The first sent down to the
isthmus were like the common flat cars
and the heavy work here quickly re-
duced them to matehwood. Those now
employed are mighty trucks with beds Of
plank so thick that they might almost
form the logs for q cabin. The trucks
are nine feet wide and forty feet long
with heavy plank wall as high as your
waist running along one side Of them
The wall Is backed by supports Of hard
wood and iron. and 1t Is against 1t thai
the plows work when dragged by the
cable to throw off the loads. Each cal
will hold forty tons, and some OF the
rocks which drop down upon them from
the steam shovels weigh eight or ten tons
each.
Others are SO heavy that 1t is impos-
sible to move them after they are on the
car. and they are broken off there witt
charges Of dynamite. 1t takes heavy ma
terial and good workmanship to with
stand such traffic, and the care must be
strong throughout. AS I looked l saw
some men laying a floor upon one Of
them. They used sixty-penny spikes, ant
drove them into the wood with q sedge
A little farther on they were repairing
the steel cars which are dumped by com.
pressed air. These have air tanks sbe'
meath them: which are connected with
the compressor on the locomotive. The
engineer touches button and the air
shoves up one side OF the car, and the
great masses of earth and rock roll out
on the ground. The doors Of the steel
cars are another improvement made
down here at Panama. The wear and
tear is so great that they have to be
reinforced with seventy-pound steel rails
The cars are so strong that the rocks
can be dynamited on the cars If they are
too large to go through the door open
ing. ,..&
In the Locomotive Works.
All sorts of repairs are made on cars
and locomotives here at Gorgona The
shop has a record of having repaired
1900 cars In ten, months, and at the
same time having made heavy repairs on
about 500 unloaders, 500 spreaders and
40 track shifters. 1t builds new track
shifters as we'll, and 1t Is fully equipped
for repairing locomotives and all other
rolling stock. The locomotives as they
come into the shops are stripped Of their
| rods and other outside equipment. The
next operation is to take out the driving
| wheels -
The shops have no large overhead
cranes, such as we use in the states, se
they have an invention Of their OWE
consisting of drop pitt above which
the locomotives stand and the. wheels
are removed by compressed air. 1t usee
to be that the engines had to be Jackec
| UP, and 1t took several hours to gel
the wheels out from one engine. AS II
| is now, a full set Of wheels can be re-
| moved In thirty minutes. There are
other arrangements for recutting the
wheels, including great iathes which VII
gouge off one-fourth of an inch Of meta
at a time, the steel rolling off In curff
like those of excelsior. g
Cutting Iron With Acetylene.
| Indeed, the iron-working machinery a
| Gorgona Is wonderful. You can see every
| form of iron and steel creation. They
! have an iron foundry here, where they
make about 100000 pounds of casting II
a month. The work Is done by Jamaics
negroes, under the superintendent Of
Americans. They have also brass foun
dries and everything connected with cop
! per and tin.
| In the iron works / saw them cuttini
| immense blocks of steel with blow
pipe. The flame was a mixture Of oxy
gen and acetylene, and 1t melted righ
through the iron, as though the latte
were butter. / was told that the prin
ciple was that Of the blowpipe, AM
that the pipe was fitted with doubl
nozzle, the first of which carried oxygel
and acetylene and turned the iron to {
red heat. The second nozzle carried {
stream Of pure oxygen, and this playin
on the heated iron made 1t burn lik
fwood. 1t was just like cutting piec
of pine with o red-hot poker save tina
the work was more quickly done TIL
steel block I saw cut was about eigh
inches thick. The man who handled tn
blowpipe wore green goggles, incased Il
dust protectors. to shield his eyes fror
the flame. I photographed him at work
Safebreakers Wanted 1t.
AS / saw this flame cutting into tn
iron I asked the engineers whether
would not be possible TO use tn
invention in cracking safe. and wa
told that the burglars who recently &c
away with $4,000 in gold from one 9
the Panama banks had planned to
this on that job. They came here I