The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-07-23

gan building the canal. A great part
Of the excavation is rock. and the wear
tear is enormous. Take our steel
cables which are used on the Lidger-
wood cars. The first we had would
unload only Q 800 trains and then
break We then got the manufac-
turers at Work to developing better
me- and we have now q wire cable
that will unload 1900 trains, or six
times as many as used at the start.
This last cable is expensive. 1t costs
US "A cents a foot; but it does the
work"
Repairing Lidgerwood Cars.
We were walking through the car
repairing shop when the above con-
versation occurred and Mr.. Robinson
stopped me to show me n Of the
new LidRerwOOd 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 reduced
them to matchWOod. Those now en-
ployed are mighty trucks with beds of
plank SO thick that they might al
most from the logs for a cabin. The
trucks are nine feet wide and 40 feet
long. with a heavy plank wall as high
as your waist running along one side
Of them. The wall is backed by sup
porters of hard wood and iron, and it
is against it that the plows work
When dragged by the cable to throw
off the Dads. Each will hold
forty tons, and some of the rocks
which drop down upon them from
the steam shOVels weigh eight or ten
OnS each.
Others are SO heavy that it is i'm
possible TO move them after they are
on the car. and they are broken off
there with charges Of dynamite. It
takes heavy material and good work
manship to withstand such traffic,
and the cars must be strong through
out. AS I looked l saw some men
laying a floor upon one of them. They
used s~iXtv-penny spikes, and drove
them into the wood with q sledge.
A little farther on they We're repair
ing the steel cars which are dumped
BY compressed air. These have air
tanks beneath them. which are on
nected with the compressor on the
locomotive. The engineer touches q
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 dow
here at Panama. The wear and tear
is SO great nat they have to be re-
iufOrced with seVenty-pound stee
III a. \ = 49, 49, SatS 49, 11N
rocks can be dynamited on the cars
if they are too large to go through the
door opening.
In the Locomotive Works.
All sorts of repairs are made or
cars and locomotives here at Cor,
coma. The shop has a record Of haV-
ing repaired 10000 cars in ter
months. and at the same time having
made heavy repairs on about 500 un-
leaders. 800 ~SDreaderS and 140 tract
snifterS. 1t builds new track shifter:
rs we'll. and it is fully equipped FOL
repairing locomotives and all othel
rolling stock. The locomotives a:
they come into the shops are stripped
Of their rods and other outside equip
ment. The next operation Is to TAX
out the driving wheels.
The shops hay no large overhead
cranes. such as We use IN the states
so they have an invention of thei1
own consisting of a drop pit abOv'
which the locomotives stand and tn
wheels are removed by compressed
air. 1t used to be that the engines
had to be lacked UP. and it took seV
eral hours to get the wheels u from
one engine. AS it is now, g full Sc
Of wheels can be removed. in thirt.
minutes. There are other arrange
ments for recruiting the wheels, in
Guiding great lathes which will Rougt
off one-fourth of an inch Of meta